In 1969 my father brought home a black powder rifle that he had traded for. I was seventeen and from a very young age was interested in old guns but I had never seen or fired a muzzleloader until he brought the rifle home. My brothers and I took the rifle out and managed to get it loaded and fired our first shots. Being the oldest of four boys it was decided that I would shoot the old rifle first. My heart pounded in my chest as I shouldered the rifle for the first time, I lined the sights up on the old can we set up as a target and pulled the trigger. To everyone's surprise the old rifle belched smoke and fire and the tin can went flying. I was immediately hooked from the first shot and there has been no turning back. After I graduated high school I went to work for a local engineering firm and one of the men that worked there was a black powder shooter. We talked a lot about many different things and finally wound talking about building our own

Custom built rifle. So we drove from Dora, AL to Turner Kirkland place in Union City, TN to pick out the parts for our new rifles. We had a hard time leaving Turner's place there was so much to look at but we finally spent all our money and headed for home. I work almost non-stop until I had that rifle together; it was a 45-cal 15/16-barrel with a single trigger. Needles to say it didn't look to bad for a first rifle and it did function and shoot fairly straight. This was my first taste at building and enjoyed doing the project very much but ten years went by before I built my next rifle. Another friend that I was working with had bought all the parts to build a little 32-cal Penn. Style rifle. He had the parts for a couple of years and had done nothing with the parts so I bought the parts from him and started my second rifle. This was in 1982, after completing this rifle I really had the bug to build and soon had purchased the parts to build my first rifle from a blank. Not only was I going to start from a blank but also I had bought a swamped Getz barrel that I was going to inlet by hand. Fortunately I had the since to purchase a book called Recreating the American Long Rifle, with this book I managed to get the rifle together without any major blunders. I shot this rifle until 1995 then I met Perry Mitchell. Perry come to find out was interested in building and we started putting a few rifles together and over the last seven years we have put together several rifles. But I realized the more I built the less I felt I knew about how to do the job right. So this led me to sign up for the NMLRA Gunsmithing Seminar. There I have met Wallace Gusler, Gary Brumfield, Mark Silver, Jack Brooks, Hershel and John House. These men have been building for a long time and have the knowledge about how these rifles were and are supposed to be built. Last year I took Gary's class on Patchbox making and this year I took Mark's classes on Traditional Stock Preparation and Finishing and the Beginner Engraving class. These classes have helped me build a better and more authentic rifle. Anyone that is interested in building a rifle of their own would benefit from taking one of the courses offered at these seminars. While I was at the seminar I took several photos and with Robert's help will post them on the web site. I hope that everyone enjoys them as much as I did taking them.