Another year has come and gone, my they are starting to go by real fast. It has been a good year in many ways and it has been a year that has had its share heartbreak. Many of you knew Phil Orem; Phil passed away earlier this year. I had never met Mr. Orem but I know that he was a member of the MCGC and a NMLRA member. There was a nice tribute to Phil in Muzzle Blast a few months ago and with Robert’s help we will get it published on our web site. We also had the terrorist attack, which has effected all of our lives. I hope that in the months ahead that the country will remain united and that cost of life will be minimal. I have never understood aggression and greed. I have learned that people that do not have a tendency to be aggressive seem to be a target for those that are aggressive. It is unfortunate that on occasion the less aggressive have to rise up and give a good butt whooping to get some respect, but when forced to do so they can usually do a good job and put the aggressor back in their place. Let’s all pray that the event’s that are happening in the world today will end soon and that all people will stretch out the hand of friendship. Have a good hunting season, remember if you have pictures of a good hunt please e-mail or send a copy for me to post on our web site. Good luck and we will see everybody in the spring.

We had a fair turnout for our Championship match this year considering all that has happened just a few days prior to our match. Sam and the shoot committee put on another great match and I want to thank them for their efforts. I want to thank all those that volunteered their services to help get this match ready and helped during the match. Gene and Eddie got the new cardboard backers for the target frames and put them on. Larry and Gerald lined the field to help keep us all straight, some of us need more help than others. It was good to see Dalton this year, Dalton helped range officer on Friday, but could not stay for the whole match, thanks Dalton.

Joyce ran the registration and scoring, Mrs. Franklin helped Joyce with the scoring. Ken and Sandra did the honor of cooking our Saturday evening meal. Ken managed to con Perry into watching the smoker while Ken shot; Perry did a fine job doing his duties nothing was burnt. Sam did a fine job of coordinating the event and ran the line on Saturday and Sunday. I hope everyone that attended the match thanked these fine folks for all their efforts.

NEW OFFICERS FOR 2002

We have two new officers that have been elected to serve in 2002. Larry Reynolds will be serving as our New President and Gerald Bridges will be the Vice President. Larry had several good suggestions during our annual meeting and appeared ready to do service for the ASMLA so while he had his foot in his mouth we nominated and elected him before he really knew what had happened. When he did realize what had happened he drug poor old Gerald in as VP. That will teach him to sound off during the annual meeting, won’t it? Most of you know Larry and know that he has been active in muzzle loading for many years. I believe the Larry and Gerald will do a good job of leading the association in 2002 and I hope that everyone will show them their support. Jim Parker will remain as Secretary, Bill Hall will as Treasurer and Dalton Halbrook will stay as Sargent of Arms.

CALL (205) 681-8353 Home, (205) 566-1387 Cell OR E-MAIL @ japark50cal@aol.com

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to our junior program. To date we have received $160.00 dollars toward the $800 dollars we have invested in this program. I hope everyone will continue to support this program with his or her donations, thanks to everyone for their support. If anyone has any extra powder measures, short starters, ball starters, loading rods etc. that they would like to donate any and all would be welcomed. Please remember these rifles are owned by the ASMLA and are for use by the membership. If you as a member need the use of these rifles at a state function please contact Jim Parker or Perry Mitchell and we will reserve one or more for you. These rifles will be available to our membership to use if the ASMLA or an ASMLA member in good standing that promotes black powder safety, shooting or hunting is hosting a junior activity. Our goal is to get as many juniors involved as possible please feel free to use this resource.

ASMLA WEB SITE ADDRESS IS www.angelfire.com/al3/asmla

This is the address to the web site. We continue to have a lot of activity on it and would like to keep it on the upswing. If anyone have any suggestions for the site please contact me.

Right now we have two people advertising in our newsletter. One is Eddie May and the other is myself. If anyone out there would like to advertise in the newsletter the cost is $30.00 a year. This includes your annual membership, which runs from January to January. This gets your add to about 340 people 4 times a year plus on the web site which has reached over 2800 people in just a few months. This is one of the cheapest forms of advertising that I know of. The ads don’t have to be related to muzzle loading but I would like to keep them related to sports shooting. If anyone is interested please call or e-mail me, Jim Parker (205) 681-8353, japark50cal@aol.com.