Fisher Museum Acquires Reinhard Rifles
The Cleo Redd Fisher Museum in Loudonville, Ohio, has acquired a collection of muzzleloading rifles made during the 1870s and 1880s by Loudonville gunsmith Peter A. Reinhard. The collection includes five hunting rifles, two target rifles, two combination hunting and target rifles, and a rare cased target rifle. Plans for the collection involve using it as a centerpiece of a special Reinhard exhibit that will also include pictures and historic documents. Reinhard was featured in the April 1945 issue of Muzzle Blasts. Anyone wishing more information may contact James Sharp, Secretary, Cleo Redd Fisher Museum, 203 East Main Street, Loudonville, OH 44842.

Whisker's New Books

Dr. James Biser Whisker, renown author and editor of several books on historic gunsmiths, has been very busy over the past few years compiling data and taking photos. Now Dr. Whisker has four books, either brand new or newly revised, on the market, all hailing from Old Bedford Village Press. The titles are Gunsmiths of West Virginia, Third Edition, with Fred R. Lambert; Gunsmiths of Virginia, Second Edition; Gunsmiths of York County; and The Southern Arsenal, about Harper's Ferry, with Daniel D. Hartzler. Each volume contains excellent, well-annotated scholarship on the topic at hand, along with dozens of sharply contrasting black-and-white photographs featuring the appropriate historic firearms. Information about these books and other titles can be obtained from Old Bedford Village Press, P.O. Box 1976, Bedford, PA 15522; (800) 622-8005. Dealer inquiries are invited.

NRA Announces New Muzzleloading Championships
The National Rifle Association will conduct its first ever National Muzzle Loading Rifle and Pistol Championships on July 6 7, 1996, at Camp Perry, Ohio, as part of the traditional muzzleloading matches held there. The NRA National Championship portion of the competition will be a registered tournament; NRA membership is required to compete and NRA National Records can be set.

All the championship matches will consist of 13 shots in 30 minutes on a B-19 target, and the 10 best shots will count for score. Scores fired will count toward a competitor establishing an NRA Muzzle Loading Classification. The NRA Muzzle Loading Rifle Championship, in which any safe muzzleloading rifle may be used, will consist of four matches: one offhand and one sitting at 50 yards, and one offhand and one prone at 100 yards. The NRA Muzzle Loading Pistol Championship will be a three-gun, six-match aggregate consisting of a 25- and a 50-yard match for any safe single-shot pistol, flintlock pistol, and revolver (the latter of which can be used in the single-shot matches). Team championships also will be shot; all team members firing the matches must be members of the same NRA club or state association.

The NRA will still hold NMLRA-style matches with some changes to the format and awards. Women and junior competitors will fire in the Offhand Caplock and Flintlock Matches. Awards for High Woman and High Junior will be given to the competitor firing the top score in either match. This will also apply to the Benchrest and Camp Perry Roundball Championship. There will be an aggregate just for sub-juniors (ages 14 and under).

Call Joe Cashwell at (703) 267-1477 with questions about NRA Black Powder Competitions or the NRA National Muzzle Loading Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry. To request a match program for the event, write to the National Rifle Association, Competitions Division, 11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, VA 22030.

Precision Shooting Annual
The 1995 Precision Shooting Annual, from the publishers of Precision Shooting magazine, is now available. Featuring writers like Great Britain Palma Team Chief Coach Arthur Clark, the 509-page annual has several articles of interest to the avid firearms enthusiast who wants the best accuracy possible. Though the book is geared primarily toward centerfire shooters, there are a couple of articles particularly relevant to muzzleloaders: ``Ounce Balls and the Sporting Guns That Used Them,'' by noted Hawken authority John Baird, and ``Mad Dogs and Englishmen Long Range Muzzle Loading Rifles,'' by NMLRA past president and current technical advisor Tom Schiffer. Interested readers should contact Precision Shooting, 222 McKee Street, Manchester, CT 06040. Connecticut is changing area codes, so the phone number for Precision Shooting is (860) or (203) 645-8776.