This newsletter is going to be short and sweet. Perry and I have been so busy putting matches and clinics on we have barely had time to do anything else. Perry did not shoot at the Alabama Territorial matches he did the Registering and the scoring and that kept him off the line. The ASMLA will be hosting the Territorial matches in 2002 and we will need the help of the membership to take on some of these duties. Perry said he would help make the application and give any assistance that he could but that he needs a break. I would like everyone that has shot at the Territorial matches to consider lending a helping hand.

There are still a few members that have not sent their dues in, we need anyone that has not sent in their dues to please do so ASAP. Thanks in advance, Jim Parker

This is the tune up match before Friendship. We hope everyone will come out and participate in this fun match. Perry is working on some matches to include if we have some juniors that want to shoot. I still have not received the medals for the Silhouette Match. I called our Medals supplier and he has promised to get both matches medals to me before this match.

The ASMLA and Magic City Gun Club are sponsoring the Muzzle Loading Championship match for the State of Alabama 4-H Groups. By the time this newsletter goes out we will have shot the Championship Match. All the teams that participated in the clinic appeared to have a great time at least that is what I associate with smiling faces, and there were plenty of those. We have learned a lot by putting the clinic on. We learned that if you give the kids a challenge that they will stand up to it quite well. Most of these youths had never shot a NMLRA target, by the time the clinic was over they were talking like the rest of us. I heard some comments like, man I shot at that bear and my shots were just a little left or right of him he must have been dodging my shots. One came up to me with the biggest grin on his face and said, I can't believe I won a medal this is the first match I have ever shot in. You can bet that this young man will be back for more. There is a lot of work that goes in to putting an event on like this but it is worth it.

In an effort to save money we have been posting match up-dates on the web site. If anyone does not have access to the Web and wants me to mail them a copy of the match results just give me a call and I will put one in the mail.

CALL (205) 681-8353 OR E-MAIL @ japark50cal@aol.com

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 almost a 1000 people in just a couple of 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.

The ASMLA would like to obtain 10 rifles and the necessary equipment to supply to juniors that do not have equipment but would like to participate in our matches. I have found that a lot of the juniors that we have had shoot some of the matches that we have put on are to small to shoot our grown up rifles. I obtained 5 CVA rifles and Perry has cut them down to a size that most of our Juniors can handle. We paid $400.00 for these five rifles. I am going to see if I can get five more when I go to Friendship in June. I am going to ask our membership to make a monetary donation to help purchase these rifles. If you would like to make a donation please make the check out to the ASMLA Junior Program. Thank You, Jim Parker