Arlin Blair is a buckskinner, a gun builder, a turkey hunter and one of my favorite people in the world. Upon his 77th birthday, at the National Championship Shoot of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association, Arlin was honored. "Blue", as he is affectionately known by his buckskinning brethren, was recognized for his formidable contribution to muzzleloading in general and smoothbore shooting in particular. A match was named after him, the "Arlin Blair Smoothbore Frolic".

Arlin has always been a connoisseur of quality plunder and accoutrements, such as knives, pouches, hawks, beadwork, powder horns and the like. When it comes to the flint rifle or smoothbore, the best were built by his hand. Anyone who has the privilege of owning one of his creations, cherishes it and may only reluctantly pass it on to a dear friend. The money or barter that is exchanged for a "Blue gun" is only token compared to its true worth to the buyer or seller. Very few arms have made it outside of his circle of friends.

Muzzleloading was kept alive, after the common use of cartridge guns, in the hills of Appalachia. Shooting matches were America's first sport. The competition was shot from a prone position with the barrel of the gun resting on a chunk or over-the-log. In the 30's, men would gather on a Sunday afternoon and pit guns and skill against one another by shooting at a blackened shingle at a center X. The distance was 16 rod or about 60 yards. The knife cut X was invisible at that distance and a sighting spotter was used to aim at. A fat hog or sheep was the prize and the matches were shot for hindquarters for the first two relays followed by the front quarters and then hide and tallow. Sometimes a 6th relay was shot for the right to dig the lead out of the stump backstop. Men such as these were the seed of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association.

While Arlin came to the sport later, he too had an impact on the sport. In the beginning, rifle shooting was the draw and where most spent their time perfecting its use. Shooting of pistols and smoothbores was a novelty and not taken very seriously. Smoothbores, called such because of their lack of rifling, were considered a close range firearm and not very accurate. A few aficionados began to study and improve on the efficiency of the hapless smoothbore. Trade guns and fowlers came to a wider use and people even hunted with them.
Some started shooting their flint pistols outside of the one or two matches available or a pistol duel at a winter shoot. At a two-day rendezvous it seemed to be common to shoot rifles on Saturday and pistols and smoothbores on Sunday.

I have always said "To go forward in muzzleloading is to take a step back." Store bought caplocks giveaway to the custom version. Fullstock caplocks are often converted or traded for flintguns. The next natural step back in time was to the earlier technology. This natural regression brings us to the use of the smoothbore fowler. I remember thinking how intriguing and radical it was to use a smoothbore to hunt deer.

Smoothbores were used widely on the frontier as an all-around gun. Shot was loaded for small game and roundball loaded for the largest game in North America. Shooters had re-discovered the smoothbore as the formidable firearm of our ancestors.

 

During the national championship at Friendship, a couple of matches were set aside for primitive smoothbore shooters. One of these was the Smoothbore Frolic. At first the Smoothbore Frolic seemed to be an obscure, middle of the week smoothbore re-entry match. It was a little off beat, close to the cabin and easy to score. Shot at about 40 yards, uphill at a regulation 100-yard bull target the Frolic drew some die-hard smoothbore shooters. You could enter as many times as you liked and the three highest scores split a share of the take.

The scores were generally low; some pride was associated with having 5 scoring shots. Five in the black was reason for celebration. I am not sure how it started, but it seemed that many rifle shooters were looking for an additional challenge. It was not long before the competition became fierce in the smoothbore fraternity. I even heard them called "Smoothbore Snobs", as they seemed to look down on the faithful rifle guns that we all shot.

New guns were built and before the big barrel makers recognized the new market, smoothbores were turned out of high-pressure hydraulic tube. Arlin Blair was involved in all of these revelations.

Challenges were given, boasts were made and money and property were wagered. One thing led to another till the birth of the "Beer Match". Arlin always organized it and kept the contestants informed of the rules. The entry fee was a case of barley pop or ten spot. Only the first target shot counted for the Beer Match. You could harass your competition but you were not allowed to touch them. That seemed to leave a lot to the imagination. The official Smoothbore Frolic winner was secondary to the winner take all Beer Match winner. It was the way to become Smoothbore King for a Day and the host of a big ole party.

Arlin and Lizard were embroiled in the ultimate challenge match. The winner got to cut the stock off the loser's fowler. Liz was triumphant in this contest. With tears in his eyes, Lizard reluctantly sawed Arlin's stock in two, about six inches from the triggerguard. Arlin said the "Devil" had always been a little short anyway and installed a 3/4" slice of maple, in contrast to its walnut stock, thus adding to the legend.

 

If one of Arlin's custom smoothbores did not win the match it was a sure bet that you had to get past several of them to reach such heights. Ricky Roberts donated traveling trophy made out of an oak barrelhead that listed each winner and his score. The highest I believe was a 50 and 3x. I was lucky enough to win the match in about 1987 and it remains one of the greatest feats of my shooting career.

By the way, I used Jim Farmer's "Company Gun" built with love by Arlin Blair.

Congratulations, Old Friend, I look forward to shooting with you on the match that bears your name.