Call To Arms! All Muzzle-Loader Users PLEASE Sign This Petition!

The law against using these primitive tools off the range has no legitimate reason for existing, it was shear ignorance on the part of the law makers that placed muzzle-loading pistols on a RESTRICTED license!

If we don't fight for our rights to legitimately use these primitive guns, then no one else will, because the majority of the Australian public are also probably totally ignorant in regards as to what these pistols actually are. Restricting these pistols has no basis in public safety, criminals do not use these guns & have not done so for at least the past 300 years!

So please, if you are a black powder enthusiast, a living historian or a historical re-enactor, sign this petition. 

https://www.change.org/p/to-the-honourable-the-speaker-and-members-of-the-legislative-assembly-of-new-south-wales-in-parliam-muzzle-loading-pistols-to-be-placed-on-a-less-restrictive-licence/u/23405047

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION. The legal right to use muzzle-loading pistols!

https://www.change.org/p/to-the-honourable-the-speaker-and-members-of-the-legislative-assembly-of-new-south-wales-in-parliam-muzzle-loading-pistols-to-be-placed-on-a-less-restrictive-licence

In Australia we are not allowed to use any muzzle-loading pistol off the range. The licence required to purchase & use these primitive tools is a restricted "H" class licence which will only be issued to people who belong to an approved pistol club & they are ONLY allowed to use this pistol on the club range.

Living Historians are not allowed to use a muzzle-loading pistol in their Living History activities, even if they have an "H" class licence.
This petition I have started is simply asking the government to place these muzzle-loading pistols on a less restrictive licence along with muzzle-loading longarms. I am not asking for a weakening of gun control laws, the pistol would still require a licence & registration.
Criminals do not & would not use these primitive tools to commit a crime, they don't know how to use them, they can be unreliable. It is far easier for a criminal to cut down a modern long gun or to purchase some water pipe from the plumber's & make a simple shotgun.

The majority of gun owners in Australia own breach-loaders, & they have no interest in muzzle-loaders. For this reason the majority of these Australian gun owners will not, do not, bother to sign this petition!!! Yes, the Australian gun owners fraternity is fractured, because of this we have already lost the right to own semi-automatic & pump action longarms. The government confiscated. This is the thin end of the wedge, there will be more firearms restrictions in the future I am sure. Once a law is passed, it is difficult to get it reversed!

 The only reason that the government have restricted the use of muzzle-loading pistols is because of their total ignorance in the first place, & in the second place they simply can't be bothered to reverse their decision! So PLEASE, sign this petition.
Regards, Keith.
https://www.change.org/p/to-the-honourable-the-speaker-and-members-of-the-legislative-assembly-of-new-south-wales-in-parliam-muzzle-loading-pistols-to-be-placed-on-a-less-restrictive-licence

My Book. Primitive Fire Lighting. eBook. Written For Australian Survivalists, Preppers, Living Historians & Reenactors.

Primitive Fire Lighting-Flint & Steel & Fire Bow. eBook.

Title: Primitive Fire lighting.

ID: 9784776

Category: History

Description: “Primitive Fire Lighting”, is a hands on guide to how to make fire with flint and steel and fire bow. This includes some history, a variety of methods, tinder plants identification, and tinder production, tips on fire place construction and use, how to prepare and lay a fire, wet weather fire lighting and magnifying glass fire lighting. The skills and methods in this book will be of interest to a wider range of readers including survivalists, historical re-enactors, bush-walkers and campers, historical–trekkers and even historical novel writers. Although the plant identifications list is mainly Australian it also has some information for England, Europe and America.

Publisher: Keith H. Burgess

Copyright Year: © 2010

Language: English

Country: Australia

Table of Contents

Illustrations. 4

FOREWORD. 6

FLINT AND STEEL FIRE LIGHTING. 8

PLANT FIBRE TINDERS: 11

TINDER PREPARATION. 15

Tinder preparation-charring: 15

OTHER FLINT and STEEL FIRE LIGHTING METHODS: 16

Emergency methods: 17

A WORD ABOUT BLACK POWDER: 17

THE CAMPFIRE FIREPLACE: 18

READING GLASS/MAGNIFYING GLASS FIRE LIGHTING 20

WET WEATHER FIRE LIGHTING. 21

A FINAL WORD OF CAUTION. 23

FIRE-BOW FIRE LIGHTING. 24

Introduction 24

FIRE-BOW FIRE LIGHTING. 25

A Brief Overview. 25

The Parts of the Fire-bow. 26

The Bow. 26

The Drill Piece. 27

The Fireboard. 29

The Tinder-board. 30

The Bearing Block. 31

The Bowstring. 32

Tinder. 32

Making Fire. 32

Making Cordage. 37

The Step for making Cordage. 38

AFTERWORD. 40

Fire steel suppliers. 45

About the author. 45

Purchase orders to:http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/KeithBurgess

Or at http://www.lulu.com/shop/keith-burgess/primitive-firelighting/ebook/product-17366659.html

Now Also Available From Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/primitive-firelighting-keith-h-burgess/1113663647?ean=9781447567622

$4.99 US.

Yeoman's Leatherworks. UK.

If you live in the UK and need some leatherwork made, then I suggest you contact my friend Stefan. Stefan does great work & can make you anything you want. Ask him for a quote and check out his blog.
Stefan is a member of the New England Colonial Living History Group 1680-1760.

http://yeomansleather.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/some-summer-projects.html?spref=fb

Peasant houses in Midland England. Article Link.

http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/peasant-houses-in-midland-england-how-the-black-death-prompted-a-building-boom.htm?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=peasant-houses-in-midland-england-how-the-black-death-prompted-a-building-boom

NEMAS in the pine forest in Armidale NSW Australia.

Encampment In The Pine Forest Armidale NSW.

New England Medieval Arts Society. NEMAS in Armidale NSW.

A little too early for me, but they are an Armidale Living History group and I feel they deserve a plug on this blog. A close friend of mine started this group about the same time as I started my group.

Middle Ages and Napolionic Blogs.

A friend of mine, Sarah has three blogs, two middle ages and one Napolionic. Just in case you are interested:

http://ataleiga.blogspot.com/

http://acovilheira.blogspot.com/

http://myneighborwellington.blogspot.com/

We Need More Positive Publicity. A need to get this off my chest!

More Publicity Needed.



Knee jerk reactions by the government in response to injuries & death involving sporting tools/weapons appears to be standard procedure & the whole thing is getting ridiculous. The banning of certain guns, a proposal to ban sporting black powder, tomahawks need a permit in Victoria, crossbows are on the dangerous weapons list in NSW, & now crossbows are banned in West Australia. Knives can no longer be carried for camping purposes in public areas. Pocket knives can no longer be carried in public areas. Even Catapults are banned! At one time flintlock muzzle-loading guns enjoyed the freedom of registration & licence in NSW. Which I thought was a good move, I mean who would bother holding up a bank these days with a flintlock, let alone use one to exterminate one’s family. I thought of it as throwing us some crumbs, & it made sense. But it was not to last, now flintlocks are all bundled in together with modern firearms which does not make any sense, nor do I consider it fair.


Sports cars are not banned despite the road toll, & I can see why. But can you imagine the government banning golf clubs if there was a spate of bashings with this implement? If a serial killer started smothering people with football bladders would they ban footballs? Just about anything can be used to kill or injure someone if you use your imagination.


The sporting community, living historians, historical trekkers, historical reenactors, hunters, we all need our tools of choice to be able to enjoy our pastime/hobbies/lifestyles. It simply does not make sense to keep banning things at our expense, & it just confirms what I have always thought, that these government bodies simply don’t give a dam. They play to the ordinary citizen who knows absolutely nothing of what we do & who we are. These people simply cannot see what it is that we like so much about sporting shooting, camping, living history & a host of other interests that involve the use of these banned tools.


I have been promoting living history in all it’s forms for over 20 years now, but in recent years, with the closure of some magazines, and newspapers no longer giving free space to groups & clubs except for event advertising, it is getting harder to find a way of promoting ourselves, to let the public know who we are and what we do. To explain to them how important our forms of recreation are to us. They, like the government, simply do not see the big picture; no one is treading on their toes so they are all right “Jack”. Or as we say in Australia, “she’ll be right mate”.


But she won’t be all right mate. We are talking about our right to seek a better life, our right to enjoyment & fun, and yes if that means to the expense of some poor chap who happens to get killed with a compound bow, then so be it. We cannot be held responsible for all the nutters out there who want to kill people, nor should we be held responsible because some kid gets hold of a gun, tomahawk, bow, crossbow, spear, javelin, boomerang or anything else & accidently kills or injures someone. It is NOT our fault. No matter what they ban, there will always be something that someone will use for some activity that with misuse will cause injury or death.


I fully realise that I am probably preaching to the converted here, but where else is there left to us to make a public statement like this? If this gets through to just one person who never thought of this before, then perhaps that perspective will spread to others. Simply put we are not bad people, some may think us strange, but we are not evil and therefore do not deserve to be ignored the way we are, not considered in the slightest when it comes to restrictions concerning sporting tools & weapons. We have already lost our right to self-defence using these tools, it is totally left to the discretion of the courts whether or not you become a criminal defending your own life, or have your guns etc taken from you for ever because you used these implements to defend your family. Even police officers have lost their jobs & their families because they shot & killed someone defending their lives in the course of their duties. We need some common sense here; we need the government to stop pandering to grieving families calling for a ban on this & that. Ask a gun owner who has just lost a family member in an accidental shooting if he would like to see guns banned. We know that it is not the gun; it is the person using that gun. Take our guns, swords, knives, bows, crossbows, catapults & everything else off us & we the good guys will be the only ones without them, the bad guys will always find a way of getting them because they are NOT law abiding citizens! They don’t need a licence, they don’t need permission.


Accidents will happen, but accidents can be brought to a minimum through proper instruction. Teach your child how to be safe, teach them not to play silly buggers with a crossbow. Teach them not to point guns or bows at people and to always point them in a safe direction. Failure to do so makes you just as guilty as the child making that “mistake”.

These people & events will crease to exist, as will thousands of others like them. Trades people such as seamstress, tailors, blacksmiths, traders, shoe makers, leather workers, hornsmiths, etc will be out of work, their livelyhood lost. Even those living historians who do not require weapons will cease to exist because there will be no clubs, no groups & no events. This is where our government's stupidity is taking us.

New Fire Lighting Book Promotion.

Ranger, an exciting new persona.

A new member to our group has some interest in a Ranger persona, so I decided to do some research on this charracter. I was pleasantly surprised to find more information than I expected!
The Ranger occupation goes all the way to the late medieval period. There is little doubt in my mind that Tolkien based his Rangers (Strider) on these early English Rangers. Searching for these Forest Rangers brings up other terms such as Verderers and Foresters, and although these people did patrol the forests and protect the game, they were not actually mentioned as Rangers until much later on.
The Ranger's job was to patrol the forests and to look for tresspassers and poachers, but also apparently his job was to protect the forest inhabitants, to discourage robbers etc from raiding woodland dwellings and hamlets. This is exactly what Aragorn did in Lord Of The Rings, and this occupation extends right into the New World and the 18th century.
Rangers were hired to patrol the countryside looking for any enemy and raiding parties of Indians or French and Indians. These were individuals who were expected to warn the settlers and towns people in advance, and to cause as much damage to these enemy as was practically possible.
Later these Rangers were formed into groups or band and aventually became formal units such as Rogers Rangers.
These early Rangers were undoubtably woodsmen, no one else would have the experience to carry out such missions in wilderness areas. So woodsman clothing and equipment would be the basis for this Living History persona, but these charracters were also individuals, there was no uniforms or rules and regulations. Even the early milkitary Rangers were individuals and it is said that it took a good officer to get the best out of his men and maintain some form of discipline.

1675.

New Forest [cos. Haul* and Wilts], John
Dolyng, Ranger of, 6S5. (13th century)

http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/patentrolls/r2v5/index/Richard2vol5page0924.pdf