Photo by Aaron Selbig Tim Pauloski blasts a round down range during the Cook Inlet Mountaineers' Rendezvous shooting contest, held at the Anchor Point Shooting Range Sept. 6.

Pat Reed of Wasilla was the first to have his muzzle loaded rifle ready and step up to the firing line.

Kaboom!

The muzzleloaders - most of them from the pre-Civil war era, some the real thing, some were replicas - were long, elegant weapons, each of them packed with a measure of black powder, a small cloth patch used to seal the barrel and an iron ball that shot out with a cloud of smoke and a thunderous report.

Kerblam!

It wasn't long before the pistol shooters trotted on over to see what all the ruckus was about.

Kapowie!

"Before it was over, we probably had two or three dozen spectators at the range. It was really nice and lots of fun. We were pleased that so many people came out," said Sandy Thomas, president of the Anchor Point-based Mountaineers of the group's inaugural Rendezvous, which was held last weekend at the range and organized by Clint Hlebechuk.

For the Rendezvous' first year, the event was a big success, drawing participants from the much larger McKinley Mountainmen club in Anchorage and a handful of local folks who "just kind of came out of the woodwork," said Thomas.

Keith Bayha, a longtime muzzleloader enthusiast and president of the Alaska Muzzle Loading Rifle Association, came all the way from Sutton.

A former football player for Michigan State University, Bayha got into muzzleloaders about the time he turned 40.

"I had to admit that I wasn't an athlete anymore and that was about the same time I discovered a club up here," he said.

"For me, muzzle loading was a substitute for the lost thrill of competition in sports. I found a good bunch of people, friendly competition and good sportsmanship ... the whole thing that athletics gave me."

A burly but gentle man, Bayha clearly enjoyed showing off his .54-caliber "bastard gun," a rifle that has features from the late 1700s, early 1800s and mid-1800s. Pouring a small amount of black powder into a "powder measure" - made from the tip of an elk antler - Bayha explained how to load the antique weapon.

First, the powder is measured and poured carefully down the barrel.

A patch of cloth - roughly an inch square - is next placed over the barrel and capped off with the ball. A three-inch-long, wood-handled tamping device is used to push the ball and patch into the barrel before a long ramrod shoves it the rest of the way down.

Muzzle loading shooters have a handy rhyme - "powder, patch and ball or it won't shoot at all" - to make sure everything goes right, said Bayha.

And things can go terribly wrong if you're not careful and, say, accidentally load two balls at once.

"That kicks the hell out of your shoulder and you know immediately what you did. The only thing that kicks you harder is when you forget to pull the ramrod out of your barrel. I've done that a couple of times, too," said Bayha.

Reed, also a member of the McKinley Mountainmen, has been shooting muzzleloaders since the early 1960s.

"I just always liked reading about the old mountain men like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone," he said.

These days, Reed uses his muzzleloaders for shooting in competitions and for hunting. He's bagged sheep, buffalo, caribou, deer and moose with the old-fashioned weapons.

Shooting at unusual targets like water jugs, pieces of charcoal hanging from strings and feathers stuck into a plank of wood, Bayha bested his buddies at the Rendezvous with 18 hits out of 20 shots, good enough for first place and a brand new CVA percussion gun.

Thomas, with 14 hits out of 20, took second.

Encouraged by the turnout, Thomas already has big plans for next year's event, including the addition of "rendezvous highland games" like primitive archery, broad ax throwing and a tree trunk toss.

Reed said Thomas could go ahead and count him in.

"It's been a lot of fun," said Reed. "There's not a lot of people here, but there's a lot of enthusiasm. I think they have a good chance of making it work."

Aaron Selbig can be reached at aaron.selbig.@homernews.com.