Just shortly before Charlie got hooked on black powder, he was a Caterpillar salesman in West Texas.  I know, you’re thinking, what does a Caterpillar have to do with a muzzleloader?  He worked for the CAT dealer at Abilene, who in about 1956 opened a new store in Pecos, Texas.  Charlie and his young family moved out to Pecos to help get the new store up and running as CAT tractors and irrigation motors were in high demand.  Charlie needed a sign painter to get the building signs done, etc.  He asked around for recommendations and seems the local painter also worked as a policeman and in his spare time hung out at the local machine shop.  Charlie found himself at the machine shop looking for the painter.  There he became acquainted with the owner of the machine shop, O. D. Morris.  When not doing other types of machine work, Mr. Morris was drilling some barrels and building a gun or two, some muzzleloaders.  Charlie became interested in the old guns and started hanging out more at the machine shop in his spare time, mostly when the winter weather kept him close to Pecos.  One day O. D. Morris suggested they build Charlie a muzzleloader and he jumped on the suggestion.  Morris just happened to know a good barrel maker down at Fort Stockton named Resley.  They drilled a barrel and the next weekend drove down to Judge Resley’s.  They found Judge getting ready to test fire a new flintlock he had just built for a fellow in New York.  Judge asked Charlie if he had ever shot a gun like that and the answer was no.  Judge told him to sit right down there and you can shoot it in.  Charlie was well hooked by the end of the day.  Judge started in rifling the barrel and Charlie ordered a good piece of tight striped maple from Ohio…cost a whopping $10.30 shipping and all, for the band sawed full stock blank on the Hawken style.  Charlie’s first muzzleloader was coming together.  By the time Judge called it good on the new barrel, it came out to about a .47 caliber.  Seems like Judge’s barrels were all about a .47 or .48 or.53 or something odd as compared to the standard calibers available from today’s barrel makers.  Never saw a Resley barrel that wouldn’t shoot, and back in those days they were the barrels winning the shoots.  Fred Stallcup, a Texas shooter, won the Crosley match in Friendship with a Resley barrel.  The TMLRA range was at Lake Nasworthy in San Angelo in the fifties and early sixties.  In those days several of the guns shot were originals.  There were some custom guns showing up made by Claude Turner and Bill Large but the majority being shot in those days were either the originals or the Resley’s.  Charlie got his new Resley Hawken going and entered his first State shoot at San Angelo in 1957.  Shot with TMLRA in San Angelo until the range moved to Brady in 1966.  City of Brady leaders asked the TMLRA to move to Brady to the area where we are shooting today.  Several members of TMLRA signed notes at the Brady Bank to get started and build the first part of the covered firing line.  A few years later TMLRA borrowed more money from the bank to expand the cover to what we have now.  Charlie has been shooting on the Brady range since 1966 and only missed a few shoots since 1966 if work got in the way or a family conflict occurred. Back in the early years at San Angelo and at Brady, there was several individual Muzzle Loading Clubs in the State, and they all seemed to have their own club shirts with their logos and names, etc.  The competition was strong as the individual clubs tried to out shoot the other.  The Dawson County Buffalo Hunters from the Lamesa area were a colorful bunch, mostly shot Resley barrels and all could really dope the wind and other conditions as that was the only kind of weather they had to shoot in out there.  Charlie was a member of the Fort Richardson Muzzleloaders from the Jacksboro area.   He became good friends with Bill Mowery, a great gunsmith who made and shot muzzleloaders.  At that time Bill owned a shop in Jacksboro.  Charlie, Dub Patton and several other Fort Richardson Muzzleloaders hung out at Bill’s shop on the weekends working on guns and getting expert advice from him. The San Antonio, Austin, Houston and the DFW metroplex areas also had muzzle-loading clubs. The Red River Renegades came along later and a very active club today.   Several smaller clubs out around Odessa, Midland and Big Spring were active clubs.  There are lots of good memories over the years from the shooters in those clubs.

Charlie continued to meet at Brady two or three times a year for the TMLRA matches and try to make most of the club shoots around the State every chance he got.  He made some shoots in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.  Made a trip to Arizona for the NMLRA Winter Nationals and several trips to the Nationals up at Friendship, Indiana.

Charlie got started working with the 4-H shooting program when the grandkids started shooting competitively.  Of course the grandkids participated in TMLRA shoots as well as other clubs around the State.  He was certified as a 4-H shooting sports coach in Callahan County and was one of the original adult leaders who helped organize and build their current rifle and shotgun range.  Charlie helped in all areas of rifle and pistol but used his expertise in blackpowder to coach many of the young 4-H kids from Callahan and the surrounding counties.  Many of those young shooters have competed and won at the TMLRA matches, at State 4-H shoots and have earned shooting positions on the National 4-H team.  He helps run the State 4-H black powder silhouette matches in San Antonio. The Callahan Shooting Sports organization built a separate black powder range and dedicated that range to Charlie Greenway.   He has always been a lot more exited about getting a kid to shoot X’s than all of the fanfare around a shooting range.  When one of his little shooters sticks it in the X ring, you ought to see all of the big grins and high fives!  Fifty plus muzzle loading years and still spreading the black powder fever!      

 

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