I would be surprised if they did not know each other. The muzzleloader gathering at Friendship Indiana was something to see. I went one time with my FIL. We only spent the day. I’m his younger and wilder says they would camp in teepees, drink moonshine and do all kinds of crazy mountain man stuff. One year two of those maniacs started fighting and wound up having a duel! I think it resulted in a misfire and a miss

. Those people were nuts from the stories I’ve heard from my FIL. By the time I went with him it was a much more mild and family friendly thing. I’ve got another rifle my FIL had built for me by another gunsmith that worked under Harry for years. His name was Howard Kelly. It’s a side lock percussion gun, also in .40. But unlike most side lock rifles, it was built for precision accuracy. It has a huge bull barrel, shoots a really long projectile and is topped with a Redfield scope. As I recall, the gunsmith guaranteed it would hit a golf ball at 200 yards! This was before inlines were a popular thing so it was really impressive at the time. Still a beautiful gun. I only shot one deer with it and that was a doe at about 40