Standing amid 18th-century rifles, Alan Gutchess seemed perfectly at home.

Director of the Fort Pitt Museum, Mr. Gutchess can build reproductions of antique wooden rifles by hand. He once worked at the gunsmith's shop in colonial Williamsburg. The history of the skilled rifleman -- a romanticized figure who traversed America from the revolutionary war through the 1820s -- is a "lifelong fascination" of his, he said.

When "The American Frontier Rifleman: Tall Tales & Truth" opens Thursday, the exhibit will cap a year's work for staff at the museum, located in Point State Park. The fact that 65,000 National Rifle Association members will descend on Pittsburgh for an annual convention the same day? Merely a coincidence, Mr. Gutchess said -- but a happy one.

Staff moved the opening date of the exhibit to accommodate the convention attendees, and they are offering NRA members half off the $5 admission through May 1. The exhibit runs through Oct. 30.

"Obviously we're hoping to appeal to people who are already into guns, but ... there's more to it than that," Mr. Gutchess said.

The exhibit will include more than 50 objects, some on loan from institutions, many culled from private collections.

In addition to about a dozen rifles, the museum will showcase gear essential to the true rifleman. Powder horns -- cow horns used to carry gunpowder -- make an appearance, including an 18th century example engraved with patriotic sayings: "LIBERTY OR DEATH," "KILL OR be KILLD."

An original 18th century hunting shirt, a dusty-looking but well-tailored garment, also will be displayed. Owned by a collector, the shirt will be shown to the public for the first time this week, Mr. Gutchess said.

"There were thousands of these garments in existence in the period, and now there's only four believed to be from the 18th century," he said.