Clubs ML competition is next week

[Brithunter]

Hi All,

     Today at the range I heard that next Sunday it's the Clubs Muzzle Loading competition which is shot at 50 yards then 25 yards for long guns  and there is also a Pistol comp too. Hmm if I can make it I will take my .45 Smooth bore and my .36 Cap'n'ball. When I asked about using the smooth bore I was told that you cannot hit anyhting at 50 yards with a smooth bore  funny that as I have shot it at 100 yards before with reasonable results. Now I need to make sure I have some good ball and enough caps. This could be fun .

[gitano]

Go get 'em!  "Floyd"
 
Paul

[Brithunter]

Ahhh Paul,

    Have not seen you one the forum for a while and assumed you must be busy. Did the Pilot arrive? I wonder because the other letter reached BC some days ago.

[Alboy]

Pictures are a must, no excuses will be accepted.

Hi Gitano

[Brithunter]

Ok this is the small 75 meter range where it will all happen:-
 

 
as you can see it's a rather nice range :D the stuff on the firing point on the left is mine and that's my .308 rested on the sandbag atop the 7.62 ammo tin. The rifle in one of the cases showing on the right is the dammned one with the Muzzle Break attached :frown .

 
Now these are what I will be using:-
 

Armi Jager with 27" barrel .45 Smooth Bore so it is held on a Shotgun certificate (less restrictive than a Firearm)
 

The butt with patch box. The wood originally had a varnish so that was tripped off and an oiled finish applied and this grain appeared :D .
 

Cap'N'Ball .36 1851 Replicar. This is possibly one of Val Foggets original replicars as the proof mark is 1968.
 

The barrel markings.

I have cleared a card for my digital camera so I can take some pictures to keep Alboy happy . So now we just have to wait until Sunday.

[Alboy]

Very very nice.
 
Wish I could come participate, even if only as a spotter and target changer.

[Brithunter]

Why thankyou Alboy,

    Both were brought second hand the Revolver cost me £25 ($45 US) and the Armi Jager £50 ($ 90 US) but this was some years ago now. The ramrod on the Armi Jager is a replacement I made and is a wood called Red Matini? anyway it has worked  well. The original is somewhere on Ash Ranges and the patch grabbed the brass end and we could not get it out, eventually we pulled the otehr brass end off anda s I could not leave teh range with a loaded gun the decision was made to fire it which is what happened  the funnist thing is that something went through the black of the 100 yards target and we do not know to thisday if it was the ball or the rod .

  I have no idea what sort of targets theya re using or the course of fire but I shall endevour to enjoy myself and out up a reasonable show. However I do know thta there are a couple of rather nice P-H .451 rifles in the club so doing well might be a triffle difficult. But heck at 50 yards I will give it a good go :D  the same for the 25 yards.

[Alboy]

The most important thing is too have fun. Then see how hard you can push the over serious folks.

Like the time I only had my 44 cap and ball in a three pistol match. We were supposed to shoot C&B then cowboy(cartridge but no adjustable sight) then open pistol (anything you could drag to the line short of scopes)

Before entering I had the judges and other contestants all agree they would waive me to shoot all three levels with the BP revolver in cap and ball. After winning the match we had a merry couple of hours as the others tried to convince hte judges I had cheated some how. Most folks just do not believe how consistently accurate the old style weapons were. The only thing a fella gives up is speed of reloading.Hee Hee.

Nice looking tools to go have fun with. I am willing to wager a cup of joe to a hot tea that you place well above half way in the marks. Could even get a odds wager going for the right stakes.

[Brithunter]

Hi Alboy,

     I think you have more confidence in this than I do. I have not shot the revolver much at all in the last couple of years. So just for the heck of it I will toddle off down to the indoor club tonight and have a play. I need to get some caps anyway as I am low on them. And I will check my ball supply, Hmmm doubt he has any .442" ball for the smooth bore but we shall see. However you are right that revolver is very accurate it used to surprise the heck out of some of the other club members down south when I used to shoot pistol often. Funny thing is the first shot from a clean dry barrel is always off to one side. Now I actually push a greased wad through the barrel and it seems to help. Trouble is the indoor club insists on those wonder wads and I have to use a different loading technique and powder charge with them and as yet have not tried them out doors.

Oh I intend to have fun and it would be nice to wipe a few faces for the heck of it. I don't even know if there is a prize or if there is what it is. That's how much those things concern me.

  I have a row of Pewter tankards from the old club, each has the years prize winnings engraved on it. I just had to go and count them as I could not remember how many there are. There are 7 in a line from 1994-2001 when I stopped shooting the comps. Each comp is held once a year so you get one chance at it, I left the club in 2002 after being a committe member for several years. I also have an engraved Glass from another club shooting at Running deer if I remember correctly. The Tankards were fun to get as there were a couple of members who took it really seriously and would cheat if possible to win! beating them was a laugh as it wound them up no end. One comp was the Secretaries Trophy which was shot at 600 yards. I won the first time using my BSA CF2 Stutzen in 270  Win which has a 20" barrel. The next year I won again then they altered the rules so I could not use the rifle in the competition. I used to have a Polish made M44 Mosin Nagant which is used to win one competition  the carbine Cup 3 times and the Non Nato comp 3 times and in 96 won them both . The best fun was winding up the serious competitiors.

    I will admit that my shooting is not as good as it used to be, a car accident in September 97 which gave me quite severe whiplash and double concussion did nothing to help especially prone, the accident last March where I got whiplash again has made it no better, that and changing eye sight. However I am starting to enjoy just shooting at the range again which has been misisng for some time so we will see how sunday goes.

[Jay Edward (deceased)]

Great thread BH!  I'm really looking forward to follow up on the shoot.  Like Alboy said... 'photos... no excuses'.  Your firearms look very traditional... which always makes me enjoy.

Another tankard would balance out your collection... and if it were with blackpowder... so much the better.

[Brithunter]

No Tankards that I know of as this is a different club in another County.

   Oh the ex club secretary was trying to sell me a Parker-Hale .451", Hmmm now I cannot recall if he said 2 or 3 band, I think he said it had Henry rifling. Will have to check on Sunday Wonder if I could do a trade with my Schmidt-Rubin model 1889? he was looking for a P-14 and I didn't know and sold mine about 7 weeks ago!

[Brithunter]

well I will need a good dose of luck for tomorrow and the competition. The weather today (Saturday) has been lousey, wet with gales, so I really hope that Sunday is better. Ayway I loaded up some 8mm and will take the P-H 1200 Super as well just in case.