Mountain Man Survival shoot
 

Today was awesome!

Day 5 at the Santa Fe Trail Rendezvous outside of Raton New Mexico..

Yesterday my friend and I spend 7 hours visiting camps, talking, etc. He got outfitted with a used .54 great plains rifle, leather melt,ball bag, loading block, balls, floppy hat, knife and sheath, all kinds of goodies to get him started.

My friend and I signed up for the mountain man survival run. Just a fun as hell shoot!

First they start you off by throwing either a hawk or knife at a stump target. Once it sticks, you can then start your run.

The trail is marked with red tape, and at every red wooden spike, thats the area to stop at and shoot at such and such target.

The first 2 targets were making meat. 1 targets, 2 shots if needed. I hit the turkey dead on with a loud bell ring sound lol.

Next on the trail, you were passing through a friendly village. The bad injun targets are painted red. We once again, capped up, took aim and shot. My friend missed that one. I once more hit both targets for us.

There were some smaller targets as well, making meat, etc.

We got to the part and they said, ok stop and cap your rifles but walk into the next target area side by side. You can shoot together or one at a time.

Well, my friend and I are walking in and notice a cub bear target up in a tree. Hmm.

Ahhhh! I know what this is!

We came into a small open area and mamma bear came " charging" at us on a pulley system!

I got the first shot off which was a head shot right through the right eye. My friend got a chest shot. We got a bonus of 2 extra points for doing such a fine job on the kill shots.

After that, we had to make meat again which was shooting a buffalo at around 40 yards. I nailed it.

Walking alone a rocky trail, I was lucky enough to see a "rattle snake" coiled up behind a rock. I called it out and we got an extra bonus point.

Next, we went to the creek to get those pelts out of the creek and up onto shore.

There were 4 beaver caught in trap. We didn't score extra points, but the 2 guys monitoring us said that we could have got an extra point had one stayed out of the creek and acted as a look out for injuns. DOH!!!

Now with fingers all wet..... Start a fire with flint and steel!

I pulled out my flint and steel and then my japan tinder box which I had earlier picked dry grass and added in some tow.

I put 4 layers of char cloth and struck my striker once and had a tiny orange dot, so I struck twice more and had embers burning all over the place. I picked up the nest and squished it a bit to get the char cloth up against the fine grasses and started to blow.

My friend said the look on the guys faces was funny as hell because it was nothing but surprise that I had got a fire going to quickly. They gave me props on that one.

Now the next was harder! I saw it and just shook my head.

I saw a bell and below it, a 5" white steel target.

I drew up my sights onto the target and the wind started gusting! I had to drop down and bring up the sights 3 times before the wind was calm enough for me to fire. This target was 50-60 yards down range. I nailed it!

I got my powder measure and started to reload with 50 grains Pyrodex P when one of the guys warned me to hold up, take a look at an optional target we can shoot for an extra 10 points.

We walked a little ways down the trail and bam, another buffalo target! He said this one is about 125 yards out there.... Gotta shoot standing up,free hang.

Im standing there with 50 grains measured out, so I said what the hell, I'll give it a try, we're here for the fun, not competition.

I bumped the charge up to 70 grains Pyrodex P, grabbed a .020" patch and .490" round ball and loaded up the St.Louis Hawken once more.

Again, the wind was giving me fits but soon settled down.


125 yards..... I have 17" of drop at 150, So I figured I'd split the difference and put the tip of my front sight on the back line of the buffalo target. BOOM!

BING!!

The guys started congratulating me after that shot. I got a few claps on the back for that one.

During the entire shoot, I did not miss one target!

I spoke with a few friends we made and they all agreed, we have a chance of being very high up on the score board and may win a custom flintlock they are giving away.

I don't care about winning, but for our first shoot, with a new guy to muzzleloading, we did a hell of a job.

I did a lot of the longer range shooting as my rifle was sighted in and my friends is still good out to 50, but iffy past that. Plus hes new to black powder shooting.

One hell of a fun time!

Sounds like a fun time.

That really sounds like a lot of fun. Congratulations on the great showing of skill.

Congrats, sometimes its much nicer just to build the memories than actually winning a prize.

Sounds like a lot of fun . Wish I could have been there with my GPR or Tryon

We took first place! The rendezvous ended today and at the council fire, they were doing the drawing for the rifle which was actually won by buying raffle tickets.

I was the only one there today so at the prize blanket, I snatched up 2lbs of goex. One was 2fg and the other 3fg. They'll do! That will refill my horns and I'll be set until next rendezvous!

Good! Now you can throw away that Pyrocrap. :p

shot 2 horns of pyrodex yesterday! Only have a can of RS to shoot up at home now.

Congratulations on your achievement.
Goex is a good prize.

lol congrats sounds like a grand time