Git yer feet up, dis iz a no-sh***r....
30 years ago I shot in the one and only black powder competition I've ever been in. Shooting a .45 caliber TC Hawken using home-cast Maxi-balls and Pyrodex P. The shoot was held by the Black Creek Gun Club out of Darlington, SC. There were about a dozen of us competing, firing from the line at 50 yards at a standard NRA target (don't recall which one but the x-ring was about an inch). We all shot as we were ready so the timing of shots was pretty random and that doesn't help nerves much.
After all shots were completedwe all walked out to the targets. With each step the flow of people sort of drifted toward my target. I had put two in the X touching and the third was a bit more than half the hole out of the X into the 10 ring. Those guys didn't know me well and it was suggested that I had somehow cheated as nobody else had results even close to mine. I got a little heated and told them they were full of it... that I would go back to the line and shoot again if they wanted. Someone piped up they wanted another fellow (the guy that placed a very distant second) to shoot my rifle. I agreed on condition that I load the rifle while they all watched, then he could do the shooting. I think no one there had more doubt than the fellow that did the shooting. The first time I loaded up and handed him the rifle, he had a grim look on his face. The second time he took the rifle his expression had changed dramatically and after the third shot, he looked a little bit in awe. He hadn't duplicated my results but he did have all three in the 10 ring. And he pronounced that I had actually fired that first target without any doubt at all.
Looking back at what transpired, I was always glad they suggested someone else shoot. I would have been hard-pressed to even come close to my first results - given that I was more than a little heated and the pressure would have been strong. Only won a trophy, which turned out to be a conversation piece due to the engraver leaving the "D" out of Black Powder Competition. I still have the base of that trophy with the little fake gold shooter from the top - the rest of the trophy somehow mangled during a move. The shooter's rifle barrel is even broken off... but it's still worth a laugh on occasion.
That .45 TC Hawken was the most accurate offour I had owned. Serial number was 11111. In those days I could fire groups at 100 yards using those too thick factory sites and, more often than not,keep three shots under an inch and a half. I only parted with it about 15 years ago - it was still accurate but my eyes had already degenerated to the point that I didn't trust myself using those irons.And they are far worse now.