Blackpowdersmoke

Any of you ever get together with your shooting/hunting buddies and have a fun shoot? I don't mean just sitting down at the bench and sighting in your guns, I mean a shoot where you actually compete with each other at different targets for squats and grins. I've been planning and organizing a shoot for those of us that hunt ML season together (along with a few friends and relatives) to be held later this year. I got the idea while re-reading an older issue of MUZZLELOADER magazine, and decided that this was something I wanted to do. I've narrowed it down to eight shooting events that everyone will participate in. Five are individual events (shoot by yourself) and three are two-man team events. Three of the five individual events are TIMED EVENTS and two of the two-man team events are timed. I have a list of rules that all shooters will abide by and I have it set up so that a panel of THREE judges will make a decision (by majority) concerning anything that may need a decision. I have novelty targets planned as well as regulation scoring targets. The distances will be from 20-50 yds. with all shooting being done OFFHAND but from different positions (standing, kneeling, sitting) and with OPEN-SIGHTED ML's using PATCHED ROUND BALL only.

Here's some examples:

Individual Timed Event @ 25 yds, standing and offhand, break three standard clay targets in three minutes, no minimum of shots. Shooter may not step to the line with a loaded firearm, all loading and shooting will commence (and stop) when a judge calls time. 5 points for each clay hit. Shooter with the lowest elapsed time to break all three will receive a bonus 2 points.

Two-Man Untimed Event @ 30 yds, Flintlock Only, standing and offhand, one shot only with your PARTNER'S GUN, at a standard paper target for highest total score. Closest to "X" recieves an additional 2 bonus points. Shooter that owns the gun may do the loading, but the man shooting may not prime or cap until on the line.

These are just examples of what I'm going to do so, what do you all think...does it sound like fun or no? I plan on collecting a buck from every shooter for each event they shoot in, but I'm gonna pay it back to the highest scorer(s) of each event at the end.

I'm hoping to have a Burger/hotdog cookout and a few beers for all after the shootin' is done and the black powder smoke clears out of the valley! ...BPS

cayugad

Many years ago I accidently started what was called a fruit shoot. My folks lived in Mission Texas. So they would send me bushels of fresh grapefruits and oranges each winter. Well I didn't eat them all sometimes. And as winter was breaking friends and I would haul out all the things that went bad over the winter. Fruit, potatoes, carrots, apples, and other odds and ends. We would hide them in the woods. It was good sport not knowing the distance, and sometimes due to the angle only small parts of the target might be showing. And we would have a cookout and just a great time.

We would also shoot clay birds. Doing the ax trick with a bird on each side of the blade. This was a rest shoot. And we would hide birds on a walking trails which made for good sport. The sad thing is we no longer do that. Family obligations and just age kind of faded all the fun of our youth.

HDMontana

Sounds like a lot of fun. Wish we had things like that where I live. I don't know very many people around here shooting black powder or I might try to set up something similar.

ModernPrimitive

I think that sounds great, and it's good you've got fellow enthusiasts to do it with!

bronko22000

Many many years ago there was a bunch of us that would go out every weekend and shoot our flinters. We had a ball almost every Sunday afternoon. One day someone had a white plastic spoon and stuck the handle in the corregation of a cardboard box and set it out at about 50 yds to see who could hit it. In as much as myself and another person were the only ones with loaded flinters at the time he shoulder his Hawken, drew a bead and took first shot. Low and behold he hit it but only took off the left half of the spoon. I, being a cocky sort at the time, told him I would finish it for him. (not really thinking I would hit such a small target off hand at that distance). But when the smoke cleared, the rest of the spoon was gone. No one believed it (including me) but I told them "I said I'd finish it". And as they say, the rest is history. That became the "standard target" from then on. It was fun and challenging to boot. There was a lot of ribbing going on during those shoots. Good times.

Blackpowdersmoke

Yea, all of my hunting buddies that I've talked to about it are getting pumped. They're already talking about what gun(s) they want to use and whose @$$ they want to kick!..LOL! I have eight shooting events for each shooter to participate in. I'm hoping for 12-14 people to come and shoot but who knows??...I may end up with more. I own 24 acres and have a perfect "natural" range here on my property where all shooting can be done safely. I can shoot to 125+ yds. with a wooded hillside (that is on my property, so no houses or buildings in the way) as a backstop. I may have come up with more rules than are necessary, but they're all about SAFETY FIRST and keeping everyone on a level playing field as well as keeping things moving along. Time permitting, after everyone has shot in all of the events and the winners are paid, I'm going to have a "steel gong" target set up at an unknown distance and everyone can try to "ring the gong" for $1.00 a shot. It will be a SHOOT TIL' YOU MISS type novelty event. You can shoot as many times as you want as long as you pay your dollar (per shot) and have not previously missed. Last man standing wins the pot!!...BPS

pluckit

Here's one.
http://shop.sportsmansguide.com/net/...ms=gong&eMode=

Blackpowdersmoke

Thanks Pluckit. I'll keep that on my fav. list. Talked with one of my shootin' buddies that's a union welder and he's got some good ideas for making us one....BPS

pluckit

Unfortunately I don't have anyone to shoot with. Every time I ask the person I hunt with why he doesn't get a muzzleloader he says "Why should I buy one when you have so many?" I have explained to him the effort it takes to clean a muzzleloader keeps me from loaning one out. He has no muzzleloader experience and I would have to clean 2 rifles after shooting with him so that ends the conversation. Oh well, I've been pretty much alone in this sport all my life so I'm used to it. It certainly doesn't lessen my love of shooting muzzleloaders.

Blackpowdersmoke

I know where you're coming from. Up until about the past 8 years or so, none of my friends had ML's. Little by little they started comin' around and decided that it was something they wanted to do as well. Now there are usually 6-8 (sometimes more) of us that get together for the late Flintlock season here in Pa. and have a great time!...BPS