Saturday Shoot

About 20 of us had a good time at the shoot on Saturday. Several guys came out just to watch and visit. Gene brought his son and grandsons and a beautiful new rifle that Matt Avance made for him. A couple of guys shot flintlocks for the first time. We warmed up with a 5-shot match at a standard 25 yard bullseye.

Next we shot a 3-shot match at a "Mike Fink" style paper target (a mountain man with a tin cup on his head). Only shots touching the tin cup counted. If you hit the man anywhere, you got no score. Only two guys hit the cup at least once and didn't hit the man. I had two forehead shots. That's the winning target shown on the left.

Then we shot 5 shots at playing cards taped to cardboard backings. It you hit the cardboard, you got 1 point. If you hit the playing card, you got two points. In the case of ties (there were several) the tape on the playing card is cut and the card is turned over. The higher card wins the tie. Steve Weir (that's him in the photo) and I tied in points, but my 9 of clubs trumped his 6 of clubs, so I won. That was our blanket prize shoot, and I chose a turkey-wing-bone call as my prize.

At this point, some of the guys had to leave or had done enough shooting, but a few of us took some shots, without keeping score, at a metal deer target at about 75 yards.

One of the neatest things about shooting muzzleloaders is that you can shoot about 20 shots over the course of a couple of hours, mix in a lot of visiting and helping other shooters with their guns, and enjoy a full afternoon of fun that didn't cost a lot.

Bill Scurlock