Muzzle Loading "Frolic," 9/14/08; Stone Ridge, N.Y.

[Maven]

All, For the first time in 19yrs. our club, Marbletown Sportsmen (105 Scarawan Rd., Stone Ridge, Ulster Co., N.Y. for those with GPS) will hold a fun shoot on 9/14/08 using ANY muzzle loading rifle with open sights and with lead bullets (patched RB's and/or conicals, but NO jacketed bullets). The idea is to test your skills @ 25yd., 50yd. and 100yd. targets. The latter are not bullseye or paper, but 3/4" buttons (cross-sect. of 3/4" dowels), charcoal bricquets, a feather, vertical string (twine) at the nearest distance and gongs at the other two. Also, an across-the-log and crossed sticks event for 50yds. For the last couple of days, 3 of us, Rich Rockwell, its chair; Paul Granberg; and I have been firing at these with .50cal. & .54cal. rifles (patched RB's) with some success...and frustration. Regardless of how well (or poorly) we did, it WAS indeed a challenge and great fun, as it was designed to be. Registration for the "frolic" will begin at 9 AM, and the shoot will start at 10 AM. Food will be available at a nominal fee. If you feel the need to burn some powder or just need a day at the range, please join us. We'd be delighted to meet you! Btw, if you want more information or explicit directions to our club, please PM- or e-mail me.

Paul

[KCSO]

Those are the kind of shooots I like. You will really enjoy this one.

[Maven]

Will I be seeing any of you on Sunday?

[mooman76]

I'd love to go but it's a bit far for me!

[LAH]

Wish I could come but WV is a bit of a haul...........Creeker

[Buckshot]

................Wish I could come Paul as I know it'd be a blast. Our club has a ML'er shoot but it's limited to RB's. I DO have a .575" RB mould and could use it in my P58 Enfield, but never have before so I'd have some workup to do. However I have too many other projects nipping at my **** I don't need another right now :-)

Be sure to give us a rundown on how it went and what the winner was shooting, and of any other interesting ML'ers that show up on the line.

...............Buckshot

[Maven]

Although I'd be overjoyed to meet those who live beyond the Hudson Valley, I am looking forward to seeing ML's who live a bit closer. The weather for the "Frolic" promises to be ~70 deg. F with a chance of showers, but don't let that dampen your enthusiasm as our firing line is covered. I intend to do a bit of practice (off hand) tomorrow, but I don't know whether I'll get a chance to compete on Sunday. (We may be a bit short handed.)

[Maven]

Except for the weather, (drizzly with fog @ 8:30AM, but clearing off by 10AM), the "Frolic" came off without a hitch. If the event was judged by safety and whether or not the participants and the scorers & kibbitzers had a good time, it was an outstanding success. If it was judged by how much money it made for our club, it wasn't as we pretty much broke even since there were only maybe 12 or 13 shooters. As I wrote in my first sentence, the weather wasn't very encouraging, especially before 8:30AM. What made the shoot a frolic was the complete absence of bullseye targets. Rather, we used challenging (fun), but not impossible ones. 13 of the 15 targets, some of which were devilishly difficult to hit, were to be fired off-hand at 25-, 50- and 100 yds. Even some of the better shooters (2 of them compete at Friendship, IN and other ML events), had trouble with some of the 25 yd. & 50 yd. targets, so I guess there's hope for the rest of us! Believe me, I missed my share of easy shots too.

Guns: Any muzzle loader with open sights and lead RB's, Maxi's or Conicals, but NO jacketed bullets. No one used anything but RB's fired from traditional ML's, most of which were flintlocks and most of those were home- or custom-made. I used a .50cal. Mowrey cap lock.

Course of Fire, 25 yds. 1 shot at each of these: "Wooden nickels" (1" dowels); vertical twine (I came sooo close!); charcoal briquets suspended by a string (I hit the string, don'cha know.); 1/8" dowels arrayed on a 2 x 4 in a "Y" fashion; ~2" clay birds with orange side facing the shooter (Got one of those!).

Course of Fire, 50 yds. 1 shot at each of these: Normal sized, flat clay birds; a rectangular "gong" ~ 6" x 12" (Easy shot!); a 12" x 12" gong (Easy, but I managed to shoot under it.); firing from crossed sticks (while sitting) at flat, clay birds (Came this close!); firing from a "chunk" while prone at the small clay birds (I nailed that that puppy!)

Course of Fire, 100yds. 1 shot at a 12" pc. of well casing: Only 1 shooter hit it, but it wasn't me. The other targets were a rectangular and a square gong, which we were allowed 2 shots each at. (I hit one and missed one for each, but then adjusted my load to hit the square one a second time, but not for record.) Btw, all gongs were painted silver and quite easy to see.

The shoot was a great experience that I'm eager to repeat. Rich Rockwell, who spent so much time and energy preparing for and running it, said he'd do it again with a few modifications. He's even thinking about laying out a course of fire for a woods walk in the near future (strictly a shoot from the bag event), which would be a first for us. Interestingly enough, our club president, who was initially skeptical about a BP event, came to watch us and was impressed by it: That's a rave from anyone else!

Our club, Marbletown Sportsmen, has a web site (Google Marbletown Sportsmen's Club) if you'd care to see a pic or two. However, since it was raining when I left my house and since I thought I'd have to cook, score targets, etc. I didn't bring my camera (no one else thought to either), so I can't show you what I've tried to describe (Can't post them on this site anyway).