I was at a shoot this weekend, all traditional. We had right on 200 shooters, from as far away as Edmundton, Alberta, to Texas and Daytona beach, Florida.
Very hot, and all shooting was shut down by 2PM each day, because of fire danger. And, we still had two fires to deal with. We will most likely be restricting some types of patch lubes in the future, to eliminate this problem. The Bore Butter, and Wonderlube have proven thierselves to be very bad about this over the years.
It is extremely dry in the woods, so if you are travelling the west, be very careful.
This was the first year this shoot has offered a separate smoothbore flintlock class. We were surprised at all that showed up, with some very fine English, French, and Eastern fowlers on the line, along with several types of trade guns. Most of us with smoothbores, also shot them in the rifle part of the competition. We may have not come out on top, but they knew someone was there trying hard!
I had scheduled in a smoothbore match to run in a couple weeks, but with fire restrictions now in stage one, and stage two right around the corner in a couple days, I imagine this will have to be cancelled this time around.
Retrogression, can be fun!