Woods Walk, 9/9/12, Marbletown Sportsmen's Club, Stone Ridge, N.Y.

[Maven]

Marbletown Sportsmen's Club* will host a Woods (Trail) Walk, Blanket Shoot on September 9, 2012. Registration, which begins at 9:30AM, is $10 along with a $10 blanket prize. Refreshments will be available for purchase. Contact Rich Rockwell at 845-687-8750 or mzldr@aol.com for more information. You can e-mail me as well: pwbrasky@hvc.rr.com Hope to see you on Sunday, September 9!

P.S. Rich & I just finished setting up the course earlier today and it truly is a walk in the woods.


*105 Scarawan Road, Stone Ridge, (Ulster County) New York

[Maven]

The shoot will be held rain or shine. If rain, then we will shoot from our covered firing line as the trail would be a mire.

[Maven]

Woods Walk Report: Good News & Bad. The good news is the storm system that plagued us all day yesterday blew through leaving us with spectacularly clear and cooler weather. Our trail walk was wet, but not dangerously muddy and slippery. Moreover, those who did attend, few though they were, enjoyed themselves immensely. We had experienced shooters to novices and every rank in between. We also had slightly more flintlock shooters (two of those were smoothbores) than caplocks and one inline shooter too. The bad news is that trying to get people, including our club members, to participate is like pulling teeth. This after ads in two newspapers, and this, as well as other websites, one of them local.

The targets were what you'd expect on trail walk: gongs at various distances, split the ball on an axe, cut the string, charcoal briquets on a string, cut the [playing] card, shoot the pencil (vertical), and so forth. Believe me, the lighting in the woods made even the "easy" shots much more challenging than they appeared. Needless to say, I hit some of the difficult targets (the briquet, pencil, string), missed some of the easier ones, and even managed to break one, but not both of the clay birds on either side of the axe head. The winner hit 10 out of 16 targets. I took 2nd place with 7, which was helped by my tie breaker shot (closest to the X on a 3" x 5" index card @ 15 yds.). NOT boasting here, just sayin'....

Incidentally, neither of the smoothbore shooters, who were highly experienced, could do better than 2, and that went to a fella shooting a smooth rifle. That really surprised me, as I thought they'd do much better. In light of that, I think I won't be using my smoothie next time, but it will be time to introduce my Isaac Haines rifle to the woods!

[Dean D.]

Thanks for sharing your report with us Maven! If I didn't live out on the west coast I would have enjoyed attending your shoot, it sounds like you all had a great time.

Participation numbers are down in our area too, I think between gas prices and unemployment folks are forced to choose what they spend money on more carefully. That being said, I'm hard pressed to find a cheaper or more fun way to entertain myself. Getting to a shoot is the most expensive part.

[JeffinNZ]

One day Paul. One day.

I love a good bush walk/gong range. [sigh]

[Maven]

"Participation numbers are down in our area too, I think between gas prices and unemployment folks are forced to choose what they spend money on more carefully. That being said, I'm hard pressed to find a cheaper or more fun way to entertain myself. Getting to a shoot is the most expensive part." Dean D.

Dean, I think your explanation is right on the money! Moreover, a couple of the participants asked where they could get real BP, as none can be had locally. And yes, I DID have a great time. Devilish as some of the targets were, it sure beats shooting at paper (NMLRA animal targets typically).

Jeff, Yup, one day....!

[Kelgar1]

Maven, wish I could have attended as I live in Coeymans and work in Catskill. Maybe next time. I too am looking for an available source of BP. Have always used Pyrodex RS, haven't had any issues but wouldn't mind trying blackpowder. Have had the .54 for years and can never get enough of shooting it [schdl permitting]. Glad the days weather worked out.

[Dean D.]

I get my BP from Powder Inc., the price is right and they deliver it right to the door. The down side is you have to buy it 25 lb. at a time. You can order different granulation sizes, i.e. 2F, 3F or 4F in the same order though.