Shooter 575: I don't know how other teams qualify to shoot on the Battery or Company Team, but we had ours qualifications today, near Ionia Road and M43. Last week we postponed because of the snow storm. Today it was about 45 deg F and with a 15 to 27 mph wind @ 90 degrees from the gun target line felt like it was in the 30's.
We shoot paper targets in 2 minutes for each target starting with a loaded musket, @ 50 yards standing. The rifle musket was not cleaned during shooting (in this case, 20 shots).
On the 4 inch simulated clay pigeon I got off 5 shots and had only 1 target hit in 5 shots for a hit time of 120 seconds. I did a little better on the simulated 4 inch tiles with 3 hits or a hit time of 40 seconds. Those three were in a cluster and the other two were victims of the wind or my poor shooting. I got one hit for 5 shots on the simulated paper 3 inch flower pots; again a hit time of 120 seconds. I hit one 6 inch tile at 100 yards for a hit time of 120 seconds. Today's shooting was about twice as bad as my season average last year.
This was the first time I shot this 3 band C.S. Richmond .58 since last September. The long gun was whipping in the wind, but the missing was all my fault. The musket shoots the load really well and is capable of a hit on these targets if I do my job. This CSR .58 likes a custom .577" 464 gr International Minnie that we had RCBS make a few years ago,(not the Hodgdon wadcutter) sized .577", lubed with MCM and a 50.0 gr. charge of GOEX fffg and a RWS musket cap. We chronagraphed it at 1,000 fps. Standard deviation after a fouling shot was around 4.
We are planning on some cannister rounds for the bronze 6 pounder in local skirmishes if invited to shoot them and the range is safe. Marion Skirmish comes to mind.
Regards
Bill