A weekend at the range in the muzzleloading match

The 2020 Alaska Territorial Muzzleloading Match is in the books. The total number of shooters was down from past years, but there were still enough to make a viable shooting event. I did a little shooting and a lot of catching up with some folks I haven’t seen since last year’s event.

I was originally hoping to arrive Wednesday afternoon to get my RV set up and help with any last-minute work needed for the match. A “business” situation arose along with some family stuff, so I put off leaving until Thursday afternoon, after the shooting had already started.

I parked the RV and within minutes, a friend, and fellow Hunter Education (HE) instructor and his wife arrived in their RV. He set out a couple of lawn chairs and offered a cold soft drink. After applying the bug spray, we chatted for the rest of the afternoon, catching up on things. Ed had won a prestigious award from the HE program this year, a recognition well deserved.

I did no shooting this first day of the match.

Friday saw a moderate but steady rain falling all day long. I watched and waited, after registering for the shoot and hauling my gear into the range area, hoping the rain would stop and I could start shooting. While several of the other competitors were shooting, I will readily admit to being a “fair weather” competitor. Of the two aggregates I had planned to shoot that day, one was with a flintlock smoothbore. Being new to shooting flintlocks, I didn’t want to hassle trying to make that gun to go “bang” in the rain.

Saturday dawned overcast with intermittent light rain sprinkles. I decided to shoot the sighted smoothbore aggregate using my percussion, sidelock, 56-caliber firearm. I enjoy shooting this aggregate, which consists of four matches and 20 shots plus sighters. Since I’ve been shooting percussion sidelocks for over 60 years, getting the gun to fire was no big deal.

Each match is normally fired during a 30-minute relay. This aggregate took two hours plus the set-up time between relays, when targets are posted and pulled. Figure around two-and-a-half hours per aggregate. I decided not to shoot the flintlock smoothbore aggregate for lack of time, since I was scheduled to get a couple of hours of range safety officer (RSO) time in Saturday afternoon.

I set-up next to shoot the first match of the required four in the blackpowder cartridge (BPC) aggregate using my new Sharps rifle. I was going to shoot anyway, even if the rifle failed to make the weight limit of 14 pounds. When I asked the RSO to check the weight and certify the rifle as “legal,” the gun and scope weighed 13 pounds, 5 ounces. I just squeaked in under the weight limit.

I couldn’t see things clearly through the scope or get comfortable using the rest I borrowed for the first BPC match, but I shot it anyway. It didn’t help matters that I had never shot this rifle at 100 yards, the range at which all four BPC matches were to be shot. I didn’t do too badly, at least I was hitting the target.

I put away the shooting gear because my time to be RSO arrived. My Saturday shooting was done.

Sunday was overcast but not spitting rain. I lost the first couple of hours for shooting because I was scheduled to RSO again. Since this was the last day of the match and shooting ended at noon, I was a little pressed for time to finish the BPC aggregate.

I had brought my own rifle bench rest to the range Sunday morning, so I spent some time fine tuning the scope settings. To save time, I posted two targets during one relay, something not normally encouraged. I shot both with no problem and decided my shooting was done for the entire event.

My replacement right shoulder was starting to bother me from the recoil of the forty-plus shots I had fired between Saturday and Sunday and the walking back and forth to the 100-yard line was beginning to bother my left ankle as well. I figured I was done for another year.

Having only shot one-and-three-quarters aggregates, I wasn’t expecting much in the way of shooting medals or pins. As it turned out, I placed in all four sighted smoothbore matches and won a silver aggregate medal. I won one pin for placing in one of the three matches I shot with the BPC rifle.