Black powder's better than no powder

Out & About, by Howard Delo

The winter snows have eluded us. The Iron Dog snowmachine race and several of the Iditarod sled dog qualifying races have been canceled. The few sled dog races that have been held, like the Knik 200, have reported that trail conditions could be better.

I took my snowmachine out on the Big Lake snowmobile trail system the last week of January and ran about a 30-mile loop. I can report first-hand that adequate snow for an enjoyable ride is definitely lacking.

Since the snow is sparse, I started looking around for some non-snow-related outdoor activity and found one right in my gun safe. I've had the equipment for nearly 20 years but never attended a shoot until this past weekend.

I'm talking about a blackpowder cartridge rifle shoot. "Ye Ole' Bang and Clang" match is usually held the first Saturday of every month at the Isaac Walton Shooting Range in Birchwood. The rifles commonly used are reproductions of the rifles the buffalo hunters used during the 1870s and 1880s. Common calibers are 45-70, 40-65, 38-55, and my favorite 50-90.

The format involves relays of shooters firing a total of 40 shots offhand at silhouette targets on stands 50, 100, 150 and 200 meters away. Each relay is fired in two time periods involving five targets in each period. For instance, the shooter at 50 meters has seven minutes to fire all the sighting shots he/she wants at a swinging "sighter" target and five shots for score at five steel discs, ranging in diameter from about four to 12 inches.

A hit is recorded when the target is knocked off the stand and falls to the ground. The second five-minute timed period has the shooter firing five shots for score with no sighting-in shots. A total of 10 shots are fired for record and a perfect score involves knocking all 10 targets to the ground.

This scenario is repeated at 100 meters, firing at steel silhouettes of a wolverine, at 150 meters at goose silhouettes and, finally, at 200 meters at ram silhouettes. All shots are fired offhand -- that means no rest for the rifle other than your hands and arms.

This all sounds fairly easy until the shooting starts. The targets are all cut from steel plate, some nearly an inch thick. The ram targets probably weigh at least 40 pounds each and some of the discs weigh 20 to 25 pounds. I measured the body area on the ram target and it is only about 12 inches high by 24 inches long. That's not a big target when shooting offhand at 220 yards -- the equivalent of 200 meters.

While scopes are allowed at the "practice" shoots, almost all the shooters use either open or "tang" peep sights on their rifles. The iron sights are more historically correct and are the only allowable sights when the serious shoots are held.

Once the shooter is sighted in, the next problem is actually knocking the target off its stand. I watched one shooter hit six rams with one of the lighter caliber rifles, but only two fell down. The other four were scored as misses.

The cartridges for these rifles are loaded with either blackpowder or one of the so-called "replica" blackpowder propellants. The bullets are made from lead and, in the larger calibers, can weigh more than an ounce each.

The velocities for these loads usually fall in the 1,200- to 1,400-feet-per-second category. For most shooters, once they have their rifle, that means reloading their cartridges and casting their own lead bullets.

This type of shooting is fun for the shooter and has spectator appeal as well, watching through the smoke to see if the silhouettes fall after the shot.

If you would like more information on this blackpowder cartridge shooting game, call Bob Engelbach at 248-4199, or contact him at rrnut@gci.net.

How did I score? Let's just say I was happy to hit a few silhouettes.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist living in Big Lake. Send your comments and ideas to editor@frontiersman.

com, or call (907) 352-2268 and leave a message for Howard.