Blackpowder Shooting matches

The results of the 2021 National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association sanctioned Alaska Territorial Blackpowder Shooting matches are in the books. The weather held off and, while it was cloudy and occasionally windy, we didn’t get rained on (if you don’t count light occasional mists as rain).

I went with high hopes of shooting several different aggregates (groups of matches) and doing great things score wise. It didn’t happen! The disappointing takeaway I got was that I can no longer hold up a rifle to shoot offhand with any reasonable degree of accuracy. By that I mean competitive accuracy.

Let me back up some. I had taken five rifles out to the shooting range in mid-June to adjust scopes and sights and get in some practice time. I ended up only shooting three of the guns, and they were all shot off a benchrest rather than offhand. I was pleased with the results anyway.

I had added an “old-style” three-power scope to my Winchester 1885 Low-Wall, 22 rimfire rifle and wanted to get it sighted in. When I had shot this gun before, it shot okay, but nothing to get excited about. This shooting session was different. At 25-yards, the rifle grouped 25 shots into a group you could cover with a nickel. That’s good for me! However, this rifle did not qualify for the Territorial matches.

The second rifle was my 1885 High-Wall in 38-55 caliber. I hoped to use this rifle in the Blackpowder Cartridge Rifle aggregate at the upcoming shoot. At 25-yards, I fired eight shots into a group about the size of a quarter off a bench. This was the first time I had fired this gun since receiving it back from a gunsmith who repaired the action and rebarreled the gun. Things were looking good here!

The third rifle was my 45-70 caliber Remington Rolling Block on which I had also had an old-style scope mounted. I only fired it 10 times because the recoil was pounding me. I did get it sighted in at 25-yards though. The pounding confirmed that I wanted to use the 38-55 and not the 45-70 for the upcoming competition.

I ran out of time so never even took the other two rifles out of the truck.

The first day of the territorials, I planned to shoot my sighted smoothbore in the morning and my rifled musket in the afternoon. By the end of the third match (four to make the aggregate) with the smoothbore, I realized I would be wasting my time trying to shoot other offhand matches. The sighted smoothbore is one of the lighter guns, weight wise, that I had planned to shoot, and I was already worn out holding it.

Over the next couple of days, I worked six-hours as a Range Safety Officer (RSO) and visited with some of the other competitors. I was disappointed in my waning physical abilities, but age has a way of doing that to folks!

I decided to shoot the cartridge aggregate on Friday morning. There are four matches off a bench rest at 100-yards. Two targets were ten shots each and the other two were five-shot targets, giving a total possible point score of 300. Again, I had not shot this rifle at 100 yards.

I was able to walk the scope into my aiming point in four shots, which was good since I had only brought 35 cartridges and needed 30 for score. We began the match and I want to thank Steve for doing all my target pulling and posting at the 100-yard range. My ankle had been acting up and walking was difficult.

The rifle was shooting quite well, and my scores were better than I had expected since I was still experimenting with adjusting my reloading dies for the blackpowder reloads I used. On the last five-shot target I shot, I got a surprise. With a possible point score of 50 for this target, I fired a 49.

When Steve brought the target back to be scored, the scorer immediately commented that my score for that match might be a new state record. I want to emphasize “might” since a complete copy of the match records wasn’t immediately available and further research would be needed to confirm a possible new record.

I ended up with four match pins and an aggregate medal for the sighted smoothbore and the same for the cartridge matches. There were seven cartridge rifle shooters. Not bad for an old, worn-out, fat, bald guy!