Father's Day and the Alaska Territorial Matches

Father’s Day is this Sunday. To all you dads out there – have a happy day and know your family loves you. Do something special with your kids, even the grown ones, and make some good memories.

My father has been gone for almost 40 years now. Some of my fondest memories of him involve hunting and fishing trips we made together. He also took us kids out to the shooting range on a regular basis and taught us how to shoot guns accurately and safely.

While living in Illinois, my middle brother and I discovered muzzleloading rifles in our teenage years. We wanted to hunt deer with something other than a shotgun and Illinois had just legalized muzzleloading rifles for deer. When we learned about the muzzleloading clubs in the area and when they held their monthly shoots, we realized that was a perfect opportunity to get in a lot of shooting practice while competing in the various matches. As a result, we were shooting virtually every weekend from around March to October.

My dad never got the muzzleloading bug but still managed to drive us to most of the shoots. He supported our efforts and took great delight in the fact that we were regular winners in matches at ranges of 25, 50, and 100-yards. My brother and I were the youngest shooters, as teenagers, normally participating in the various matches. The other shooters ranged in age from their thirties to sixties, with an occasional “old-timer” in his seventies or eighties. A couple of the regular shooters alternated as Illinois State Flintlock Rifle Champion for several years and, occasionally, either my brother or I would manage to best them in a match.

My brother and I won a lot of cash and merchandise in those matches. I recall winning $65 in one re-entry match, for instance, and my brother won a Coleman stove, a lantern, and a handmade knife in other matches. We had a lot of fun too. I still have my half of a playing card where my shot centered one club on the two-of-clubs card and the other guy’s shot was off by a hair. We shot this match at 25 yards. I learned to split a rifle ball on the blade of a double-bit ax and break two clay targets – one on either side of the blade, again at 25 yards.

I keep my medals from a Southern Regional Shoot in Georgia, along with my current crop of medals from Alaskan shoots, with the half-club card and what is left of an edge-shot playing card I split with a round ball at about 18 yards. One of the hardest matches I remember involved shooting charcoal briquettes hanging from strings and swinging in a stiff breeze. Whoever hit a briquette stayed in the round – if you missed you were out. I don’t remember winning that match, but I do remember finishing either 2nd or 3rd. All this occurred decades before I moved into the trifocal glasses stage.

If you’d like to try shooting a more “formal” muzzleloading match, or you just want to watch and see what goes on, you’re in luck. The 2021 Alaska Territorial Matches will be held June 23 through June 26 at the Matanuska Valley Shooting Range, located on the Glenn Highway south of Palmer.

These territorial matches have been held since 1980 at various locations around the state, including Chugiak, Anderson, Fairbanks, and Juneau. The McKinley Mountainmen Muzzle Loading Club has sponsored the matches for the past almost 30 years.

The Territorial matches are intended to provide shooters across the nation the opportunity to compete in the same matches, under the same rules. Shooting pins for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in each match plus aggregate medals for the top three places are provided by the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (NMLRA). Those shooters winning an aggregate medal qualify to shoot in that aggregate at the National Territorial Matches held in Friendship, Indiana, the home of the NMLRA. Participation requires membership in the NMLRA. You can join when you register.

The shooting will start every day around 8 AM and run until around 5 PM, except Friday, when shooting will cease about noon. There are also aggregate matches for ladies, and youth, plus a primitive series. If you shoot a flintlock rifle or a pistol, a percussion rifle or a musket, offhand or benchrest, there is an aggregate for you.

Consider taking the family out and making some memories. Your kids will remember it.