Getting ready for Territorials

I finally made it to a monthly muzzleloading rifle shoot this past Saturday! However, I didn’t compete in the scheduled shooting matches. My purpose was to work on a lighter load for my military rifled musket for the upcoming Alaska Territorial Shoot. I spent my time shooting off a bench rest to get an idea of where the gun was shooting in relation to where I was holding the sights with the reduced load.

My rifled musket is a modern copy of an 1861 Parker-Hale Enfield musketoon. What that means is that the firearm has a 24-inch barrel rather than the usual 33-inch or 39-inch barrels on the more commonly issued infantry guns. The caliber is .58. This model was usually issued to both the cavalry and artillery troops. The shorter length barrel made handling the gun easier for these “specialty” troops.

I originally bought this rifled musket to compete in the rifled musket category at the Territorial matches. I specifically bought the shorter length barrel so I could also use the gun if I wanted to take it hunting. The shorter barrel length and the fact military long guns usually are designed to have a sling for carrying the gun were factors in my decision.

When I first started shooting this firearm, I followed the recommended loading of 60-grains of blackpowder and a “Minnie ball” conical bullet, which weighed around 500-grains. That was a stout shooting load!

Over the years, I experimented with different charges of powder, going to 70- or even 80-grains. I also experimented with assorted styles of conical bullets. I didn’t realize how many different variations there were of the Minnie-style bullet. My rifled musket shot the Parker-Hale, thick skirted 500+ grain Minnie-style bullet best. These heavier loads, and even the 60-grain load, blew out the thinner skirts on the other styles of bullets.

The recoil from shooting 30+ of these loads per aggregate took their toll over the years. Combined with my shoulder replacement surgery during this time, shooting that firearm became painful and not much fun! It was time to work on a reduced load!

Over the past few years, finding and buying blackpowder had become a problem here in Alaska also, so developing a reduced powder charge load would stretch my powder supply and reduce per-shot shooting costs.

I did no shooting in 2022 because of my ankle replacement surgery, so I finally began my search for a lighter load this year. However, the weather and life in general, have not been supportive for any shooting this year, so far. By the time this column sees print, the 2023 Alaska Territorial shoot will be almost over. Talk about waiting until the last minute.

Anyway, the load I will be using involves 40-grains of blackpowder and a patched round ball weighing around 250-grains. That reduces the powder charge by a third and the projectile weight by half. Plus, round balls are available locally and are cheaper, while I need to order the Minnie bullets specifically from a muzzleloading supply store Outside. Percussion caps are also hard to come by, but in checking my supplies for this shoot, I found I had a good quantity of the musket caps used on the rifled musket and regular percussion caps used on my other muzzleloading guns.

Okay, so how does this load shoot? Off a bench at 25-yards, the gun shoots close to point-of-aim (POA) vertically and about 1- to 2-inches left. Shooting at 50-yards, the gun is shooting 1-to 3-inches left and about 2-to 4-inches low from POA. I left the match early because of an appointment so I never shot at the 100-yards distance. That’s unfortunate since two of the three matches are shot at 100-yards.

The sights are copies of the military issue ones and are non-adjustable for windage. Vertical adjustment can be made, but the adjustments are oriented in the hundreds-of-yards category, rather than in tens-of-yards for shooting matches. Plus, these open sights are hard for my old eyes to see. I’m not expecting anything great because of my lack of practice (shooting is a perishable skill) and the shooting style required for those matches.

Because of some format changes in the number of aggregates that will be shot at this match, I won’t be shooting some of the same aggregates I have shot over the years. Costs per aggregate have gone up too. And I’m getting older each year and can’t do the amount and style of shooting I used to do.