The territorial match

The 2025 Alaska Territorial Muzzleloading Match is, as they say, in the books. I need to correct a statement I made in last week’s column about this event. I said the match would start on Wednesday and end on Sunday. As it turned out, I was misinformed as to the starting date. I was at the shooting range shortly after noon on Wednesday, only to be informed by one of the range folks that the blackpowder match started on Thursday according to their schedule. Oh well!

Since I wasn’t shooting, I wasn’t in any big hurry to get to the range at the exact starting time, which as it turned out, was 9 AM as opposed to the 8 AM time I had mentioned in my previous column. I arrived a little before noon and said “hey” to the six shooters who were already firing various matches.

I took over the Range Safety Officer (RSO) duties around 12:30 and ran the 30-minute relays until about 3:30, getting in 3 hours of RSO time. The National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (NMLRA) requires an RSO, to remain current in their certification, to serve as an RSO a minimum of 4 hours per year if I remember correctly. In previous years, serving as an RSO during the Territorials was when I served my time to stay certified. All the other guys are also certified RSOs through the NMLRA, so they took turns running the relays while also shooting the matches they had signed up for.

I didn’t attend Friday’s matches because of other errands I needed to run around town. I showed up late Saturday morning because I was curious if anyone had shot the black powder cartridge aggregate and, if so, how they did score wise. I currently hold the state record on the standing bear target in that aggregate and just wanted to know if somebody had scored better.

As things turned out, only one of the shooters fired the cartridge aggregate and he had trouble seeing the target well enough to aim for the scoring rings. The standing bear target is a standing bear with the high scoring rings all located down the middle of the bear. The widest section might be two-inches, and the 10-ring isn’t even that big. It’s a tough target to score well on.

Prior to my surgery, I had hoped to participate and shoot this aggregate, hoping to better my standing bear score and do even better on the other match targets in the aggregate. That didn’t happen, so the best I could do was watch and hope nobody would beat my record score. They didn’t, so I was safe for another year.

A tradition which has developed over the years at the Alaska Territorials is a hamburger “feed” Saturday evening after the shooting for the day is finished. A couple of the guys who were active shooters at the time, came up with the idea as a chance for the competitors to relax and share some comradery with the other folks outside the competitive shooting cycle.

The burger feed was a big success with everyone, and folks decided it should be held every year, usually on Saturday evening. Over the years, as folks returned to shoot and others left, the dinner evolved into whatever folks wanted to do that specific year. The cooks changed over time and the meal became a “store bought” affair as opposed to a BBQ burger event. Recently, one lady assumed cooking chores with dinners composed of pulled pork or other main courses, with other folks bringing various side dishes.

It was a fun event which contributed greatly to the overall Alaska Territorial experience.

This year, because of scheduling and other considerations, the dinner was scheduled to be held as a lunch after the shooting was finished on Sunday. I had never missed dinner at the Territorials and had no intention of starting to be absent this year. I arrived an hour or so before the scheduled mealtime only to be told that one of the long standing blackpowder club members had passed away sometime on Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

Bob had been to the range on Thursday but complained of not feeling well. He left to get some rest where he was staying with some friends in Big Lake. When the friends went to check on him after not seeing him Sunday morning, they found him dead. Nobody wanted to have a celebratory meal once that word got around.