Unique shooting event this weekend

We’re talking about shooting this week, but not the modern rifle or handgun type shooting most folks think of when going to the range to burn some powder. The fine art of hitting a flying target with a shotgun and firing 100 shots in two days with a muzzleloading handgun are this week’s topics.

Let’s start with blackpowder handgun shooting. Beginning tomorrow about 9 a.m., a sanctioned, National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (NMLRA) 1000-point pistol aggregate match starts at the Matanuska Valley Sportsmen’s Range on the Glenn Highway south of Palmer. Most of you are probably not familiar with how a match like this is structured.

Individual match scores are recorded, as is a shooter’s overall total for firing 10 shots each in 10 different individual matches. That makes the 100-shot scenario, and when you understand that the highest point total possible for each shot is 10, you now see where the 1000-point aggregate name comes from.

Three different types of handguns are used for the 10-match aggregate. A blackpowder cap-and-ball revolver is used for at least three matches – I don’t remember for sure how the 10 matches are divided between the three gun types.

Several matches are fired using a single-shot, cap lock or percussion handgun often commonly referred to as a Kentucky-style pistol. The remainder of the 10 matches are fired using a flintlock single-shot version of the so-called Kentucky pistol.

Some of the shooters expected to participate will use modern blackpowder target-shooting guns for their single-shot matches. These guns have been specifically designed for target shooting and have much higher quality sights and, depending on the design, more modern and comfortable grip angles than the old style Kentucky pistols us common folk use.

The guys who own these high-grade target pistols also happen to be regional- or national-class shooters who regularly compete and place in NMLRA matches around the country. Me? I just shoot for fun!

The match shooting distances are mostly 25-yard events, but there are at least a couple of 50-yard matches, if memory serves. The revolver matches can be shot fairly quickly, relatively speaking, but the single-shot pistols firing a minimum of 10 shots for six or seven matches can take some time.

That’s why the entire aggregate will span both Saturday and Sunday at the range. Shooters wishing to receive their NMLRA pistol classification can use this entire aggregate to get their rating.

I’m not a good enough blackpowder handgun shooter to worry about chasing an official NMLRA classification, but several of the guys are. I also have never shot all ten of the matches during one two-day event because, quite frankly, I get tired. Once that happens, my accuracy goes to pot, so what’s the point?

I just shoot some of the matches for fun and help out on occasion with the range safety officer duties so some the folks more serious about this can get their matches fired. Come on out and try your hand at this unique sport! Loaner guns will be available. Earlier this week, I attended a political function at the Grouse Ridge Shooting Facility north of Wasilla. This shotgun shooting facility is top-notch and equal to any shotgun facility of comparable size in the nation. We were encouraged to shoot a round or two of clay birds and, needing all the practice I can get, I fired one round of skeet. The last time I shot skeet was 50 years ago at the Nilo Farms facility, then owned by Winchester, in Illinois. I received a little coaching back then and actually broke something like 23 or 24 of the 25 “birds” constituting a round the second time through the course that day. Only three of us opted to shoot Tuesday evening, and then only one round of skeet. Before we started, we decided not to keep a formal score card, since none of us wanted to be embarrassed by a formal record of our scores. I didn’t even keep an informal score, so I don’t honestly have an exact count, but I think I might have broken 10-12 of the 25 targets. Not great, but for breaking a 50-year drought, not too bad either! One guy did better than me, and the other guy did about the same. Either they changed the rules or the layout for shooting skeet since my time at Nilo Farms 50 years ago, or my memory is starting to slip! It could go either way! Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.