BLACK POWDER
Shooting a black powder .50-70 match is just like the old times.
A SPECIAL .50-70 MATCH
Club's informal black powder cartridge matches a good way to get started in BPCR shooting, competition. STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT
I
t should be no secret that the .50-70 is one of my favorite black powder cartridges. Reasons for this can certainly include its history, being our country’s first centerfire military cartridge, along with its fine performance as well as the interesting variety of single-shot rifles that were made for it. I’m not alone in having such admiration for the old .50-70; there
are actually a bunch of us with these feelings. So it should be no surprise that our club, the Black River Buffalo Runners (part of the Capitol City Rifle & Pistol Club near Olympia, Washington), annually holds a special .50-70 match. This started just three years ago and for that debut, we had only three shooters show up with .50-70-caliber rifles. There were more shooters than that, of course, because other black powder cartridge rifles are also invited. However, those shooters using other
calibers do follow the .50-70 shooters to the prize table. The idea grew and at our second .50-70 match, we enjoyed having six shooters trying for top score, and that was while using only four rifles. Top score was shot by Jerry Mayo, who was shooting my .50-70 rolling block. Second place was taken by “Doc” Ritter, who was shooting his dad’s rolling block. I took third place and “Loco Jeff” Ritter took fourth, while using the rifles that had already placed first and second. The two other shooters, Allen americanshootingjournal.com 97
