BLACK POWDER: WEATHER, SHOOTERS SHINE AT ‘RAIN-DE-VOO’ ’22

BLACK POWDER

Most of the rendezvous crew gathered at the head of the trail.

WEATHER, SHOOTERS SHINE AT CLUB'S ‘RAIN-DE-VOO’ ’22

Annual competition in soggy Washington state a trailwalking, 'hawk-throwing, camp-pitching good time.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT

The third weekend in February saw a lot of activity at the Capitol City Rifle and Pistol Club near Littlerock, Washington. That was the date for this year’s “Rain-de-voo,” a black powder rendezvous that is usually held in the rain. This year the weather actually smiled on us and the nearly 40 shooters who participated basically did their shooting in dry clothing.

Our “booshway” for such doin’s was Tom Brown and, as you might guess, it took quite a crew to put on a muzzleloading match with such variety. We had rifle shooting, a pistol match, and another match for trade guns. All of those events were shot on our black powder trailwalk, shooting at hanging steel silhouette targets that move or “clang” with the hits. Additionally, there was a tomahawk and knife trail for ’hawk and knife throwing, which was part of the aggregate. However, shooters had the option of doing primitive archery in place of throwing their ’hawk and knife. A not-too-easy archery trail was provided by the Capitol City Bowmen, primarily with the efforts of Dale Soost, and that archery trail is an event that I just wouldn’t miss.

There was some nonshooting

Author Mike Nesbitt’s .40-caliber copy of a Leman sporting rifle.

competition too, and one of the awards was for the best primitive camp. A “primitive camp” included only what would have been available during the pre-1840 period, from the time of the rendezvous era of the mountain men. That means no camp chairs, Coleman stoves, sleeping bags or any modern conveniences. Other nonshooting events included the Dutch oven cooking competition and an apple pie event to see who could make the best “apple pie,” which in this case was a powerful beverage and not a pie at all.

THE RIFLE I used was my .40-caliber Leman percussion copy. That’s a rifle I’ve had both good and bad luck with lately, but I stayed with it because this

Bob DeLisle on the archery course. On the pistol trail, Nesbitt aims his .50 at a tough target.

rifle and I seemed to be getting along. For powder, my gun likes 45 grains of GOEX FFFg under the patched .390inch round ball. That’s actually a fairly snappy load and while the targets we were shooting at varied from rather close to just over 100 yards, I could simply “hold center” with every shot.

My shooting partners were Mike Moran, Bob DeLisle and Jerry Mayo. I’ve probably mentioned all three of them before and for good reason. At this doin’s they all shot flintlock rifles and did rather well with those guns. The four of us had decided we’d try to accomplish two events per day, in addition to some other duties that we all had. One of those duties was being a “trail guide,” even though none of the shooting groups were actually guided. The trail guides are on the trails just in case a target gets broken or shot down. If that happens, the trail guide calls a ceasefire and repairs the target. Some repairs always seem to be needed. So after shooting our rifles, and after my turn at being a trail guide, we “hit the trail” again with our pistols.

Selecting my pistol was rather easy: my good ol’ Hawken-style percussion in .50 caliber with a single-set trigger. I’ve had that pistol for years and had recently resighted it in, which included moving the front sight slightly to the left and changing the powder charge. The powder charge I’m using now is about 35 grains of FFFg under the patched .490-inch ball and that’s a

The author’s 20-gauge Fowler with the 36-inch barrel.

fairly powerful load. Even though we’re only shooting at targets, my pistol likes that much powder to keep the bullets hitting.

The pistol shooting is done offhand, of course, and usually with a two-hand hold. For my shooting, I rest my right hand, holding the pistol, in the palm of my left hand for the added support. And I got lucky on the pistol trail, missing only one target, which was a lollipop on a post. I certainly tried on that small target, holding as steady as I could and slowly squeezing the set trigger so that I really had no idea of when the gun would fire. (If I know when my gun will go off, I flinch just like everyone else.)

THE NEXT DAY we teamed up again, right after Mike Moran was relieved as a trail guide. That was when we shot our archery targets and Mike shot a remarkable score. My own score, shot with my Modoc-style bow, was lower than I like but kept me in the running. For these events, the top shooters are awarded with first, second and third place. I tied for third place but my tiebreaker shot (with my rifle) wasn’t quite as good as the other shooter’s.

That afternoon the four of us hit the trail again but with our trade guns, shooting the smoothbores at selected targets. My smoothbore is a Fowler built from a kit from Tennessee Valley Muzzleloading in 20 gauge and I “feed” it with .595-inch round balls, patched in lubricated patches and pushed down over 60 grains of the FFFg powder. With that lineup, the gun goes off with a real “boom” and the 20-gauge round

ball certainly makes the steel targets swing on their chains when a good hit is made. On the trade gun trail, we had 12 targets and I hit eight of them, which tied for second place with Bob DeLisle. Bob’s tiebreaker, again, was better than mine, so I placed third.

The others also threw their ’hawks and knives on that trail, but I passed on that event.

THERE WERE OTHER events, as I’ve already mentioned, and a rundown of

Ayla Hamilton took second place in the Junior shooters division.

the winners should be included here.

Archery was won by Mike Moran, with Ayden Guiberson taking second and Allen Tresch beating me out of third place with his tiebreaker. ’Hawk and knife was won by Dan Moore, who has returned to these doin’s after a long absence, with Allen taking second and Mickey Hamilton placing third. Pistol was won by me, with Allen taking second and Will Ulry in third. Trade gun was won by Allen, with Bob DeLisle in second place and me in third. Percussion rifle was won by me, with Dan taking second and Derek Sotelo in third. Flintlock rifle was won by Allen, with Mickey in second and Bob taking third. Junior shooters (under 16) were Nicholas Schubert in first place, Ayla Hamilton in second and Natalie Schubert in third. The best primitive camp award was taken (again) by Mike.

We also have an aggregate score, which combines the rifle scores with either the archery or the ’hawk and knife scores, and the winners are named Top Mountain Man and Top Mountain Woman. Top Mountain Man went to Mike, while I placed second (about six points behind him) and Dan placed third. Top Mountain Woman was awarded to Leslie Crow, with Marly Sotelo in second and Kerry Sotelo in third.

We also have a separate award, intended to increase the interest in shooting rather than to increase humility, and that is the Lowest Rifle Score award, which was won by Dave Benson.

I mention these placements mainly to compliment those shooters, but to also display the variety of the events. And a couple of events were not even mentioned, such as the two Dutch oven cook-offs, one for a main dish and another for a dessert, and the tomahawk poker throw, where playing cards are the targets. And all shooters, regardless of their score, received a prize for their shooting. The prize I picked was a pound of powder.

There is one more little nonshooting award and that’s the “ugly stick.” This is a “coup stick” that was first awarded several years ago by one or more of the ladies participating in the Rain-de-voo. The shooter who is given the stick as the “ugliest mountain man” keeps the stick for a year, adds a trinket or item to it, and then turns it in to be awarded to someone else the following year. (I must admit that I was the second to be given the ugly stick many years ago.) This year, Booshway Tom Brown asked Ayla to pick the ugliest mountain man and after some serious deliberation, she awarded it to Tom. 