BLACK POWDER: ADD ‘SPICE’ TO YOUR SHOOTING MATCHES

BLACK POWDER

This buffalo gong was added to an “after-aggregate” match to keep a black powder cartridge competition spicy.

ADD 'SPICE' TO BLACK POWDER MATCHES

How one club keeps their shooting competitions interesting 'is just as easy as it is rewarding.'

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT

Adding spice to black powder cartridge shooting by incorporating a little bit of variety is very easy to do. And, of course, doing so gives our black powder cartridge matches a whole new flavor and gives our shooters something new to look forward to.

Please follow along while I tell you about some of the things our club, the Capitol City Rifle & Pistol Club near Olympia, Washington, has done lately to spice it up.

FIRST OF ALL, we hold our Old West Centerfire matches six times per year. These are short-range matches with bull’s-eye paper targets posted at 100 and 200 yards. The standard course of fire includes 10 shots at each target, generally fired from the sitting position while using crosssticks to support our rifles. The rifles/ cartridges we typically use are guns or copies of the rifles of the Old West, primarily the single-shot buffalo guns. Now and then a repeater might show up on the firing line, perhaps because that’s all the shooter has, and I’ve competed a couple of times with a .44-40 rifle. The real favorites, however, are the .45-70-, .45-90- and .50-70-caliber rifles. We do require cast lead bullets in loads using black powder in those cartridges.

The 20 shots fired on the two targets become the aggregate for the day and our awards are based on the aggregate scores. Those scores are added up over the year and at the end of the year, we also award prizes to all shooters in order of their total

Participants can use different rifles to try and hit targets during bonus-point rounds. Author Mike Nesbitt says .44-40 lever-actions have “added to the fun.”

The club’s after-aggregate matches also include Old West-style revolvers firing black powder cartridges – here’s a target shot with .44 Russian loads – and that’s proven to be “an oft-requested part” of their events.

aggregate scores.

Shooting those 20 shots is generally pretty quick, and we wanted something to add more time, more shooting and more fun. So we added some spice: an “after-aggregate match” for 10 more shots. We placed a buffalo gong at 200 yards for shooters to fire at while sitting behind the cross-sticks, and a bucket gong at 100 yards to be fired at from the offhand position. We took five shots at each gong, scored only as hits and misses. Those two targets were made to correspond with the similar targets at the Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match and they are reduced in size to make them challenging at our closer distances. And those targets are challenging; at the moment I can’t recall if any of our shooters have ever made hits with all 10 shots.

The way we award this afteraggregate match is simple. Those shooters who want to participate simply throw a dollar into the pot and it’s winner-take-all.

OUR AFTER-AGGREGATE MATCHES went on like that for a couple of years before we considered making any changes. The first changes made were simply to use other gongs, differing in size and shape, particularly at 200 yards. An octagon-shaped gong was added, which corresponds with the 600-yard target at Quigley, and later a diamondshaped gong was added. Those are used one at a time, and the five offhand shots at the bucket still remain.

A little later we began using different rifles to hit those varying targets. We used our “camp guns,” usually .44-40 lever-actions with black powder loads, and for this match we brought the octagon gong up to 100 yards and set the bucket closer too, bringing it up to just 50 yards. Five shots at the octagon were taken from the sitting position while using crosssticks, just like when shooting at the paper targets for the aggregate, and the bucket was still shot at from the offhand position. Using the different rifles made a big and welcome change to our routine and, once again, no one shot a perfect score.

We could vary the targets again for use with the camp guns, and most likely we will. All it takes is for one of the shooters to come up with a different idea for shooting. The only requirement, other than safety of course, is that it be fun.

Lately we’ve added another twist to our after-aggregate matches: we tried a couple of these 10-shot matches with Old West-style revolvers using black powder loads. That was a real blast! Shooting the various .44s and the big .45 Colt with black powder loads is an experience that is not quickly forgotten, and yet it is inviting enough to call you back to the firing line for more. Now our after-aggregate match with the revolvers is an oft-requested part of our black powder cartridge shooting events.

WE’VE ALSO ADDED some spice just for flavor in our 100- and 200-yard matches with paper targets, shot for score. One added, or extra, match per year is our .50-70 match. That’s where

Last year’s .50-70 shooters with top scorer Jerry Mayo standing at right.

the rifles in .50-70 caliber and their shooters get a priority. In other words, shooters with other caliber rifles are invited to participate, but all of those other calibers are secondary to the .50-70s.

Last year our .50-70 match was somewhat outstanding. Jerry Mayo won that match while shooting a rolling block rifle he borrowed from me. We shared that rifle and I placed third while using the same gun. Second place was taken by Jeff Ritter, who borrowed his rifle, another rolling block in .50-70, from his father. The elder Ritter placed fourth with that shared rifle. So the first four places were taken by just two rifles, both Remington rolling blocks rebuilt to .50-70 caliber.

While Jerry and I were using the same rifle, we were not using the same kind of ammunition. Jerry shot ammo I had prepared with the standard-style grease-groove bullets weighing about 450 grains, while I shot ammo with paper-patched bullets weighing 425 grains. He outshot me by 8 points, but I don’t think I can blame the ammunition for that; Jerry simply outshot me and he did it with my rifle.

Perhaps winning that match spurred Jerry into making a good move. He now has his own heavy Remington rolling block rifle in .5070 caliber, barreled and fitted by C. Sharps Arms, and he is certainly going to use it in the next .50-70 match. Meanwhile, I’ll be using a Sharps rifle

Mayo’s new .50-70 rolling block rifle has a 30-inch heavy barrel.

Another side match involves paperpatched loads, though shooters using grease-grooved bullets can also participate. These loads are in .50-70.

chambered for the .50-70 in that match and we’ll see if either one of us can do better than last year.

ANOTHER SPECIAL MATCH we have each year is our Paper Patch match. Like with the .50-70 match, shooters using grease-groove bullets are invited to participate but their scores will be secondary to shooters who are using loads with paper-patched bullets. The idea behind this match is to increase the use of paper-patched bullets, mainly for authenticity because back in the 1870s most of the calibers that we’re shooting today in our singleshot buffalo rifles were loaded with paper-patched slugs. So we use this match as a way of getting a little more enjoyment out of history.

For our upcoming Paper Patch match, I intend to use my favorite Sharps in .44-77 caliber and I’m getting some practice with that rifle now. We’ll have to see if my practice targets suggest that I keep going with the .44-77 or if I should try another caliber, perhaps the .50-70.

Variety, they say, is the spice of life and adding some spice to black powder cartridge shooting is just as easy as it is rewarding. After all, it gives us something new to do, which keeps our interest on a high plane and gives us more to look forward to at the same time. Just because black powder cartridge shooting is “old fashioned” doesn’t mean it can’t be inviting and exciting. 

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