BLACK POWDER
Washington state black powder cartridge shooter Allen Cunniff won his club’s buffalo rifle competition with this C. Sharps Arms in .45-70.
CALL IT QUIGLEY LIGHT
A black powder club's buffalo rifle competition includes targets styled after famed Montana match. STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT
A
nother “Buffalo Camp” of the Black River Buffalo Runners has come and gone. This is the event where we compete with black powder cartridges in the 1870s-style buffalo rifles, as well as with smaller lever-actions and revolvers. Our main shooting event is called the Little Quigley Match because it uses targets shaped and patterned after those targets used at the Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match, which is held annually near Forsyth, Montana. While our targets are the same shape as those at the Quigley match, they are not nearly the same size. We use scaled-down targets, and fire at them from much shorter distances. But shooting our black powder cartridge rifles at those reduced-sized targets – from the sitting position while using cross-sticks – still takes care and concentration because the challenge isn’t reduced at all. A quick rundown of the rifles used this year might be of interest. The .45-70 certainly ruled the roost, and those were all Sharps rifles with the
exception of one old Springfield. On the firing line and booming with their own identifying sound were three Sharps .50-70s. Only one .44-77 Sharps was in the competition – which was said to be the loudest rifle in the lineup – and as you might guess, that was mine.
OUR TOP SHOOTER in the Little Quigley
Match this year was Allen Cunniff, who also won the match last year. This time he beat his old score of 17 hits out of 20 by getting 19 hits – a new record for the Little Quigley Match. Allen used his favorite Model 1874 Sharps sporting rifle in .45-70 again, but with different
Mike Moran fires a shot with a 34-inchbarreled Sharps. americanshootingjournal.com 107
