BLACK POWDER
Allen Cunniff tries his rolling block while sighting in at this year’s Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match, a competition inspired by the Tom Selleck movie character and held annually in southeast Montana.
NEW RIFLES, NEW LOADS, NEW SCORES? Two black powder cartridge shooters hope to change their luck at famed Quigley match. STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT
T
o say things were hot at Quigley is putting it somewhat mildly. It was 115 degrees in the shade on a Tuesday afternoon when my shooting partner Allen Cunniff and I pulled into the camp, and the only shade available was what little you could bring with you. But that’s Quigley and we were eager to try both new rifles and new loads, perhaps
with “new” scores. We were lucky, at least, that Tuesday was the hottest day of the week. As we took our shots later in the week, the temperature had cooled to maybe 95. The Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match, held in Forsyth, Montana, is internationally famous, although this year travel restrictions from several countries kept our international shooters away. Even so, there were almost 600 registered shooters (553 actually shot), so during the
competition the firing line was full at all times. Even in the heat, which was greatly fought off with generous gulps of iced lemonade, being back at Quigley to hear the boom of the big .50s mixed with the sharper cracks of the smaller bores made the trip well worth the travel. For me, it was like a new beginning because I was using a new rifle that I hadn’t even fired before. In fact, I picked this rifle up from C. Sharps Arms Company in Big Timber, americanshootingjournal.com 35
