BLACK POWDER: NEW RIFLES, NEW LOADS NEW SCORES?

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

To 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,

Pat Dulin “beats” on author Mike Nesbitt’s rifle in the C. Sharps Arms tent.

Montana, while on the way to the Quigley doin’s. That was just what I had planned on doing, so I had an abundance of ammo prepared, including some paper-patched loads with a lot of lube behind the bullets for some “breaking-in” shots.

THE RIFLE IS an 1874 Hartford Model, much like an old buffalo gun. It has a 30-inch barrel with the No. 1¾ Heavy contour; this is the largest barrel that can have the old Sharps Hartford collar just ahead of the action. This rifle is in .50-70 caliber and its only custom features are the color pack hardening on the action and butt plate, plus brass escutcheons. The wood for the stock is simply straight-grained walnut, beautiful but much like the “working guns” of the buffalo harvest. I was pleased and delighted with the rifle from first glance.

That description can’t be complete without also mentioning that it has a custom barrel made by Oregon Barrel Company (thegunworks.com), rifled with a 1-in-32-inch twist rate. That twist rate was selected because this rifle will generally be shot with bullets weighing less than 500 grains, and this twist rate should be right at home with the standard 450-grain bullets.

When I first saw the rifle, it was actually all ready to go. But it had a Globe front sight on the barrel and I asked for that to be changed to another

Nesbitt’s new .50-70 Hartford by C. Sharps Arms, acquired on the drive to the Quigley shoot. Upon arrival, it was discovered that a tiny burr needed to be cut off the front sight to fit a sight aperture.

The author takes an offhand shot at the bucket early in the morning.

Globe front sight with the spirit level. Those spirit levels earn their keep for mid- and long-range shooting because if the rifle is canted to the right or left, the shot will go to the right or left. So Pat Dulin at C. Sharps Arms (csharpsarms.com) quickly changed the front sight for me and with that, I was ready to go. The rear sight on this rifle is a Deluxe Mid-Range tang sight mounted on the rifle’s wrist; there is no rear sight on the barrel.

Even as we left the shop, I had the feeling that I should have fitted an aperture to the front sight. Doing so would simply be a final check to make sure everything was ready to go. Later, when I did try to fit an aperture to the front sight, it wouldn’t fit. Something very tiny was preventing the thin aperture from entering the tube of the Globe sight completely. Thank goodness for cell phones because a call was made to Pat back at the shop, asking him to bring another front sight when he came to the big camp at Quigley. Pat replied simply with “Yup.”

But Pat wouldn’t be getting to the camp for another two days and my new .50-70 needed to be sighted in. No real problem there; I just used the Globe front sight as a super large aperture and went to the firing line for those first shots. Not too bad either. The targets were easily placed in the middle of that big circle for a front sight and that was all I needed while doing the shooting necessary to get the elevation settings for the rear sight.

Those first shots were also for breaking in the new barrel and I was using paper-patched loads with 425-grain bullets. For the actual match I used 450-grain grease-groove bullets and I was surprised to find that the heavier bullets, shot with the same 65 grains of Olde Eynsford 2F powder, needed an additional 10 minutes of elevation.

WHEN PAT GOT to camp, he took my rifle and quickly used a very small saw to cut away the tiny burr that prevented the sight apertures from completely entering. In fact, he did it so fast that I asked him to pretend he was working on it so I could get a picture. That’s when he picked up the hammer and acted like he was beating the daylights out of my new rifle. Yes, that makes an

A Rosebud County fire crew puts out a grass fire that started on the shooting line.

interesting picture but it was all an act. And the quick fix was very good. C. Sharps Arms has a repair bench in their tent at Quigley just for those jobs and it’s often busy.

During more practice, there was a fire on the firing line. The dry grass took off in a hurry but the Rosebud County fire crew was ready for it, and the blaze was extinguished very professionally. No one knows the exact cause of the fire but I heard a rumor that a shooter was using smokeless powder loads with toilet paper wadded under the bullets to act as filler. If that is true, that would do it.

ALLEN CUNNIFF WAS using paperpatched loads in his .45-70 and competing with them at Quigley for his first time. With no lube in the loads, he was wiping his bore between shots and doing very well. The shooting at Quigley is done in squads of six and you need to be ready when the scorekeeper calls your name. That’s when it’s your turn to shoot. Allen was somewhat afraid that he’d be too slow while basically cleaning his rifle between shots. But that was no problem, and he was getting good hits.

My own shooting during the match pleased me rather well. Our group started with the offhand shot at the 350-yard bucket on Saturday morning. That was when the winds were the most relaxed and I also got my first hit for score with the new rifle ... but it was only one hit. Then we moved to the 805-yard buffalo and the winds grew to serious speeds. My .50-70’s midrange tang sight was just about maxed out to reach that distance and I needed Kentucky windage to find the target. The tang sight is adjustable for windage, but that wasn’t enough. So Kentucky windage was used on the following targets too. Not too bad, all in all, and I got 22 hits for the match, which was one hit more than I got in

The Quigley crowd waits for awards under darkening skies.

Dave Gullo of Buffalo Arms was the top shooter at Quigley with 40 hits. 2019 while using my .44-77.

The winner of the match was Dave Gullo, the friendly owner of Buffalo Arms Company, with 40 hits for his 48 shots for score. Dave is simply a great shooter and this is the second time he’s won the top honors at Quigley, winning the first time in 2017. In addition to that, he’s been in the top 10 at Quigley several times. Dave is more than a great shooter because he shares his knowledge and techniques with all who want to give this fine black powder sport a good try.

So the hot shooting at this year’s hot-weather Quigley match is over. For more info about this year’s match, plus scores and pictures from previous years, go to quigleymatch. com. The Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match is one of the most wellattended black powder cartridge shoots you can find. I figure to be there again next year, but maybe not while using another new rifle. 