Bang a Gong

It started out this morning outstanding for a shooting day. Luke sent me my SST's and the trial Barnes 290's. I knurled 5 of them and planned on shooting those 5 and 5 smooth.

I got to the range and there was a couple guys shooting centerfires. They told me to go hang my targets as they were taking a break. I stapled two targets at 200yds and went back. We got to shooting the bull, then one of them asked me what I was shooting. When I told him a muzzleloader, they both gave me the "hairy eyeball". I asked them what was up with all the wind, as it was now blowing like crazy. My luck, they told me that it was completely calm until 8:30 then it went south. I walked back to get the gear and I knew they thought I was most likely nuts and probably shouldn't even own a firearm. :lol:

After getting all the gear at a bench, I brought out the Ultimate and I could see that everyone had their eyes on that rifle. I loaded it up and before firing, suggested that they make sure they had their hearing protection on. I sent that fouler. They came over wanting to look over the rifle and ask more questions. They were getting ready for a CF elk hunt in CO. The more we shot the breeze, I decided it wasn't a good day to try grouping with the Barnes.

Then one of the guys asked me, "Hey, do you see that orange gong down there a 300m? Can you hit that gong that far with that muzzleloader?" :wink:

I loaded the rifle back up, turned the turret to 325yds, then sent a round. As the smoke was coming back at me, I couldn't see crap but heard it hit the gong. One of them was watching through his spotting scope and seen it hit. He jumped up, threw his hat on the ground, walked around in circles a couple times and said, "Had I not seen that with my own eyes, I would have never believed it".

15mph sustained 360 degrees to bench, 24mph gusts

I love shooting the Gong at 300 yards with an ML. It is a lot more fun than paper. The Benchrest Boys at my Range just shake their head in disbelief and say you can not shoot an ML that far until they hear the twang.

It was fun, but the fouler and the gong and I gave it up. Just to much wind and gusts to test bullets.

very good shooting. And a fine way to represent the sport.

Nice shooting :applause: Made me chuckle with the hat throwing and circles.

BuckDoeHunter said:

Nice shooting :applause: Me me chuckle with the hat throwing and circles.

Click to expand...

I can't get over that either. The wife reminds me about repeating it :yeah:

Nice shooting. It still surprises me that guys still don't think a muzzleloader can shoot accurately, even when they see it they can't believe it. 8)

But His response was pretty dramatic! :lol:

All those guys up there at that time were great guys. One of the guys has posted here asking for help with his Knight Long Range Hunter just a while back. He may still be having issues, which I told him get back on here. The guys on this site know Knight rifles.
It was fun. One of the guys followed me home, looked over my Pro Hunter and all the equipment/accessories that went with it, then bought it. He DOES know its not an Ultimate :lol:

Awesome, love it! :applause: :applause:

I fully understand. I draw a crowd every time I take mine. People don't understand that weapons like this have taken game out to 500-600 yards. They always talk about the amount of time it takes to load. It takes longer to load a metallic cartridge than a muzzle loader. I look out of the corner of my eye and see them snickering till I show them my target.