First 100 yard Flintlock report

[exMember]

Well now, that was fun! I got all dressed up in my gear as its how I will be hunting, with the exception of blaze orange thrown in to be legal... Even though bowhunters run around with us without the orange on

Don't worry fellers, this was just a prop picture, I put on my shooting glasses before I primed and took a shot.

I am shooting my Traditions .50cal 1:48 twist, Mountain Rifle with a French Amber flint wrapped in leather, 70gr Goex 3fg, .020" Bridgers Best patches lubed in Frontier's Anti-Rust and Patch Lube, home cast .490" round balls.

No swabbing was done during the shoot.

The 3 shots are the first 3 shots of the evening. After that, I didn't bother taking pictures as I was playing with pan charges, figuring out if there was another sweet spot or if I had found it already. She loves a heavy dose my 4fg Goex priming powder! 2 1/2 - 3 compression's worth.

Dead center, but quite a bit low. I'll make adjustments later on as I plan to change out the rear sight down the road for  a semi buckhorn sight.

Notice my short starter? I picked that up at Rendezvous and during the Mountain Man Survival trail, that's where it was at all times. Tucked in snug between my belt buckle loop so it was easy to get to, yet secure.

 

[BigCountry1]

Traditions rifles are accurate for sure. They have a excellent prize point as well

 

[exMember]

Shes on! I took it out to the Whittington center with my brother in law to sight in his muzzleloader. Did some shooting and pulled off another 1 1/2" group at 100 yards! I adjusted the sight, to high! adjusted again and dead center! Left her there until the season starts.

Even got to introduce a fellow to the flintlock. He was blown away with how fun it was. I made sure to give him a card in case he wants to stop here and needs some help should he decide to give it a try.

 

[Buck Conner1]

looks good :Red tup:

 

[BrownBear]

Wow.  Young eyes!  It's one thing to have a rifle capable of such fine shooting, but another to have the eyes to make it happen.

 

[Buck Conner1]

Wow.  Young eyes!  It's one thing to have a rifle capable of such fine shooting, but another to have the eyes to make it happen.

 If folks would be honest, the truth is most guns will shoot better than the holder.  :affraid:  :shock:  :hats off:

 

[Sharpsman]

If you close your non-aiming eye you lose up to 30% of vision acuity in the aiming eye!

 

[BrownBear]

Wow.  Young eyes!  It's one thing to have a rifle capable of such fine shooting, but another to have the eyes to make it happen.

 If folks would be honest, the truth is most guns will shoot better than the holder.  :affraid:  :shock:  :hats off:

Oh yeah. It's an education to let a talented shooter with young eyes shoot your gun, especially at distance.  You can bet your bottom dollar that they'll cut your group size in half!

Did that with our son-in-law. I had picked him up a NIB TC Big Boar, and since he lives far away and wasn't due to arrive for months, I did a small bit of load development for him, enough to be getting 3" groups at 75 yards. When he arrived I told him more development was needed because I was only getting "fair" accuracy.  That smartallecky young so-and-so sat own at the bench and smoked off 5 shots at 100 yards.  Group was just under 2", all touching for an irregular ragged hole.  "What's wrong with the load?" he asked. :ss:

 

[patocazador]

My son-in-law works in law enforcement and he has trouble hitting a pie plate at 10 yards with a S&W revolver. All the crooks he messes with must get away clean.  :Questuon:

 

[Buck Conner1]

My son-in-law works in law enforcement and he has trouble hitting a pie plate at 10 yards with a S&W revolver. All the crooks he messes with must get away clean.  :Questuon:

I know at least 25 active law enforcement officers and half of them can't keep 5 shots on a 25 yard pistol target at 10 yards, no wonder they shoot up the place when there's problems.

 

[BrownBear]

Long ago (back in revolver days, it was so long ago!) our police chief approached me to put together a team of 4 to shoot a modified PPC course against his officers.  In his eyes his officers' guns and badges had become too heavy for the town's good.  Chief knew I had shot PPC for several years before moving up here and was in a good spot (along with owning the first progressive reloader on the island!) to pick and train three other guys. And he wanted his officers really, really humbled by lowly civilians.

Fateful day came and we had our match.  Boy, did we humble them. Still remember our scores.  It was a 600 point course with 2400 points possible for a team. We scored 2391, with none of us shooting a "possible" but all coming darned close.  The PD's team scored 1503.  The chief was so happy, he did a press release about the match and posted the scores!  :ss:

 

[Buck Conner1]

We use to hold combat matches at our place (somebody brought a couch, another an old ref. with door removed, other objects for the coarse to be run over. Cops from Denver to Cheyenne showed up, good shooters to the dispatchers and all in between. Even got a roach coach to show up for breaks and lunch, all the tubbies spent more time there than shooting. Probably in the range of 40 shooters with a coarse of 5 feet to 500 yards (large gongs).

For a fun shoot I borrowed two recorders (tapes) and I had one, taped "Butch & Sun Dance" the part where they are mine guards. Also did "Stars Wars" an action part. Two man teams each with head phones and a score keeper (each team starts at the same time). I had made card board banditos life size - armed that targets were stapled to. When the timer say go you hear the banditos asking what your doing (you have probably seen the movie a dozen times so you know what's going to happen). That really puts your mind in high gear and your ready for a fast draw. With the first shot heard all hell breaks loose, you and you bud are having four bad guys that need to be hit two times (double tapped). In you mind's eye and what your hearing is really exciting, almost real. We figured it would take two hours with the number of shooters and scoring for this one match. We called it "Butch & Sun Dance In Trouble".

Started the day out with drawing straws for teams to be used on several events, that way we didn't have one team (hand picked) win everything. Had pounded the bushes and had some nice prizes from local dealers, Denver newspaper was there, even a Denver TV reporter with cameraman.

We ran three matches for the warm up with the Banditos and Star Wars guys hiding in the horse trailer face down until it was their turn to appear, along with other targets.

I started looking around at the bellies on some of these winded cops (had to walk up a hill side to our muzzleloading/blackpowder cartridge range 300 yards. Some of these guys hadn't walked the side of a mountain since grade school (we had them sweating before they loaded their guns).

You now have an idea of what this looks like, uneven ground, hilly with buck brush not the flat concrete these guys are use to. 

<a href='/tags/1st' rel='nofollow' title='See all tagged subjects with: #1st'>#1st</a>  match was an easy one person 10 yard 5 shots usual scoring.

<a href='/tags/2nd' rel='nofollow' title='See all tagged subjects with: #2nd'>#2nd</a> match rifle, hand gun - 2 gun match 15 yards, 50 yards team match (one shoots the hand gun the other the rifle).

<a href='/tags/3rd' rel='nofollow' title='See all tagged subjects with: #3rd'>#3rd</a> match is a one person "clearing house" match with the above mentioned house items to move around with one position of jumping over the couch. This was a hard one for the boys in blue that had that extra tasty cake that morning (some couldn't jump so they rolled over). A dozen targets "double tap" each one meaning reloading. 

Now we open the horse trailer and out come our Banditos armed and ready (mean looking bastards) all the shooters and the cameraman are having fun now. What the heck is this all about. We explain the rules then announce its a "Butch & Sun Dance Match" - two man teams, headphones (provided with the foam ear protection) - flip a coin for our first team steps up. Scorer has his head gear on and gives the OK. Once under way everyone including the food vendor are on their feet (they can't think of anything possible what the shooters are hearing that got the shooting started). :affraid:    :shock:  :cyclops:

We had everyone including the two reporters, the vendor and cameraman shoot the event. We had one hell of a match that was to last 2 hours go for 6 hours with all the repeats (finally ran out of ammo).

Never did get to the Star Wars guys or two other matches planned done.
After the event was shown on the TV news (a filler) on Sunday night and seen in the Monday morning newspapers (on front page) we were a success. Even had a Division Highway Patrol Captain call me wanting to know why they weren't invited.    :king:

 

[Gramps]

Very nice indeed and attribute that to the rifle and the shooter.

Great job!

That will fill the freezer.

 

[Gramps]

My son-in-law works in law enforcement and he has trouble hitting a pie plate at 10 yards with a S&W revolver. All the crooks he messes with must get away clean.  :Questuon:

I know at least 25 active law enforcement officers and half of them can't keep 5 shots on a 25 yard pistol target at 10 yards, no wonder they shoot up the place when there's problems.

I served 22.5 years before getting 100% disabled with 4th
broken back all in the SAME PLACE.

9 months in rehab and I walk fine.

I served 10 years as a detective then took over a shift then
became firearms instructor.

COPS CAN'T SHOOT FOR CHIT!

Well, many of 'em can't.
Most are not gun folks. The gun is just part of the uniform
to them and qualification once or twice a year is a p.i.t.a
for them.

They HATE cleaning a weapon and HATE shotgun qualifications.

Recoil don't cha' know.

Some are fine marksmen and compete in handgun
matches.

I did well at that and loved it.

I had a Smith 45-06 and at 125 yards from prone could
keep all 8 rounds in the K-5.

But I practiced a lot and took part in competition with a
very tuned and tricked out Smith M-10 that wasn't much
M-10 any longer.

Douglas barrel, Bo-Mar rib, and highly professionally
tuned.
The single action was taken out and d.a. only, smooth
as grease on ice.
Back then I'd burn at least 1,000 rounds a month.

The Federal and State cops were very good.

They should be as they got the best guns and unlimited
ammo for free and many were paid for range time.

Massad Ayoob was very, very, good and taught at the
Academy I attended.

I beat him just once.

We are buds and talk on the phone from time to time.

He makes a living writing for Peterson Publishing.

Fine man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massad_Ayoob

 

[Buck Conner1]

Too damn many donuts shops anymore, remember when you had to drive several miles even if living in town to get to one. Some 7-11's even give the police free coffee and donuts (is that why we see so many heavy officers anymore) ??? :?:   :!:   :affraid:

 

[Buck Conner1]

Massad Ayoob was very, very, good and taught at the Academy I attended. He makes a living writing for Peterson Publishing.

I know a half a dozen current writers providing articles to different shooting and hunting magazines. Several of them I know have told us "you can tell by the tone of the article if the writer got the firearm when the article was published or was asked to return the gun". So much for believing what you have read, in some cases not worth its salt.

 

[patocazador]

" So much for believing what you have read, in some cases not worth its salt."


I won a deer hunt at Westervelt Lodge in Alabama years ago. A gun/hunting writer named Buck something or other from Field & Stream was there. He wounded a "monster deer" well after dark. They found it the next day. It was a button buck. 
He wrote up the story and about 6 mos. later it was published. The "monster button buck" had turned into a 9-pt. that was the biggest buck killed that weekend. This writer had his photo taken with it and claimed it was the one he shot.

 

[Kentucky Colonel]

" So much for believing what you have read, in some cases not worth its salt."


I won a deer hunt at Westervelt Lodge in Alabama years ago. A gun/hunting writer named Buck something or other from Field & Stream was there. He wounded a "monster deer" well after dark. They found it the next day. It was a button buck. 
He wrote up the story and about 6 mos. later it was published. The "monster button buck" had turned into a 9-pt. that was the biggest buck killed that weekend. This writer had his photo taken with it and claimed it was the one he shot.

Wow. That is blatant.

 

[Buck Conner1]

I have camped with, been in several movies with and have shot with one writer that wrote the "Black Powder" section for Guns & Ammo for years. He told us at one camp if he received a weapon from a
company for review and was told he could keep the firearm they automatically got a wonderful review no matter what he really thought. If the company asked for the firearm to be returned after his review there's a chance they received a questionable review.  After hearing what was said I asked another guy I knew that wrote off and on about his reviews and his thoughts on what we had been told earlier. He shook his head and replied "No Comment" - these guys protect each other...... :x

 

[BrownBear]

Reminds me of a span of years when I received big boxes of Patagonia gear to use and evaluate. Those folks played it entirely straight, one of many reasons I'm brand loyal to them:

They wanted all the gear back at the end of a year. All of it! Several times I found something I really really liked and used a lot, then wanted to reimburse them full price and keep the item. No dice. Their point was that they needed it for their engineers to evaluate after hard use, so the stuff I wanted most was the stuff they most wanted back. I was welcome to go out and buy my own replacements (no discount), but not directly from them. They were also loyal to their vendors and wanted the sales to land there, rather than having the factory undercut them.  Talk about high ethical standards in a manufacturer! 

Columbia Sportswear played by the same rules. Another that gets my brand loyalty.

I can't think of a single manufacturer in the shooting world who plays by those rules. Keep a gun for a year and punish it, then send it back for the engineers to evaluate? Ha! :slaps: