Gentlemen,
Here are the strings from the Feb. Cody shoot-
Turkey head, X-Center, plank rest-
Steve Garbe- 9.453"
George Marcum- 10.823"
Ron Gerondale- 12.335"
Dan Phariss- 13.172"
Wilson Crawford- 26.054"
Bob Jam- 43.508"
Jim Betters (7 shots)- 45.567"
Live Turkey target- 60 yards, plank rest, 5 seconds, on the call-
Marcum-4
Garbe- 3
Phariss- 1
Jam-0
Gerondale-0
Crawford- MF
A nice day; 40 degrees and sunny with lots of mirage. When you want a little wind to knock the mirage off a warm barrel, do you get it? Nope. Shaders had to come off as they would trap the mirage and no target could be seen at all. As it was, even the turkey paper targets looked like they were bobbing...
George Marcum's live turkey machine is threatening to preempt the whole match; it is more fun than...well, you know. The inclination is to shoot too fast...I made that mistake on the fourth round and gave the turkey to George. Everyone who shot it liked it so well that I think we may have to expand on this for the next match. Plain barrel sights are what one wants for this type of shooting...anything fancier is too slow on acquiring the target.
There were also some pretty lame turkey calls...I have heard that the target puller is going to require something other than "gobble-gobble"...time to break out the wing-bone call, I guess. Oh...another thing. If your rifle doesn't go off when the turkey head pops up, too bad; it's a "no score" just like it would be in the field. The new-fangled percussion rifles were especially bothered by this...of course, many catcalls and smart remarks followed any misfire.
For those interested, here is the equipment list-
Garbe- .45 King/Armstrong flintlock, 1-66" Douglas, .446 ball, .015 linen, sperm oil, 70-grains 3Fg Swiss, Null B priming, wiped.
Phariss- .50 Phariss flint swivel breech, 1-70" Green Mountain, .495 ball, ticking patch, tallow, not wiped.
Marcum- .45 Garbe underhammer, 1-60" Goodein, .445 ball, 70 grains 3FG Swiss, ticking, Mink oil, CCI standard caps, wiped.
Crawford- .50 T/C Hawken, .490 Speer, 60 grains Swiss 2FG, ticking, Mink oil, wiped.
Jam- .54 Lyman, 1-48", .530 ball, 70 grains 2FG Goex, ticking, Bore-Butter, CCI caps, wiped.
Gerondale- .54 Lyman, 1-60", .535 ball, 70 grains 1 1/2FG Swiss, ticking, Wonder lube, CCI caps, wiped.
An excellent match, which was re-hashed at the Proud Cut Saloon, the official headquarters of the Heart Mountain Longrifles.
Steve Garbe