Turkey Match Rules As Practiced At Cody

[SPG]

Gentlemen,

I apologize for not answering questions directed to me on this topic but I've been a bit of a hard mark to hit lately. To provide some clarity I thought posting the Cody rules on turkey matches may be useful.

Turkey Match Rules-

Any muzzleloading rifle, flint or percussion, any caliber, any weight, loaded with straight black powder and a cloth-patched lead round ball. No false muzzled rifles.

Any pre-1860 iron sight or faithful reproductions of pre-1860 styles or patents, shaders allowed.

Target is the black "turkey-head" with "X" centered in the turkey's head. No special sighting or windage targets allowed, all shooters use the same style of target. Shots are scored, string-measure, from the center of the bullet hole to the X center on the turkey's head. Misses are given a measurement from the X-center to the farthest edge or corner of the target. Ten one-shot matches to be fired with the aggregate string comprised of the aggregate total of the ten matches. A shooter may enter any number of matches, up to ten, with only one shot per match.

Loading to be done from the pouch. Bench boards to support the rifle during loading and cleaning are allowed. Charges to be thrown from a horn or flask. No pre-weighed charges, mechanical powder measures, tackle boxes, etc. This is a traditional match; if your loading equipment can't be carried in a typical shooting pouch, leave it home. 

Distance is 60 yards for rest shooting, 40 yards for offhand shooting. Shots fired either offhand or rest will be scored equally in both individual matches and aggregate strings. A shooter may fire any combination of offhand and rest shots to make up his ten-shot string.

Rest to consist of sawhorse-style front support with inclined plank. Plank may be "V"notched for rifle muzzle with one layer of cloth or leather allowed for padding. Shooter must fire from the kneeling position with both legs free of the plank.  No shooting coats, supportive devices or clothing allowed for offhand shooting.

One streamer/flag-style wind flag allowed. All shooters must be able use the same wind flag. No electronic or mechanical wind reading devices allowed.

A Shooters Jury comprised of three knowledgeable competitors, selected by the match sponsors/directors will rule on any equipment or procedure not clearly described in these rules. Documentation of pre-1860 equipment or procedures will be the responsibility of the shooter. The decisions rendered by the Shooters Jury will be final and binding for the match in question.

These competitions are meant to be a traditional-style, muzzle loading, round ball rifle match typical of the pre-1860 period. Extreme or radical interpretations of these simple, common-sense rules will not be tolerated by the Shooter's Jury. 

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This is the way we have been shooting the matches at Cody and they have worked very well for us. I would welcome some positive discussion on them, but be advised that we have kept the rules simple for a reason. I don't want to have to craft a 100-page document covering every imaginable scenario, hence the "pre-1860 rule" and the inclusion of a Shooter's Jury. The pre-1860 rule makes folks who want to "push the envelope" provide documentation for their equipment. The good thing about that is we all learn from their efforts as to what was actually available to serious shooters prior to 1860.

I hope that I have remembered everything in this post but I'm in a caffeine-deprived state at the moment and anything is possible. I'm hoping Dan Phariss will double-check me on the rules.

Steve

[Daryl]

TKS Steve - that's very good - exactly what's needed.

I guess we'd be wise to adopt similar rules.  On the negative end of it, we will not be able to have 10 individual shot matches due to the number of shooters and only having 3 hours to run the match. We'll continue to fire 5 shots at each of 2 targets, just as we did for chunk. Since the plank should be slightly less accurate than a good prone position with chunk, I do not expect any scoring problems with having 5 shots on each target.  If we do, we'll revise our system.

[smylee grouch]

Very well said Steve and very common sense type rules that should be easy to understand and comply with.  Smylee

[SPG]

Daryl,

Firing five shots at one target will work if there aren't any "Spider Killers" in your bunch but I'd not want to try that here. Three would be the maximum and we have done two shots on one target when we got caught short of targets. Scoring one big hole hogged out by five shots would be tough.

The kneeling position is much less steady than prone. I'd say the difficulty level is midway between offhand and prone. You are sort of balanced on the plank and dropped shots from poor follow-through are very possible.

There was some discussion on stock designs for this match. After getting the D. King "Reading" flinter with the excessive drop and Roman nose I was enlightened as to why this stock design was popular with some riflemen. I could really get my elbows down on the plank while resting my rifle far out on the forearm. The crescent rifle buttplate made sure I was shouldering the rifle the same for each shot. As with a lot of things that were done we don't understand, one merely needs to use the same tool to do the same job and all becomes clear...

Steve

[Daryl]

Good explanation, Steve. I got a similar message from Dan, along with targets - wondeful shooting it was, too.
About the only shooting we need to worry about is the Kneelson character (from here), the Hunter clan, also from here and Taylor if he can find a rifle that doesn't smack him too hard in the cheek.  The more uprigth postion will help and I see his Kuntz working well for this.  I could always let him use "The Gentle Lady".

[Roger Fisher]

Good explanation, Steve. I got a similar message from Dan, along with targets - wondeful shooting it was, too.
About the only shooting we need to worry about is the Kneelson character (from here), the Hunter clan, also from here and Taylor if he can find a rifle that doesn't smack him too hard in the cheek.  The more uprigth postion will help and I see his Kuntz working well for this.  I could always let him use "The Gentle Lady".

Well now Daryl with your time restraints at Heffley Rondy consider say 3 of those turkeys on one paper then shoot 3 shots per relay should speed it up over 1 shot per relay and no worry about 3 shots in one hole...

BTW - Powers that be at Langhorne R & G near Phila are putting in such a plank match as a trail match next month.   May do so at our club; but must cut more brush for space to do it....

[Daryl]

If I could talk him into using the "Gentle Lady" (my .69) there wouldn't be 5 shots to measure, anyway.

[SPG]

Daryl,

There is no requirement to shot a ten-shot match...the aggregate can be any number of shots you choose. Of course, when comparing results, one has to compare apples to apples. A ten-shot aggregate does generally let the most consistent shooter rise to the top.

Note the use of one wind flag. We had some debate about this as many felt that this match was to replicate hunting situations. However, allowing the use of one flag does let the smaller calibers compete with the heavier ones. We were afraid that, not having any wind flags at all, the armament would gradually become 20-lb. .62's in order to negate much of the wind effect. I have shot the match with a .32 and won my fair share of turkeys if I paid attention to the flag. I think that a smaller caliber would be best suited to shooting at 40 yards offhand.

There are, of course, a few tricks to this match. However, much like poker, one has to pay to learn.

Steve

[Daryl]

I can see the wind effect - and  single flag in the middle of the shooting field or at the butt would suffice. We pretty much have to have at least a 10 shot match or it won't happen. Not enough time allowed to hold 10, 1 shot matches - that would be fun, a prize for each target shot. We have the potential to have 50 to 75 shooters show up for this event.