One of our sorta-guild's Iowegian members put on a shoot a few weeks ago at his farm in NW Iowa. I figured I'd get a report up because he is apparently too lazy to do so himself, and because he sent me copies of everyone's registration. Long-gun only (I would have said "rifle-only" but one optimist shot a smoothbore). Match and prizes were "Western rules" after the old matches at Western, NE: roundball, load from the pouch, shoot offhand; prizes were powder for 1st place, caps or flints for 2nd place, lead for 3rd place; cross-stick side match was a blanket shoot.
Targets were NMLRA "nightmare" at 25 yards, 6-bull at 50 yards, and standard single bull 100-yard target at 100 yards; match was divided into percussion and flint aggregates. There were 47 registered shooters shooting the main matches. Twenty-five shooters shot the percussion aggregate, 31 shot the flintlock aggregate. Best targets were a 50 0-x on the nightmare (flint .40 caliber custom), 49 3-x on the 6-bull (58 caplock Enfield), 48 3-x on the 100yd single-bull (.50 cal caplock)
About half (25) shot the cross-stick side match: one guy shot an arrow downrange, target (12" gong) was positioned there. One "practice" shot each, then each shooter fired in rotation: miss and you're out. Four shooters (including myself) shot both flint and percussion in this match. Range was later lasered at 236-238 yards. Winner had 8 consecutive hits, counting the practice shot (original flint .51-ish).
Shooter demographics: age range 13-79, median age was 37 (but-but-but I keep hearing younger people have no interest?). Five were members of the NMLRA, no CLA members, 12 were members of the Iowa Black Powder Federation, 3 were members of the United Nebraska Muzzle Loaders Association, 2 were members of the Colorado State Muzzle Loading Association. Only 14 were members of local ML clubs, which surprised me but I'm not sure why. Shooters were there from IA, NE, MO, CO, IL, and SD.
I didn't count, but my impression was that the rifles were a roughly-even mix of factory/kit and custom, with a few originals thrown in for flavor. Only 3 rifles were <.45 cal, and one >.58 cal (plus the optimist with a 16 gauge fowling piece). Several shooters shot both flint and percussion aggregates. (I shot the percussion aggregate, and ran/shot in the side match using both flint and percussion rifles.)
Good fun, good to see folks, good prizes for the winners. I'm trying to convince the host to make it an annual event.
