Split the ball on the axe blade

[Daryl]

I read somewhere that duels at rendezvous were usually fatal to both - Kit Carsen's was an anomoly, where he was shot in the arm only.  Many Rendezvous duels were with shotguns or rifles - apparently.

[blunderbuss]

Some of the duels in this book were crazy two guys dueled with blunderbusses in hot air balloons One of the guys missed (how'd he do that???) the other one shot the balloon caused it to crash and kill the guy.
Several were with shotguns one was shotguns at 4 paces
I'm currently working on two saw handled duelers .50 cal 1" across the flats. 9" barrels checkered horn noise cap

[Collector]

blunderbuss,  Can't wait to see your saw-handled duelers.  My first introduction to BP pistol shooting was with a hand-built/contemporary saw-handled percussion dueler, back in the mid-50's.  Photos please!

[blunderbuss]

I can send them to you via email or perhaps you can see my facebook page under "stuff I made that shoots"
see facebook Dennis Heckathorne the duelers are in there as is wheelocks and Jagers blunderbusses ect There is a picture of a blunderbuss that I made which is currently on the USS Texas I think it's posted on the ALF under 4 gauge blunderbuss posted by Mark (cause at this point I don't know how to get a picture from here to there)

[blunderbuss]

blunderbuss,  Can't wait to see your saw-handled duelers.  My first introduction to BP pistol shooting was with a hand-built/contemporary saw-handled percussion dueler, back in the mid-50's.  Photos please!

I tried to email them they came back is that your correct adderss?

[Collector]

blunderbuss,  My apologies.  Due to my ongoing 'celebrity' divorce, I hadn't updated my personal profile, a matter that I have just rectified, so please retry.  If you'd like, I could post them here for you.  Posting on the web versus via email can be daunting, but I'll walk you through it via email.  You'll be a pro, in short order.

[blunderbuss]

Doug, it's not necessarily true that you would both be dead. The clays aren't shooting back at you. That can fluster a fella !   From what I've read, some survived more than a couple of duels.

In a mock duell how long do you have to shoot at the target? I think in real duels they had about 4 seconds as I read it.

[David R. Watson]

I was just looking around and saw the dueling postings.
When the US ML Team first started there was a mad dash to find original firearms that were accurate enough to compete in the World Championships.
It was amazing how many cased duellers were purposely made to shoot "off" to the point that if you did not know it point of impact you would miss the entire silhouette. I saw a cased Manton that you had to aim at the bottom right of the FRAME in order to hit center. I also saw a Mortimer (?) that had rifeling for about 2 inches at the breech. apparently rifling was against the rules at the time - so much for "honor" - just about surviving.
An interesting book is called "The Duel" - it was made into a movie that had limited success.

[alyce-james]

At past club shoots (1970's) we designed a specialized pie shoot. For an apple pie baked by my wife. The pie match was a 1/2 inch steel plate with a 1 inch hole drilled towards the top of the plate. A rectangle plate about 4 feet tall maybe 10 inches was welded to a channel iron frame. Behind a inch hole was welded a special bracket to hold a orange or yellow clay bird. First strike won the pie, second a 90 cent bottle of wine and third maybe 9 Plus solvent. My oldest girl child used a 36 caliber, 20 inch barrel-- Hopkins & Allen--W. Hurley N.Y.--under striker--1970's vintage. Pie shooting gun and a half. Turkeyfooter. 

[alyce-james]

A second moving target we designed was a small engine mounted to a steel channel frame welded together behind a 1/2 steel plate about 4 feet tall. On the back side we installed a pulley system towards the top of the plate from the engine mounted on the ground. Attached three (3) arms each holding a clay bird. When in motion powered by the engine the birds would move behind the plate and out again. A timed match you must score a hit on all three (3) birds from the shooting pouch to win. Different prizes over the years. Most these shoots were connected to a meat shoot for the holidays. Turkey, Ham, sausage and so on. My 40 caliber seemed to like this match. Turkeyfooter.   

[Ky-Flinter]

A few years back at the club rendezvous we had a "stake" shoot.  3 man teams, combined rifle caliber max 1.50", shooting at 2x2 wood stakes driven in the ground at 25 yards.  First team to cut their stake in two wins.....  what else, 3 t-bone steaks!

We also had a life-size squirrel cut out of steel plate, rigged to "run" down a steel cable stretched between two trees.  Had a pulley set up with nylon string to pull him back up into place so nobody had to go down range.  Fun target.

-Ron

[blunderbuss]

Many years ago I happened to be in Tenneessee when there was a North South skirmish Association shoot. At the end they put up two railroad ties the North shot at one the South shot at the other. There must have 50 or more on a side I think both went down on the second volley

[Roger B]

Daryl;
Kit had his hair clipped & face stung by Chouinard's ball & muzzle blast whereas Chouinard was hit in the wrist & had the ball come out in his upper arm.  The story doesn't go into any detail of the aftermath, but I can't imagine that Chouinard survived if he kept the arm.  The "horse pistol" Carson used was probably your average 60+ caliber hand gun that would have destroyed the wrist & anything in the arm as it went through.  "Big owie" in the vernacular of my patients.
Roger B.

[draken]

A group I was part of back in the 20th century had a battery powered mechanical turkey head target that would pop up from behind a log on command.   There were two head targets, four or five feet apart and the shooter didn't know which one would come up.

The shooter had to do a turkey call with their voice, which prompted the turkey to pop it's head up, offering a shot.   The head was ceramic and disintegrated when hit.   

Anyone who shot the woods walk at the NMLRA Eastern Rendezvous in NY or Tioga, PA  in the  early nineties might remember this one.

[camerl2009]

ive not done the axe blade with a flinter but i have done it with my .22 alot  i did it a few times with a .177 pellet gun too my eyes are getting worse now and i cant see the sights on most flinters this is bad because im only 17 i do have eye problems though

ive been thinking of putting a scope on my .32 flinter i have in the works but the brass tube scopes are way out of my price range and thats the only thing id ever put on a muzzleloader

[Daryl]

Cam- got any pictures of the ML's you've built?