Now about that shooting. 350 yards! 1050 feet! Over 3 football fields! Amazing is an understatement. I cannot even see 350 yards.
Just wondering...you must take some time to "aim" right? Is this target shooting or hunting? What cal rifle? What load do you use for 350 yards. "Loaded for Bear", I bet! If target shooting what is the size of the target? I read about the Springfield trapdoors being demonstrated to a group once back shortly after it was put into service. Something like 2 + thousand yards. But they were shooting at a target of maybe 6 to 8 feet in diameter. Seems like firing a mortar more than shooting a rifle. How much time passes from the time you raise the gun until the shot is fired?
. NO! not hunting , target shooting .
our targets are steel . They can range from around 3 ft circles to long body size cylinders .
Sometimes however they are rather small and nothing more then 10 or 12 inch square plates .
All shots must be made off hand standing . Load and caliber of rifle is up to the shooter but projectile is RB only with open and sometimes peep sights .
Your not scored by group or string but only by a hit .
Believe it or not you don’t need heavy loads to get that far .
Myself I use a 54 cal flintlock backed with 80 grains of 3f . that’s good out to around 200-250 . Past that I bump to 110 .
Jerry Huddleston , another member of this board , a couple years back won one of the events with a TC if I recall . I want to say it was a 54 as well but ill let Jerry go into detail about that if he wishes to join in . I want to say that year the winning range at that event was around 250 give or take .
There is another person I shoot with who also uses a flintlock rifle in 62 cal and heavy load in the 125-150 grain range . He does quite well especially at the longer distances where its alittle windy or a lot of heat .
We also have a lot of folks that shoot 45 and 50 cal . But the 45 gets alittle harder to hear at longer distances
Each event is alittle different in their starting range , target and target placement . In some cases we are shooting up hill , others on a flat range . Still others you may find yourself shooting down a canyon or draw , then out across a meadow ,just depends
Most give you multiple shots at a given distance . IE you get 3 shots to hit the target . So if you don’t his in 3 shots your out .
Those that do hit , then move back to the next distance which is normally around 25 -35 yards back .
You then shoot another 3 shots . Those who make a hit , then move back again . That keeps going tell such time as there is only one person who hits at the farthest range .
So if say 2 shooters are left at 250 yards then sometimes , depending on the shoot rules , they will continue shooting tell someone hits , call a draw Or as with a couple events I go to , they will stand at the 3 shot rule , then count the number of shots taken by each shooter so as to get to that 250 yard range. The one with the least amount of shots taken wins .
As to how long of a hold before shooting . Frankly not long . Your standing and shooting off hand , so no more then a few seconds or your sights begin to wonder from your hold becoming un steady .
Plus if you take to long the other shooters start to get annoyed .
As to time it takes for round to be on target . Literally at the longer ranges you can fire . Take the rifle off your shoulder before you hear the report from the target . So at say 150 , you get a boom ,, ding . But at 350 it’s a Boom , wait for it , wait for it , ok sometime today?
, DING . Type of affair
Lets see , what did I miss ?
OHHH not seeing the target . Yep the farther you move back , the harder the target gets to see . Sometimes even at the closer ranges you cant see the target as the sights completely cover it .
In those case it takes a little more preparation to make the shot as you have to pick something you can see to replace the target your trying to hit . IE using windage and elevation as well as steadiness of hold and follow through so as to drop the ball onto the target ..
My personal off hand best has been 5 shoots to 335 yards “laser range “ on a 3fts round target . That was 1 shot at each station and I took first and was having a very good day .
My average at that even is right at 200 where I can hit the target near every time . Past that I start to struggle .
My most accurate shot I took at 175 yards off hand on a 10x10 target .
First shot , one hit .
That went like this
Saturday morning prior to the shoot another friend showed up from Richland.
Kim and I have this friendly rivalry going on . Especially when it comes to long range off hand shooting . He shoots a 42 barreled , cap lock rifle in 50 cal . I shoot a 42 inch barreled flintlock , long rifle in 54 cal .
We walked down to the range and I showed him Dons long gong target . Which at most of the events we shoot at is at least 3 ft X3ft .
Kim starts laughing when Don says . Yep its on 10 inches and the first shot is at 175 yards .
Seriously , you can hardly see the target at that range LOL
. Kim and I were the only ones to actually score readable hits . Though for the most part, if this had been the normal target size of 3 ft I think everyone would have hit it . The shots all looked to be that close .
Here are some photos
Kim and his hit , which is up on the chain right on the price tag . which he states should be worth more points them my score becouse the tag he hit is much smaller then the target LOL
if you look close you can see the lead mark on the tag . there also is a piece of lead stuck in the chain link . most however went right through the center of the link .
the mark on the target is my hit .
here is how it looks from the shotting line to target and from target back to the line
