December Postal Match

[MuskratMike]

Well since it is December and many people have inclement weather in December I am making it the shortest match yet! You should be able to complete this match in 30 minutes.
This month we are hunting charging Rhino's in Africa! The rules are simple kill the rhino or it kills you. Print 5 targets ONLY! They should come out with orange rings, if you prefer black & white just set your printer for black and white. You get 1 shot at each target using the largest bore gun you have that is ready to shoot. The solid dot in the middle is our "X" ring, the first actual ring is 10 points the outer ring is 5 points and if you miss the rings and are on paper it is a -10 points using the half ball rule. Your score is the total of all 5 targets, so a perfect score will be 50 5X. Shoot from any way you desire as long as there is no support other than your body parts. So no bi-pods, tri-pods, cross sticks, or sand bags. Go to mytargets.com and on the first page down toward the bottom you will find this target. Print 5 of the color you choose and good luck to all. Shoot from 25 yards!
Merry Christmas to all
"Muskrat" Mike

[taterbug]

ummm... uhhhh...
distance?

[Daryl]

I don't see any targets.  Is this the same target as shot a year or 2 ago? If so, I've still got lots of them, Taylor.
YUP- that's the one. www.mytargets.com  charging rhino.

[MuskratMike]

Sorry about that. The distance is 25 yards. Getting old and "gomered"

[alacran]

One shot per target sounds OK. I think I still have some of these from the last time we shot it. My 2f supply is dwindling so at most I will only use 500 grains. I thought last time it was a smoothbore match. Memory dwindling as well.

[MuskratMike]

Not everyone has a smoothbore, so I made it what ever your largest bore gun is. Remember you get the Rhino or the Rhino gets you!

[bob in the woods]

I'm hoping to shoot this match, and will use my smoothbore. It was crazy around here the last couple of weeks, and although I did get my deer, : so should have been free to shoot the Nov match, it wasn't the time to be out in the woods, shooting. Further details in the "Over the back fence" section 

[foresterdj]

Right now, my largest bore gun is a .54 pistol. Maybe I will try it. Any thought on a distance handicap for pistol?

[MuskratMike]

Foresterdj: just use what ever is the largest bore rifle, smoothbore, or smooth rifle you have that's ready to shoot. Just thought as it is a charging animal it should be a big bore but if 36 or 40 is all you got have at it with them. You are welcome to use the pistol but it will be scored with the rest.

[Maven]

Just printed my targets.  Now I have to wait for our range to re-open tomorrow and better weather than today's steady rain.

[MuskratMike]

I am in the same boat. Started raining two days ago and is forecasted to dump rain 9 of the next 10 days. The only dry day I am booked up on. Well it's early in the month, bound to change.

[Daryl]

Discovered the update to my VPN stopped me from seeing pictures on this site. Hopefully, Taylor and I will get out to shoot this one today.
Supposed to warm up to 5 or so.
I have 10 or 12 balls left for my match/hunting rifle. So, all set to go.

[Maven]

I was able to shoot the December PM using the largest FL ML gun I had, namely my GRF 20 ga. NW trade gun (no rear sight).  I thought the match would give me an opportunity to retest my Tanner .595" RB's roughened between 2 coarse files, which served me well on another forum's postal match (https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/november-postal-match-target.171075/).  No dice:  The rhino is still very much alive, but I am likely not.  (Had I used a rifle, things would have been different!)  Here are pics of today's frolic (and no smart remarks about my target backer:  I know it needs replacing and will do so shortly):

[Daryl]

Obviously, it's BEING used, Paul and THAT'S the main thing.

[Maven]

You're right, Daryl.  Next time, I may want to use a rifle!

[foresterdj]

Tried my .54 pistol yesterday, on some other targets I had. Obviously the rhino was going to get me if I relied on pistol, so will use rifle (when my printer ink comes in).

[Daryl]

NEED BIGGER PISTOL! is all.

[MuskratMike]

So far only 1 person has submitted their targets. Here in Oregon we are on tract for the wettest December ever. I am going to try to get out tomorrow or Wednesday and shoot mine. Let's get out there and shoot. Should only take 30-40 minutes to shoot 5 shots. 'Tis the season to make white smoke.

[alacran]

Thank you Mike for making this a quickie. My toner was getting low but I got one print good enough to see. I had five copies made.
In the spirit of the shoot I used my .61 caliber Jaeger. I shot a small doe in Southern Illinois with it last month.
I was using 85 grains of Goex 2f, .595 balls, and .020 tight canvas with bear oil.
I'm back in AZ. Went to the range yesterday afternoon. Slight overcast and the wind was less than 5 mph from the north. Temperature was 49 f.
I didn't mark any values for score on the targets. If I read your rules right they all score a 10 but since I'm not sure I left them blank.


I've never named a rifle but for some reason I refer to this one as the "Little Thumper" so far it is 2 for two on deer.
Since it only weighs 7.25 pounds, it thumps a little bit even with an eighty five grain plinking load.

[MuskratMike]

Well we finally got two days in a row without rain here in the Pacific N.W. Went out and shot the match today. A piece of advise is to print 5 of each target and see what one you can see the best. I only printed the original with the orange rings. Could not see the X with my coin silver front sight. It might have went better if I used the black & white version. I shot off a bench using only my elbows, hands and shoulder as contact points. I shot this with my Don Bruton built .54 caliber rifle using 75 grains of Goex 3F, a .530 round ball and .018 ticking patches greased with pure neatsfoot oil. I am scoring this a 40 0X. Oh well there's always January. ONLY 18 MORE DAYS TO GO!

[foresterdj]

Turned out nice this afternoon (+36 deg.) so I dug my old .50 T/C Hawken percussion out for the rhino. I know it has been at least 15 yrs since I fired that gun, and I had removed the peep from it for a different rifle a couple years ago and put the original open adjustable rear on. So figured I better try a few on a practice target. Well it was shooting quite high, so turned the elevation screw for down and it twisted off. Thus the spring was pushing rear sight to maximum up. I took one last practice holding way low and called the practice good.  Here is twisted off screw.



On rhino 1 I held toward bottom of page, and hit top edge of page, so -10 on that one.  Using 70 gr, 3Fg, .010 patch with crisco grease rubbed in and .490 RB, fired standing, hand held gun but back of left hand steadied on a post.



After this I was aiming maybe 6 - 8 inches below the target, actually below the target board they were stapled to. Here they are in order.
















I think this puts me at a 30 (-10 and 4 @ +10). Shots 4 and 5 tickle the X but not enough if a half ball in the X is needed.

Merry Christmas to all.

[alacran]

The lines are pretty fat was not sure how to score the first target. Seeing how the other ones were scored , my targets score a 50.
I shot them offhand standing.

[MuskratMike]

Alacran: I also score your targets as a 50. You're leading the pack so far.

[okawbow]

Nice shooting everyone. I will try and get my .54 flint lock out, but deer hunting takes president.

[Jakob]

I will be mostly done with work this week, so should have a whole week to get this done...temperatures should stay 'reasonable'.