Grey Wolf
July 11, 2008, 03:33 AM
For those who like to reenact US history before the Wild West period there are mountain man rendezvous. They recall the trappers and traders annual gatherings in beaver country. The originals were from 1825 through 1840. Our events are usually Thursday through Sunday in weather cool enough for wearing buckskins. They require period shelters, equipment, weapons and clothing. Nothing modern is supposed to be in sight. There is shooting competition with flintlock and percussion rifles, smoothbores (no rear sight allowed) and single shot pistols, knife and tomahawk throwing, period archery and sometimes timed events of fire starting without matches. In addition to shooting on dedicated ranges some groups do "trail walks". They are my favorite event. Targets are set up at distances of 5 to 100 yards and targets of all kinds. But you won't see many 10 ring paper targets. There are separate walks for rifle, smoothbore and pistol. Targets are charcoal briquets hanging on strings, steel shapes that swing and ding when hit, "split the ball" with an axe blade mounted on a section of tree trunk with a clay pigeon set up on each of it - the object being to hit the blade and split the ball and break both pigeons, and lots of other creative things to shoot at. We have a 3/4 life size fiberboard turkey that "flies" across a creek on a 100' cable. Groups of 2 to 6 shooters walk along together and score each other. It's very laid back, with no time restraints. After a typical potluck dinner we gather around a campfire and have storytelling, presentations, music... You meet a lot of nice people as it's a family activity. My group has two a year on Cibolo Creek near La Vernia, Texas. Another group I belong to has theirs near Fredericksburg. There are several others around the area. Painless history, I call it.