27th World Muzzle-Loading Championships

Some video highlights here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyaj2ou9DR8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hicNenNWrE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGqR5gNTSR4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD4w54v-kB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Y3KiNQftE

I was there. Shot lousy except for one event...but that one was good enough to carry the US team to a Silver in the repro percussion revolver event. Bob Lineaweaver did shoot well enough in the 50 meter revolver match to set a new world record. American shotgunners did well, too. Full results at http://mlaic.org/2016/08/22/final-results-and-statistics-of-the-27th-mlaic-world-championships/

I had the chance to handle the new Pedersoli Tatham & Egg flint pistol. Nice gun, good grip. A bit on the muzzle-heavy side, even for me. They had the prototype flint double shotgun. Magnificent.

Demo event.

Several, including myself. Flintlock, percussion, even matchlock.

All anyone has to do is try out. We use a two-stage process. Preliminary tryouts are by mail, you can shoot at your local range. If your scores are high enough, you get invited to the final tryout, at the Can-Am portion of the Pacific Zone championships. Do well there, and you can get on the U.S. Team. It does help to have a strong background in the precision shooting disciplines.

To put things in perspective, here are the scores I put out as minimum goals. All are for repro guns, the originals run about 2 points lower.

Rifle:
M1 Miquelet (smoothbore flint musket, 50m): 85
M2 Maximilian (prone flint rifle, 100m): 88
M3 Minie (prone rifle-musket, 100m): 90
M4 Whitworth (prone percussion target rifle, 100m): 93
M8 Walkyrie (women's prone percussion target rifle, 100m): 92
M14 Tanegashima (offhand matchlock smoothbore, 50m): 91
M15 Vetterli (offhand percussion target rifle, 50m): 96
M16 Hizadai (kneeling matchlock smoothbore, 50m): 95
M36 Pennsylvania (offhand flintlock target rifle, 50m): 92
M37 Lamarmora (offhand rifle-musket, 50m): 93

Pistol
M5 Cominazzo (smoothbore flint pistol, 25m): 88
M6 Kuchenreuter (rifled percussion pistol, 25m): 94
M7o Colt (original percussion revolver, 25m): 92
M12r Mariette (repro percussion revolver, 25m): 93
M28 Tanzutsu (smoothbore matchlock Japanese pistol, 25m): 88
M23 Malson (percussion revolver, 50m): 85

Everything but the smoothbore rifle events are on the B-17 International Precision Pistol target...meaning the 10-ring is about 1.5 inches across. 13 shots, the best 10 ar the score. No separate sighters.

These were scores that would put a three-man team into third place at Worlds...an individual Gold would take far higher scores. Vetterli normally requires a 100 to win.