My first black powder "Mountain Man" shoot

[BCRider]

This past weekend my local club hosted a two day Mountain Man shoot. I've been trying to get out to one of these for almost a year now but every other time other activities or the weather made it impossible.

For this event I used my Lyman Great Plains flintlock. I'd had it out one day back before Christmas last year for the initial trials. I'm glad I had SOME time with it as this made it much easier to work with during this event.

The "course" for this event is a trail walk with targets of various sizes off to the side. The targets ranged from crazy small to big enough that anyone with a lick of ability could hit them. My favourite was the cut open high pressure cylinder out at around 100 yards. Hits on that one produced a nice resounding CLANG! that reverberated through the woods so everyone could share in the success....

Another of note was a little ball faller by the shooter. The goal being to raise the gun and hold it with one hand while the other released the ball to run along a "clacker" track before falling into the end cup with a BONG! sound. The shooter had to shoot and hit the gong before the "BONG!"

The Lyman and I did not too badly. But I really need to work on my woods loading setup. Mountain man costume aside it took me a while to sort out the patches, balls, flask and measure in the shoulder bag and jacket pockets to make reloading easier.

Part way in I hooked up with a couple of regulars and picked up some great hints which really helped out the next day. First they got me down to shooting 40 grains instead of 60. Second one of them taught me to pick the flash hole deep to create a little hollow in the charge to aid with faster ignition. Even something as silly as wiping out the flash pan each time which I hadn't been doing.

The next day all this came together and the gun was a lot more reliable and faster. My score reflected that since I was able to spend more time settling down and just shoot well.... not well enough to win anything but since this was only my third ever time out with the Lyman GPR and my first time ever at a BP event I felt pretty good. But mostly it was just a big heap of fun both smack talking and joking with the other shooters and getting used to the totally different experience of shooting flintlock.

The funniest part was getting used to not being able to see the target after the shot and having to duck down or over to the side to see if it was swinging...

Sorry for no pictures. A few folks were taking some but I haven't seen them yet. I'll link to them once they are up.

 

[Acorn Mush]

Glad you had a good time BC, and hope you will be a regular participant at such doin's in the future. I have always found the folks who attend rendezvous to be very friendly and helpful, even to the extent of lending rifles and powder, balls, etc. to those in need.

 

[runs.for.beer]

Thank you for sharing

It sounds like a very enjoyable event. Thank you very much for taking the time to post a little about your experiences here. You have made me more motivated to attend a shooting related event myself. I hope to attend a rendezvous and/or a North-South Skirmish event this year.

 

[arcticap]

First they got me down to shooting 40 grains instead of 60.

Are you sure that they were trying to help you win?
I can see loading a variety of powder charges when firing at different distances, but loading 60 grains or even 50 grains in a GPR is probably better than 40 unless only shooting steel or targets at fairly close range.

 

[ThorinNNY]

Do they allow you to use a loading block? What caliber GPR were you shooting? I found .54 cal GPR dosent begin to shine until you load 80 grains of powder. 40 grains seems a bit anemic even in a 50 cal GPR
There was a woods walk near me but snowshoes aren`t my thing.

 

[Armored farmer]

Good for you BC, the GPR is a great rifle and woods walk/mountain man shoots are great fun. The last bp shoot I attended 2 wks ago was "shoot from your possibles bag only". In other words, you were required to load and shoot the 15 targets with only the equipment/supplies you have in your possibles bag. No loading bench, range rod, or tool boxes allowed. If you failed to be able to fire all 15 shots with only the equipment in your bag, you were disqualified.
Targets were a combination of gongs, lollipops, popsickle sticks, and some paper targets.

I am looking forward to and practicing for a timed woods run that starts with throwing a 'hawk to start the clock, loading and shooting a number of targets along the course, starting a fire with flint/steel, then finally stopping the clock by throwing a knife.

 

[hang fire]

IIRC, I used to do a lot of those MM events, but then that has been many winters ago.

http://hstrial-rchambers.homestead.com/untitled1.html

 

[BCRider]

Thanks guys.

It actually did seem to shoot more accurately with the 40 gns. Even out to that 100 yard gong that I mentioned. But as another person mentioned I need to get out and try loads in 5 gn steps from around 35 on up to 65 to see where the gun's sweet spot happens to be. Sounds like a long day at the range.... OH DARN!

On the equipment side there were a few folks with funky plastic range rods but no one used a table or tool kit at all. Everthing was either in the possibles bag or in leather pockets on the shoulder strap of the bag or hanging around their neck from lanyards. The butt plate just sat on the boot instep (it was VERY muddy and lightly raining on and off all day) and stuff came out to do the job and went back into the bag, sleeve or hung from the lanyard.

I was all dolled up in Goretex.... My "possibles bag" was a shoulder strap soft cordura briefcase sort of deal. In keeping with the whole "working off your body" theme I soon ended up with the powder flask, ball starter and the .500 S&W Magnum casing I was using to transfer powder from my measureing flask to the gun in my right hand pocket while the patches and balls were drawn from the bag.

The casing was only used to transfer the powder from the flask to the gun for safety in case of a flare up. The flask is one I've set up for a 20 gn charge for the C&B .36cal revolvers. I'd just dump two shots into the casing then use that to pour it down the barrel.

BTW, the Ballistol and water Moose Milk Mixture worked FANTASTIC! Ramming the ball and patch was easy and consistent for the entire day. I just started the ball and dry patch then dribbled a few drops on the wadded tail of the patch then rammed the ball home.

Hang Fire, those are some great pictures. Can't say I'll get that far into the whole thing but I'd like to at least find some sort of period stuff instead of the Goretex I wore this past weekend... But one thing at a time for now.

 

[ultradoc]

In east/central ohio they have a gathering once a year. It's an antique mill festival. It's the old time stuff and I dress up as a mountain man. I am not part of the programs but folks ask me where is such and such. Or what time does this program start or that program. Last year Wild Bill Hickcock was there.

 

[Armored farmer]

hang fire's pictures are a testament to our sport. I doubt that half here on THR would know about 'Colter's run'.

 

[ThorinNNY]

[Last year Wild Bill Hickock was there] wrote ultradoc. Ultradoc, if you see Wild Bill again,shake his hand for me.
If you run into Doc Holliday, buy him a drink.

 

[mdauben]

This past weekend my local club hosted a two day Mountain Man shoot.

Sounds like lots of fun BCRider! I've got a couple local outdoor ranges where I can shoot black powder, but the only ML clubs "in the area" are 3-4 hours drive so I haven't had a chance to participate in any organized shoots for a long time.

 

[BCRider]

By the sounds of it we've got it pretty rich in my area for BP shooting. Aside from the monthly fun shoots held at my club there's a good half dozen big meets all within 3 hours or less driving time. 3 or 4 of them are more or less local at around an hour to get to them.

 

[Busyhands94]

Now that, sounds like some major fun!

 

[Armored farmer]

By the sounds of it we've got it pretty rich in my area for BP shooting. Aside from the monthly fun shoots held at my club there's a good half dozen big meets all within 3 hours or less driving time. 3 or 4 of them are more or less local at around an hour to get to them.

I have met some of the best, most genuinely interesting folk at b/p events.

 

[Iggy]

BCRider,
That's a good start. The advice about testing 5 grn increments is plumb center.
I don't know how many including me, bought a rifle, then we had to have the fixin's and a shootin' bag. Then I needed a set of skins, and ....
Then Itchy wanted a rifle and then a dress, and then there was the Tipi and the trailer for haulin' it...

You git a few more whiffs of that burnt Dupont and you're a gone beaver!!!

Hangfire,

Me and Itchy was at the NAPR Ronyvoo at Kalispell. We was at Towgwotee and Bridger and the Bayou Salade in CO, There was one down near Vernal UT, and some others too.
Do you remember Jim O'Meara? He wrote some things in Baird's magazine back in the 70's. Then there was Curly Gustomski and Blue jacket. Shinin' times they was.

 

[hang fire]

The NAPR National Rondy down by Vernal, UT in 1981 (or was it 82?) was the last big rondy wife and I attended. That was some good cold drinking water boiling up out of that spring.

I do recall Blue Jacket, is he still alive? I note some rondys are now having Blue Jacket shoots.

Forget which rondy was at, but one night John Baird got his fleece ribs tickled by a Green River blade. He didn't even go to the docs, Terry Johnston, who I think was still an EMT, patched him up. Guess John Baird has gone under too.

Terry Johnston went on to become the prodigious author of the Mountain Man series, with Titus Bass central character and Plainsman series with central character Seamus Donegan and The Jonah Hook Trilogy

I still remember Terry before he became a renown author being at small local rondys in WY and MT wearing a capote and a back pack on with his dog.

Terry died of cancer in 2001

Wife and I in 1977, we were going to the Buffalo BIll (Bison Billy) ball in Cody, WY

 

[Iggy]

Yup Vernal was our last big ronyvoo too.
Din't know Terry was gone.
Lot's of good folks gone under.

 

[ThorinNNY]

Iggy
Raise your cup and drink to absent friends
and hope someday to all gather again
in a better place than this. Till then
just say thanks for the memories.

 

[mdauben]

Some nice "in character" pics there! I wish there was a buckskinning/mountain man group near me.

 

[BCRider]

You guys are really making me feel bad about the Goretex, denim, cordura and modern tech hiking boots that I used in our rainy conditions now....

I doubt I'll go with a complete character outfit like some of the ones you guys are using. Amazing though they do look. I've got too many hobbies pulling me too many ways to be able to spend long enough on any one to get to where some of you have taken your black powder MM shooting.

Instead I'll likely look at collecting up some dress items aimed at the typical prospector of the day. That way I can use the stuff in my Cowboy Action shooting as well. Or maybe add a 'coon or beaver skin hat as a bit of kit to bring things back a little to the mountain man times.... OK, maybe some sort of fur or period correct jacket... BUT THAT'S IT!

 

[hang fire]

Times changes and it marches on for us all, I don't ambulate like once did, but still like getting out and nailing a tree rat or two with my fusil de chasse.

 

[Armored farmer]

You guys are really making me feel bad about the Goretex, denim, cordura and modern tech hiking boots that I used in our rainy conditions now....

So guys.....
Two hundred yrs from now, will our decendants dress in camo gore-tex, denim, cordura, and hiking boots, carry a tricked-out AR and reinact the shining times of the late 1900-early 2000s??? (If they're able)
.

 

[BCRider]

Assuming by that time they are using some form of energy or at least caseless ammo with personal body armor suits then yeah, I can see groups reliving "the good ol' days" of AR's and the like.

I'd like to think that with our modern ability to record and connect with history that there would also be a group of folks on the other side of the hill from the AR/AK group that is dressed in buckskin and fringes playing with black powder as well.

Look at it this way. We've already got the flint and percussion Mountain Man groups and in the US the Civil War groups and over in Europe they have the old flintlock army groups I'm sure. Then moving up a little we've got the Cowboy Action groups which, while focused more on the game and movies than history are still representing the newer "old west". So is it really a big stretch to see groups in the future that re-enact the trenches of WWI, the jungle battles of WWII in the Pacific? I know of at least one fella that gets together with a group to re-enact some form of WWII battles using blanks shot from real guns. Give the newer conflicts some time to fade from being too personal and I can see groups re-enacting some of the stuff from Vietnam or Iraq in time.

 

[hang fire]

Speaking of Europe, from the pics I have ever seen of their rondys the Finns are into Mountain Men doings like no others,. Their passion for realistic period clothing, guns and accouterments far surpasses those of most groups in the US.