Some more black powder fun

[dave951]

Well I've gotten some pix from Camp Bud Schiele, week 4 and a couple from Raven Knob, week 4. Yeah, we do have fun while "instructing".....

Get off my bloody ship!!!!!


Vinny explaining how the Ferguson works. Of course, when handling a Scottish rifle, one must wear Scottish attire!


Traffic jam at the round ball loading table.


Scout shooting "Susie" my sewerpipe on a stick. The bore is seriously rough on this one but it still shoots. Don't bother trying to read a patch with it, the patches look like black lint.


And we've moved to Civil War muskets. The instructor in the foreground is an accomplished rifle and pistol centerfire instructor but we've convinced her that the cool kids hang out on the dark side of the shooting sports with black powder!!


And now for Volley Fire! The kids love doing this and blasting a target to pieces with musketry. We've also been shooting a few stuffed animals too. For some reason, they have it in for a stuffed unicorn. Good thing it can take a hit. So far, it has taken over 20+ 58cal hits and still somewhat resembles a unicorn, albeit with stuffing oozing out of many, many holes.

 

[Y-T71]

Looks like a great day!

Unfortunately, I haven't had (regular) access to a range for a couple of years now but, In the past, I always enjoyed "BP day" (used to do "rimfire day", "revolver day", "1911 day" etc)

IMHO, It's good to get back to the basics and slow things down sometimes.

 

[dave951]

IMHO, It's good to get back to the basics and slow things down sometimes.

Yup. We try to make it fun for the kids with different reactive targets and sneak in marksmanship instruction at the same time. Note we shoot offhand. I recently visited another Scout camp to see their program. Their kids do the traditional pour from a horn to a measure. Pour the measure to the barrel. Powder, patch, ball. Then shoot from freakin' sandbags for everything. I'd put almost any kid in our program up against theirs in an offhand match and we'd walk away winners nearly every time. You don't learn any shooting skill on a bag. The other thing that makes muzzleloaders relevant today is, if you get good with one, you'll be lightyears better than your peers with a modern arm. Fundamentals are soooo critical in a muzzleloader. So if for nothing else, shooting a muzzleloader is great for your modern shooting.