Shoot Yesterday

Had a blast at the western shoot. I entered 'black powder' division and used a combination of my Remington 1858's, Colt 1847 Walker, and Colt 1860 Army. I borrowed a 1873 Winchester lever rifle in .38/40 hand loaded black powder. The cloud from my Walker loaded with 50gr powder, after 5 rounds was massive to say the least.

The pistols are all cap and ball, so loading was a little longer, had extra cylinders for all but Walker so I could load up and not cap till I got to the line.

5 Stages in AM, I did 2 pistol/rifle, 10rds, no more than 25yrd that alone surprised me. People actually missed the shotgun 7yrd target, scratching my head.
Perfect score in am, but a little slower in time than locals, had issues with rifle as I would not cycle it hard enough and would get empty 'misfires' till I recycled weapon. Biggest comment was my shooting stance, muscle memory lean forward assault stance, locals could tell I was ex military and law enforcement.

Afternoon all went to hell. 1st Stage 3 pistol misfires, two lost caps and a full misfire. 2nd stage two more chamber misfires, even when recapped, no discharge. So now I am down to 2 cylinders, the Walker and a 1858. 3rd stage both guns had chamber misfires, recapped and again nothing. My guess is in the afternoon I used the remaining can of FFFg powder from about a year ago, my guess moisture fouled. AM used a fresh unopened can and no problems. I pulled the balls this am, and tried to light powder pile, real slow spittering burn.

Thinking of conversion kits, by my persona is a post war 'wanderer' 1856-1873, so I am limited. I did take my civil war uniform and did a transformation, momma is good at alterations, so CW slouch hat, linen shirt tan, vest dirty brown, my linen Cavalry pant, black Cav boots, dirty brown duster, leather was my Civil War rig modified. I have to fork out approx. $1100 for a 1866 Winchester (.44/40 or .45LC), reloading kit, and at near $300 per conversion cylinder, getting momma approval for anything but rifle will be tough. I have my Sharps for the long range shoot in September so good there.

Momma is working on modifying her civil war era clothing so she can attend as my 'support' staff, I got to get a era chair, standing up in sun for 7 hours in old cav boots not a fun exercise.

It was a fun day anyway, my shooting was a hit, my clothing already passed 1st level standard, and my new Persona name is "Yankee John". The locals state that I have a real good chance at regional, and were real supportive as I was maxing the stages till gun malfunctions.

Yep...both still go to NG 800m range now and then.

That sounds hella fun. I was looking into cartridge conversions as well, but with our laws they changed the gun from unregulated muzzle loaders to regulated fire arms.

Pity as I makes things much better (if you get gate loading conversions)

Otherwise only a bit faster.

Do you use wax sealant on the balls?

Nice. Honestly I never used a wad or plug. The balls I used (.36 and .44) were all over sized that seating them ALWAYS cut a ring. Never had issues with the flashover.

Pinching the pistol caps is a must on many nipples. Have you got some aftermarket ones yet? I found they weren't needed on my Piettas but I did know some who needed them.

A Yellowboy would match your persona quite well, unlike the newer 1873 "gun that won the West" a hand me down rifle that hasn't been replaced by a newer gun.

I miss shooting black powder. It was always so much fun, either reenacting or live fire.
I took my 1858 Enfield to the NYPD range one year and let a bunch of their officers shoot it, they had enough fun with it to consider it an ample 'thank you' for letting me play with their MP5.

All I have left after the flood is my .50 Smith's carbine, my Remington revolver and Enfield rifle were destroyed. The smith though, oddly enough- not only survived the flood in my gun case, but in spite of being plugged with silt and mud..works BETTER than it did before it went for a swim.

It was always a problem child for me, I'd snap caps in it all day long, but a good 50% of the time it wouldn't ignite the charge in the shells. I found out that the spark from the cap has a screwey path to take when the hammer drops, two almost 90 degree turns before it reaches the firing chamber. I'd always thought my caps weren't burning hot enough or something, but when I test fired it after I cleaned it of mud and nonsense, it's been 100%...with the same caps.

A lot of people will tell you that a firearm has some kind of 'personality' to it, but that's never more true than with a black powder gun.

Glad you had fun.

I may have stopped before anything disastrous happened, but literally thousands of shots downrange and never an issue. I only used my black powder for a couple of years then they changed the laws around it so I traded mine out.

I would love to go out and do some shooting again, but as I now live in Japan, it is quite difficult. Contrary to what many people believe, guns are not illegal in Japan, just heavily regulated. Getting a license requires a mountain of forms, a few interviews, and even more paperwork when actually buying a rifle or shotgun. A form or two is also required when buying ammo. Nearly 300,000 in Japan own guns. Reloading is popular here, it saves time, money, and paperwork.

Hunting in Japan used to be a more popular pastime, but as more people have moved to the cities, and the older people are dying off, there are fewer hunters than there used to be. As a result, the population of game animals has increased greatly, and many die off in the winter. Their forage range has increased as farms and farmsteads have been abandoned or shut down (the population in Japan is decreasing rather quickly).

I will try to go out and do a little shooting in the fall, but I will avoid going on any hunts, the oji-sans (old men) here have poor eyesight, who think anything which moves is a deer or a boar, and they prefer to shoot first, and ask questions later. We lose a few of them every year as they tend to shoot at each other as often as they shoot at the game.

Here in Nebraska during hunting season due to terrain there is always a bullet striking a house somewhere near a cornfield that even a local has staked out and missed 'bambi'. We have the same form of stupidity as these individuals do not understand the bullet does not stop if they miss, but keeps going and going till it drops or hits something else.

Will make it a point to get pics up tomorrow.