Connecticut Preparedness 

A community of Connecticut neighbors discussing topics important for preparedness and self-reliance.

Shooting the old style way
By jeff4570
#361
Greetings smoke pole enthusiests ! :!:
I thought I should start the forum since nobody else had , Im SURE someone out there has BP guns .

I have a 1864 Springfield rifle (original) and a 1862 Bridesburg (PA) Springfield contract rifle (original) and a replica Remington Bison 12 inch 45 revolver .

I also have an original 1868 50/70 Trapdoor and a 1884 Traopdoor in 45/70 (that's where I get my screen name from) .

I use real BP , Pirodex and 'Clean Shot' depending on the application .

So now its YOUR turn guys (and gals) .
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By JohnB
#367
this is something i always wanted to get into but never did, i shot an 1851 navy BP pistol and an italian rifle..thats about it, i watched the guys over at new depatures shoot one sunday morning, looked like alot of fun with the big boom and lotsa smoke
By jeff4570
#369
I was introduced to BP shooting back in 85' when ECGC was 2 years into it , it seemed a bit odd to me but interesting since the guys were dressed like Moutain men and Civil War soldiers .
The food was fantastic ! The chairman said I could buy the food if I liked but if I shot in the matches I could eat all I wanted for the $5 entry fee.
So the first year he let me shoot my Trapdoor Rifle (score didn't count) and I ate all I wanted until he said I HAD to get a real BP gun or I couldn't eat anymore ,So he loaned me a rifle and I won the annual title 2 years in a row , then he took it away and I had to buy my own and I won the next years title ...... Thats when I got hooked on BP .

Now I just take out my antiques and show them off to my friends and brother n' Law on the range a few times a year .


I would love to get an original Civil war pistol or a Winchester or Sharps or maybe a 1876 revolver .
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By JohnB
#372
they all dress like that at new departures too, they use tiles as targets and put a tarp underneath them, the bayonets go into the ground and they use them to hold the loading rods and then they shoot offhand, very cool to watch
By jeff4570
#377
every year we had a match , Muzzel Loaders against the High Power rifle team using BP targets .
The game was always fixed against the rifle shooters by certain targets , shooting positions etc..
One example was when they put out a 6X6" timber supported by 2 target frames , the High Power bullets would go right through but the big balls would chop it to pieces and split the timber .
One year I got advanced notice that the chairman was going to use pressure treated lumber (a big mistake ) .
I shot for the rifle team that year and arranged our first volley of 30 cal fmj rifle to penitrate the wood , followed by 4 trap door springfields in 45/70 Hollow points .
The BP guys couldn't even penitrate the special timber and we won the match in 4 volleys .
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By JohnB
#380
ha, i dunno if thats cheating or not (in a martha stewart kinda way) :) do they still hold the matches ?
By jeff4570
#381
Its like getting a 'handycap' in bowling , but its all in fun .

It was for the bragging rights in the club since we all made fun of the BP guys at first .

The chair once discovered that because of the the High Power rifle's sighting plane , it couldn't hit a target at 100 yards while shooting over a log so we had a "over the log shoot' .
Then after telling everyone that we were going to shoot bullsey targets , they changed to the black or pink shilouette Animal targets the day of the match which were impossible to sight with peep sights , anything to make it hard for the rifle shooters would be used .

It took us 4 years to kick their butts .


To answer your question : Yes , but not very often any more .
User avatar
By JohnB
#383
well at least you didnt make them shoot one legged backwards through a mirror, shame, it sounds like fun
By stuckinthecity
#2508
I'm new here and I shoot black powder, a lot of it. I'm one of those guys that JohnB sees on sunday morning at New Departure. Although, I missed most of our team practices this year. (painting the house got in the way) I made 10 out of the 11 shoots we had, and had a blast. Check out www.n-ssa.org and you can see what we do. I say "we" because my daughter shoots with me.

The only good thing about winter is that it gives me time to do all my casting for the next season. And with both of us shooting musket, carbine and smoothbore, that's a lot of casting. Also the winter gives me time to shoot all the other iron I've picked over the years, Mosins, Mauser, and Snyder just to name a few. Its a lot easier to clean your rifle when there is a hole in both ends of the barrel, and after shooting BP all summer, smokeless is a dream. You can clean it in the basement and nobody will ever know, something you can't do with BP.

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