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Shoot today was fun, I really enjoyed being out of the house and being around other people. Since COVID hit, I've focused on my students and providing for their classroom needs.

Last night at 7:00 pm, I got my 1st COVID shot, woke up at 3::00 in the morning with a very sore shoulder, my lower back was killing me and my legs were simply numb. So rough start to the day.

We arrived on location at the range at 10:45, shooting started at 11:00. I haven’t shot my gun in soooo long, I was looking forward to benching my gun at 100 yards, and dialing her in.

NOPE...Linda would have none of it. I got signed up, as did my dad.

Shooting went to 25 shooters, I was number 15.

At the pistol station, you had 3 shots, at a heart at 20 yards. Scoring only hits for today’s shoot, so 3 points possible. I did not bring a pistol, cuz I wasn't planning to participate...I was planning on shooting my gun and getting it dialed in. I hit the heart all 3 times, 2 shots touching and one about 1/2 inch low. I was pleased, those loner pistols were well sighted.

At 25 yards, we shot at small steel swing targets; targets...2 shots at each. I hit only twice, it was going to be a long day.

At 50 yards there were again 3 targets. I hit the small Buffalo twice, and then never touched another target.

At 100 yards, there was a group of 3 targets, and then there was an elk you had to hit twice in the vitals and a turkey gong at 75 yards. 10 shots total...I was close, no but no cigar. Very depressing, a year ago this would have been a cake walk...shooting is a diminishing skill, Mine has diminished away precipitously.

By now, my arm was jelly, and I was running a fever and had the chills. So yeah, hard to shoot a flintlock under those conditions. I had to stop and sat out the last round of shooting, the tomahawks and fire making.

Got home by 2:45, cleaned my gun, put stuff away, took my wife to get take out for dinner...came home and died on the couch. Hopefully they will be respectful when they move the body.


...yup, I got some work to do to get into my normal shooting condition. Sad...
 
The Tallow River Trappers will be holding the Frozen Toes Rendezvous this coming weekend.

I'm going to day trip. I'll spend Saturday morning at the range working on 100 yards with my Southern Poor Boy...then wander through the doins.
 
Nothing officially scheduled for the range this weekend...

I'm going to go out in the morning and shoot a couple guns tomorrow. Should be a nice sunny day, probably a bit chilly, but nothing to bad.

Enjoy Your Saturday.
 
Had a solid good time out at the range today shooting black powder.

Day started off overcast and cold. I was working on my .45 calibre. It’s just not shooting very well. I've worked on my hold and follow through...but the gun will not shoot under a 3 or 4 inch group at 25 yards.

I will now replace the rear site and see how that goes...I've messed with this gun off and on for 6 , may be 7 years. So frustrating.

But I did enjoy my time outside, and even a bad frustrating day of shooting is better than a day doing anything else.

Miday that sun came out, temp went up about 8 to 10 degrees. Shooting didn't improve much, but it was more comfortable.

I think I'll start shooting my .32 for a bit, enjoy some success for a week or two and then pick up that danger .45 and try again.
 
So I've been having problems with my .45 calibre...cannot get that gun to group under 4' at 25 yards. I was actually starting to think it was me.

I have a Dixie .32 Calibre Tennessee Mountain Rifle that I picked up several years ago and never shot it. Took it to the range and sighted it in, gun shoots beautifully, both offhand and from the bench.

So...Nope Not Me. What the heck is wrong with that .45...I've never had a gun give me such fits trying to get it to shoot.
 
Well I’ve renewed my membership with the FtLupton Blackpowder group, fine bunch of people.

I had a Dixie Tennessee Mountain rifle, .32 calibre that just couldn’t shoot as well as my Pedersoli Blue Ridge. I picked the gun up about 10 years ago at a rendezvous at FtLupton, but if just never would group under 3” at 50 yards. Then I found a video on YouTube, this guy had just purchased a Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle, and when he got it home…found out it was a .40 calibre. Dixie never made that gun in .40 calibre. You could get it as a .32 calibre or a .50 calibre. So someone had rebarreled that Dixie Mountain as a .40 calibre

This guy loved that gun, and it got me to thinking…so I talked to one of the members of the club, great guy…very knowledgeable. I wanted to rebarrel my Dixie Tennessee as a .40 calibre, but with a 36” barrel. So the gun would be cut down by 6” or so. This guy said no problem, but after a week we couldn’t find a 36” .40 calibre…anywhere. But we did get a .45 calibre, Corloraine barrel 36” in length.

10 days later, and $300.00 I had my newly barreled .45…and it is the most accurate flintlock I’ve ever owned. At 100 yards, from a bench hold, 55 grains of fffg, I was putting shot after shot into a single ragged hole. The gun just went bam…every shot fired without delay. Turns out that he had tuned the flintlock, and that old gun was better than ever.

So now I’ve purchased a Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle in .50 calibre, and once Track of the Wolf gets in their barrels, I’ll be rebarreling that gun into a .54 calibre with a 36” barrel…cannot wait.

Turns out the .32 calibre barrel left over from the rebarreling, had a lot of corrosion in the last 8“ at the muzzle…weird.

I had my grandkids out at the range over Christmas, and couple days later this guy calls me and says, you got a couple of fine young boys there, and I think they need a gun. So he took that left over .32 calibre barrel, cut it down to 32” and built a kids scaled flintlock, with a cherry wood stock, for my grandkids to shoot.

Nicest people in the world are in this club, I am so fortunate….
 
Shoot today was fun, I really enjoyed being out of the house and being around other people. Since COVID hit, I've focused on my students and providing for their classroom needs.

Last night at 7:00 pm, I got my 1st COVID shot, woke up at 3::00 in the morning with a very sore shoulder, my lower back was killing me and my legs were simply numb. So rough start to the day.

We arrived on location at the range at 10:45, shooting started at 11:00. I haven’t shot my gun in soooo long, I was looking forward to benching my gun at 100 yards, and dialing her in.

NOPE...Linda would have none of it. I got signed up, as did my dad.

Shooting went to 25 shooters, I was number 15.

At the pistol station, you had 3 shots, at a heart at 20 yards. Scoring only hits for today’s shoot, so 3 points possible. I did not bring a pistol, cuz I wasn't planning to participate...I was planning on shooting my gun and getting it dialed in. I hit the heart all 3 times, 2 shots touching and one about 1/2 inch low. I was pleased, those loner pistols were well sighted.

At 25 yards, we shot at small steel swing targets; targets...2 shots at each. I hit only twice, it was going to be a long day.

At 50 yards there were again 3 targets. I hit the small Buffalo twice, and then never touched another target.

At 100 yards, there was a group of 3 targets, and then there was an elk you had to hit twice in the vitals and a turkey gong at 75 yards. 10 shots total...I was close, no but no cigar. Very depressing, a year ago this would have been a cake walk...shooting is a diminishing skill, Mine has diminished away precipitously.

By now, my arm was jelly, and I was running a fever and had the chills. So yeah, hard to shoot a flintlock under those conditions. I had to stop and sat out the last round of shooting, the tomahawks and fire making.

Got home by 2:45, cleaned my gun, put stuff away, took my wife to get take out for dinner...came home and died on the couch. Hopefully they will be respectful when they move the body.


...yup, I got some work to do to get into my normal shooting condition. Sad...
There are Angels in this world.

So over Christmas 2021, I was going through our family Christmas Scrapbook with my wife. I’ve had this fricken .45 calibre (mentioned above) nightmare rifle for longer than 6 or 7 years. I’ve tried for years to get this gun to shoot and sent it back to TVM twice to have them try to figure out why this gun won’t shoot…twice they’ve sent it back saying it’s fine, nothing wrong.

In my mind, I was thinking it was me…I’d lost the ability to shoot. It was a hard pill to swallow. And it ate at my sanity.

I was at the range the awhile back, shooting my newly rebarreled Dixie Tennessee and the guy that rebarreled the gun, Ray, asks me, say where is that beautiful .45 long rifle of yours…I replied, I can’t hit anything with it. For near 10 YEARS, yes, 10 years not 6 not 7, but 10 years I struggled with that gun. He said bring it out next time and let’s shoot it…so next week I brought it out and at 50 yards (I’d never shot the gun at 50 yards before, because it shot so bad, I wasn’t sure it would even be on paper) the group could not be covered with a pie plate…disgusting.

You need to realize something about me, I do not care about how nice and beautiful a gun looks…the only interesting gun to me is an accurate gun.

Ray looked the gun over closely and said bring it to my shop, I can fix this…I had my doubts, I really did. I went to Ray’s house the next day, he dug through his tool box for a bit. And he recut the crown on the barrel, deep recut on that crown.

Next time out at the range I shot that gun at 25 yrds and was impressed with the improvement, then for the 1st time ever I shot that dang gun at 100 yrds, and it was 5 shots touching, just below center.

I thanked Ray and gave him $50.00. He tried to give it back to me…I said, no Ray…this is not for you, this is for my sanity, and you are an angel in disguise.
 
Well I’ve renewed my membership with the FtLupton Blackpowder group, fine bunch of people.

I had a Dixie Tennessee Mountain rifle, .32 calibre that just couldn’t shoot as well as my Pedersoli Blue Ridge. I picked the gun up about 10 years ago at a rendezvous at FtLupton, but if just never would group under 3” at 50 yards. Then I found a video on YouTube, this guy had just purchased a Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle, and when he got it home…found out it was a .40 calibre. Dixie never made that gun in .40 calibre. You could get it as a .32 calibre or a .50 calibre. So someone had rebarreled that Dixie Mountain as a .40 calibre

This guy loved that gun, and it got me to thinking…so I talked to one of the members of the club, great guy…very knowledgeable. I wanted to rebarrel my Dixie Tennessee as a .40 calibre, but with a 36” barrel. So the gun would be cut down by 6” or so. This guy said no problem, but after a week we couldn’t find a 36” .40 calibre…anywhere. But we did get a .45 calibre, Corloraine barrel 36” in length.

10 days later, and $300.00 I had my newly barreled .45…and it is the most accurate flintlock I’ve ever owned. At 100 yards, from a bench hold, 55 grains of fffg, I was putting shot after shot into a single ragged hole. The gun just went bam…every shot fired without delay. Turns out that he had tuned the flintlock, and that old gun was better than ever.

So now I’ve purchased a Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle in .50 calibre, and once Track of the Wolf gets in their barrels, I’ll be rebarreling that gun into a .54 calibre with a 36” barrel…cannot wait.

Turns out the .32 calibre barrel left over from the rebarreling, had a lot of corrosion in the last 8“ at the muzzle…weird.

I had my grandkids out at the range over Christmas, and couple days later this guy calls me and says, you got a couple of fine young boys there, and I think they need a gun. So he took that left over .32 calibre barrel, cut it down to 32” and built a kids scaled flintlock, with a cherry wood stock, for my grandkids to shoot.

Nicest people in the world are in this club, I am so fortunate….

Would that gentlemans name possibly be Dale?
 
I will ask around…I try to shoot with the guys on Thursdays mostly, so that I can work on getting my latest project gun shooting accurately. The Saturday shoots don’t allow me just enjoy tinkering with my gun, they pretty much expect you to participate in the club shoots….I really like to tinker and try to get as much accuracy out of a gun as I can…one hole rifles are my gaol. And if a gun isn’t passing muster it’s going to have my attention
 
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