Setting Trails

[ApprenticeBuilder]

So
how many among us are active in a club setting and help out with the monthly duties/chores/maintenance etc. that goes along with the club membership ?

Probably one of the most demanding parts of club membership is setting the monthly trail walks, those that have done a fair amount of trail setting knows what goes into it.

I set the April trail this last weekend and the club will gather on Sunday and shoot it, I set 11 stations, 2 of which are hawk & knife. I like to set a challenging trail with some "chip shots" thrown in for the over-confident types. I am the kind of guy that uses spoilers ( crossing debris ) in front of the targets, shooting through the crotch of a nearer tree, hanging them low in the brush., I have even gone so far as to whittle several holes through the trees with very narrow windows to hit the target. Probably 95% of our target material is steel plate cut outs/cylinders/large diameter square tubing etc.

What is everybody else doing, or are there just not that many members here that participate in local muzzle loading clubs ?

 

[GaCop]

So
how many among us are active in a club setting and help out with the monthly duties/chores/maintenance etc. that goes along with the club membership ?

Probably one of the most demanding parts of club membership is setting the monthly trail walks, those that have done a fair amount of trail setting knows what goes into it.

I set the April trail this last weekend and the club will gather on Sunday and shoot it, I set 11 stations, 2 of which are hawk & knife. I like to set a challenging trail with some "chip shots" thrown in for the over-confident types. I am the kind of guy that uses spoilers ( crossing debris ) in front of the targets, shooting through the crotch of a nearer tree, hanging them low in the brush., I have even gone so far as to whittle several holes through the trees with very narrow windows to hit the target. Probably 95% of our target material is steel plate cut outs/cylinders/large diameter square tubing etc.

What is everybody else doing, or are there just not that many members here that participate in local muzzle loading clubs ?

Don't have anything like that around here. Traditional muzzle loading takes a back seat to in-lines in my area.

Tom

 

I ran one for several years. It was usually around twenty stations, and I judged success by the number of people who, after they had gone through the course, asked me what kind of drugs I was on.
I never tried the “crossing debris” idea. I like it, but see some possible problems with later shooters having an easier time because previous shooters have cleared the brush so to speak. I always had one target that was similar but used a grate like the type that is used for walkways around large machinery. It was mostly a mind game, but it gave some advantage to the smaller caliber shooters to help even out the slight advantage larger caliber shooters had with the one really long shot, something a little over 100 yards.
The long one was always the same and one of my favorites. It was a gong shaped like the vital area on a life size paper deer target. The target was cut out and glued on a piece of Luan and then the surrounding Luan was cut away. The gong was fastened behind the cutout, corresponding with the correct area on the front of the target. If you hit the gong, the deer moved. If you hit anywhere else - or missed completely - it didn’t.
I also like maybe a quarter or so of the stations to allow a little gambling. A shooter had two choices, a fairly simple shot, or a harder, usually lots harder, shot that would count for two points instead of one. It also offered a better chance of zero or even a minus for the station. One was a large gong with something like a two inch hole in the middle. The object, was not simply to shoot through the hole, but to hit a second gong behind the first one. If the second gong didn’t move, no points. If the first one did, points were subtracted.
Most of my gongs were odd shaped chunks found at the local scrap yard. There was always a coil spring in there somewhere.
With the exception of the deer, none of the stations was ever the same from one year to the next.
One other thing I always did that I think helps a lot is to fasten a drag to all the gongs. It allows the gong to move freely, but stops it from swinging as long.
Last but not least is a rule that should be stated before each group starts.
There always seems to one or two shooters who think it’s funny to load up like they are after grizz and tear up the targets. Cardinal rule #1. If you shoot the target loose from the wires, you are the one who has to rehang it to the satisfaction of the range officer. A couple of trips up and down through ravines and across creeks will usually cure these guys

 

[Ranger1759]

We have several great clubs here in north central Ohio, a person can shoot every Sunday in a month if they choose to....most are trail walk, some combine trail, paper and novelty shots...I'm a member of Kill-um-Buck Longrifles, just outside of Killbuck, Ohio and we shoot on the first Sunday of every month, this past Sunday was a 12 shot trail walk....mostly gong type targets..pipes, animal shapes, squares, etc....we had about 20 shooters I think.....we also hold our club dinner/ meeting in January and people volunteer to run each shoot and the 2 rendezvous...we have never had a problem with volunteers! Each volunteer gets 150$ for prizes for the monthly shoots and 350$ for the rendezvous and can run the shoots however they choose, this last one was a meat shoot,
meaning all the prizes came from the local butcher....

 

[Many Klatch]

Shooting a hanging chain is always a tough target, especially if it is hung between two trees.

I like the golf ball on the tee target. Two shots, first the ball, then the tee, you only get points if you shoot the ball first.

Shooting out a lit candle will have the boys talking. Get a cardboard box, spray paint it black inside. Set it on the ground with a lit candle inside. Points for snuffing the flame, negative points for hitting the candle. 10 yards is a good distance.

Many Klatch

 

[rafterob]

Our Woods Walk traces a small stream going up a mountain cove. It gets steeper as you get towards the end and clearing, repairing and painting targets can be real challenging. Consequently we only run this event biannually. We shoot a number of iron plate cut-outs, a chain, a pipe, clay birds on a chicken wire frame and charcoal on a string. My personal favorite is the egg, a steel cutout on a swing arm at about 30 yards. I usually hit it, which amazes me because I will miss some of the larger targets. The last target is a curly snake hanging from a cable. It is maybe 1" wide and tends to bounce and sway in the wind.

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

Nice ideas coming out here,

I generally do offer multiple choice on several stations along the trail so the big dogs can strut their stuff.

On my spoilers I try to use a large enough piece of debris to withstand multiple hits, I also am in the habit of stipulating that the shooter must have body contact with the stake at the shot as this discourages those that would step at arms length from the stake to shoot around the debris placed in the path of an otherwise easy shot.

A difficult aspect of setting trails is allowing for the difference in height of the various shooters, our membership is anywhere from 6'4" down to 4'6" at the eye level.

This months trail is set on the premis that it's April Fools, on that note I will wait until Sunday to list any particulars of the targets or stations involved, suffice it to say that all is not as it seems.

We do have a "running deer" type target on a cable strung between the trees, have had to drop a ball down a length of pvc pipe with 4 45* elbows that lead into a bucket and get the shot off before the ball hits the can, pipe is about 5' in developed length.

Like the golf ball idea, we generally do various string cuts, card cuts, charcoal, etc.

Always a good time when the peanut gallery gets involved as well.

 

[Birdman]

if ya have a team type shoot, cutting a board in half is always fun,take a 1x6 and draw a visable heavy line across it about 6 or 8 inchs down from the top, the team lines up n as fast as they can shot they try to cut the board in half horizontally ABOVE the line, any hits below the line end up as point deductions, the team with the best time or fewest shots is the winner, your call on that end of it, have shot both ways, also a swinging target is way hard, a closepin n somestring are enough to hold the target off to one side, pull the string to let the target start to swing back n forth, maybe let them have two shots to see how quickly they can reload, takes some time but can be way fun n develops some rather colorful language during the shoot :rotf:

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

:cursing:

Foiled again.

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

And so....

The card board cut outs worked well on the trail today, had low scores all around.

I took targets that are familiar to the membership and duplicated about 4 of them with card board.

I had fun setting this shoot up as placement of the targets had to be difficult enough for the shooter to question his ability to make the shot.

Nobody caught on to the trail, I did give it up at the shoot results though.

Fun trail to set.

 

[meanmike8665]

I have found a 2 x 4 works, great! Smaller target makes even the best shooter pucker a little.

Michael