Posted by Thos/Ma on 5/12/2008, 7:57 am
65.215.72.62
As I posted below, my minute company had some live fire training this past Saturday thanks to the hospitality of a local rod and gun club. So after entirely too long firing only blanks in parades and re-enactments, I was able to take my fowler Two Bags out nd send some lead downrange. We were shooting militia style, with the cartridge paper as wadding but no patching.
The good news is Two Bags got a 5-shot 4" group at 25 yards. The bad news is it wasn't me shooting it at the time. Probably no one at all will be suprised to hear it was a 12-year-old kid, our Junior Ensign. (I'm not going to talk about my own performance, other than to say that I did hit the berm at the end of the range every time!)
Young Dan even held his own with a Bess a few times. It knocked him back about a foot each time, but he did pretty well with it. One of the club regulars came over with his teenage son to see what the smoke was about and ended up staying with us for a good two hours. The father took a few shots with a Bess just to say he'd done it, but the son did quite well with both smoothbores and a rifle (Patched properly, of course). Some other members of the club came over to see what we were up to after they finished up their work day over on the trap range.
Another member of my company had both of his sons along; his older son is just finishing up at the Naval Academy. They took turns with their dad's long fowler and also tried out the other weapons. So we had fun, and sent a lot of lead downrange. Some of it even hit the black part of the target. More importantly, we spread the interest in traditional muzzleloaders to both the under-20 set and some modern shooters.
YMH&OS,
Thos/MA
P.S. A shout-out and public thank you goes to the Tewksbury Rod and Gun Club of Tewksbury, MA for hosting us.
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