Black
Powder Competition Shooting - introduction
There's plenty of competition shooting available in
the
UK, both postal and shoulder-to-shoulder, but the question is, why
bother?
There's no requirement to enter competitions if you
don't want to, but by not entering you miss out on a part of the
experience. Competitions give you a chance to test yourself against
your peers, but more importantly, against yourself. Given some decent
coaching and a modicum of talent it's relatively easy to put up decent
scores on your home range, but in an open competition when the pressure
is on, putting up a decent score is a whole new ball game. The mental
pressure can be intense, whether you're shooting for the match, or just
fighting to recover a card that's started badly.
But I'm not good enough I hear you say? Well that's not
a problem, because muzzle loading competitions are very friendly
indeed, and organisers welcome anyone who's safe and competent. Not
everyone can win, so don't feel you'll be laughed at for shooting
badly. Besides, a lot of people turn up to shoot interesting guns and
simply don't expect to win. In a typical precision competition which
might be won with a 96 or 97, there'll be plenty of scores in the
sixties, seventies and eighties. Anyway, if you don't enter you'll
never know just how good you are! So, where do you find these
competitions, what do they consist of and
how do you enter them? Simple, some are listed below.
The
Phoenix Meeting
The Phoenix is without doubt the best competition
of the
year. It's the successor to the National Pistol Association meeting,
and is held at the National Shooting Centre at Bisley Camp in Surrey,
usually on the weekend of May Bank Holiday. The whole thing is run by
an incredibly hard working volunteer crew, and it's really laid-back
and friendly.
There's generally about sixty or seventy matches on
offer for all kinds of gallery rifles, muzzle loading pistols and long
barrelled pistols. About a dozen of the matches are for black powder,
including Bow Street Runner, Cavalry Officer, MLAGB precision,
advancing target, and various kinds of timed and rapid fire. Finally,
mustn't forget the 100yd muzzle loading revolver match! The good thing
for competitition newcomers, is that "standard" medals are awarded in
the various matches if you meet the requisite bogey scores, so it's
quite possible to take a really fine medal home from your first
competition.
Apart from the shooting, there's a whole host of other
reasons to go to the shoot. Bisley itself is a fantastic historical
remnant from the colonial era, and is worth a trip in itself. There's a
great trade show in the pavilion, so you can stock up on all your
shooting needs for the year to come, and there's often a shooting show
allowing non-FAC holders to shoot rifles and carbines under
supervision.
Muzzle
Loaders Association of Great Britain
The
MLAGB run a
few matches during the course of each
year, notably the Pistolfest early in the year, and then the pistol
championships and the Pedersoli Challenge later on. There's also a
Historic Revolver championship, but more of that later. Some of the
matches are open, but most are for members only, and they're split
between Bisley and the MLAGB home range at Wedgnock. If you want to
shoot muzzle loaders competitively, then it's a good idea to join the
MLAGB as they provide the best precision matches there are. Remember,
all pistols have to be original or spirit of the original, modern
adjustable sights are strictly prohibited. Likewise, all shooting is
one handed, and a good grounding in precision technique is vital.
The matches are characterised by confusing names, and
further confused by having variants for original and repro pistols.
However, at the end of the day, they all have exactly the same course
of fire; which is 13 shots off-hand at 25m on the normal ISSF
precision
target, the PL7. So to make sure everyone stays awake they've invented
a quirky scoring system where you fire 13 shots, discard the worst
three, and then score the remaining ten as having to be 50% over the
line to score high.
Unlike the Phoenix, these matches are deadly serious as
the MLAGB have an International team who travel around Europe
and the
rest of the world to competitions.
MLAGB
- Historic Revolver
Historic
Revolver was invented by the MLAGB after the
handgun ban. Unfortunately it hasn't caught on as well as anticipated,
and more open matches now feature the Cavalry Officer and Bow Street
Runner matches than Historic Revolver. That's a pity really because
it's a nice match and includes timed reloading which none of the others
do.
As usual, with any kind of two handed match the Ruger
Old Army is the favoured tool, but it has no advantages over any other
adjustable sighted revolver.
The course of fire is very similar to the old PPI. or
Bow Street Runner as it's called now, except that when reloading is
required you have only four minutes to do it. This is easy enough
provided you have everything laid out in advance and use wads instead
of a filler.
There is an annual championship, which is generally held
at Wedgnock around the end of September. It's organised by the MLAGB,
but is an open shoot, and it has separate classes for "spirit
of the original" and "free".
Competition
Shooting - Other Shoots
Mattersey
Mattersey is a range just off the A1 near Retford
located in a massive former Sandstone quarry. The size of the place is
quite stunning, and they have at least six ranges. They run a number of
open shoots every year, at least two of which are of interest to muzzle
loaders. Entry fees are cheap, tea and coffee are FREE, and it's
friendly. The first shoot is the Mattersey 10 which includes rimfire
and lever action matches as well as muzzle loading matches. The second
shoot is the "Blackpowder Open" which is generally about ten muzzle
loading matches, with some 50yd rifle matches thrown in for good
measure. More information can be found on their website.
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