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Originally from West "By God" Virginia, now living in Mid-Ohio.
Growing up in West Virginia, when a child is born, instead of getting a Teddy
to play with, they get a Wood Stock .22 Rifle.
I tell this story because I'll be 76 this year, which means I've been shooting for a long, long time.
I got into Black Powder back in the '80s, and bought my 1st high quality Rifle, a .45 Cal, Flintlock made by an American Manufacturer named "Hatfield".
It's a wonderful gun, that I've done some work to, and I'll share in a future post. The stock is beautiful and she's Very accurate.
A few years back, I'd changed the sights and took it to the range to to sight her in. I had worked up a powder load, patch, lube, and ball combo in knew she liked. I got on the bench and used sandbags to stabilize my gun. Since this was just starting the process, I set my 1st target at 25 yards. I had fired a "Fouling Round" before I got on the bench.
I lined the sights up on the bull and touched off a round. Surprised, my shot was only 2" left and under an inch low.
But, before I turned my Dremel loose on my gun, I wanted to make Sure that my 1st shot was giving me the exact distances from where I was aiming.
So, I loaded her up again, repositioned the rifle on the bench like I had it for the 1st round.
Boom! The 2nd round was sent downrange. Looking through my spyglass I couldn't believe what I was seeing, there was only one hole in the paper! My 2nd round musta missed the entire target. Disappointed I walked down to get the target and to see if I could spot where the 2nd round went. I scanned the target backstop to the left of the target - Nothing. I went back to my bench. I finally spread my target out to measure my shot from the bullseye. As I centered my ruler on the hole, I noticed that the hole wasn't round but slightly elongated. I had found my 2nd shot. Though I haven't shot it in quite a while, I still have her along with the all the gear that goes with it.
Growing up in West Virginia, when a child is born, instead of getting a Teddy
to play with, they get a Wood Stock .22 Rifle.I tell this story because I'll be 76 this year, which means I've been shooting for a long, long time.
I got into Black Powder back in the '80s, and bought my 1st high quality Rifle, a .45 Cal, Flintlock made by an American Manufacturer named "Hatfield".
It's a wonderful gun, that I've done some work to, and I'll share in a future post. The stock is beautiful and she's Very accurate.
A few years back, I'd changed the sights and took it to the range to to sight her in. I had worked up a powder load, patch, lube, and ball combo in knew she liked. I got on the bench and used sandbags to stabilize my gun. Since this was just starting the process, I set my 1st target at 25 yards. I had fired a "Fouling Round" before I got on the bench.
I lined the sights up on the bull and touched off a round. Surprised, my shot was only 2" left and under an inch low.
But, before I turned my Dremel loose on my gun, I wanted to make Sure that my 1st shot was giving me the exact distances from where I was aiming.
So, I loaded her up again, repositioned the rifle on the bench like I had it for the 1st round.
Boom! The 2nd round was sent downrange. Looking through my spyglass I couldn't believe what I was seeing, there was only one hole in the paper! My 2nd round musta missed the entire target. Disappointed I walked down to get the target and to see if I could spot where the 2nd round went. I scanned the target backstop to the left of the target - Nothing. I went back to my bench. I finally spread my target out to measure my shot from the bullseye. As I centered my ruler on the hole, I noticed that the hole wasn't round but slightly elongated. I had found my 2nd shot. Though I haven't shot it in quite a while, I still have her along with the all the gear that goes with it.
