Club setting up first blackpowder shoot

[cheapeats]

My dad's club is looking to set up it's first blackpowder shoot and are looking for ideas, procedures etc. Any help would be appreciated. Thank You in advance.

 

[Forster]

Most club shoots I've gone to follow NMLA rules and regs. Where in New England are you located? Jim

 

[boondocker]

Hello Cheapeats

At our club we have a blast. Points system on targets like 1 to 5 points. At 15 yds clothes pins on a rope, playing cards,plywood cutout of a man smoking a pipe 1/4 in. stem with a 2x2 block as target 1/4 in holed drilled for easy replacement,resetable steel turkey head and deer with 8 in. pretzel antlers for targets. At 20 yds a 3 in. steel pipe with a bag of flour in it. At 25 yds 4" gong. At 30yds 8" balloons with a touch of flour in them. This is a standing freehand and is a real blast, you"ll love it. Regards Boon

 

[JWP]

There is the standard paper shoot -

25 yds. - paper targets (whatever design you want)
You can give this an added twist if you limit it to say 8 shots with a catch. The catch is they first have to hit a dowel rod (either hanging on a string or stuck into a drilled hole on the backboard). Then they have 6 targets (circles, playing cards, etc.) on a paper that they are only allowed 1 hole in each target (2 holes in a single space (circle, cards, etc. are not counted).
Tie breakers can be longer ranges - 35, 50, etc.

Then you have the woods walk - this is a course that you've layed out in the woods with gongs, suckers, feathers or charcoal tied from a string, etc. You can make the targets just about anything you choose. Vary the yardages

One thing you want to try to do is - try to make each target station solid as you don't want to have to be calling "range closed" for repairs along the course. Hope this helps, :thumbsup:

 

[lyman]

I don't have an " official " club but I hold a lot of BP shoots at my range. Let your imagination run wild and think outside the box. Build a moving target with a jerk line[easy to do], for a shoot off, build a wooden horse and have the people that tied get on the horse. The trick is the horse is faceing away from the targets and they have to shoot backwards like they are being chased by wild indians. try it sometime and you will see how hard it is.
Bob

 

[cheapeats]

Personally in Rutland, MA just north of worcester, but the club is in Jaffery NH just over the mass border, near Mount Monadnock. In fact the club is called Monadnock.

 

[akapennypincher]

Well the first thing you need to do is set up safety procedure to make sure you do everything so no more get hurt. Muzzleloader are not Modern Guns, and require a Special Set of Safety Rules to prevent incidents. Also is you Club Insurance up to date, and in place so if there was an incident all Member, and Officer would not be held liable?

 

[Blackfoot]

How about a string shoot?
Walk along the string until you see your target and then you either take the shot or move ahead to see if there is a better angle BUT YOU CAN'T GO BACKWARDS...It is fun

 

[boondocker]

I forgot one other thing which is fun, running deer target. We have a side berm between the trap and the rifle we set to temp poles and a down hill rope away from the berm with a deer drawn on a piece of cardboard with vitals on a pulley and string.Gotta hit it on the run and not shoot the rope lol. Man stands behind the berm to regulate the speed and return. Best Boon

 

[arcticap]

Considering it's your club's 1st BP shoot, maybe you should keep it relatively simple, shooting 5 shots at paper targets at 25, 50 and 100 yards within a certain time span. You can also choose to permit the shooting of a 2nd or 3rd re-entry target for a small additional fee so people can try to improve their score or shoot another gun.
My club used to hold a turkey shoot using "mini-clays" set up at 50 yards. These can be hot glued or rubber banded using partially hollowed out plywood backing & 2 surrounding nails, 5 in a line with each entrant given 5 shots. If there is a tie, those shooters would have a shoot off with more mini clays until someone gains a scoring advantage through rounds of alternate shooting. Off course, a portion of the entry fees would go into a prize pot for the winner of each relay.
A variation of this could be done with regular clay pigeons or other reactive targets (balloons?) at another distance as well.
Whatever you do eventually decide on doing, I wish you loads of fun and success makin' smoke! :hatsoff:

 

[cheapeats]

Thanks for all of your help alot of good ideas and and helpful information.

 

[paulvallandigham]

My club has a ravine that almost circles the camp ground, and we have set up a woods walk with bangplate targets set along the ravine, giving us a safe backstop to shoot into, and reactive targets that are " swingers" so we don't have to go down and set them up for each shooter. we vary the shape and size of the targets and the ranges, so the course is interesting each month. Mo more than 20 shots, and we usually throw in a station for some skills, like knife and hawk throwing, or fire starting, or throwing a lance, or shooting a bow and arrow, setting a beaver trap, etc. By altering the positions where the shooter must take his shot, the range and angles can be increased or decreased, so that no two courses of fire ar alike. For major shoots, we do novelty shoots, like cutting playing cards on edge, or shooting eggs hung with fishing line and rubber bands to swing in the wind. We have done charcoal brickettes, clay pigeons, neco wafers, split the ball on an ax and break two clay targets, etc. We have even had shoots at bottle caps at 25 yds. ( Please, God, don't let that cloud block the sun before I shoot!) Use your imagination, and if you get stuck, again, ask us for more ideas.I haven't even begun to talk about the varied paper targets that can be used.