Discriminating?

[Zonie]

"I was reading an old MuzzleBlasts issue which talked about firing Matchlocks. It mentioned that at some of their annual shoots they have a special Matchlock competition but said it was held after all of the other events were done for safety reasons.
Are Matchlocks really that dangerous and is this sort of discriminating against pre flint guns?"

 

[blckhrn]

I wondered about the safety of them when I saw that always smoldering wick thing. They are a little iffy for me.

 

[musketman]

I wondered about the safety of them when I saw that always smoldering wick thing. They are a little iffy for me.

That's why they (back in the hay day of matchlocks) had a musket drill, to get into the "safe" routine of loading and discharging the weapon...

The matchlock was a major leap forwards from the handgonnes, just as the later locks replaced the matchlock as the standard, all required different cautions even though they are all muzzleloaders...

Remember your first time with a flintlock? It required a different procedure to fire it than the percussion muzzleloaders, but once you got use to the technique, it becomes second nature, so will the matchlock...

No muzzleloader, be it handgonne to modern inline, should be handled carelessly, take the time to learn the proper loading and firing procedure and you will only add to the enjoyment of black powder shooting...

 

[Teleoceras]

Musketman:

You couldn't say it any better!

I have faced some discrimination when shooting a Matchlock by a couple of shooters in the past. Last year had a real winner.

Now at the range that I shoot at, I am well known by the range safety officers for my shooting and demos of Handgonnes and Matchlocks. On one day last year, I was shooting my .75 Matchlock (Hildegarde). I was at one of the few spots on the left side of the range when I could use the 25 yard targets. A couple of benches over was a teenage kid who was showning quite a bit of interest in the gun. So I showed him how it was loaded and fired and did that kid's eyes light up! He was not at all bothered and after watching a couple of shots, he went back to shooting his .22.

A good 20 minutes later, this guy shows up and plops down between me and the kid. He is staring at my gun as the teen says "Hi Dad" to the man. Since he was the teen's Dad, I go into my demonstration mode again and show him everything I showed his son. The man showed a very strange face to me then said in a nasal voice "This is unacceptable! This is unacceptable!". Then he runs off to get the head range officer.

My reaction was "Huh?" ::

Then he comes back with the officer and starts to complain about my Matchlock. By this time the kid was looking embarassed and told his Dad that he was ok with my shooting and that he learned a lot. What happened next is seared in my brain.

The father actually was stroking his son's head saying "You don't understand, I have to protect you.". The father then turns to the officer and says "Guns like that should be banned from..."

At that point the officer raised his finger and gave the shut your mouth sign to him. He then said "This man has every RIGHT to shoot this gun here if he wishes. If you have a problem with him, then I will gladly move you to a new bench." :applause:

The father was arguing while his son had looked on embarassed. Finally the father took his son and moved deeper into the 50 yards section. I really felt sorry for the son. Later on, the officer had to tell me that it had been a long time since he had seen a shooter so neurotic.

Thankfully I have been meeting many open minded shooters over the years.

 

[SquirrelsaurusR]

At one of the ranges I go to, there is a 200 yard range separate from the other parts of the range. The firing line and targets are separated by a gully in between filled with brush. They'll let you shoot a muzzleloader on the 200 yard range, but only with conicals. They won't let me shoot my flint long rifle with patched roundballs because they're afraid the patch will go down range and start a brush fire.

As far as matchlocks go, a couple of years ago I ran into someone dressed like an English Civil War soldier (I think he was one of Thornezilla's guys) shooting a matchlock on the 25 yard line at the same range. He told me about something that happened to him a few years earlier. He had been shooting his matchlock for a while and the match had burned down to just a few inches long. He took a shot, and the flash in the pan blew the short match out of the jaws of the serpentine (a common occurrence with matchlocks) so it went up and forward a couple of feet, coming down just in front of the muzzle. At the same moment, the main charge went off and the blast coming out of the muzzle again blew the match up in the air, but this time it was blown very high and up at an angle off to one side. It landed in the top of a nearby tree and set the top of the tree on fire. They were able to shoot water up there with a garden hose and put it out.

 

Match set the tree on fire! O.K. That's it, they should all be banned.
Let's get the message out to BAN TREES! :haha:

 

[Stumpkiller]

The father actually was stroking his son's head saying "You don't understand, I have to protect you.". The father then turns to the officer and says "Guns like that should be banned from..."

The father probably thought you were building a pipebomb. ::

The complaint I always got - before I quit the club - was that my smoke was burning the benchrest shooter's eyes and obscuring the range. I have since come to the conclusion that bench shooting is over rated. No doubt about it - it is the best way to see what a gun is capable of, but I don't lug a bench around with me when hunting, and a load that works best with the gun supported over a table may not be the best for offhand shooting. Maybe the one that clears the muzzle faster will improve offhand shots, while from a steady bench it wasn't as accurate as the lower velocity loads? Recoil factor, different eye position relative to the sights (this is a big one for prescription lens wearers), pressures on the barrel from rest vs. hand support, arm position when pulling the trigger, etc.

There will always be complainers. We traditional archers as a group were barred from the field course of a local archery range/club for using wood arrows and cedar shafts. "You leave too big a hole in the foam 3-D's, and you shouldn't be practicing on those targets, anyway." :: When we shot indoors they complained that we left glue-on heads in the bales that shattered carbon arrows (never proven - some of the bozos used metal spiles to hold targets to the bales and occasionally left one behind). So, can't shoot indoors, can't shoot the field course. That left the outdoor target range. I have one of those for free in my back yard, why pay $60/yr to get abuse and then spend two weekends a year putting out pins for the sissies with bowsights and training wheels on their bows on a course I can't use except during formal shoots?

The best 'club' I frequent is an old gravel pit on what is now state game lands. No dues, no officers, no structures to maintain. It is a social meeting place that is self regulating and amazingly well treated. A steep dirt bank on one side, and an 800 yard square 'fallow' field that's part of a Core of Engineers flood control region used for a buffer zone to the gamelands and swampy wetlands and 1x5 mile lake beyond. The world's largest skeet range. The local conservation officer even drops in occasionally to chat. Like all good things it probably can't last, but for 25 years it has been a great place to shoot. Word is out that the lake is going to be flooded another 30 feet, which will take the field, require a big detour as one bridge will be lost, but the fishing area will increase and they'll stock hybrid stripers!

 

[musketman]

I was always made to shoot down-wind...

Couldn't figure out if it was because of the musket's smoke or the fact that I had a heaping bowl of 2-alarm chili the night before... :winking: :haha: :haha: :redface:

Either way, I clouded the air...

 

[SquirrelsaurusR]

The complaint I always got - before I quit the club - was that my smoke was burning the benchrest shooter's eyes...

That's a pretty lame excuse.

I have since come to the conclusion that bench shooting is over rated.

Me, too. Funny how shooting a flintlock in the middle of a bunch of centerfire shooters will make you feel that way. Once at the range, they called a 'cease fire' just as I loaded a ball. So everyone had to put their hearing protection back on while they waited for me to make the shot. As luck would have it, it misfired. Tried again. Nothing. The flint got dull and wouldn't spark, so I had to knap the edge a bit to make a sharp edge. Not a big deal, except that twenty or so pairs of eyes were on me as all these guys with their AR-15's and .270's and .338's stood there watching me, obviously unhappy with me for wasting their range time. They were glad when I finally packed up my stuff and left, but I'd like to see any of them shoot a flintlock offhand with a roundball and open sights as accurately as I can.

 

We got a bit of Static from the locals at the Squamish rod and Gun Club, so we publically challenged them to a match. The local news station and paper were quite happy to see what would happen.
: We allowed the 'moderns' to use their varmint rifles, bench guns, whatever they had including one guy wiht his 30-30 that "replaced all those pieces of junk"
: Suffice to say, the lowest scoring person with a muzzleloader beat the best shot of the modern rifles. We shot two ranges, 50yds. offhand and 100yds. offhand on the same size scoring target.
: Every one of the ML shooters had 10 ball holes on their targets while none of the moderns had 10 at the 100yds; range.
Daryl

 

[musketman]

: Every one of the ML shooters had 10 ball holes on their targets while none of the moderns had 10 at the 100yds; range.
Daryl

You can't beat a classic... :winking: :haha:

I will gladly pass up a "good" second shot for a "best" first shot any day...

 

[shooter575]

At one of our C/W skirmishes held in NW Ohio.There was allways a local cops vs the skirmishers team event.Officers used any weapon.Skirmishers used Carbines.Smith,Sharps,Maynard etc.Targets were 60 or so clays on cardboard backer at 50 yd. Cops allways lost. Funny to see a AR 15 verses single shot.

Jim