How was Friendship?????

[Skychief]

I went on Saturday. Arrived at about 11 AM. I had missed some big rain in the morning apparently. It only rained for about 10 minutes very lightly in the afternoon. One thing for sure...IT WAS HOT and HUMID!!!! :surrender:

Still had a ball and would NOT have missed it for much of anything. It is unlike any other event, IMO. :thumbsup:

How was your time at Friendship?

 

[mykeal]

I was there all day Saturday. Shopped in the morning and took photos of the shooting lines during the rainstorms and later in the afternoon when it stopped raining and became a steam bath. This is my first time at Friendship, and frankly I didn't plan to shoot as couldn't figure out the shooting program enough to come up with a plan. I finally brought a flintlock rifle, a percussion rifle and a percussion pistol just in case, but had no plan to use them.

Today (Sunday) I spent the morning in the Range Officer Certification class (air conditioned room, you see... :wink: ), and then paid for it by working the offhand line all afternoon as a Range Officer In Training. 6 hours on my feet... :youcrazy:

The weather this afternoon under the shooting line shelter was actually pretty nice, much, much better than yesterday. I have to work one more shift on the Bench/Chunk Gun/Silhouette line later this week to pay for my sin this morning, so I'm hoping for a continuance of this afternoon. However, the radar shows some more thunderstorms on their way tonight.

I took some photos of the Laughery today. It's out of it's banks but was not threatening the range when I left there tonight. It won't take too much more rain, however, and there's a bunch in the area of it's watershed tonight.

 

[mrbortlein]

I was there today, creek still looks about the same. It would be a fast ride down stream in a raft. It was still HOT and HUMID!!! But everyone we spoke to said it was better than the last 2 days. I also heard from some of the sutlers that some primitive shop owners are moving to the flee market section. It's got more traffic, they can be in street clothes, stay in their a/c campers, and it costs less to set up than the primitive and sheep shed spots. You got to make your money go further in this economy.
mrbortlein

 

[Denny/Oh]

Well I had good intentions of going today. I'm glad its not flooded out but the rain isn't gone yet.

Yesterday my wife and I were at a traffic light ready to turn left when a young lady was too busy on her cell phone to notice us in the turn lane. She never hit the brakes and plowed us good. That car has 4000 miles on it and its 6 months old.

We are OK {stiff etc.}but its the sudden wack that gets you. Spent all day on the phone today with insurance etc. She did have insurance.

:bow: :surrender: :nono: :shocked2:

 

[mykeal]

Ouch! I'm glad you weren't injured. Sorry about the car.

Today started with light rain which cleared up about halfway through the morning. The day was actually fairly comfortable early and then, of course, it got muggy. Pretty good shooting day, however, with just light winds (the kind that drives the bench shooters nuts because their flags are all going different directions). The Laughery has receded a lot, surprising for all the rain in the area last night. More storms moving through the area tonight, but it looks like the flooding issue is at least diminished if not gone altogether.

 

[dbutch]

I stayed 6 hours..enjoyed the builders and suppliers ..I guess I don't fit in!..Not a competitive shooter and don't wear primitive cloths... Glad I saw it once! Liked the ranges ..Bought some powder and ebony for my Fowler build. Hope the weather turns nice!

 

[Skychief]

makeumsmoke, I hope you had a good time, but, it sounds possible that you didn't. There are a lot of hard core reenactors and competitive shooters there. All the same, I hope you didn't really feel "out of place". :redface:

 

[dbutch]

Skychief.....Not to worry..Just think I'll head to the CLA or the gun fair for the next trip..Live and learn!

 

[mykeal]

Very nice day today, if a bit warm and humid still. I worked as an RO on the pistol range in the morning just for the experience.

Shot my GPR rifles this afternoon - two practice targets: a six bull 25 yard and a single bull 50 yard, then the same for record. My first record shot was an X in the center bottom bull on the six bull - on somebody else's target :shocked2: :redface: . Damn good thing I didn't pay for an aggregate match.

You see, I'm not a competitive shooter either. I still had a lot of fun, even including my first dryball in National Competition.

By the way, it's actually a good thing I DSQ'd the six bull target. I went ahead and finished it anyway and shot a 35-1X. The 50 yard bull was a bit better, but still not even close to competing: 45-1X. Oh, well, there's always pistol tomorrow.

 

[Skychief]

Oh, well, there's always pistol tomorrow.

Best of luck Mykeal! :thumbsup:

 

[jethro224]

I worked all day Friday then drove all night to get there. Arrived Saturday around 1:00am and slept at the Grand Cherokee Motel(back of my Jeep :wink: ). Woke to the sound of raindrops on the roof. Took a stroll over to the cafeteria for some coffee and breakfast. Got registered to shoot and camp. Got my pistol shootin' gear together. And headed up toward Primitive 'cause my plan was to start with a Pistol Woodswalk with grzrob and Many Klatch. By then the rain had stopped.

As soon as I got in the gate I was distracted by a table full of horns and had to stop and look. Then it started to rain again. We never did get around to shooting Saturday as it rained most all morning and the woodswalk wasn't open anyway. They were still fixing targets.

It dried out enough in the afternoon that I got to set up camp while it was dry. This was my first time ever camping on the Primitive side of the fence and the Widowmakers welcomed me to their camp even tho there was a little talk of diminishing property values :wink: . Great bunch of folks. :hatsoff:
I had recently purchased a painters tarp to use as a shelter but Grizz was kind enough to offer me the use of his oilskin 12x12 and show me how to set it up as a plow-point diamond shelter. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: I was mighty thankful for that!
EVERY NIGHT a storm rolled thru the valley. It would blow real hard for a few minutes then rain for a while. Lots of folks learned why they call a tent fly a FLY. :haha: That oilskin diamond shelter weathered the storms extremely well. Better than most other tents. I'll be ordering me one soon.

While I was there it was HOT and HUMID every day, stormed every evening, big lightning one night, had a tornado warning, and there was hail. The creek went from a creek to a raging current quick! I was in town buying Grizz a sit-down dinner to thank him for the use of his shelter during the hail. Thanks again, Butch, for dropping the open front and shoving my blankets in deeper when the wind switched back. :hatsoff:

On Sunday I shot the woodswalk twice. Smoothbore and Pistol. Did pretty well with both. Didn't do so well shootin' my GPR rifle the next day. Then a Nappy Headed Hillbilly from the Cleavage of Dollywood made me drink too much and stay up laughin' too late so I shot even worse the next day with my squirrel rifle. But I surely did have fun. :grin:
I finally got to do the Fort Greenville Shoot too. That was fun!

I learned something too. Had one of them bright flashes over my head Sunday evening while I was wishin' my clothes wasn't quite so funky smellin'. You can take a shower with all yer clothes ON! It washes the clothes at the same time as yer skin. Works purty good too. :thumbsup: ...'course ya look kinda silly doin' it. :youcrazy: :haha:

All in all, I had a GREAT time! Burned well over a pound of powder (maybe 2???). Flung several pounds of lead. Partied with good people. Had new experiences. Learned new things. Saw cool things. And weathered the storms. Wish I was still there.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[selvinman]

Got there Saturday 12th. I shot about average (for me) on the offhand range in a raging storm. Left about the time the rain was ending soaked but happy. I came back on Thursday (a beautiful and almost perfect)shooting day. It was too darn bad I couldn't shoot worth a flip :idunno: All in all a great time had by all of my clan :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[Big John]

30hrs. & 1,900mi. of driving (round trip), could have done without the heat/humidity, but it was worth it!Went thru 400 rounds of rb and 4lbs. of 3f. Happy to come home with some shiney stuff! Met old friends and made many new ones!

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

I was there for the whole week, it was the worst weather I have ever seen for a spring shoot! There was only one comfortable day and we had six storms in a row at night! Jethro and I were several miles away when the Black Wall of Death came rolling down the valley. The tornado alarms went off and they told everyone to get in the basement. I went out to the covered porch because I had never seen a bad storm like this! Back at the primitive camp there were over 60 people in the bunker, to my knowledge the first time this structure earned it's nick name! It was said songs from the Wizard of Oz could be heard drifting out of the bunker! During the day except for the one day, it was hot and humid. The Friendship Brown was as bad as I had ever seen it.
All that being said It was Friendship! Friends, Shooting and supplies. Friendship is the Mecca of Muzzle loading, crappy weather has been known to occur but this year might be the record! I would not miss it for anything!

 

[rmonday2]

My son and I drove-up friday morning (6/18) 255 miles for us! Not bad at all. We had lunch with some friends from home that we camp with at the Old Mill Camp Ground. Regestered that evening and burnt a little powder on the silouet range.Saturday morning at 6am it rained an inch in one our then tapered off about 10ish.Christian and I had a big breakfast under a tarp in the rain before heading to the range. We shot in the 3rd,5th,7th round of the day and maneged to through in some shopping between rounds.It was my son's first time to shoot at the range and compet. He is 14 and short attention spand.As long as he is shooting he is fine but he is ready to go otherwise!LoL! Didn't shoot worth a dime but enjoyed every minute and cant wait till September! I would have liked to have met-up with everyone on here up there that went. Its neet to put faces and personalities with all the nicknames i see here from time to time. Maybe I will see youall in the fall!!!! :thumbsup:

 

[Jim/OH]

Well, back from Friendship in one piece. :grin: As others have said, the weather was a little lacking (hot and steamy), but the shooting conditions were not really that bad. I have sure seen it a lot worse. Shot pistol all week. Ended up with 5 metals in the Expert Class. I was happy with that. :thumbsup: Wanted to shoot the woodswalk and some offhand, but the pistols wore me out and I never got it done. Picked up a few supplies, cruised the vendors several times and that was about it. No doubt about it, there is nothing quite like Friendship. For those who have never been there, you should make it a point to go at least once. :v
See ya, Jim/OH :hatsoff:

 

[smo]

The wife and i were there on Sat morning the 12th. After the rain stopped we walked the flea market area and bought a couple of items. Then down to the vendor area for lunch. After that walked the range areas and watched some shooting. Not allot of people on the lines :idunno: I had a better time than the OWMBO.When the shopping was over and the Temp. & Humidity went up she was ready to go. :shake: It was a great expierience and i plan to return again.The next time i'm shooting for sure. :thumbsup:

 

[nappy]

R.E.M.what part of east tn.do you live.
Im the nappy headed hill-billy from the cleavage of dollywood :hatsoff: