Lincoln County Gun Club 200 - 500 yard gong match.

[Distant Thunder]

Don,

That would be kind of cool, I may look into that.

This collar button thing is working way better than I thought it would and is probably cheaper than .22 LR ammo is now. I have all the components and it's easy as can be to load. There's no case cleaning or fouling to deal with and it's really fun to shoot these loads. They sound like a high velocity .22 when they go off. Though they probably have the power of a 9mm round, maybe even a .45 ACP! And there's no trouble seeing the holes in paper! Even at 50 yards. It's working pretty well for me for now.

My .22 BPCR I built to match my .40-65 as close as possible being the .40 was is my silhouette rifle of choice and that's in large part because I shoot it better offhand than my 1874s. I find the 1874 Sharps rifles a bit more of a challenge to shoot well offhand, could be the lock time, but my real problems are all mental and any offhand practice will help with that.

I should be hitting 2 to 3 out 5 at these gong matches and I just suck when standing on my hind legs! I know it too, that's just the way it is. I am working on it though.

Back in my traditional muzzle loader competition days 99% of the shooting was offhand and I used a flint lock rifle and smoothbore. I wasn't great but I was damn sure better than I have been lately. The difference then compared to now is I did a lot of shooting offhand with those guns and I tried really hard to be good at it. These days I find myself just wanting to get it over with and hope nobody sees me! That's not the right way to approach the line. The only silver lining is that most of the guys I'm shooting against aren't doing a heck of a lot better! If I could hit 3 offhand it would be a significant advantage. The gongs are not overly small for the most part, but there is usually one that you really have to be half way good to hit, or in my case lucky!

I've got two weeks to get my jerk working better! Of course now it's raining day and night! So I'm putting my time into the never ending chore of stripping everything out of my old shop and hoping the new one goes up without a hitch. Life is a challenge!