Saratoga Results

Another great regional completed this weekend with thanks to the 120th NYVI as hosts. The weather was just about perfect with a clear, sunny sky and cool nights.
The musket matches were 8-shooter teams with 5 competing and 2 hospital teams. The 14th VA cav took the lead from the first event and completly dominated the results. Individual match leaders were Harry A - 8 medals, Glen Rohde - 7, D Smith - 6.
NEXT SHOOT- July 9-10, Glastonbury Elks, Hosted by 1st CVI
MUSKET TEAM RESULTS:
14th VA Cav 658.1
15th CVI 890.3
4th VA Inf 923.8
10th Mass 962.0
73rd NYVI 976.4
Hosp-A 1,214.6
Hosp-B 1,524.1
CARBINE TEAM RESULTS:
15th CVI 473.3
14th VA Cav A 509.1
10th Mass A 726.1
4th VA Inf A 1,052.7
73rd NYVI 1,053.6
4th VA Inf B 1,114.1
14th VA B 1,178.9
10th Mass B 1,624.0
SMOOTHBORE TEAM RESULTS
10th Mass A 227.0
15th CVI A 233.5
14th VA B 354.2
4th VA Inf A 400.8
14th CVI 441.7
10th Mass B 483.3
14th VA Cav A 487.1
15th CVI B 605.0
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
MUSKET-50 Yrd
H Anagnostis 49-2x
D Stedman 47-1x
T Trovato 47
P Barbieri 46
D Smith 46
MUSKET-100 Yrd
P Barbieri 46-1x
G Rhode 45-1x
H Anagnostis 44-1x
M Farrell 44
M Jewett 43-1x
MUSKET AGG
H Anagnostis 93-3x
P Barbieri 92-1x
D Stedman 89-1x
CARBINE-50 Yrd
H Anagnostis 48
D Smith 46
S Tackus 44-2x
G Rohde 44-1x
M Farrell 44-1x
CARBINE-100 Yrd
H Anagnostis 46-1x
D Stedman 45-1x
T Hines 45
D Smith 44
G Rohde 42
CARBINE AGG
H Anagnostis 94-1x
D Smith 90
G Rhode 86-1x
REVOLVER-25 Yrd
H Anagnostis 48
P Orzolek 44
A La Patra 42
BREECHLOADER-50 Yrd
C Henshall 46
G Rohde 46
P Barbieri 45-1x
BREECHLOADER -100 Yrd
G Rohde 49-1x
A La Patra 44
D Smith 42
BREECHLOADER-Agg
G Rohde 95-1x
A La Patra 88-1x
D Smith 86
SMOOTHBORE-25 Yrd
M Ross 48
T Witham 47-3x
D Nelson 45-1x
SMOOTHBORE - 50 yrd
J Jewett 46
A Torday 42
T Hines 39
SMOOTHBORE AGG
J Jewett 89
A Torday 84
T Hines 80
GRAND AGGREGATE
H Anagnostis 235-4x
D Stedman 213-2x
A La Patra 200

Aging eyes: ongoing

After falling apart during the styrofoam cups event on Sunday morning (zero for . . . [cough] nine), I decided to make haste to my optician for some vision expertise. I can tell you that everything was a blur during that event--and I do mean EVERYTHING, targets, front sight, rear sight, everything. What concerned me most was the apparent double vision I had of the targets themselves . . . I couldn't blink them straight, I couldn't line up the front sight on a single isolated cup, nothing. That's never happened to me before. So off I went.

The optician I go to is a good one, and he's got several other customers who shoot. Half the problem he suggested was not having the right color shooting glasses to make the targets pop out of the green background a bit more. That made sense to me, so we talked about shooting glasses. We also talked about the need to focus on the front sight with my dominant (right eye). Ordinarily I've been shooting with bifocal contact lenses and clear non-prescription shooting glasses.

He suggested dropping down a diopter in my right contact lens and wearing a non-bifocal lens in that eye. He predicted that would give me good focus on the front sight at around 30 inches or thereabouts. So he gave me a couple of -3.75 lenses to try (my normal prescription is -4.75) in the right eye, with the instructions to keep my normal bifocal -4.75 in the left eye.

And I bought a pair of Bolle sport glasses with 4 different colored lens inserts: yellow, light brown, vermillion, and a polarized set for driving. These are polycarbonate so should work for shooting; he also sells the Wiley X brand but did not have any in stock, so I went with the Bolle. The idea here is to see if I can get the target image as sharp as possible against the various backgrounds and in different light conditions.

Went to the range yesterday morning before the rains came--put in the weaker contact lens in my right eye, wore the yellow lenses (cloudy conditions) in the shooting glasses, and shot 20 or so rounds at paper.

Results were encouraging: My first target put three just outside the black in one big hole; the second five shots were kind of all over; and the last ten shots put a number in the black.

Then I shot a half dozen or so shots plinking at blocks of wood against the backstop. This was the best thing I did: I probably hit 2 out of 3 shots on average for about ten shots total.

So hopefully this will be the next step in trying to figure out how to improve my musket shooting with aging eyes. The rains came a bit too quickly yesterday to shoot anymore at clays, but I'm going to make up some hanging clays to try with the vermilion lenses, which I understand really accentuate the orange. I'll let you know how that goes.

you can't hit what you can't see . . .

Denise Mike Fred and Bernie

Team photo taken by Mike Clark

Bernie and Fred

Al, Bob, Rich, Walt, Mikey

More Glastonbury pics

Walt, Bob, Tom, Denise, and Rich

Al, Bernie, Mike, and Tom

Bob, Denise, Mike, Fred, Bernie

Rick Bob Denise and Walt

Bob, Denise, Walt, Mike, Fred and Bernie

Glastonbury Shoot

Al, Denise, Fred, Tom, Jon, Mike, Bernie, Bob, Rich, and Walt.

Glastonbury Shoot

I have pics to upload, but I'm getting an internal error. Any suggestions?

Jon asks Tommy how much he wants for that Maynard

If anyone is interested...Walt is selling his Mississippi Type E, with SAC card, bayonnette, scabbard and frog. Will be taking to Nationals on Monday.

Black Powder

I'll admit, I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes. I ran out of 2F just before Hopkinton, and switched brands (the one shop in RI no longer carried Schuetzen) I expected a little change in point of aim, but as luck would have it I ended up 7 inches higher at 50 yards. Struggled through the weekend with an awful, hard to replicate sight picture at 50 with the carbine. I have been making plans to put a higher front sight on and sight in the carbine again, when something Tom said finally sunk in. I can just buy more Schuetzen in Winchester and leave the carbine alone. This solution is so simple, but flies in the face of my constant tinkering.

Recruitment Skirmish

Come on boys, if you want a heap of fun and to kill some yankees, er, I mean, clay pigeons, pots or tiles.

Design by Kim Faucher

Click on picture to see small print. If you can read the fine print w/out clicking on it, sign on the dotted line!

Tiverton Shoot

Too busy shooting to take pictures (OK, I forgot). 4th Virginia had a strong showing at the Rhode Island blackpowder shoot. On Saturday, Winchester, Timmy, Freddie, Al Otash, Tom, and Tony enjoyed the mild weather, and on Sunday Bob, Al Pacheco, Tom, Tony and myself enjoyed the sunshine. Tom won the 25 yard smoothbore with a score of 46, and the 4th Va. swept the 50 yard military musket, taking 1st 2nd and 3rd place, with a top score of 44 1x.

One question......Why did Timmy name his dog after Phil Sheridan's horse?

Range report, the good, the bad and the ugly

Took advantage of decent weather yesterday to try out the Hoyt reline springfield and the Sharps carbine. Without touching the 1861 sights from before the reline, shooting a benchrest 3" 10 shot string about 2" rt of center, elevation good. Had a little difficulty loading the latter rounds, probably a combination of 6 month old ammo (Walt's recipe lube) and 45 F ambient temp (thoughts?). Shots made two ragged holes between the 10 shots.
Sharps carbine functioned properly, 25 shots w/o any noticable increase in effort operating the block. 4" 10 shot group, from benchrest, could probably have shot better, was trying to get a feel for the carbine. Blazing fast to reload, which is kind of a bad thing because the ammo required multiple steps to manufacture. Need to move the rear sight for windage, but the elevation for 50 yards with the sight flipped up and the bar at the bottom is right on. Pays to be Irish around St. Paddy's Day.
Went back to the range this morning with the Winter project 1863, new Whitacre barrel. Group size very similar to the 1861, though there was some wind this morning, and it was 10 F cooler. Similar problems loading, I'm pretty sure its the temp causing the problem. Shooting 4" rt, not bad considering I just lightly staked the new front sight and took it to the range. Also shooting 3" low , center hold. I've already done the math and adjusted the windage, going to wait till next session to do any filing on the front sight.
I need to do some casting, still need to test out the Hoyt Smith carbine reline and make a few rounds for Tiverton. Hope to spend the rest of March casting bullets.
JF

Oh yeah, most important.....40 rounds musket and 25 rounds carbine NO KEYHOLES!

1863 Springfield Type 2

Preview of my winter project, almost completed. 1863 Type 2, all original parts except for the bridle, tumbler, and Whitacre barel with sights. I cheated and found an original stock that was a bit beat up, so I didn't have to do that much inletting, and only needed a little bit of epoxy bedding. Just need to tune the lock a bit, glassbed the lock, clean up and seal the wood, and make some minor modifications to 2 of the band springs. Hope to have it completed by the team meeting. Am going to put this head to head with the newly relined Providence Tool 1861.

1859 Armi Sport Sharps- mod for skirmish

Finally home, opened up the Sharps sent by Charlie Hahn. The following pictures show the details of the modification. The breech block was made solid (gas check plate is pinned in place) and the flash channel was simplified. The chamber sleeve was remanufactured in two pieces, with a captured o-ring used to make a positive seal with the breech block. He also made a taller brass front sight. Mr. Hahn provided info about care and feeding, as well as instructions for making the cardboard cartridges. This mild weather returns, and I should be able to post a range report. Still waiting on the Smith carbine sent for reline, should be any day.

1859 Sharps

My wife tells me that my Sharps has come back from the gunsmith. I've been stuck at work for 62 hours now, will be home in the morning to examine it and post some pics.
Jon