Everyone has a story about their shooting skills or lack of.

Everyone has a story about their shooting skills or lack of.

I was Presindent of the "Colorado State Muzzleloading Association in 1984, were are holding the yearly state shoot at Leadville CO (old Camp Hale training grounds for the Army's 101 Troops learning how to deal with mountains and winter conditions during WWII).

We have our regular matches along with special matches and buckskinning events. I get challenged to a shoot-off from another buckskinner that is always bragging about how good he is at everything. A course is setup with some pretty good prizes, cost $10 to get in, I enter with a dozen other guys. There are targets set at distances from 10 feet to 200 yards (most have their sight set at 25 or 50 yards). These targets are at different distances than what we are prepared for.

After an hour of shooting we are down to three shooters with the others being bumped out. Now we are working on the long distance shots - 170 yards and the final will be the 200 yard shot. After several rounds one guy has fallen off the list with his last shot. Now it's between an old friend Bob Williams and myself, we are shooting at the 200 yard piece of barn wood (12 inches wide by 14-16 inches long). Looks pretty small at this distance, but the prizes are either a $250.00 check or a new T/C Hawken - not bad. This final shot is who gets closes to the X on the board. Remember 200 yards and closes to the X.


The Range Officer hung my target up for three days at the "Announcement Board" (I got so much baloney about this like "Who did you pay to shoot that target with a cartridge gun... ").

Just can't win no matter what you do guys ....

Talk about dumb luck WOW  

We have a computer on the first floor (that's the wife's) and another in the unfinished basement (that's mine - you guessed correctly).  

I have all my "Crap" as the wife describes my treasurers hanging on the studded walls. My "trophies" of the past (she made me get rid of all the mounted heads) hunts of North American game animals. She claimed they were watching her (glass eyes ???), damn it after she said that after a dozen times I noticed she was correct.....
Something of mine NOW SOLD  again.

That said, I'm going to get rid of some of these items and will make a list and either I'll sell my toys or have Jonathan list them in his new store he's putting together. Keep and eye out for "Ventures Of The Past" opening soon.

See ya.....


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I have lots of....well, examples of lousy shooting, so I won't dwell on that. The good ones are so few they're not worth mentioning.

At least you have proof.  I own a gunshop and it's amazing the shooting abilities of some guys.  Had a guy come in telling me he could shoot 1/2" groups all day long with his savage axis .308 at 600 yards.  I promptly told him he needed to try out for the U.S Shooting team as the best they can do is maybe hold consistently 3" groups at that yardage.  He looked at me like I was the crazy one!  

I knew a guy years ago who bragged constantly. He talked about deer he'd killed (in Georgia, no less!) at 800 yards. And his "skills" with a revolver would've put Bob Munden to shame! Now I know the extreme difficulty of even seeing a deer in a pasture at only 400 yards! In my area of Georgia I'm not even sure I've ever been around any open area offering an 800 yard view!

In WV an Army major, and former student and a still close friend, was hunting with me on his dad's farm several years ago. He had a high-tech, military binocular with him and spotted several deer, including an enormous buck, in a neighbor's meadow. I couldn't really see them with my unassisted eyes, just occasional movements that could have been birds or a wind blown weed. But when I viewed them through that incredible binocular they were right there in my face! The glass could also measure distance and showed the various deer to be just over 400 yards.

I used to hunt a farm that in a couple of places allowed an unobstructed view of 200yds, or a bit more. I only shot a few deer in the 100 + or - yard range. And that was over several decades with both muzzleloader and scoped unmentionables. I just don't know what to say to those who insist on bragging about the impossible (literally) shots they commonly make??!!

I am not a great shot but do OK most of the time so as not to embarrass myself. Several years ago, a buddy and I were shooting our Hawken guns in preparation for the upcoming deer season. There were 2 other shooters at the other end of the shooting line sighting in their scope mounted centerfire rifles. One of the fellows came over to us during a cease fire to change targets and said we shouldn't be shooting those old guns as they are horribly inaccurate beyond 25 yards. Well we told him he was wrong about the accuracy of the old guns so he challenged us to a shoot off at 100 yards. We set the rules that all shots (3 shots) must be off hand, and the best grouping would be the winner, and the loser would buy the beers at the club house. I wish I had taken a picture of our targets, and the look on the guys face when he saw roughly 3" groups on our targets. His target (he was shooting an 06 with a 3-9 scope) had only two holes in it and they were 6" apart. We had several beers on him, but in the end we convinced him to get a muzzle loader and now he is a regular participant in our black powder shoots.

Fyrstyk like your the story, hear like stories every once in a while. You guys that have experienced such experiences should be proud, you got another guy shootng black powder.  Nice going ...




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And I LOVE to hear stories like that! Muzzleloaders ROCK!

The funny part about my experience with the fellow shooting the 06, is tat he was shooting with the scope dialed up to 9X. He was wobbling all over the place and I was surprised he even hit the target at all. I let him try my Hawken (Pedersoli RMH .54) for a shot. He thought the gun was too heavy, but when I demonstrated the use of the set trigger he was surprised. His one shot hit the target closer to the bull than he did with his 06. After the obligatory beers, we convinced him to buy a T/C hawken that another club member had for sale. He now shoots most of our trail walks and line shoots and does quite well. He is even going to get a tag this year to hunt during the muzzle loader season. I only wish i could get more shooters interested in muzzle loaders, but most only want to shoot the Inlines. We allow inlines with scopes on our trail walks, but the shooters never even place in the top ten, most of the time because they can't finish the course cause they can't load their gun after about 4 shots due to heavy fouling.

At least they tried by entering Fyrstyk, give them that much ...