August 21, 22 & 23, 2020 was a BIG weekend for NMLRA and GGCA at Friendship, Indiana. The NMLRA’s big event there and then was the NMLRA NRA BPCR Regionals. These are the largest regionals held. My pal Mike Pynn got here on Thursday, the day before the shoot. Our primary focus was on the NMLRA Stalking Rifle Matches held on Friday PM, the Double Rifle Match on Saturday AM and Mike wanted to shoot the NMLRA BPCR Regionals held on Sunday. So, we launched into a loading session and while I was making a Ballard firing pin for Mike, he was busy loading shells for a .38-55 Pacific Ballard and for an 1887 Martini. The Martini was a Martini-Henry action body I had built into a stalking rifle in .40 caliber. Normally I’d shoot one or two shots here on my home range to verify sightings and function, but with our “new” dog (extremely gunshy), I did not (big mistake). But since we were so busy, I did not even try to seat shells in rifles (my BIGGER mistake!!!). And it was my fault because I visually approved the work. Due to lack of time, I loaded for the Martini stalker with a .40 Magnum pistol bullet and 13 grains of 4227. The cases were formed from .45-70 brass. You might call it a 458-408 2 1/10
Well, we took off for the shoot about noon on Friday amidst a thunder shower and dire warnings from the weather people about many thunder storms and flooding for the weekend! I live only an hour or so away from Friendship, in northern Kentucky. Those of us who frequented the NMLRA shoots at Friendship over the years KNOW what that can mean. However the rain slacked off early and was of no consequence to the progress of the shoot. The scheduled Friday NMLRA .22 Silhouette shoot went on as advertised. Mike and I were responding to the 4-6 PM start time for the stalking rifle match on the Safari Range). We found Gary Fatheree and Christian Egli in the Gunmakers Hall exhibiting fine German Rifles. They were assisted by NMLRA Range Officer Dennis Eder. Tom Rowe, who came with Gary was exhibiting his books and an impressive manuscript for a new Stevens book. It bids fair to be another winner.
Rick Weber was the NMLRA Director in charge of the event. About 3:15 we found him on the Safari Range laying out shooting stations for the Stalking Rifle Shoot. The “animals” were already up and mowing done. The last of the raindrops fell there about noon and it cleared off by start-time to be a wonderful, overcast afternoon for shooting albeit humid and hot if you were puffing hard (like me!). The fine conditions included dead-flat light and little wind…which could be a delaying factor…black powder smoke languidly hung about over-long after a shot!
About 4PM four of us started to shoot and Mike and I were alternating with the Martini. And, yes, I have a German stalker but elected to use an 1887 British Martini Henry body in .40 caliber as I had already cast and lubricated bullets for it. The Martini rifle was shooting well but we ran out of ctgs that would seat in the rifle before Mike and I finished. I was doing OK but Mike was doing better. Rick said we could finish out the match on Saturday.
After going home and SEATING the bullets so they’d chamber easily and, after the Double Rifle Shoot on Saturday Mike finished out the match to see how he might have done. He did quite well. Saturday’s Double Rifle Shoot was held 9 to 11 AM. Tom Rowe and Gary Fatheree were late getting there. I will refrain from any reference to Tom’s time-keeping proclivities since he has developed quite a sensitivity to them. Gary shot an early Mauser that looked a lot like a Mannlicher/Commission Rifle back end. Tom Rowe shot a German falling block rifle in, I believe, 8.15 x 46R. Jerry VonDielingen shot a break-barrel German stalker in the same caliber. Rick Weber is an Alexander Henry fan and brought a fine Henry in .450 3 ¼ and 90 grains of fffg Old Eynsford powder and a 330 paper patched bullet.
Saturday morning at the stated time (9 AM to 11 AM) Dennis Cochran showed up as did Gary and Jerry Freking. The latter two had produced the effigy animals which were/are the Safari targets. Gary sawed the target profiles out and Jerry painted them. There were 8 of us shooters and four of us shot my double rifle including me. Tom Rowe and Rick Weber shot percussion double rifles (a Whitworth and a an Alexander Henry). Tom was trying to make his Whitworth .451 double rifle regulate with pistol-weight bullets. Tom was saying those HEAVY .451’s KICK too much!! Yes, they do! They ARE the ones which kick the barrels over into coincidence at 60 yards or so. Rick disqualified himself and Gary Fatheree won it with a clean score and his German double rifle. I finished second and Dennis Cochran third. My little .40 caliber E. M. Reilley took 2nd, 3rd & 4th and was as hot as a two-dollar pistol before the match was half over! Jerry Von Dielingen was our savior in that he had a trigger squirt-bottle filled with water and we cooled my little rifle off with three squirts of water after into both barrels after each person of the four took their two-shot turn. You could see water freely run out of the muzzles! Gary Freking loaded all of the Reilly cartridges with 48.5 grains of fffg GOEX and a felt wad and card wad under a 217 grain 10 mm Magnum bullet. He uses his own lube. His cartridges have done a great job in this match and in the Reilly for a decade.
That night there was a dinner in the Education Building and Rick, Mike and I sat at the same table. After dinner, there were many nice prizes given away. With social distancing, the hall was FULL and the food more than adequate. On Friday there had been a .22 silhouette shoot and we did our Stalking Rifle Match. On Saturday the NMLRA’s Regional center-fire BPCR Match was started while we did double rifle and some informal Schuetzen Shooting on the offhand Range with the BPCR stuff was going strong. Tom Rowe let Mike shoot his Binger-Ballard .32-40 breech-seating. Mike wanted to shoot the Sunday match of the BPCR Regionals and we came back and spent the day doing that.
The NMLRA BPCR people are WELL-ORGANIZED. Dana Forsland ran the NMLRA BPCR shoot and it ticked off like clock-work. At his word, TWO two-seat four-wheelers took off down-range in a cloud of dust to paint and reset…this was done in little more than five-minutes! It was a fun weekend for us.
-Tom Schiffer (nearly out of steam).
