January 2026 copy - Flipbook - Page 64
My 昀椀rst Genuine Black Powder load for the Quigley, a
Steve Brooks postell bullet with 68 grains of Swiss 1.5F
powder, a .060” Walter’s Wad, and a CCI BR-2 primer.
and o昀昀ered to get me out
there and we went out and
started shooting. I got to
the range got my consent
form 昀椀lled out paid my entry fee and we headed for
the 昀椀ring line. Mike and I
had a great time, burning
through ammunition for
three days. He also generously showed me the ropes
at the Iron Horse Saloon
and Casino, a place I still
visit every trip to Forsyth.
We shot on every target on
the line. We ran up and
down that line God knows
how many times blasting
64
away. There were lots of
other people shooting as
well. Many people were
shooting black powder,
and I started watching
their shooting method
and comparing it to what I
was doing. Between every
shot, they had to take time
to either blow tube, run a
patch, or push one of those
crazy looking little jobbies
down the barrel, which
I would later learn were
called “bore wipers”. The
black powder guys seemed
to have a very deliberate
style to their shooting. In
contrast, whenever Mike
or I would miss we would
just throw another round
in the chamber and send
another bullet, hoping
for a hit and a ding. Over
the course of a few days, I
realized I was burning a lot
of ammo and not learning
anything. It also bothered
me in the back of my mind
that those black powder
guys were shooting the
way I’d been instructed
when I was a child learning to shoot. I’d been told
by my dad and my granddad not to waste ammunition, to make every shot
count. I had received the
same lecture in the Marine Corps from my Drill
Instructors there as well.I
was not making every shot
count. I was having a lot of
fun, but I was failing, and I
knew it.
On Saturday morning, I
found out who I was shooting with. At 0800 hours on
Saturday morning is when
“squadding” takes place.
That’s when each shooter
gets assigned their position
on the 昀椀ring line, and what
relay they will be shooting in. On my squad were
a couple of guys (Steve
and Ed) I loosely knew
through the Levergun
Scoundrels forum I was
on. They weren’t really my
friends yet, but it gave me
somebody to at least follow around. I was still lost,
Modern BPCR Shooter - January, 2026
