The photography is done......

[Dave951]

We're making a short video to promote black powder and muzzleloading in Scout camps. Last weekend we videoed and photographed a session. Now on to "post".....


I'm ready for my closeup Mr DeMille



Flintlock demo



Flintlock go BOOM. At least I didn't flinch and more importantly center punched the target.


762x51 shooting his original Maynard



Working with the Scouts. This was a great bunch. They listened and were darn good shots in short order. Ronn47, that rifle look familiar? And yeah, this kid drilled a tater with it.



Camp Raven Knob Mountain Man is an instructor.



When instructing and working with kids, an unconventional reactive target array makes it fun!

 

[DogFather]

Back in my scouting days we used playing cards as targets as their was a casino nearby that gave away used decks

Proud to admit - my 20 year old son is a better shot than me thanks to Scout Camp.

 

[Dave951]

Back in my scouting days we used playing cards as targets as their was a casino nearby that gave away used decks

Proud to admit - my 20 year old son is a better shot than me thanks to Scout Camp.

I'll say this about the current state of shooting sports in the average Scout camp- 22lr program- usually staffed by folks who do know something of what they're doing but the kids shoot from a bench. If they're lucky, they have some staff that are active or former competition shooters who know their stuff. Shotgun- same except for the bench thing. Some programs are lucky to have competition shooters who know their business, but that's very rare. Muzzleloading- usually staffed by "shake n bakes" who've been through a very accelerated one day class on muzzleloaders and now are expected to run a program with marginal guns and supplies. In all cases, the instructors must be NRA certified.

Now move to what we do. We bring a group of instructors, quality muzzleloaders, and supplies. Rather than the boring bench shoot paper punching, we shoot all targets from the offhand position. The Scouts get a detailed safety brief the night before from a camp staff member in the muzzleloading program. Next morning, we arrive and start the session with a brief history lesson on the guns we bring, then a quick run through of the safety brief, and then they start shooting on a paper plate at 25yd with a patch round ball. While they're shooting the paper plates, we're doing an evaluation of technique, their attitude to guns and safety and determining what we'll teach first before moving to minies and muskets. Usually, our next instructional item is Natural Point of Aim, Sight Picture, and Sight Alignment. Then, we'll start shooting the "gallery" of stuff. As they choose targets and fire shots, we'll work more on their technique and as it gets better, we'll encourage them to try more and more difficult targets. Usually by the end of the day, most can hit the marshmallows at 30yd shooting offhand with an iron sighted Civil War era musket and ammunition. I'm pretty confident that by the end of the day, our kids had a ball and can out shoot any other kids in the camp from the offhand position. They had a great time but also got a course in offhand marksmanship without knowing it.

 

[Dave951]

Digging through lots of pix and video, I really like these shots-