By Mike Nesbitt | Contributing Editor
The seventh annual Buffalo Camp was recently held at the Capitol City Rifle & Pistol Club near Olympia, Washington, and the air was filled with blue smoke.
This is the doin’s of the Black River Buffalo Runners and while it still must be considered a small gathering, it is certainly looked forward to. And this event is growing, we had three first-timers this year and more can be expected next time.
The Buffalo Camp is somewhat like a muzzleloader’s rendezvous, but we shoot the black powder cartridge “buffalo guns.” This event includes three separate shooting matches and those begin with the Little Quigley Match. Our Little Quigley Match is a short-range affair that uses targets copying the targets at the Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match but at reduced size. We shoot at the buffalo shaped gong, then the octagon, and the diamond all at 200 yards. Shooting at our targets, from the sitting position while using cross-sticks, is very similar to those longer shots at Quigley.
We also shoot at a reduced-size “bucket,” offhand at 100 yards. That, just like at the big Quigley match in Montana, is our toughest target to hit.
The Little Quigley Match is our first event and that begins fairly early on Saturday morning. Shooters are divided into relays and each shooter fires at the selected target after their name is called. I shot in relay-1 this year and when my name was called by the rangemaster-scorekeeper, Tom Brown, I fired my first shot at the buffalo with my .50-70 Sharps, the rifle I call my “Moonbeam,” and got a good hit. But that was my only hit on the buffalo…
Allen Cunniff didn’t have the problem I had, he made most of his shots good. Allen won the Little Quigley Match again. He’s placed 1st in that match now for the fourth year in a row. This year he used a different rifle, a ’74 Sharps, by C. Sharps Arms, in .40-65 caliber while using paper patched bullets. Allen is a very serious shooter, for sure, and he practices more, and more intently, than most of us. With his .40-65 he shot a score of 180 in the Little Quigley Match, that’s 18 hits out of 20 shots. The only time a better score was ever turned in was just a couple of years ago when Allen managed to shoot 19 hits in the same course of fire. The Little Quigley Match isn’t easy, it has never been aced.
The ingredients for Allen’s .40-65 loads include the Starline cases, filled with 63 grains of Swiss 1½ Fg powder, topped with an .060” Walters’ wad, and finished off with a 393-grain bullet (Accurate Molds’ #40-385P) which is cast from a 20-1 lead-tin ally, then wrapped with 9-pound onionskin from Buffalo Arms and ignited with a CCI standard large pistol primer. That has to be a fine combination.
Second in the Little Quigley Match was a new shooter, at least new to Buffalo Camp That was Jerry Johnson, shooting a Shiloh Sharps in .45-70 caliber. Jerry got 16 hits for a Little Quigley Score of 160. And in third place, in the Little Quigley Match, was Tom Witt. Tom started shooting in Buffalo Camp a couple of years ago but this year he used his .45-90 Sharps rifle, by C. Sharps Arms, with paper patched bullets which was a first for him. His score for third place was a very respectable 150 for his 15 hits on those tough-to-hit targets.
Mike Holeman also got 15 hits in the Little Quigley Match but Tom Witt’s tiebreak was just too good to beat. We’ll be watching for Mike Holeman to place in this match next year.
My own score shouldn’t be mentioned, I had wanted to just beat my score from last year which was the lowest score I had gotten in the Little Quigley Match. However, I didn’t beat my old low score, in fact, I shot an even lower score. The only thing I can say is that my scores have been going downhill but I will keep trying. One reason for that is because shooting in this match is a lot of fun and I won’t miss shooting in it, even if I do miss the targets. And, this was the first year that I shot in this match while doing my shooting left-handed. So, with a score or not, mark me down for giving it a good try.
I was pleased to see my nephew, Kyle Kirkpatrick, shooting at Buffalo Camp for his first time. Kyle used his .45-70 Sharps Model 1874 Sporting Rifle, an early gun by C. Sharps Arms, quite well. He got a score of 120 for his 12 hits on those elusive targets. And he did it while using paper patched bullets. That is a very good start.
The next event at Buffalo Camp is the “Meat Hunt.” The idea behind this event is that the buffalo hunters might like something different for dinner, because, even as good as buffalo meat is, they might like a change in their menu. So, we go “hunting” with our “camp guns” for some different meats. This is done on the trail-walk at the club, where the targets are all steel gongs but cut in the shapes of various animals. Those targets include a real variety of shapes, from owls and crows to turkeys and bears, all at various distances which makes the Meat Hunt as much like actual hunting as possible. Of course, all shots are taken from the offhand position.
There are fifteen targets on the Meat Hunt and shooters go down the trail in small groups. Shooters must have a partner. A partner is needed because sometimes the shooter can’t see if the shot was a hit or a miss because of the smoke from the shot, using black powder, of course. And our rules state, even though we’re using mostly repeating rifles in this event, that rifles will be carried empty with the actions opened. When a shooter steps to the firing station for each target, that’s when a cartridge is loaded in the rifle’s chamber and the shot is taken. Safety is a priority.
For this year’s Meat Hunt, Allen Cunniff’s name is at the top of the list again. Allen hasn’t won the Meat Hunt every year, but he has won it now for the last three years. He’s done that every time while shooting with his Uberti copy of the old Henry rifle shooting .44-40 cartridges loaded with 35 grains of compressed black powder under the 205-grain bullet from Accurate Molds’ #43-205Cs. Allen “aced the trail” by getting hits on all fifteen targets.
But Allen wasn’t the only one! Bob DeLisle, shooting his Model 1892 Winchester Short Rifle in .32-20 caliber, tied Allen on the Meat Hunt, both shooters with perfect scores. Their tie was settled with the tiebreaker, which is shot on a very small target right on the scorecard, where both Bob and Allen shot 9s for a score. Those two shots had to be measured to see which one was closest to center and Allen won “by a hair.” We don’t often get two shooters acing the Meat Hunt at the same time.
Placing third in the Meat Hunt was Tom Witt again, we might start calling him “Tom Witt the Third.” Tom was shooting his copy of a ’73 Winchester in .44/40 caliber. He missed only one of the 15 targets but his score of 14 hits was tied by two other shooters. They were Mile Holeman and Cody Mehr. Again, the tiebreaker shots had to be reviewed and Tom’s was a 10 while the other two tied shooters had good tiebreaker scores but not that good…
Scoring on the Meat Hunt was certainly tight, and my 13 hits weren’t even considered for placement. Actually, we had eight shooters all scoring 100 points or more, for ten hits or over. That’s some good shooting because the Meat Hunt, like the Little Quigley Match, is not a particularly easy course.
Then comes the Black Powder Revolver Match and some of the shooters were wondering if I’d be able to “ace” this match again like I did last year. Let me admit it, I tried but my chances for getting a perfect score this year ended with a miss on the second target. That was the first rabbit, which must be shot at with a one-hand hold. My guess is that I shot over the little critter’s back, simply missing completely. In addition to that, I missed two more targets, and those were the antelope and the big bear! Missing either of those targets is almost embarrassing! But I did finish the pistol trail with seven hits while using my Uberti copy of the old Smith & Wesson New Model #3 in .44 Special, using Starline’s .44 Russian brass loaded with 19 grains of Olde Eynsford 2F powder under 250-grain round nose bullets
Mike Moran won the match with 8 hits while using his Ruger Vaquero in .45 Colt with black powder loads. Then Jim Haeckel did well in getting seven hits. Once again, the tiebreakers were reviewed and Jim’s hit was just a fuzz closer than mine, so Jim took secpond place with the six-guns and I finished in third place.
Starting with this year’s Buffalo Camp, the scores from the Black Powder Cartridge Revolver Match are included in the aggregate. That was the decision of our Match Director, Tom Brown. Previously, the revolver scores were not included in the aggregate because not all of our shooters had the revolvers to use but this year all of our shooters did participate in the revolver match. Including the revolver scores gives everybody a higher total score.
Also, having a black powder cartridge revolver isn’t completely necessary. Cody Mehr shot the revolver match with a muzzle-loading percussion pistol. “Two-Gun Tom” Witt shot the match with a pair of Colt Walker copies, hitting with all five shots with one of the guns and missing with all five shots from the other. Tom did hit the “Mini Moon” with one of his shots, and that target is fired at with a one-hand hold. And Jerry Johnson tried his Colt 1851 Navy copy on the trail but needs more practice with using it at the longer ranges which prevail on the revolver trail.
Let me mention Joel Miles who comes to this match from Idaho. Joel didn’t stay for the whole weekend, leaving soon after the Little Quigley Match was done. He had to hit the trail to another event, the big shoot down by Bend, Oregon, where he did well in getting a number of hits on the buffalo at 1,200 yards! But before Joel left, he gave our club a fine gift, a gong which was complete with a stand. Thank you, Joel, we’ll be using that gong for sure. (Actually, as this is being written, we already have!)
The list of prize contributors grew a little bit too and you might recognize some of the names of these people or companies. It begins with C. Sharps Arms and continues with; SPG Sales, The Single Shot Exchange, John Walters, Wolfe Publishing Company, Accurate Molds, October Country, Mike Nesbitt, Jerry Mayo, Ironhorse Industries (Snake Oil), Bob DeLisle, Allen Cunniff, Eric Boos, and Will Ulry.
Prizes were awarded for the top three shooters in each of those events. After that all shooters who enter the aggregate are awarded a prize of their choice according to their aggregate score. The awards simply add to the fun and enjoyment of Buffalo Camp and we’re already making plans for doing it again next year. Come and shoot with us, with your black powder cartridge guns, if you can.
