By James Fulmer NMLRA Past President
The National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association’s website stated they were going to host an NMLRA Inline Hunter Muzzleloading Match on April 20, 2013, at the Walter Cline Range in Friendship, IN. After reading the rules, I immediately wanted to attend.
The equipment rules were simple: any production inline muzzleloader; any sight—open, peep or scoped; any source of ignition—209 primer, rifle primers or caps; black powder or black powder substitute, no smokeless powder; and any projectile—round ball, sabot, or conical.
All shots were to be fired from any position including bench and cross stick. The yardage is what was going to make it fun—50 yards, 100 yards, and 200 yards on paper, and 200- meter chickens and 300-meter pigs.
Wow! Most of the time the inline modern-style muzzleloaders are fired in competition at the same yardage as the open iron-sighted flintlock long rifles—25 and 50 yards. The flintlock shooter will keep up with, and even beat, an inline at those yardages with a patched round ball, only starting at 100 yards is there a distinct advantage for the inline. In this match, we would be shooting 200 and 300 meters which would be new to me because I had never shot my inline more than 100 yards. I have taken several Pennsylvania whitetails with my scoped .50 caliber inline shooting a 300-grain, saboted bullet.
It was easy to talk two of my friends into competing in this match. Both were as curious as I was how well they would do with their deer rifles in a match at those yardages. Wes Griest, Mike Wengert, and I started practicing with our rifles from 50 yards to 300 meters. A good scope is needed as Wes found out. He had to put a .015 shim under his rear scope mount because he ran out of travel in his scope for elevation. Wes and I both shot 300- grain bullets so we bought a double cavity bullet mold and I would cast and he would weigh. Between us, we shot over 300 shots practicing for the match so the Lee mold paid for itself pretty quick. One of the reasons I started to cast was I could not find my favorite 300-grain bullet in any make at the time of the match in either .44 caliber or .45 caliber. Every store was sold out of ammunition and bullet tips. The bullet we used actually weighed 309 grains as cast and was .452 in diameter. When I hunt deer I use a Federal 209A with 100 grains of FFG Hodgdon Triple 7 and a Harvester Sabot.
I found out quickly in practice that wind moved the bullet a lot at 200 and 300 meters, and learning to read wind was something I needed to practice. Before we knew it, the day of the match was here and we found ourselves on the cold windswept NMLRA Walter Cline Range.
Bob Wetzler and Dan Thomas who had come up with the idea of the match welcomed us. The match began with an informal shooter’s meeting explaining the rules and also thanking all of the companies who donated and sponsored the shoot. This event started out as a little fun event and many companies, including Hodgdon Powder, Birchwood Casey, Burris Scopes, Harvester Muzzleloading, and especially Knight Rifle, all stepped forward in support of this event. Knight Rifle donated a rifle to be given away to a registered shooter, so I knew I had a chance to win. Gordon Edwards and Barry Brakebill were there from Knight Rifle to shoot and present the winner of the Knight Rifle.
The match started at 50 yards and everybody shot at the same time so it was the same conditions for everybody.
I noticed at 50 yards the rifles and all of the shooters shot very well, with three 50-5Xs being shot.
The tie breaker for the iron targets was to be the last shot fired on the 50-yard paper target, so it was an important shot. The NMLRA’s very own Secretary Merle Crane won with a 50-5X, with Greg Fisk second, and Rick Weber third, also with a 50-5X.
Jason Gray with his 100-yard first place 50-5x target. He finished third overall in the inline match
All three kept their shots under an inch at 50 yards. There were 21 shooters in this match and all the 105 shots would have put meat on the table for a hunter.
Now, at 100 yards, things were a little different. The wind got many shooters in that relay (or at least it got me), but the good shooters came through, with Lowell Crane first with a 49-2X, followed by Tony Satchwell with 49-1X, and Merle Crane third with a 49. Yes, the Cranes are brothers and both can shoot very well in the wind and otherwise. The 200-yard match was the biggest surprise of the day. The match counted the best 5 shots out of 8. First place went to Jason Day with a 50-5X. He did fantastic—his 5 shots were around a 4-inch group. Greg Fisk took second with a 48-2X, and Morgan Greenlee placed third with a 47-1X. That was it for the paper targets.
The scores for the iron targets which were scored 10 points a hit, 5 targets at each range. Chickens at 200 meters: First Greg Fisk 50, second Rick Weber 50, and Merle Crane 40. Pigs at 300 meters: First Greg Fisk 50, second Rick Weber 50, and Rob Root 30.
The overall winners were: First Greg Fisk 246-7X, Second Rick Weber 245-6X, and third Jason Day 217-10X. I have to mention Merle Crane at fourth with a 205-6x and Rob Root fifth with a 200-6X.
Steve Chapman was the winner of the Knight Rifle in the drawing. As much as Steve wanted the rifle, he donated it back to the NMLRA to be used to raise money for electrical upgrades at the Walter Cline Range.
Big thanks go out to Steve for his generosity.
It’s always interesting to know what the winners where using. First place winner Greg Fisk shot a Remington 700ML with a Redfield 3×9 scope using Black Horn 209 powder and Federal 209A primer pushing a 300- grain Parker bullet. The gun weighed 11.5 pounds. Second place winner Rick Weber shot a Thompson/Center Encore with a Leupold scope using Swiss FFg powder and a Remington primer pushing a custom 510-grain bullet. Third place winner Jason Day was also using a Thompson/Center Encore with a Tactical style scope using Swiss FFg powder, and a Winchester 209 primer pushing a 525-grain grease-groove bullet. All shooters used Thompson/Center and CVA inlines the most, followed by Knight Rifle.
This match was fun and I would like to see more like it in the future. I want to thank all the range officers and volunteers who made this happen, along with the sponsors. I am already looking forward to next year.
