ML Instruction: Oldest to the Youngest!

[Adam Helmer]

Today I had a wonderful day at our Annual Tioga County (PA) Youth Field Day; it was their 15th event and my 12th as an instructor on the Black Powder Station. There are 10 Stations such as archery, trap, .22 rifle, orienteering, etc. We had 166 kids registered and all needed to be accompanied by an adult.

We had .50 caliber inlines and 50 grain charges propelling a patched round ball at balloon targets 20 yards away from the firing point. In the past we had flintlocks and caplocks and now have T/C Black Diamonds. All 166 kids had to be accompanied by an adult/guardian for the FREE event.

Today was a total revelation for me as I was the sole person who capped the muzzleloaders at the firing point for each of 10 groups, numerous times, for their alloted 30 minutes at the BP Station. After the kids aged 8 to 14 fired a few times, we asked the parents/guardians to fire at balloons.

Here is my Revelation for Today: One guardian was a woman aged 88 years (Young) who never fired a gun in her life, and she broke her balloon target. Another adult man brought a 3 year old son to the firing line. I told our ML Loader, "Half Charge", and she complied with a 25 grain charge behind a .50 roundball for Zack. He shot and hit his balloon and I held/supported the forend while his dad held him in place while he wore his safety glasses and ear muffs. I regret we did not have photos of both these folkdsfor Sarah Brady's confiture. Nuff said!

Adam

[Johnny Reb]

That's Awesome, What better way to introduce this sport to the young and old. I'd like to see our gun club get involved with stuff like this. Sounds like ya had a great time Adam, keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing.:)

[Gil Martin]

Glad to see that you are manning your post. Why did the club do away with flintlocks and caplocks? All the best...
Gil

[Jack]

Adam, that sounds like a great event.
I wonder who got the job of cleaning all those muzzle loaders?

[Adam Helmer]

Johnny Reb, Gil and Jack,

ALL those 166 kids will vote someday and when a gun ban is on the ballot, they will recall the fun they had shooting balloons. Also, the parents/guardians were made more gun rights oriented.

We used flintlocks about 10 years ago and had five in use. We had many failures to fire due to dull flints. Then we used caplock Hawkens which were fine by my reckoning. About 5 years ago, T/C donated 5 inline Black Diamonds (BDs) and gave us a bushel of cleaning gear, tools, projectiles, etc. I lobbied hard for closed breech arms bolt guns and got nowhere. The BDs are a "Slam Fire" like the zip guns of our youth and spray cap debris back to the shooters. Eye and ear protection is mandatory at our event. Several shooters got a black soot stain on their arms. At our after-event meeting, I will again lobby for safer guns.

Our Youth Field Day is very well supported by local banks and businesses. We collected about $11,000 and spent about $9,500 for the shirts, hats, targets, ammo and lunch provided free to all participants. There is never a fee for participants. Our event is one of the best in PA and Tioga County is the second most rural of all 67 PA counties. Our YFD began in 1995 and gets bigger each year. We set up at the Army Corps of Engineers facility at Ives Run. That is a camp ground and recreation site that is gun-friendly.

There were three workers on the BP Station. After the event we took down the canopies and two folks cleaned the 5 guns. We fired about 1,200 rounds through 5 guns and they needed a good scrubbing.

One more thing: When someone says, "He was knee-high" that is literally the truth with the little guy at YFD. He was the smallest and youngest shooter I ever had the honor of instructing. Sarah Brady would be SO Impressed!

Adam