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This shoot has been running for > 150 years and I never saw written rules. The 6 "X"s are scribed on a board. You shoot, and the run the knife through the grooves again to scribe a half-ball. The distance is compared with dividers to the next closest.
They told me the bacon was good. I can not eat salt, so gave it away. I will try to put up an image on the next post.
Last edited by WalterF (7/26/2014 5:33 PM)
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here is an image....
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Walter,
I have read many accounts also of using a half ball to determine center of the hole. Unless there is a way to determine the true center of the half ball it seems that the use of the NMLRA scoring rings is a lot more precise, especially measuring to three places. This is not meant to poo poo the traditionally historic aspect of what you are saying.
Mark
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That's pretty interesting. Is this done at Canal Fulton by chance?
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Snuffer,
I don't know but I suspect that as close and tight as they shoot at Canal Fulton that they are using micrometers and guages.
Mark
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The know-how is getting lost. One fellow in our group made his own ball molds with a long sprue, but no sprue cutter. The sprue is chucked in a lathe and the lead ball is machined down, then marked in the center.
I made the half-ball in the photo. I epoxyed a swaged ball on the end of a stick and filed it and sanded it smooth. Another fellow has a dohicky he made to hold the ball and mark it.
Part of the fun is the waiting for the results while the scorers go back and forth with dividers. I think it is accurate enough to decide who gets the meat.
You can only score as well as you can see the tip of the calipers or dividers. With calipers, if you are within 0.005", then it is good. If it is close, then you might want to write down an average of three. But paper was scarse back in the day.
Last edited by WalterF (7/27/2014 9:09 PM)
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I once heard (or read) that Canal Fulton's target shooting can be traced back to something like 1803 (or somewhere in that time period) as they use to hold shooting matches with the Indians, in as much to show them what good shots they were, and perhaps make them think twice on attacking the settlers.
In any event, you got to admire a club that stays with the old ways as it's a part of history just like what we're shooting in this, powder - patch - ball, sport.
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I've read and heard several accounts where this was done, it even showed up while I was doing some research for the table shoot that we are currently shooting. Much of it, which was based on the Wabash Valley shoots. I think the scoring system runs way back, but with the advent of the paper target and probably the fact that many people did not want to pick up and lay down 300 pounds of boards in a day at a good sized shooting contest. Like many good things it has for the most part, been pushed aside. One place that it kind of lives on, but not in its original form is in Xenia, Ohio . Those good folks have brass plugs for the more common calibers. Your paper target is placed on a piece of 3/16 plywood. The plug is placed through the hole in the plywood wall. The target is still mounted in a measure from the center punch in the plug to the center of the X it's kind of cool
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