TRBPS Event – November 2022, Pigs and Turkeys for Thanksgiving
by Chris Greene
Well, here we are at the end of another year of black powder shooting adventures on one of the most treasured of family holiday seasons – Thanksgiving – where we reflect on our many blessings and those things that make us most grateful. Just managing to hit the target within the score rings is but one of my most gratifying experiences for which I’m thankful. Watching the dust fly off the berm where the projectile ends its flight is another – “thank you Lord that one’s trajectory didn’t take it into the next county…“
We are thankful for paint, grease rags, dirt clods, a portion of uneaten pumpkin one of our resident bears left behind, that we use to uniquely identify our targets so as to reduce the confusion of whose is whose at 50 yards. Notice that tactic is meant to “reduce” the confusion, not eliminate it completely as evidenced by Chris Greene’s dead-on bullseye in the pig target he could not possibly have made.
We are thankful for the collective experience we seasoned veterans of the black powder arts possess in methods of foreign object removal from rifle and musket barrels. I know one of our newest attendees is grateful for that stuck brass jag being quite so artfully removed that the crafty method’s mechanical employ and application deserved a celebratory round of shots for all.
We are also grateful for those that bring unlikely and seemingly unnecessary tools that will indeed likely become necessary to fix some bizarre break, malfunction, or weird occurrence of synchronized events that resulted in a most absurd condition – that none of us can foresee, have never seen occur before, and hope we never see occur again, although we know it will. We hold that anticipation in quiet and grave solemnity, mild gloominess and astute pragmatism. And yet we press on doggedly determined to have fun anyway.
We are most appreciative of God’s peculiar sense of humor in putting together this rogue band of miscreants, misfits, scoundrels, rascals, retches and knaves forming the dubious Talking Rock Black Powder Shooters. It’s like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on a bender. Sane people stay away and avert their eyes, while those of questionable repute stand and watch in wild-eyed splendor the controlled mayhem.
RIFLE MATCH RESULTS
OFF HAND:
1st: Billy Townsend / Brian Palmer (tie)
2nd: Erick Rolle
3rd: Brian Avery
BENCHED:
1st: Mike Lamb
2nd: Doug Burgess
3rd: Jon Burgess
4th: Bruce Kendall / Bobby Z (tie)
That wraps it up for TRBPS’s 2022 black powder shooting meets. It has been a fun year, a successful year, and we’re all grateful for the new memberships and friendships, good times, and dubious experiences. Take good care and be sure to stop and count your blessings.
Happy Thanksgiving & Merry Christmas. See you next February.
Chris Greene
Founding Member TRBPS