Running From The Boar

by John White
August, 2021

We got started pretty much on time at 8:30am with our team match.  Humidity was high and temperature moderate. The high humidity played havoc on the flintlock pans gathering moisture for sure. We had 10 shooters, 5 per team. All shooters drew a number from a hat to create a team. Evens were one team; the odd numbers the other team. This involved the teams shooting against each other at the same time to break 12 water balloons at 12 or so yards. First team to break all their balloons wins. All shots for this match were shot off hand. The odd folks won very handily I might say. Bobbie, Bruce, Doug, Jim and John burst the balloons and the those even folks still had 5 to go! So the odd folks had to clear their rifles from loading so we shot the remainder for them. We just try to help them out as that is the kinda folks we are. The normal issues came up, loose flints, misses, hang fires. But we got the guns dirty and were ready for the next part of the days match before the heat kicked in from the sun and humidity.  The prizes were very simple, losers pay the winners $5. There was some grumbling about that but the winners really did not care as one said when they accepted their $5 bill, “I like this prize, this is fun”.

So our second relay was a match called, “Running from the boar”. Heat index was going up and the breeze was not moving that black powder smoke. Little bit of coughing, ‘luv the smell of BP in the morning’ type of comments were frequent. 10 shooters, 10 shots, 50 yards. As most of us are old, the boar was 50 yards away, we probably would have said, “Heck I ain’t running, i am gonna shoot it from here”. What they actually said was, “I cannot see that far, let ’em go”. “There is a whole lot of hogs down there”. “Which one is mine to shoot at?”. “All I am gonna do is make ’em mad with this little gun”. “What are those black things down there?” You get the idea. We had both off hand and bench categories. Four shot bench and six shot off hand. Your first shot determined how you shoot for score. First shot off hand, all off hand. First shot from the bench, all were shot from the bench. There were no warm up shots, shoot 10 shots, all count. Do not shoot your neighbor’s boar as he will get really mad and it will not end well for either of you. So no warmup reason is you are shooting a running boar. They do not allow practice shots in the woods. This match used the NMLRA official target just not the running part.

Bobbie and Jim were first and second in the offhand group. Jon and Tim were first two in the bench portion. Prizes were pork ribs and bacon. They got to bring home the meat as they say. Bobbie had a score of 84 and Jon 71. Bobbie beat the NMLRA national record score of 74 but there was one problem. Bobbie’s boar was standing still, the NMLRA are runners. Jon from a bench did not beat the national score sitting down with a stationary boar! Uh-oh. He won’t live this down.

We got done at about 10:30, cleaned up and gone by 11:15. Could not tell we were there. During the entire time we were there, 7:30 to after 11:00, only two members not shooting with us drove by. Not a lot of breeze and definitely a hot sun. Several wanted to shoot some more, but folks – the sun gets hot! We shoot for fun, not to be the last man standing. We appreciate everyone coming to the shoot and with the heat and sun not being so severe in the future months hopefully, plan on shooting a bit more. We had 10 shooters, 2 first timers and 5 observers with a lot of smiles and “I wanna do this.” “This is what have been looking for.” “I will be back.”

We did not set a new shoot record for dry balls as we only had two. Last month’s match we had six. We did have something unique happen, shooter thought he dry balled. Lots of smoke from the pan flashes several times and no big bang. Oops, forgot to load it!

So to all thank you for making this a fun day for all. Thank you for showing courtesy, sympathy and assisting our fellow shooters with dry balls, loose flints, forget to load it and being there for each other. We all enjoy a little competition but not at the expense of our friendships. The debriefing we held in Talking Rock was an enjoyable time for all to be sure. We got a few pictures of the shooters and setup that will be posted to our website in the near future.

See you next month, September 25th. Watch for future emails on our matches. Take care, be safe and healthy.