Looking for trap shooters - muzzleloader

[Brian James]

I often post in the muzzleloading sub-page, but wanted to reach out the shotgunners on CGN directly in the hope of sparking the interest of a few people who might be interested in shooting trap with a muzzleloader at local matches, provincials, nationals or even the World Championships.

Domestically scores of 20-22/25 are quite competitive and many shooters shoot 16-20 at regional matches.

People shoot reproductions, often from Pedersoli or antiques (Flint and Percussion).

I’ll be transparent and admit I know very little about trap from a technical perspective as I’m a pistol shooter. But we really need more trap shooters and I’m trying to help recruit perspective shooters of all levels.

Check out the short video: Trap - Italy

Thank you in advance

Brian

 

[iron cat]

I have been shooting trap and skeet with both cartridge black powder and muzzle loaders both repo's and originals since 1978.
I competed in a big way for about 10 years , and did very well privincualky and Nationally ( when the Nats were held in the West)
I also hunt with both.
Cat

 

[Licensed to kill]

Muzzleloaders, being cylinder bored would be more suitable for skeet than trap but you could move closer to the trap to keep the shots more “cylinder friendly” I suppose. Can certainly be done. I would participate regardless

 

[iron cat]

Muzzleloaders, being cylinder bored would be more suitable for skeet than trap but you could move closer to the trap to keep the shots more “cylinder friendly” I suppose. Can certainly be done. I would participate regardless

You have to get onto the birds fast but it can be done .
Cat

 

[Brian James]

Official rules - look at section 5 for the Trap specific rules.

I’m an ISSF shooter, who’s fully embraced muzzleloading and find the disciplines complimentary.

 

[Licensed to kill]

You have to get onto the birds fast but it can be done .
Cat

Seems to me a saw a TGS video where Jonny was shooting with Ed Solomons to see how far out Ed could break clays with cylinder bore and he was hitting some out to 100 yards. I might have that screwed up it as a long time ago.

 

[iron cat]

Seems to me a saw a TGS video where Jonny was shooting with Ed Solomons to see how far out Ed could break clays with cylinder bore and he was hitting some out to 100 yards. I might have that screwed up it as a long time ago.

Yes but Nother thing to factor in is the World muzzle loading trap championships are shot with stations 8 meters from the house not 16 yards like the way ATA trap stations are set up .
Cat

 

[boxhitch]

A LGS has a used Pedersoli sxs 12 ga., nice engraving and walnut stock that caught my attention
perdy to look at but not in my interests

 

[Brian James]

CAT - given you’ve shot these events, would you ever consider doing it again or have any suggestion on how we can encourage others to try?

 

[stubblejumper]

Our spring muzzle loader weekend normally includes a trap event, but the shooters are not regular trap shooters, and the scores are very low, almost always single digits. I have no idea how we could encourage more interest in muzzleloader trap or skeet at our club, as the people most interested in this, are not the people that are willing to put in the time to run an event. And with interest in muzzleloading of any kind declining , I don't know how long we will even have muzzle loading events of any kind.

 

[iron cat]

CAT - given you’ve shot these events, would you ever consider doing it again or have any suggestion on how we can encourage others to try?

Although I would have loved love to, the cost was always simply too much for me to travel even to the Eastern Provinces for the Nationals let alone to the World Championships.
As far as getting others encouraged to try , most shooters are not interested these days in something that takes that much time to learn and Stubblejumper explained things perfectly when he mentioned getting people to run an event.
It is very difficult, especially in this day and age .
Cat

 

[iron cat]

Our spring muzzle loader weekend normally includes a trap event, but the shooters are not regular trap shooters, and the scores are very low, almost always single digits. I have no idea how we could encourage more interest in muzzleloader trap or skeet at our club, as the people most interested in this, are not the people that are willing to put in the time to run an event. And with interest in muzzleloading of any kind declining , I don't know how long we will even have muzzle loading events of any kind.

Are they still shooting on a 16 yard ATA layout in the black powder events , SJ?
Cat

 

[stripperclipper]

How long does it take to shoot a round with muzzle loaders?
And where should a person be looking for these events?

 

[Licensed to kill]

How long does it take to shoot a round with muzzle loaders?
And where should a person be looking for these events?

I wouldn’t thing that trap would take much longer than with suppository guns. Maybe a little but most can reload in the time it takes the other four shooters to shoot. I’ve never done it but did shoot a round of skeet with a ML sxs with four other shooters in the squad. Loading for doubles took longer than the time the others use to shoot their doubles. No problem keeping up for singles so no extra waiting for the other shooters. They wouldn’t have cared snyways, we shoot for pleasure and help one another. Anyone that takes scores too seriously don’t get invited.

 

[iron cat]

How long does it take to shoot a round with muzzle loaders?
And where should a person be looking for these events?

Shooting a round of trap with a muzzle loader takes at least five times as long as a regular ATA round than a squad of experienced shooters, if the shooters are on the line "loading from pouch and horn"
Many of the events I participated in , the shooters would load from behind the plate at benches, then when they were ready, they stepped up to the appropriate plate, primed their gun and called for the bird.
Cat

 

[stubblejumper]

Are they still shooting on a 16 yard ATA layout in the black powder events , SJ?
Cat

Yes.

 

[iron cat]

Yes.

That is one of the reasons for the lower scores .
If temporary plates were moved up to 10 yards , scores would obviously be higher .
When I shot in the National matches the plates were set at 10 yards. A pretty dramatic shoot off occured in the 1980 Nats with a cap gun going up against a Brown Bess.
Afterwards, there were complaints that the first clean scores should not have resulted in a shoot off because of a flinter against a Caplock.
The Bess shooter blew a gasket and stated if he wanted to shoot a cap gun he would have! LOL
Cat

 

[stubblejumper]

That is one of the reasons for the lower scores .
If temporary plates were moved up to 10 yards , scores would obviously be higher .
When I shot in the National matches the plates were set at 10 yards. A pretty dramatic shoot off occured in the 1980 Nats with a cap gun going up against a Brown Bess.
Afterwards, there were complaints that the first clean scores should not have resulted in a shoot off because of a flinter against a Caplock.
The Bess shooter blew a gasket and stated if he wanted to shoot a cap gun he would have! LOL
Cat

Some people wanted to mess with the skeet machines to make for slower and easier targets, instead of shooting on the trap field. I told them to just shoot skeet, but no messing with the machines, because I wasn't going spend time and targets to reset the machines for skeet, just so a few people could shoot for an hour.

 

[iron cat]

Some people wanted to mess with the skeet machines to make for slower and easier targets, instead of shooting on the trap field. I told them to just shoot skeet, but no messing with the machines, because I wasn't going spend time and targets to reset the machines for skeet, just so a few people could shoot for an hour.

Absolutely no need to mess with the target speed on a skeet field to shoot clean or at least high scores with BP guns ,I know this for a fact :>)
Cat

 

[brybenn]

While not using a muzzle loader I sometimes shoot black powder shells for skeet. It makes no difference in my scores