Virden Mb. "Meet and Greet" and Shoot

[buffdog]

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About five months ago, a Post here on GunNutz sparked an idea of holding a Day where some of the Milsurps Members who are on this Forum could get together and meet and talk with each other. I kicked this around with SMELLIE over one of our Coffee sessions, and we decided to take it a bit further. I then contacted the Members who had replied to the original Post, and canvassed their opinions of having a “Meet and Greet” type of event, with some display of more interesting rifles and some shooting involved.

Since Virden is almost halfway between Winnipeg and Regina, and both SMELLIE and myself belong to the Fort LaBosse Gun Club, I drew up an outline and presented it to the Club for approval. The Club approved the idea, reserved the Range Date we requested, and assigned a Director to act as a Liaison for this event. We decided on a Saturday, rather than a “traditional” Sunday, as that would give people the chance to visit Wolverine Supplies with their modest Museum, located nearby.

It looked like Environment Canada was conspiring against us right up until the last few hours, but although the weather forecast of “Showers and Thunderstorms” did not sound attractive, we decided to go ahead. Someone was looking after us, and most of the heavy rain went around us, we did get a small shower that did not last long in the afternoon, but we had made provisions to cover up the firearms with plastic.

Some VERY interesting firearms showed up, both for display, demonstrations and actual shooting Members attending could look at, handle and even shoot a Milsurp that they had heard about, were interested in shooting, and possibly even buying a similar firearm in the future.

I would like to thank the Fort LaBosse Gun Club for providing the Range and a Range Officer, and also Wolverine Supplies for their interesting demonstrations.

Why is this Lady smiling? Because she had just put two rounds downrange from a Russian PTRS Anti-Tank Rifle.

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Her envious Fiancee, Tinman204, with a round of Ammunition for the PTRS.


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Touching one off. Note the ejected empty. She was VERY close to the 300 yard steel gong on this one



A downrange view. Note the ejected empty overhead. The gong is behind the dust cloud at the 300 yard line, top of picture.



Now THIS is Big Bore Shooting. Russian PTRS, German Soluthurn 20mm and French Hotchkiss 25 mm.



Some of the rifles on the display tables.



Preliminary Range and Safety Briefing for the early few. Others arrived later.



Part 2 with more pictures will follow.

 

[thehook92a1]

Wow nice

 

[Winchester30-30]

was an amazing day! well worth the drive! looking forward to the next meet, ill be there, was great to meet and put faces to the screen names, got to try out some great rifles including that anti tank rifle,

Great job
Standing ovation for buffdog and smellie for getting this event together!

 

[Ballsofice154]

kudos to Buffdog and Smellie for putting it on I wish I could have stayed longer but, I had relatives that came to visit and lets just saw I'm no longer on the Christmas list for my grandmother but the plus side is no ugly wool sweaters anymore!

whenever the next one is I will hopefully bring a lot more cash and more fun stuff.

 

[Magellann]

Wow! that looks like it would have been a great day, lots of neat stuff there.
I wish we had something like that around here once in a while.

 

[Winchester30-30]

kudos to Buffdog and Smellie for putting it on I wish I could have stayed longer but, I had relatives that came to visit and lets just saw I'm no longer on the Christmas list for my grandmother but the plus side is no ugly wool sweaters anymore!

whenever the next one is I will hopefully bring a lot more cash and more fun stuff.

thats no excuse, i missed my uncles birthday party, they werent too happy with me, i was like Hey ive had this date booked for months, im busy and im going shooting! i borrowed my sisters car, she wasnt too impressed i put 750k on her car

 

[Ballsofice154]

thats no excuse, i missed my uncles birthday party, they werent too happy with me, i was like Hey ive had this date booked for months, im busy and im going shooting! i borrowed my sisters car, she wasnt too impressed i put 750k on her car

I should have stayed but lesson learned family from BC can go away the bunch of hippies. -insert grumbling nosies-

 

[Winchester30-30]

as mentioned at the shoot we should all have name tags with our screen names on them, or should have done a formal intro before we got going, i think the next get together will be even better! i thoroughly enjoyed myself at this one, have to give thanks to wolverine for use of the range as well

 

[Klunk]

1. Where are you getting 14.5 ammo, dammmittt?
2. A S18/1000 Solothurn????.....wwwwowwwww
3. What's the thing on wheels?

Looks fun

 

[Winchester30-30]

the range officer brought it, he loads his own ammo,

and yes that 20MM was quite nice as well!

 

[Missing Something]

The 25mm is a Puteaux Anti-Tank cannon. Pre-WW2.

 

[Tinman204]

Thankyou to Buffdog, Smellie and twosteam for putting this shoot together. And of course the forte labosse gun club for having us at their facility.

I for one had a blast and got to play with several toys that I'm interested in buying. I got to play with Buffdog's weird schmit/Swed target rifle, which is by far one of the finest rifles I've ever shot.

Anyhow, hope we can do this again next year as it was the highlight of my summer so far!

Here's some pics.

Here's some of the gunsthat were available to play with.

The day was started off with the smokey BOOM of twosteam firing an 1850 musket that was dug out of a river!! It was great!

Here's some of the onlookers watching the action on the firing line.

 

[Tinman204]

Buffdog said I could shoot his schmit actioned 6.5x55 Swed chambered target rifle. Wow does that gun shoot!

Kjohn let me play with his DCRA target rifle which I managed to ring the gong with. (thanks Kjohn)

Thanks to Twosteam and Smellie I will be on the hunt for a Zulu

My best shooting of the day was with an isreali 30-06 Mauser also brought by Kjohn. I managed to hit the gong 4 times in 6 shots.

The highlight of the day was these "big bore" toys being fired for us. Wow I don't think I'll ever forget the boom!

I think for me the greatest sound of the day (other than the cannon fire) was my gal yelling over to me "hunny I'm going to shoot the big gun!!" Smellie and I rushed over to watch, it was great seeing her fire such a big gun!!

Thanks to all who came, it was good to put some faces to CGN screen names!

Hope we can do it again next year!

 

[Mark-II]

Damn, forgot it was on. Looks like you all had a (wait for it......) Blast!

 

[IronCanadian]

Looks like a great time was had by all; cudos to buffdog, smellie and twosteam. I won't be missing the next one.

 

[kjohn]

It was a great day, to be sure! Wayne, George, and Janice -thank you!!

From my point of view, it was a great opportunity to have other people enjoy my stuff, which normally sits unappreciated in a dark room.

Also, I get the opportunity to gawk at other people's goodies, and learn more about the hobby.

Thanks to Craig and Wayne for RO'ing for the day. Thank you to the gun club for letting us use the range.

I look forward to another go at this. I agree that we need to have name tags. Simple thing to do.

Last, but not least, thanks to my gun partner Dean, who helped with my guns and had to listen to me for the duration.

 

[smellie]

We originally got the idea from that WONDERFUL Ross Rifle shoot in Calgary, the same weekend. Some of us simply could not make it, due to one consideration or another. Buffdog could not get time off work, my legs prevent too much moving about, money can get damned short, that kind of thing.

So we decided to try something for some of the guys in this area who we knew WANTED to go..... but could not.

The idea was not a shoot or a match: that was in Calgary. This simply was to be a day for area Gun Nutz to get together, many to meet each other for the first time IRL possibly bust a few caps, eat hot-dogs, all that kind of thing. BUFFDOG ramrodded the thing and did a great job. I stood around and yakked.... something which I know how to do rather well. Poor TWOSTEAM (who is allergic to Hot Dogs) made Hot Dogs for anyone who wanted them, during which my package of Bavarian Smokies managed to disappear. The "kitchen" was run on donations only, nobody was charged and I think people had a good time.

Janice is now "one up" on me: she has fired a PTRS and I have not. (I still have her beat on the 76: nobody brought a Sherman!)

Some VERY fine firearms were loaned from the Currhee Military Museum (housed at Wolverine) and demonstrated for the day.

BUFFDOG borrowed an SMLE and demonstrated the correct technique for the Mad Minute, getting off 15 rounds at th 300-yard gone, mostly hits, and doing it in under 30 seconds..... with a rifle he had never fired before.

Some strange things which were there included most of the major models of Swiss Rifles, at least 3 Rosses, a Brown Bess lock, surplus from the Napoleonic Wars and made into Whaling gun which was owned by the last Pirate in the New World ("Harrr, Billy!), an ultra-rare Armaguerra Model 39, a wide and wild variety of Mausers, several Carcanos, and 4 rifles demonstrating the genesis of the modern sporting bolt rifle: a standard M-1917, an M-1917 converted into a BSA Custom Grade sporter, a rare Remington Model 30 Express..... and what happens when the shooter gets sloppy: a very nice P-14 with about a third of the barrel missing: classic case of Bore Obstruction. KJOHN brought 2 tablesful of goodies and allowed people to fire several of them. A few rounds went downrange from a 1907/15 BERTHIER and mostly hit th target: nothing wrong with those ugly French rifles!

The Fort la Boss Classic Arms Gun Club was kind enough to GIVE us the day AND supply a competent (and likeable, but don't tell him I said that!) Range Officer. Wolverine Supplies stayed open late so people could get ammo and gawk at the AMAZING array of automatic and historic firearms lining their walls, not to mention all the goodies offered for sale. As Wolverine is the Canadian importer for the Accuracy International line and offers Schmidt und Bender scopes for them, the opportunity was there to spend an amazing amount of money on the Very Best MODERN equipment..... or on something VERY nice from their Antiques rack. I likely shouldn't say this but I will: SOMEBODY is going to be very lucky if they pick up that Regimentally-marked Lee-Metford Mark II*: it has the best barrel I have ever seen on a Metford..... makes mine look like a sewer-pipe tied to a fence-post!

We finally got off the range 2 hours after we were supposed to. I came home with Jan, Tinman204 broke into my house for me (keys on the kitchen table..... again! Thanks, Steve!), we both collapsed for 12 hours. It had been a very long and arduous day at the end of weeks of preparation...... and it was WORTH IT!

And I still have 135 Balloons for the next shoot!

 

[Tinman204]

Kjohn,It was great to meet you and Dean! And for sure it was lots of fun enjoying your stuff! Hope you come back next year as there was another 2 or 3 guns that you brought that I never got to try!

Good times

 

[Tinman204]

George, I figured if I couldn't break into your house the way I planned to, we could smash the door open with the butt of my Snider which was in the trunk and looks like it's been used for such tasks at one time or another!

 

[twosteam]

Big badda Bang! BOOOOM!