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Shot my Winder Musket at our club's .22 Silhouette match yesterday


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What a hoot!  First time exercising the .22 Short WW I trainer in a match. What an awesome and fun rifle.  Mine is the later version with the Lyman receiver-mounted rear peep sight that is adjustable for both windage and elevation.  It was made in 1920, has excellent US and flaming bomb acceptance marks, and was someone's well-cared for safe queen for 100 years before I found it.  It literally looks like it was manufactured by Winchester last week, with perfect bluing and perfect wood.

We shoot at a very tiny chicken at 40 yards (the hardest plate, in my opinion), a slightly larger pig at 50 yards, a slightly larger turkey at 75 yards, and a small-ish ram at 100 yards. I scored 13/20, but one of my misses was due to a round shot at the ram plate where the powder did not burn completely and the bullet didn't make it halfway to the target. I checked the barrel for a squib as it was clear to everyone that no projectile made it downrange even halfway to the target; there was a bunch of unburned powder in the barrel. I should have put a boresnake through it immediately because the powder particles messed up and slowed my next shot too, which missed low. After that, I scored a hit on my remaining shots at the 100-yd ram.
What a sweet-shooting gun! When the match was over, one of the lady shooters who was using a modern Henry .22 lever gun asked if she could try the scaled down 1885 Low Wall. She had not scored well with the Henry. She took two shots at the 75-yd turkey and rang steel twice, and then hit the 100-yard ram with her third shot. She was just laughing when she said "good sights make a difference," and I agreed.  So does a very long barrel and sight radius.  

Don't underestimate the mighty .22 Short -- it was designed for indoor range practice, but it will ring steel at 100 yards!!

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