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Steampunk Action Shooting
25 October 2014 10:11 pmFollowing on my “Steampunk 101” article published in the August issue of “The Cowboy Chronicles”, the Logans Ferry Regulators added a steampunk theme to their October Cowboy Action Shooting match. I looked on it as an opportunity to spread the steampunk word to cowboys and maybe some shooting sports to local steampunks.
The first thing was that I wrote three stage scenarios. For those not in the know, each stage of the match begins with a description of the action. The shooter quotes some relevant line to indicate that he is ready to begin. When the timer beeps, the shooting commences. Sometimes the shooting order is relevant to the scenario but most of the time it is not. It's just a bit of story added to the beginning.
The three stories I submitted:
They choose the last two of the three and rounded out the rest of the match with zombies.
I showed up in my Steampunk Django cosplay and set up a table of books and other steampunk stuff. There was some slight interest but northing more than I would consider casual. One other shooter wore goggles on his hat an called it steampunk and another shooter borrowed a pair of my goggles.
From the near side, no one from the steampunk community other than myself showed and, even then, there was only a little bit of interest in the lead up.
Why should this be?
I don't think it's because steampunks don't like guns and shooting but maybe it's more that the people who make up the bulk of the steampunk community in Pittsburgh just happen not top be interested. Or perhaps it was more of a timing and transportation issue. The shoot started at 9am and was out in Plumb. A trip to the Frick Mansion was scheduled for the afternoon right off a bus route in the east end. Do people intuitively see the differences between the two groups of people and think them incompatible?
Probably a bit of all of the above. I should, at least, like to make the attempt to overcome or influence the last one. I've made a couple of attempts that have been generally unsuccessful. Perhaps the gulf is too wide.
Back to the shooting, then.
My times are still roughly twice those of the top shooters but that is likely to always be the case. They tend to have pump or hammerless shotguns while I have a hammered coach gun. They tend to shoot two handed, with the left thumb quickly on the hammer, while I shoot “duelist”, single handed. My modest improvement was in the fewer number of misses I made. Only three for the match. Well, five, but those two additional misses were for the shotgun which allows you to reload and try again without additional penalty. A miss costs a 5 second penalty but it takes me 6 or 7 to reload and fire again. I will need to keep that in mind the next time I miss with a shotgun. Perhaps better to take the miss than try again.
Or practice more. I could probably shave off those few seconds on my shotgun reload.
I made some other mistakes, though not too bad and recoverable. In one instance I almost forgot the shooting order and the yelling of the peanut gallery got me back on track. A similar thing happened where after the pistol string of the stage I forgot that I still needed to do the shotgun. Again, people yelling at me got me back on track.
Overall, I didn't come in last. Lessons learned, though: aim for the bottom of the target, not center of mass. If I can keep that in mind I should be able to shoot a clean match with no misses. Then, after that, time will come with familiarity.
Shooting 120 rounds of 45 Colt in a match plus shotgun can be expensive. Two and a half boxes of 45s at $30 a box can quickly add up. I had been buying a few boxes at gun shows and then not shooting because I was unemployed so I had stockpiled a bunch of ammo but I realized that I had all the components and tools necessary to reload just sitting in my garage. So I spent some of my copious free time to pull the box out and do some reloading.
I only reloaded 50 rounds because the can of powder I had was old and I didn't know how well it would perform. It shot a little dirty, probably for being many years old, but it went boom and hurled the projectile with sufficient velocity and accuracy. I neglected to take the chronograph to the range with me to figure out just what velocity it was producing, though. That for next time.
I have a mechanical powder measure that I could use rather than using the teaspoon-like measures I did use but to make sure that machine is calibrated I need to have a better scale. The one my grandfather used isn't in good condition and I don't trust it. A new electronic scale is only something like $30 so, once I get a job, I won't hesitate to get one.
Will I try to drag the local steampunks out to another formalized Cowboy Action event? Probably not. There will be a standing invitation and if anyone wants to go shooting just to go shooting I'll be glad to take them but organizing an event probably isn't worth the expenditure of energy.
Oh, and here is a video of my least embarrassing stages:
The first thing was that I wrote three stage scenarios. For those not in the know, each stage of the match begins with a description of the action. The shooter quotes some relevant line to indicate that he is ready to begin. When the timer beeps, the shooting commences. Sometimes the shooting order is relevant to the scenario but most of the time it is not. It's just a bit of story added to the beginning.
The three stories I submitted:
The Antediluvian Valley: While digging for fossils in the Lost Caverns of Virginia, the Garrison family discovered a hidden valley of living dinosaurs. Now the prehistoric beasts are rampaging and need to be put down. Show them who's at the top of the evolutionary tree.
The Automaton Menace: Families have been disappearing from the homesteads. It has just been discovered that the base villain Dr. Darius Hellstrum has been perfusing the brains of the settlers and installing them as living difference engines inside his insidious war automatons. The madman must be stopped!
Night of the Cooters: Last night a strange green meteor streaked across sky. With morning it was discovered that a huge cylinder landed out behind Judge Proctor's farm. And inside the cylinder. . . Aliens. Mean, octopus looking invaders from another world with giant brains and heat rays. Well they may be vast intellects but they sure chose the wrong holler to land in. We ain't never had calamari before.
They choose the last two of the three and rounded out the rest of the match with zombies.
I showed up in my Steampunk Django cosplay and set up a table of books and other steampunk stuff. There was some slight interest but northing more than I would consider casual. One other shooter wore goggles on his hat an called it steampunk and another shooter borrowed a pair of my goggles.From the near side, no one from the steampunk community other than myself showed and, even then, there was only a little bit of interest in the lead up.
Why should this be?
I don't think it's because steampunks don't like guns and shooting but maybe it's more that the people who make up the bulk of the steampunk community in Pittsburgh just happen not top be interested. Or perhaps it was more of a timing and transportation issue. The shoot started at 9am and was out in Plumb. A trip to the Frick Mansion was scheduled for the afternoon right off a bus route in the east end. Do people intuitively see the differences between the two groups of people and think them incompatible?
Probably a bit of all of the above. I should, at least, like to make the attempt to overcome or influence the last one. I've made a couple of attempts that have been generally unsuccessful. Perhaps the gulf is too wide.
Back to the shooting, then.
My times are still roughly twice those of the top shooters but that is likely to always be the case. They tend to have pump or hammerless shotguns while I have a hammered coach gun. They tend to shoot two handed, with the left thumb quickly on the hammer, while I shoot “duelist”, single handed. My modest improvement was in the fewer number of misses I made. Only three for the match. Well, five, but those two additional misses were for the shotgun which allows you to reload and try again without additional penalty. A miss costs a 5 second penalty but it takes me 6 or 7 to reload and fire again. I will need to keep that in mind the next time I miss with a shotgun. Perhaps better to take the miss than try again.
Or practice more. I could probably shave off those few seconds on my shotgun reload.
I made some other mistakes, though not too bad and recoverable. In one instance I almost forgot the shooting order and the yelling of the peanut gallery got me back on track. A similar thing happened where after the pistol string of the stage I forgot that I still needed to do the shotgun. Again, people yelling at me got me back on track.
Overall, I didn't come in last. Lessons learned, though: aim for the bottom of the target, not center of mass. If I can keep that in mind I should be able to shoot a clean match with no misses. Then, after that, time will come with familiarity.
Shooting 120 rounds of 45 Colt in a match plus shotgun can be expensive. Two and a half boxes of 45s at $30 a box can quickly add up. I had been buying a few boxes at gun shows and then not shooting because I was unemployed so I had stockpiled a bunch of ammo but I realized that I had all the components and tools necessary to reload just sitting in my garage. So I spent some of my copious free time to pull the box out and do some reloading.
I only reloaded 50 rounds because the can of powder I had was old and I didn't know how well it would perform. It shot a little dirty, probably for being many years old, but it went boom and hurled the projectile with sufficient velocity and accuracy. I neglected to take the chronograph to the range with me to figure out just what velocity it was producing, though. That for next time.
I have a mechanical powder measure that I could use rather than using the teaspoon-like measures I did use but to make sure that machine is calibrated I need to have a better scale. The one my grandfather used isn't in good condition and I don't trust it. A new electronic scale is only something like $30 so, once I get a job, I won't hesitate to get one.
Will I try to drag the local steampunks out to another formalized Cowboy Action event? Probably not. There will be a standing invitation and if anyone wants to go shooting just to go shooting I'll be glad to take them but organizing an event probably isn't worth the expenditure of energy.
Oh, and here is a video of my least embarrassing stages:
