Shootin' Civil War muskets and my new M-1 last Sunday.

Dave told me weekend before last when we'd driven up to Dallas to a gun show that some of his Civil War reenactor buddies were comin' down the next weekend to shoot and that I should show up. Bring my M-1 and show it off. In the meantime he'd rebuilt the shooting range, nailing a new board up to staple targets to in front of that pile of old ties, and he'd set up a table to shoot off of at the 50 yard spot. I was glad to see the place spruced up.

The human shape on the far left sometimes gets dressed in old jeans and a blue shirt, so the guys can get a few shots off at a Yankee. The steel targets to the right of that swivel when you hit them. Their musket balls flatten when they hit them, while my modern stuff just goes through. We ended up tearin' the hell out of that little disk. Had it swayin' all afternoon. Dave and his dad built this range just after buyin' this land back in the late 1960s. It's a great place to blast away. Fun times.



This bunch of barely reconstructed Confederates even set up a cardboard figure of Uncle Sam holding a government check, telling me "That's old Abe." I just shook my head and mumbled "That's just wrong!", and then Joe here said "I like to think it's the IRS when I shoot at it, and I understood completely. Still didn't shoot at it though. Wrong.

These guys have traced their family histories back and know the battles their Confederate ancestors fought and died in, so it's still a bit personal to them. I guess if they'd won that war the feelings would have diminished by now, but it hasn't. Their knowledge about that time is voluminous, and sometimes I think they take things a bit too seriously. They all portray union troops as well as confederates in their reenactments, but you know from being around them for any length of time where their hearts are. Generally though, it's all in good fun and humor. Once, arriving at Dave's place to shoot after he'd returned from a reenactment, I found him in a Union uniform. I asked him if that was his outfit and he said "only when I'm playin' a target!"

The guy above is Joe Walker. He's retired, about 61, and served in the Navy during Vietnam. He served among other places on the USS Ranger, which is the aircraft carrier that I lived on and taught on a few times in the early 1990s. We have a lot of laughs telling one another stories from those times.

He likes to tell stories about going up north to business meetings back when he was still working. he says that all the Northern guys would behave way too serious, while all the Southern guys would be over on one end of the room cutting up. He thinks that is indicative of some basic difference between Northerners and Southerners. I think there is a difference, but I'm not sure how pronounced it is. I know it did take a while for me to get used to hangin' out with my Yankee cousin in Pennsylvania. Their sense of humor was totally different. I got used to it eventually, getting past the desire to punch someone, and now it's no big deal.



That's my M-1 there, on my bench rest, on the new shooting table Dave nailed together and set up for us to shoot from. Ain't it purdy?



That's Joe shooting, while the other guys reload. I tell ya, this sort of shooting is really fun. The gear is too cool. I don't see myself becoming a reenactor, but the gear makes me want to start collectin' muskets.



One of the guys makes rounds and wads for the muskets that are historically accurate. He makes a batch in different calibers, in different styles typical of Enfields or Springfields, some with "Minnie Balls" and some in "Buck and Ball", and then they shoot them up. I think he sells them at their reenactments. Anyway, like I said, these guys knowledge of the gear and times is unbelievable.



Here's Dave shooting my Garand. After these guys shot for about an hour I brought her out and took a few shots. I got the small round swinging metal target swingin' with a few shots. Thinkin' I should probably quit while I was ahead, I handed it to one of the guys sayin' "Take a turn", and then he handed it to another. They all looked closely at it, oooin' and aaain', and all agreed that it's a very nice specimen, and that I'm lucky to have it. It was fun to let them blast away, and to take a turn with their muskets too. I'm gonna have to pick up one of those sometime soon. Shootin' one is just too fun.

We'll do it again.