PIRATEHAWK! AAR

It  was wet, but at least the risk of fire was just about non-existent.

Dr. Mike showed up Thursday. JayG, Brad and Mike W. all showed up Friday night. There was hot buttered rum and Dr. Mike’s homemade enchiladas for the latecomers. Saturday dawned … wet. Stretch, Keads, Greg (a reader of Tam’s), Andy (of the Hoplorati hats) and a former coworker of mine I hadn’t seen in 14 years and two of her kids showed up Saturday morning. We trekked over to Geodkyt’s where we set up and got a safety briefing and a history lesson.


Real men don't use fuses. They use primer and slow match.

We started out with JayG’s  hand gonne. And we told him what we thought of his fuses. After that, Dr. Mike went through the basic evolution and progression of firelocks and let us shoot them.

Dr. Mike in full sailor/pirate kit, returning the rammer on ... something.

I lost track of them all. There was a cut down Brown Bess, and a Jaeger, and a blunderbuss, and something with a 47-lb trigger pull. Then there were pistols. And, yes. There is something strangely poetic about using IDPA targets with flintlocks



See how Dr. Mike has his hand out to help this young lady with the recoil? We neglected to tell him she's on a rifle team.*

 This is her brother. Apparently he found both the history lesson and the guns interesting. This was a first.

 Sweet Daughter wanted to try the blunderbuss. She got smacked a bit by the recoil, even with me holding the thing. She sucked it up, though, and asked if she could shoot Stretch's .22s.

That is one well-ventilated target. And it turns out she preferred the iron sights to the red dot. Thanks, Stretch, for the lesson!

Due to rain slowing things down, we didn't really get to the competition part. Nobody seemed to mind much, and the prize table (Hoplorati hats! Bacon!) was distributed by drawing names. There was lots of good food, even better company, and a definite desire to do this again. Dr. Mike already has plans to do this with cap and ball weapons.

Somebody gave their hoplorati hat to Sweet Daughter, who is beyond thrilled. She wears it to the bus stop every morning.

Thanks to all who made the trek in spite of the rain, especially Dr. Mike who supplied the weapons, ball and powder. I can't wait to do it again -- hopefully without the rain.


*Stretch - that might also be why she shot the hell out of your .22.