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Thread: How many belong to the MLAGB?

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Smokeless Coal View Post
    As I've said elsewhere I hold my guns for target shooting as required by my FAC, not for historic or aesthetic reason. I'm not competetive
    Amazing how picky those MLAGB competitions are. You want to shoot but your gun just doesn't quite seem to fit and you have to buy another.

    The nice policeman says, "Why do you need another 45, you already have a 45?"

    You reply, "I need it so I can shoot this competition which excludes my gun"

    "Well I suppose you'd better get one then", he replies.

    In fact you'd need a vast armoury on your FAC to shoot all the MLAGB competitions.

    Very poorly thought out

  2. #17
    Jim McArthur is offline Frock coat wearing, riverboat dwelling, southern gent
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    Quote Originally Posted by Smokeless Coal View Post
    Interesting that the thread should be started by an American, nice one Jim.

    MLAGB is a good thing and should be supported, from a non member. Why am I not a member, well as said above their competitions are mostly for true black (apart from a few), they turn their noses up to those who choose the alternative. I'm not sure that its an elitist attitude or a desire to maintain tradition.

    I know that a lot of Amercan gun shops have stopped stocking BP because of tightened regulations and massive insurance increases. The alternatives to BP are not classed as explosive but as propellants so not so restricted.

    As I've said elsewhere I hold my guns for target shooting as required by my FAC, not for historic or aesthetic reason. I'm not competetive though I do have a go at my clubs fun competition, the law does not insist that we enter competitions just that we target shoot.

    I think MLAGB should stop being so fussy about what goes in the guns and concentrate on the hardware and making this branch of shooting more open to people.

    Thanks, Smokeless.

    I agree. I joined the MLAGB and am reading the first issue I've received of their excellent quarterly magazine BLACK POWDER, and I agree that they need to broaden their approach. Membership seems to be aging, parrticipation in at least certain competitions is noted as dwindling...I say, the more the merrier: let in the Pyrodex and 777 shooters, the Ruger Old Army shooters, etc.

    There's no point in reamaining purist if it leaves you with nothing in which to participate.

    Jim
    UBC's Police Pistol Manager
    "Nasty, noisy things, revolvers, Count. Better stick to air-guns." Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

  3. #18
    Jim McArthur is offline Frock coat wearing, riverboat dwelling, southern gent
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    Quote Originally Posted by robinghewitt View Post
    Amazing how picky those MLAGB competitions are. You want to shoot but your gun just doesn't quite seem to fit and you have to buy another.

    The nice policeman says, "Why do you need another 45, you already have a 45?"

    You reply, "I need it so I can shoot this competition which excludes my gun"

    "Well I suppose you'd better get one then", he replies.

    In fact you'd need a vast armoury on your FAC to shoot all the MLAGB competitions.

    Very poorly thought out

    I see your point, Robin: that this is a good way of getting around restrictive laws.

    But what of the poor bloke who wants to / can afford to, own only one or a couple guns?

    There needs to be competition and encouragement for all aspects of the muzzleloading fraternity, whether they shoot the Holy Black, modern substitutes: even muzzleloading smokeless pieces!

    For that matter: even Smokeless himself!

    With a bigger and broader membership front, they might even be able to get the law changed to allow for black powder cartridge pistol competitions.

    Jim
    UBC's Police Pistol Manager
    "Nasty, noisy things, revolvers, Count. Better stick to air-guns." Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

  4. #19
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    I guess the bee in my bonnet is that I dont like to see "barriers" against people getting enjoyment from shooting.

    Granted there is no barrier preventing me from stuffing the irom with whatever I choose, just from standing on the fireing line next to certain others.

    Its taken 2 years to pull my groups down from 18" to 3". The improvement is all down to experimentation and perfecting loading, I have always been capable of 3" groups over iron sights with any other guns I've used. Would the type of powder used have made a halfpenny worth of difference, I think not. So would someone using a different powder in a competition make a difference? There still plenty of smoke from other powders for those that like it, personally I prefer to hit the target.

    My enjoyment has rubbed off on other members of my club and revolver shooters have tripled, one has been drawn to the dark side and gone seriously black but most just have fun.
    “If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?” :- Prince Philip said after Dunblane

  5. #20
    Jim McArthur is offline Frock coat wearing, riverboat dwelling, southern gent
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    OR: they COULD allow for BP-only, AND unrestricted-substitute, events at the same comp.

    But I agree: if the substitutes provide no unfair advantage to their user, why not allow them across the board?

    Jim
    UBC's Police Pistol Manager
    "Nasty, noisy things, revolvers, Count. Better stick to air-guns." Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

  6. #21
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    Because when the MLAGB was founded, there was no such thing as a substitute for Black Powder, and the organisation seems to be, sadly, frozen in time.

    However, in this respect it is no different to the far bigger and more lively N-SSA in the US of A. No substitutes there, but a whole lot more fun. Over here in UK if a couple of thousand people dressed up in English Civil War uniform clothing and competitively fired live ammunition instead of blanks at representative targets, the TA would probably be called out to deal with them. Let alone firing live cannon shot...

    Or the many rendezvous organisations where nothing but the real thing is allowed. Remembering of course, that nothing 'modern' of ANY kind is allowed either, from eye-glasses to clothing to cooking untensils....

    tac
    Last edited by tacfoley; 23-04-2009 at 07:23 PM.

  7. #22
    Jim McArthur is offline Frock coat wearing, riverboat dwelling, southern gent
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    Then again, Tac, the American North-South Skirmish Association is, after all, doing Civil War reenactment: and those boys are purists about everything. But the MLAGB is shooting, not reenacting. They're wearing modern clothing, etc.

    Jim
    UBC's Police Pistol Manager
    "Nasty, noisy things, revolvers, Count. Better stick to air-guns." Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

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