Alaska Double Rifle Shoot May 4, 2019

[cal pappas]

PLEASE RSVP SO WE CAN PLAN ON FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gentlemen and Ladies:

The 2019 Alaska double rifle shoot is planned for May 4 and the range reserved. The good news is we are back at Birchwood! The Mat Su Range was wonderful in they accommodated us when Birchwood cancelled in 2018 but there was just not enough room. You may remember the rifles on tables and my rifles on my tailgate. If it had been raining we would have been in a jam. Also, with so many nice rifles to our back security was a question.
So, here are the details for 2019:

Place is the Birchwood Range at the north Birchwood exit off the Glenn Highway, a few miles east of Eagle River.

Shooting begins at 10am with a few locals and regulars showing up at 8am to set up.

The range is paid for and reserved so there is no range fee to be collected by the range officer but we would like to ask those in attendance to contribute 10$ to reserve the range for 2020. Any extra will be donated for food.

And, speaking of food, can we rely on the two five-star chefs, J&J’s catering service where the finest dishes are delivered in a pickup camper?

As always, all are welcome, we feed you, and we don’t charge for ammunition. Come and enjoy yourselves. One or more overseas guests are expected as well as several from the flatlands of the Lower 48 states.

Please RSVP so we can plan on food based on attendance.

Questions? Email Cal at <pappas@mtaonline.net> or call 907-495-4505 evenings, Alaska time.

Rob will bring his doubles and machine guns.
Cal will bring a dozen or more doubles, 350 to 4-bore.
Expect a few howdah pistols.
Ron, Dave, Todd, Hank and many others are expected to attend and bring their treasures.
We will set aside one table for “for sale” items.
J&J hopefully will be the chefs.
The Alaska men will bring a variety of drinks, chips, snacks, etc.
Cheers, all.

Cal

 

[spike.t]

Sounds like you putting on a good event. Hope all goes well

 

[TTundra]

If it wasn't the anniversary weekend, I'd be joining from NC. I'd make that our anniversary destination if we weren't about ready to welcome a baby!

 

[Jeff 907]

I’ll be there. Let me know if you need any help.

 

[CAustin]

Best wishes to all those who attend. Wish I could come up there and take part.

 

[Ryan]

I may actually be there this year. I live 20 minutes away so I won't need lunch, thanks.

 

[BeeMaa]

Enjoy the shoot guys, wish I could be there.
May the fourth be with you.

 

[Scrumbag]

Sounds a great day! Sorry can't be there, bit far from London sadly.

Really good to see people shooting more doubles! We (The British Sporting Rifle Club) are trying to get more people to shoot doubles / big bores at Bisley in London. We shoot a postal match (mainly snap shooting at various distances under time) vs a club in Australia. Let me know if you'd like more info.

Scrummy

 

[sierraone]

Will be wheels up headed to Anchorage in about 11 hours. A....."shooting report" will follow upon my return!

 

[Scrumbag]

Will be wheels up headed to Anchorage in about 11 hours. A....."shooting report" will follow upon my return!

Fly safe and enjoy it!

 

[degoins]

Cant wait to see the pics. You guys have a great time.

 

[BeeMaa]

How did the shoot go?

 

[CoElkHunter]

PLEASE RSVP SO WE CAN PLAN ON FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gentlemen and Ladies:

The 2019 Alaska double rifle shoot is planned for May 4 and the range reserved. The good news is we are back at Birchwood! The Mat Su Range was wonderful in they accommodated us when Birchwood cancelled in 2018 but there was just not enough room. You may remember the rifles on tables and my rifles on my tailgate. If it had been raining we would have been in a jam. Also, with so many nice rifles to our back security was a question.
So, here are the details for 2019:

Place is the Birchwood Range at the north Birchwood exit off the Glenn Highway, a few miles east of Eagle River.

Shooting begins at 10am with a few locals and regulars showing up at 8am to set up.

The range is paid for and reserved so there is no range fee to be collected by the range officer but we would like to ask those in attendance to contribute 10$ to reserve the range for 2020. Any extra will be donated for food.

And, speaking of food, can we rely on the two five-star chefs, J&J’s catering service where the finest dishes are delivered in a pickup camper?

As always, all are welcome, we feed you, and we don’t charge for ammunition. Come and enjoy yourselves. One or more overseas guests are expected as well as several from the flatlands of the Lower 48 states.

Please RSVP so we can plan on food based on attendance.

Questions? Email Cal at <pappas@mtaonline.net> or call 907-495-4505 evenings, Alaska time.

Rob will bring his doubles and machine guns.
Cal will bring a dozen or more doubles, 350 to 4-bore.
Expect a few howdah pistols.
Ron, Dave, Todd, Hank and many others are expected to attend and bring their treasures.
We will set aside one table for “for sale” items.
J&J hopefully will be the chefs.
The Alaska men will bring a variety of drinks, chips, snacks, etc.
Cheers, all.

Cal

Please share pics of the double rifles! They're like fine muscle cars- I couldn't afford to own one, but I really enjoy looking at them! Thanks!

 

[Velo Dog]

Ladies & Gents,

Hopefully someone will post photos soon.
Computers strongly dislike me so, it’s very unlikely that photos will show up here from me.

Meanwhile:
The shoot went well, as far as I could discern.
It looked like there was about 20 or more attendees.
Lunch turned out to be an excellent home made stew which, I presumed was either very lean beef or perhaps bison (?)
It was delicious, no matter what critter had been chosen for the protein in it.
And, there was plenty of it, along with dinner rolls, butter for same, as well as potato chips and corn chips.
Bottled water and sodas on ice were the refreshments provided.
Cup cakes were set out for those who wanted desert.

One fellow brought to the firing line, an original, very large bore flintlock rifle, in what looked like barely used condition, a real museum piece.
I didn't speak with him, as he had plenty of company so, I do not know what caliber / bore it was.
However, I did watch him load a quite large patched round ball and fire the mighty weapon once.
It produced enough smoke from only one shot, so as to blot out the sun, and risk plunging Alaska into another ice age.
Furthermore, this same fellow also brought a Holland & Holland double rifle of some sort, as well as a large bore Rigby "rising bite" double rifle.
I’m guessing the Holland was a better than average grade in .500 BPE ?
It was a hammerless side lock, full length rib/not a quarter rib, exceptional wood, plenty of fine scroll engraving, also in excellent original condition.
The Rigby definitely looked like a large bore Nitro design, (maybe in .450 NE or .470 or .500 ? and it did have a typical NE type quarter rib but again, I did not try to elbow my way up to the busy owner for questioning.

One fellow, known as "Doc" with the table directly to one side of mine and sierraone’s table, brought what looked like an original WW-II German Schmeisser MP-40, AKA: "Burp Gun".
He gathered more of a crowd by firing it than the fellow with the above mentioned huge flinter, especially some teen aged boys in attendance there.

Cal had his usual, plentiful, high quality English double rifles there and ammunition for interested people to try a shot or two, in whichever one/s might catch their eye.
"sierraone" flew up from Arkansas and brought his Chapuis SxS in 9.3x74.
I bought a box of Privi-Partizan 286 grain ammunition to shoot through it.
But, being a senile old geezer, I forgot it at home (30 miles away from this particular event).
1dirthawker later dropped by my house and I gave the 9.3 ammunition to him, as I think he must have 30 or 40 rifles in that caliber by now.......ok.....no, wait......he doesn’t have 30 or 40 of them.
But he does have at least 1 or 2 very fine O/U rifles in that caliber.

At the shoot, all was not lost because, sierraone was kind enough to supply me with some of his cartridges for his Chapuis double and I did fire the rifle. (Not positive if I’m spelling Chapuis correctly or not).
Nice handling rifle for those of us who cannot afford a Holland, Rigby or Westley, etc.
He was offering it for sale at the shoot that day.
Not sure now if he still has it or not but, I don’t think it has sold yet.
If interested, he was only asking a little over $3,000. for it which, I believe might be somewhere around half what a new one sells for in the US. (?)

I brought my .416 Rigby caliber CZ 550 for a fellow who had said he wanted to possibly buy it and that, he'd be there to try it out.
He didn't show (definitely not a cool member of this forum).
Also, I brought my "slug gun" that was a 1970's inexpensive, heavy waterfowling double barreled 12 bore, 3" chambers, etc.
I've had about 3” of the choke portion of the barrels cut off from 30" barrels to now 27" and express sights, as well as a "Decelerator" recoil pad installed.
From sticks, with slugs, my best shots was when I put a left and a right at 25 yards, not quite but almost touching.
Impact was perfectly just barely high of the sight picture.
In other words, it luckily regulates with a “Six O’Clock hold” at 25 yards.
I’m quite happy with my “poor man’s Paradox Gun” and eventually will try it on inanimate targets further out, one day soon.

Aside from the above information, I’ve nothing to add, since I mostly just loitered about and made small talk with other old gun enthusiast buzzards like myself.

Cheers,
Velo Dog.

 

[sierraone]

Velo Dog wrote an excellent narrative. He did miss out though when a man about my age but much lighter in the weight department doubled my 9.3x74 ! I have seen videos of this happening and know some forum members it has happened to....but never witnessed it. Tomorrow I will go into detail, add a few items to VD's narrative and post some photos from the event. Over all the weather was great on shooting day and most if not all attendees including myself had a great time. To be continued tomorrow morning!!!

 

[CAustin]

Looking forward to the pictures!

 

[sierraone]

The individuals that brought firearms to be shot found them an empty space as they arrived and set up. There are no pre- assigned spaces at the bench. Remember that this is no competition. Once the range goes hot, then you control your small area and coach anyone wanting to shoot one of your rifles if necessary. Each person that brings firearms to the shoot also furnishes the type and amount of ammo he chooses. Once it is shot up, then you can walk the line and talk guns with other owners/shooters or pack up your personal equipment. In some cases there are men there to negotiate buying one of the 100 year old black powder or nitro doubles.

This is my Chapuis Ugex 9.3x74R. I bought this rifle just over a year ago from one of our very active AH members. I had never owned a double rifle before and after a few days of thinking about it, finally bought it. For about six months it just remained in a safe. About last January, I decided to I would make an effort to learn how to shoot a double. The previous owner sent me reload data and dies even though I don't reload. He also sent the best factory ammo (in his opinion) for the rifle. Based on his recommendations, I started shooting Norma 286 gr Oyrx ammo and some Hornady 286 gr ammo. The rifle is relatively light with recoil equivalent to a .300 Win Mag bolt gun IMO. After about 6 times to range with it, and a couple of sight adjustments I was able to 1 inch groups at 50 yards, but not consistently. I would most likely need to mount a scope to do so. As VD mentioned yesterday, the rifle is for sale. If anyone on the forum is interested PM me for measurements and other details, and we'll leave at that for this thread.

Now the doubling story. A forum member about my age but much lighter in weight than I asked to shoot my rifle. I said sure, that is why it is here. So I gave him some brief instruction and loaded it up. I stood directly behind him, but was looking down the right side of the barrels toward the target. At the same time I heard what I can only describe at "BaBoom" and the shooter was forced backward into my left hand which stopped him. My first thoughts were "what just happened". The shooter knew immediately what happened and told me so. After pulling the forward (right barrel) trigger, he just continued to pull and pulled the rear trigger! The shooter was none the worse for the incident. I examined the rifle to check for any signs of damage and found none. Then he fired two more rounds, one at a time. This was the first time I have actually observed a DR doubling.

I had taken all of my once fired brass with me with plans to give it to anyone that may have been interested buying the rifle. Since no one was, I gave a couple of boxes of once fired to the AH member next to me that had brought 2 or 3 big bore O/U s one being a 9.3. He is also a serious reloader who can and does immediately loose me when trying to explain what he does. Where is @tarbe when you need him?

Various 100 year plus firearms for sale. My understanding the majority of the guns brought to the event are for sale. Some very expensive, some not so much.

@cal pappas puts this event together. He is without question the expert on these old black powder/nitro doubles that are still used to hunt Africa in many cases by their owners. They are bought and sold regularly. So contact him if interested if owning such a rifle.

A few tourist photos.

This sea plane and a couple of hundred more were only about 200-300 yards from my hotel. There were many different types of landing gear for the different types of terrain Alaska has.

Velo Dog and myself wandering around Cabela's the Sunday after the shoot.

Shopping at Grizzly's downtown for Alaskan T-shirts for my grand kids!

After you walk through security in the Anchorage Airport, this is the next thing you see before heading to your gate!
@Velo Dog and @cal pappas , please don't hesitate to add to this thread if you choose. I hope to make it back next year....but also want to get back to Africa next year. So we will see!
Thanks to all for your interest.
Sierraone

 

[CAustin]

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

[tarbe]

Thanks for the pics and write-ups!

One day....one day....

 

[1dirthawker]

@sierraone,

was very nice to meet you! sierra one was very generous with his ammo, and his chapuis is a beautiful rifle! (like i need another 9.3!) he did however give me a couple of boxes of once fire brass, thank you!

afterwords several of us met up at velo dogs safari bar and told some tall tales and enjoyed adult beverages. was a very nice day. thanks to cal for setting the shoot up, was a grand time where one could try a variety of rifles, and shoot buffalo, hippo or zebra (paper unfortunately) was a grand time with great food and better company.

if any of you have the opportunity to make the next one, you should go!