The 44th Alafia River Rendezvous – 2014
The Broken Arrow, Southern Fried edition, actually broiled chicken due to diabetes
These Shirt tail men with their cursed twisted guns the most lethal widow and orphan makers in the world. London Newspaper 1775
The 44th Alafia River Rendezvous
Last summer I was thinking about going to the big Alafia rendezvous at fall Friendship and the Southeastern I asked several Widowmakers who had attended this rendezvous in January of that year. Each and every one said it was a great rendezvous and I should go. What a difference a year makes! Well I went this year; I actually left a day and a half early to avoid a large ice storm heading my way.
I got there Thursday afternoon it was so warm I put my tent up wearing a tank top shirt! I loved the warmer weather. It is a strange place to shoot with the squirreleist range rules I have ever seen in my life. The rendezvous starts Friday at 6PM. The rifle shooting does not start until Tuesday! This is a long time for a shooter to wait till he can shoot his firelock. The archery started Monday but you could practice before Monday. The biggest problem happened on the paper range. In all my years of shooting I have never been OBSERVED as much as I was on that range. I did not have my “stuff” lined up dead center of my color coded loading table. With the butt of my rifle on the ground I pulled the muzzle of the rifle out of the notch on the table and held it to my chest so I could better see the powder going in the muzzle. I was called on this you are supposed to load with the barrel in the correct notch on the table. I told a range officer I wanted to change flints at my loading table; I thought it would be best to ask considering how things were going. The range officer followed me to my table and watched intently while I changed my rifle flint. I shot three targets and left this range. Of course what happened to me was pale compared to what happened to Lizard and Nappy. You can’t carry your firelocks in the loading area when the range is closed. There are gun racks outside the loading area. When Lizard and Nappy got there the range was closed so they set their horns and possible bags and rifles on the rack outside the loading area and went down range to post their 100 yard targets. They walked back into the loading area to wait until the range closed so they could fetch their rifles and accoutrements. The range was still closed when the range officers noticed there were targets down range and there was no stuff at the proper loading spots for these targets. So the range officers went down range and pulled their targets. Lizard and Nappy seen this and went down to intercept the range officers to ask why they pulled their targets before they had a chance to shoot at them. All of the range officers on that line went down to join in the conversation. What happened than was the biggest Mongolian Fluster Cuck I have ever seen. The boys will have to fill in the details when next you meet.
The Archery was very good; the Woods walk was very good. I also liked the Primitive and Trade Gun matches, even though I had to put my powder horn on my week side for the trade gun. The Primitive range officer was not part of the home club so he did not care what side you hung your powder horn on. All these ranges, The paper, Primitive, Trade Gun and the 200 yard are not set up for primitive pouch and powder horn shooting, if you load form a pouch and horn you will most likely to run afoul of these sorry arse range officers. These ranges are set up for tackle box shooters Period.
How did the Widowmakers do, Templar placed in the Trade Gun match , J9 won all of the Women’s matches and one day her score beat all of the men shooters also. J9 won the overall high Woman archer. They jumbled up the way they awarded off the blanket so J9 ended up picking 15th place off the blanket. Six of the Widowmakers who went down there will not be going back next year. What about me? Well except for the paper range it was a great rendezvous for me. It is as big as the Eastern rendezvous twenty years ago. There are a whole lot of vendors and trade blankets. It is much warmer down there than it is 600 miles north where I live; there are a bunch of good eateries a person does not have to cook every meal. One place even serves up Alligator and J9 approved Louisiana Gumbo! There is music every night at several locations I also met a bunch of new Friends down there Like Burl, White Fang and Handlebar. I will be going back next year and I will bring my shooting box!
The Widowmaker Frolic May 18th – 24th 2015
It is time for our annual get together! Come in early and stay late. You do not have to stay the entire week to shoot the entire program. Most people just get a long weekend off for Memorial Day so arrive when you can and we will get the Frolic going. The shooting will be with Flintlock Rifle, Smoothbore, Pistol, bow and arrow and knife and tomahawk. The Widowmaker Frolic is a Blanket Shoot. You will never see a better prize blanket than at the Frolic.
Directions to the Widowmaker Station
From the Great White North (At least this year!)
In Tennessee It is easier if you drive through the Land between the Lakes and it is a pretty drive. Just make sure you have your guns out of sight! In Tennessee get on Hwy. 79, then turn south on Hwy 232. You will cross Hwy 147 at McKinnon. The road will change its name to White Oak Road. When you pass the White Oak Community Center you will have one mile to go. The Driveway is on the right and there should be no doubt you have arrived at a Widowmaker Event. The address is 7210 White Oak Road.
From below the Smith & Wesson Line
From 1-40 take exit 143, Hwy 13. Go by Loretta Lynn’s Ranch and through Waverly ( this is your last chance to get a McDonalds Cheeseburger before you get to camp!) Go 7.3 miles and turn Left on CR-1781, Tennessee Ridge Road. Take the second road to the left at Hall’s Creek Road. There will be a yellow brick house on the left. Halls Creek Road will change to Greenbrier down the road. Just stay on this road for 8 miles from the yellow house , you turn right on New Hope Road across from the auto junkyard. When the road ends at New Hope Church Road, take a left on Cooley Ford- White Oak Road.
The driveway is 1.3 miles away a left turn in a sharp curve.
Of course two weeks after the Frolic is June Friendship.
Grizz
The Broken Arrow Southern Fried with Assist from Illinois:
The Widowmaker Rifle Frolic 2014
We had 27 camps and only a little bit of rain Saturday Night This is pretty good for this time of the year. Jethro said the tick population was down for this year which is a good thing! We had a new-bee at the Frolic I will tell about him later in this issue. Jack and Mary Jones showed up it was very good to see Jack up and about!
The top picks off the blanket were Bug bite with 51 points, Brad Hahn with 49 points and Tony Logan with 47. Tony ran the entire program in one day! Archery… Shaw 14, Jimmy 7 Knife & Hawk … Goob and Bug bite tied with 10 points Pistol… Jethro and Bug bite tied with 7 Rifle Silhouettes … Steven Flanagan and Scott Bumps head on rocks tied with 14 points. King’s Mountain …Tony Logan and Reese tied with 5 hits. Smoothbore… Dances with the Reptile cleaned all of the targets.
Friendship Spring Shoot
The first Widowmaker shoot of the Spring Shoot is the Big Honking Military Caliber Musket Match. The winner gets a free meal courtesy of the other shooters. I managed to scrape out one more point than Many Klatch which was good enough for the free meal. On Tuesday afternoon we shot the Fort Greenville out of the top floor of the Blockhouse. I am from the south and I can say it was hot as hell up stairs in the blockhouse. As usual a Widowmaker ( Jeff Pell ) was on the winning team. Now it is time to talk about the new- bee we had at Friendship. When he showed up for a Widowmaker Woodswalk he dry-balled on the first shot. He did not last long after this. Later in the week he was on the way to shoot the Mountain Man and he left his flint and steel back in the tin Tipi. We poke fun but the new-bee was the Lizard! It was great to see him back on the range again. I bet Lizard will crawl his way back on top before long.
At the fall shoot there’ll be a Widowmaker Beer Match in conjunction with starting an entirely new match entitled: The Black Squirrel Rifle Whiskey Match. The winner gets a bottle of good whiskey ( or so I am told ) $5 to get in the beer match but no extra fee for the squirrel match. Of course you have to buy both targets at the blockhouse. The Widowmakers will run the Black Squirrel Match on the Fer Du Lack range, Beer match will be utilize the Widowmaker Target shot over at its normal distance. These two matches will be held Tuesday September 16th. For both of these matches the first target you shoot is your score target for these matches. There is no re-entry for these two Widowmaker matches. Being a Widowmaker match it is Flintlock only, no rear sights on Smoothbores and 18th century clothes no tennis shoes and short pants. I don’t drink “leaded” drinks but this is fun! Widowmaker Smoothbore and Rifle matches, Simply outstanding. Following the Defense of the Fort, Smoothbore Style, on that same Tuesday afternoon, we’ll all gather in camp for the beer and whiskey match winner’s major award party. I hope to see a bunch of you back for the fall shoot next month where at least it should be cooler!
Widowmaker scores at Friendship
The Widowmakers filled up the award ceremonies, Brad, Matt, Jesse, Manyklatch, Nappy, Jethro and myself won medals. And Jeff Pell was on the winning Fort Greenville team. The Widowmaker ladies Missy, Tara, Dances with Reptiles and Susie won medals. Susie won the Mountain Squaw and Ladies Flintlock Valley Aggregate and the new NRA Primitive High Ladies platinum medal. The Widowmaker kids also cleaned house. All the Mild Bunch kids did very well and Susie’s grandson Tristan got three golds and one bronze. The future of the Widowmakers is looking good!
I hope to see a bunch of you at Friendship next month. I would like to thank Jethro and Susie for helping me with this!
Grizz
The Broken Arrow Friendship, Possum Branch and the Southeaster
Fall Friendship – 2014
The camp was smaller but the weather was much nicer than June. I got to wear wool! Turkeyman trailed me all week and we broke in a few new trails. We met the range officer of the Running Boar range while we were eating Fry bread; he invited Turkeyman and me to try out the moving swine. We gave it a try the next day. Turkeyman likes to shoot moving things I like for the target to be still and me doing the moving so I did not have great expectations about me hitting the running boar. I actually hit the pig a few times and Turkeyman did very well. This match is a lot of fun Turkeyman and I recommend this match to the Widowmakers. It can’t hurt your deer hunting learning how to it a moving target. On Monday night I found a used iron mounted longrifle 62 caliber on commercial row. It looked brand new and pushed all of my buttons. I purchased this beastie the next morning. The seller told me the rifle was sighted in. As this rifle was the same caliber as my Northwest Gun I already had the right patch and ball on hand. Thirty five minutes later I was busting gongs up on the hill as it turned out the rifle was sighted in. In the next twenty minutes I ended up winning a couple matches on the steel targets up on the hill. It has been a long, long time since I have won a rifle match. The first Widowmaker Match was the Big Honking Military Caliber flint musket match. Although he was over 300 miles away Manyklatch was there in spirit. I have never seen so many klatches with big musket locks. Shooting USA filmed us on part of the woodswalk. They got footage of Jethro going through a bad spell. I think Jethro had the record on Klatches but Jethro still beat everybody else!
We had the kick off of the two new alcohol based Widowmaker sponsored shooting matches. We brought back the Smoothbore Beer match. This match is now shot using the Widowmaker target which tightens things up a bunch. The second match was brand new it is a rifle match shot on the black squirrel target on the Fer Du lac range. We had a great turnout for both matches. Jeff Pell won the Beer Match. Jeff did not understand the duties of the beer match winner; Jeff said he will make amends at the spring shoot next year. Matt Rosemeyer won the rifle match which included a stuffed Black Squirrel and a bottle of good whiskey. The third Widowmaker match of the day was the Defense of Fort Greenville. We have the smoothbore version at the fall shoot. We had enough shooters for five, three man teams. Despite choosing the teams by the drawing of cards we still ended up with one team with three Widowmakers . It just so happens the three was Jeff Pell, JJ and Don Hulvey three of the best smoothbore shooters on the planet. Congratulations to these three fine smoothbore shooters! The Smoothbore version is more fun than the rifle version. I think it is due to closer and larger targets and less heat! The Widowmakers did very well at the rewards ceremony Jeff Pell won both the rifle and smoothbore Woodswalk! All of the Widowmakers did very well at the Fall Nationals.
Possum Branch – 2014
Manyklatch said Possum Branch was as wet as a salamander, I used to catch these when I was a kid they were indeed very wet! When I was a kid almost every time I camped out I woke up in a puddle or stream. I understand Jethro has taken up this practice I do not recommend this! Shooting results 1st place Mississippi Jim, 2nd place Bug Bite, 3rd place a soggy Jethro, 5th place Farmer/Bigfoot, 8th place
Tony Logan. Manyklatch tied for 10th place but lost by the drawing of cards. I sure hope everybody is dried out by now.
The Southeastern – 2014
The weather was equal to the weather at Nappy’s Southeastern all the way to the last Friday. We had around eight Widowmakers there. On the first day of shooting the Widowmakers had a bad day at the range ( all except Hawk! ) The elusive Dry Ball showed up several times, I confess to be one of the stricken there were two more besides me. That night Lizard chewed us out for such a sorry showing. The next day Leroy won the smoothbore with a brand new gun, I got a second place with my rifle. Farmer did well also. All of the Widowmakers there won something except our coach. On Wednesday I decided to compete in the Highland Games. I had not done this for over ten years. Right after the games I planned to do the woodswalk and then do the archery. It all looked good on paper at least to me. Well I won the Highlands Games by a good margin, still wearing my great kilt I grabbed my rifle gun and pouch and trotted to the Woodswalk. When I raised my rifle to my shoulder it looked like I was trying to shoot in a 7.2 earthquake! The archery went along the same lines. My adrenalin finally shut down around 10:30 PM. The final Irony of my Highland Games victory my major award was a gallon of Scotch whiskey! Those of you who know me realize what an irony this is!
My computer is back up for now I am six weeks late on this issue. The next issue will have the Alafia and the 2015 Widowmaker Rifle Frolic.
I hope you all have a pleasant winter Grizz