My "new" spotting scope

Member 38805 · Oct 24, 2021

Picked this up at the OAC collector gun show this morning. A 1890 French Scelci 36x long-range spotting scope, with a British scope tripod. The optics are wonderful and clear as any new spotting scope. Fantastic for a 130 year old scope!
I'll use this for our long range black powder 1000 yd. matches, just for fun!

Sbarton · Oct 24, 2021

That things pretty cool!
Where do you shoot long range black powder?

Member 38805 · Oct 25, 2021

Sbarton said:
That things pretty cool!
Where do you shoot long range black powder?

Douglas Ridge Rifle club. We have a 1000 yd. range.

Sbarton · Oct 25, 2021

I shoot with the tri- county bp group. I've been wanting to check out your shoot, but Tuesdays are nearly impossible for me.

Member 38805 · Oct 25, 2021

Sbarton said:
I shoot with the tri- county bp group. I've been wanting to check out your shoot, but Tuesdays are nearly impossible for me.

I was a member at Tri County, but since they don't allow members to shoot past 300 yds. I left in July and returned to Douglas Ridge. I was lead to believe I could shoot the 600 yd. range before I joined, but afterwards was told I couldn't with BPCR rifles.

Sbarton · Oct 25, 2021

mm93 said:
I was a member at Tri County, but since they don't allow members to shoot past 300 yds. I left in July and returned to Douglas Ridge. I was lead to believe I could shoot the 600 yd. range before I joined, but afterwards was told I couldn't with BPCR rifles.

I think you'd have to shoot over the baffles at tri county to get a hit at 600 with bp.
Can you shoot 1000y at Douglas ridge any day of the week as a member?

Member 38805 · Oct 26, 2021

Sbarton said:
I think you'd have to shoot over the baffles at tri county to get a hit at 600 with bp.
Can you shoot 1000y at Douglas ridge any day of the week as a member?

No. It's Tuesday after the morning work party, and all day Thursday.
Not sure you could shoot over the baffles at Tri County and hit anything. They're too high to safely shoot over, and how would you aim anyway? Basically if you raise your muzzle high enough to hit at 600 yds., they said your bullet will strike the baffle. Not sure if anyone has tested this, but they wont allow it.

Sbarton · Oct 26, 2021

mm93 said:
No. It's Tuesday after the morning work party, and all day Thursday.
Not sure you could shoot over the baffles at Tri County and hit anything. They're too high to safely shoot over, and how would you aim anyway? Basically if you raise your muzzle high enough to hit at 600 yds., they said your bullet will strike the baffle. Not sure if anyone has tested this, but they wont allow it.

You can just sneak a bp 45-70 bullet under the baffles at the 300y if you shoot from prone.
Not sure about 600, haven't shot with those guys yet, but I hear they take it pretty seriously!

Member 38805 · Oct 27, 2021

Sbarton said:
You can just sneak a bp 45-70 bullet under the baffles at the 300y if you shoot from prone.
Not sure about 600, haven't shot with those guys yet, but I hear they take it pretty seriously!

From what I understand the 600 yd. shooters are all High Power rifle shooters, so they're not really interested in and BPCR shooters being on the 600 yd. range anyway.
DRRC has a large number of high power shooters also, and maybe more than BPCR. But the BPCR guys are a dedicated group, and very welcoming to new shooters. So far they've been very helpful, as my shooting previously has been with 1800's single shot rifles at long range, but using smokeless low pressure loads at BP velocities. I'm just getting started loading and shooting with BP, and one member sold me a couple pounds of Old Ensford to help me get going. So I'm busy buying wads, bore pigs, patches, and all the things I need to switch a few of my old cartridges over to BP now.

Sbarton · Oct 27, 2021

mm93 said:
From what I understand the 600 yd. shooters are all High Power rifle shooters, so they're not really interested in and BPCR shooters being on the 600 yd. range anyway.
DRRC has a large number of high power shooters also, and maybe more than BPCR. But the BPCR guys are a dedicated group, and very welcoming to new shooters. So far they've been very helpful, as my shooting previously has been with 1800's single shot rifles at long range, but using smokeless low pressure loads at BP velocities. I'm just getting started loading and shooting with BP, and one member sold me a couple pounds of Old Ensford to help me get going. So I'm busy buying wads, bore pigs, patches, and all the things I need to switch a few of my old cartridges over to BP now.

That's cool, I just started bpcr last year. Lots of fun, and challenging!
Hope to see you around, it's a small world, bpcr.