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Taylor Anderson aims the 3" rifle at Ft.Sill during the USFAA national championship
(When the gunner pats the trail on the right, he means for the #3 man to move it to the right. Left side means left. #3 can't do much about up and down, that's the gunner's job--with the elevation screw. |
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That's Good!
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Battery
Fire!
Every gun on the line opened the competition with a round
of cannister fired simultaneously in honor of all the brave
fighting men and women who have fallen in our country's
defense--and a couple of artillerymen in particular.
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Counter-Battery target
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Similar
results two years before |
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Before
the competition, we abused some of the discarded local vehicles.
(to be honest, it was only about 400 yds away)
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Yep. An exit hole.
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Taylor
Anderson's daughter, Rebecca, pulls the lanyard in '05.
She was 9.
She looks like, "Aw shucks! What are you taking a picture
for? I do this every day!
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A victorious--if somewhat scruffy--crew in '06
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'06
gun line from the right
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Jim
checks the sight picture
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Where'd
it go? Bart
Saunders took this picture of our rifle during the competition.
You have to admire Jim's agility here--as he crouches to
watch the fall of the shot--and remember he is closer to
50 than 40.
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Bart
took this one too. Jim's still trying to see around the
smoke. Most folks wouldn't think to look UNDER it though...
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In
2004, we brought 2 guns to Ft. Sill. Our 3" rifle and our
6pdr--fresh from being overhauled after its stint in the
Mexican Army for "The Alamo".
The 6pdr was just about to be in a documentary about the Mexican War too, so it needed to look pretty. Incidentally, we won first place that year--in both the rifled and smoothbore categories. In the picture, both guns are engaging infantry targets with cannister--REAL close! |
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The 6pdr is WAY better with cannister than the rifle!
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Jim,
Taylor and Lynn prepare to shoot at Arizona.
As part of a documentary, we took our 1841 6pdr to the
Yuma Proving Grounds and fired at targets up to 1200 meters
away--with radar and 5000 frame-per-second video rolling.
We learned stuff about muzzle-loading artillery that nobody
ever knew.
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Not
much to shoot at in Arizona!
Actually, the targets were already
set up at 1200 meters--you just can't see them!
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We'd
like to say "Check this out!" but honestly, we only center-punched
this poor guy at 300 meters after they moved the target
up to test cannister.
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On
the Palo Alto battlefield as Ringgold's Battery
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We
were emplaced on a mowed spot. The cord-grass down there
is murder. Absolutely the worst possible place you could
imagine to fight a battle.
The grass is like waist high steel
wool. There are no trees. It was a hundred degrees when
we were there in March---The battle was fought in MAY. No
water near and sand-crabs get in your bedding. The Parks
Service there is GREAT and it is a wonderful place to visit---I
just wouldn't want to fight there!
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.jpg)
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Back
to the 'MO.
Alan Hutton poots off the 18pdr at
an event we did down at the new Alamo movie set. We spent
71/2 months there working on the film and you might wonder
why we would want to go back...Well, to shoot cannons! Besides,
last time it was work...
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Smoke
is fun! |
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.JPG)
