Muzzleloading WA State Championships Part 1
12-13 March 2011
Part 1 of the 2011 Western Australian Muzzle Loading State Championships were contested over the weekend of March 12 and 13 at the Perth Muzzle Loading Club in Wanneroo. Weather conditions were quite good, with temperatures in the low 30c for the 30 or so keen muzzleloaders in attendance.
Saturday was for handguns only and included percussion revolvers, matchlock lock and flintlock pistols and for the first time, single-action revolvers using black powder cartridges. The day was dominated by Kerwin Bee from Ravenswood, who won five gold medals, and Barry Duckett with four.
As there were some new inaugural events, there were six new inaugural records, with the best score of the day going to veteran shooter Bill Longworth (82) winning the 25m Rifled Flintlock Pistol with a fine 90/100. The 8am start worked perfectly with a scheduled barbecue lunch break and the day finishing in the early afternoon. Following the medal presentations, the shooters went home to clean their guns and make up suitable powder charges for the following day.
At Sunday 8am sharp, we started all over again but with completely different firearms. Seen belching white smoke were matchlock, flintlock and percussion muskets and shotguns, as well as cannon and breechloading black powder cartridge rifles.
Three new state records were obtained on the Sunday; two for Frank Turner, winning both the breech loading rifle events, and the other to the best card of the day, Leo Laden’s very fine 90/100 with a smoothbore matchlock musket 50m offhand, including five consecutive bullseyes.
The last two events, percussion and firelock shotgun, were shot out in the open during the hottest part of the day, with poor scores reflecting the very trying conditions. Next year, we may well reverse the order of events and start off with the shotguns!
Of the seven events decided on Sunday, Geoff Price won three and also took out the Inaugural Part 1 Aggregate with a score of 1378. Leo Laden came second on 1284 and Kevin Brice third on 1144.
Our computer-scoring wizard Vince Haines organised most of the details from Brisbane, where he is assisting with flood damage repairs to lifts, with hands-on electronic scoring excellently done by Sue McKenna, Rick Denniston and Kevin Jones.
Others who helped as range officers, target changers, cooks and scoring ensured the smooth running of the State Championships and included Doug Beaman, Derek Clemesia, Gary Sprunt, Frank Owen, Frank Della, Lindsay Smith, Keith McKay and more.
In all, it was a very enjoyable, well-run weekend, with all of the new inaugural events proving to be popular and very likely to become permanent fixtures in the State Championships.
Part 2 of the State Championships will be held in October.
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 25m Precision Revolver Class 1 (96) | B Duckett (90) | D Cocking (84) | J McGowan (84) |
| 25m Timed Revolver Class 1 (88) | J McGowan (83) | D Cocking (79) | F Turner (76) |
| New event: Revolver Aggregate Class 1 | J McGowan (167IR) | D Cocking (163) | F Turner (159) |
| 25m Precision Pistol Class 2 (96) | K Bee (92) | G Price (92) | D Cocking (90) |
| 25m Timed Pistol Class 2 (92) | K Bee (85) | C Sheppard (83) | G Price (83) |
| New event: Pistol Aggregate Class 2 | K Bee (177IR) | G Price (175) | D Cocking (167) |
| 25m Precision Revolver/Pistol Class 3 (94) | D Cocking (88) | J McGowan (88) | K Bee (88) |
| 50m Precision Revolver/Pistol Class 3 (86) | K Bee (84) | G Price (77) | J McGowan (76) |
| New event: Open Aggregate Class 3 | K Bee (172IR) | J McGowan (164) | G Price (161) |
| 25m Precision F/L Smooth Bore (92) | G Price (80) | K Brice (76) | B Longworth (70) |
| 25m Precision F/L Rifled (93) | B Longworth (90) | B Duckett (87) | K Bee (83) |
| New event: F/L Pistol Aggregate | B Longworth (160IR) | G Price (160) | B Duckett (152) |
| New event: 25m Precision SA BP Revolver | B Duckett (91IR) | J McGowan (82) | G Price (70) |
| New event: 25m Timed SA BP Revolver | B Duckett (85IR) | K Brice (72) | G Price (72) |
| New event: SA BP Revolver Aggregate | B Duckett (176IR) | J McGowan (152) | G Price (142) |
| 50m Off Hand F/L Musket (86) | G Price (83) | J McGowan (82) | K Brice (81) |
| 50m Off Hand Open Musket (89) | L Laden (90R) | K Brice (81) | G Price (72) |
| Percussion Shotgun Trap (23) | K Jones (18) | L Laden (16) | G Price (16) |
| Flintlock Shotgun Trap (20) | J McGowan (11) | L Laden (11) | G Price (10) |
| 25m Cannon (94) | G Price (82) | L Laden (78) | C Sheppard (7) |
| 50m Off Hand BP Cart Rifle (84) | F Turner (85R) | L Laden (76) | M Gibbs (71) |
| 100m BR BP Cart Rifle (86) | F Turner (91R) | K McKay (86) | L Laden (67). |
| New event: Part 1 Aggregate | G Price (1378) | L Laden (1284) | K Brice (1144) |
| (R - New record, IR - Inaugural record) |