Thoughout the 20's, 30's. 40's, and 50's shooting matches were common at the York Farm in the Valley of the Three Forks of the Wolf. Before that it was through hunting and earlier matches in that Valley that Alvin York leaned many of the skills that he would use in battle in 1918. While so much has changed in America, there is still a way to connect to those past times and it happens every February on the York Farm in Pall Mall, TN.
The event is a "Chunk Gun" shoot. The idea is that you fire 10 shots prone, supported by a rest (chunk), at a turkey shoot target which has a thin line X marked on it. This is the same style that has been practiced in the Cumberlands back to the pioneer days. The shortest "string", total distance of all 10 shots from the center of the X, wins. This year the winning string was 4.002 inches.
I went this year and met people from around the country. Camping beside me was a young teacher from near Nashville, TN, who shot the event barefoot with a flintlock. On the other side was a group from West Virginia. Down the dirt road was an entire convoy of Canadians who make it a point to attend the shoot yearly. Farther still, Indianans and Ohioans had large camps. I think that the farthest shooter was from Western Oklahoma. In all the crowd of shooters numbered 200. Even with the rain and wind, I really enjoyed this muzzleloading shoot.
You can read more about the York shoot at the following URL http://americanhistoricservices.com/html/york_event.html It refers to 2009 shoot but the information will be the same (with the exception of the specific date at the end of March) for 2012. If you are interested feel free to contact me and I will give you the info on who to contact to get on the mailing list. Actual Registration won't start until January.
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Thanks Ken, the period that I put at the end of the sentence wound up as part of the URL. It's fixed now and reposted by itself below.
http://americanhistoricservices.com/html/york_event.html
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I would love to attend. Is it only flintlock?
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Never mind I checked the link. Percussion ot Flintlock. Shooting Blackpowder and round patched ball. Looks like a cool event. I would love to go.