Spencer and Henry platoon volley firing

[Cannon Fodder]

Gentlemen, As a reenactor, I dont know how many of you  have ever been involved  in platoon volley firing  of 5 or more henrys? I have been involved  once  and seen it done one other time  at night. I guarantee you it is  an  entertaining  and crowd pleasing experience, particularly the night one!

I think the secret is rather than  everyone firing on an individual  basis(ala  John  Wayne style), Have an  officer or nco  command it  with  "Ready , Aim , Fire " at  a 5-10 second  interval and unload  14 rounds  in 1-2 minutes.

Hope you can find enough henys to pull it off. It is impressive!

Cannon Fodder

[jim]

Good morning,
Here is something you should check out; the N-SSA Breech Loading competition involving Spencers and Henry Repeaters with a mix of Sharps, Ballards and any other type of breech or multi-loading firearm used in the War of the Southern Rebellion.  At the last Nationals, October 2006, there were over 50 positions, each with 5 shooters, that is over 400 repeaters-breech loaders firing in a given three minute event. Quite impressive. The following is from the N-SSA Organization page.   Jim


National Breechloading Rifle Match
The newest competition within the North-South Skirmish Association is the breechloader team match. For the National matches, this competition consists of four members shooting at the following targets:

50 yards - 32 clay pigeons on a cardboard backer
50 yards - 16 hanging clay pigeons
50 yards - 16 hanging clay pots
100 yards - 10 hanging 6"x6" ceramic tiles

Regional breechloader matches quite often consist of threee members, this is done to increase the number of teams competing since there are a smaller number of people attending. There are usually three or four events, one event at a distance of 100 yards and two or three at a distance of 50 yards.

Regional breechloader matches are free to substitute other targets in place of the ones listed above. Other typical targets for the 50 yard events are 12 ounce drink cans or 8 ounce styrofoam cups filled with water. Another typical target for the 100 yard event would be 2 liter bottles filled with colored water.

Events are timed, usually three minutes, and rapid fired. When all the targets for an event are broken, time is stopped. The winner of the match is the team with the lowest total time for all events.
.