i know some of the scheutzen clubs have a big bore, buff class bench match, [usually .40 cal. on up ], that are for both iron sight and scope class. pretty sure thurmont , marylands' schuetzen club does this. i'd like to see more of these matches to see how many m.o.a. groups are ACTUALLY shot on paper. i've seen some real wall hanger targets shot with the big bore , .40 cal.+ stuff, but hard to do on demand..... how did you fare with your 40-65 and that big leupold/????....blue

AJC,

  Our club shoots some exclusive BP bench/offhand matches, and of course anybody can shoot any of the other matches with BP also. Your .40/65 would fit right in as two or three of our shooters use them altho ,32.40's and .38/55's seem to be the preferred caliber. What you will have to do is see what your local clubs do in this regard and go from there.

  As for books on BP bench shooting....... Not much out there that isn't fairly old, and nothing really specific to Schuetzen shooting as practiced today, as far as I know. But any of the books like Schwartz & Dells book "The Modern Schuetzen Rifle" will give you what you need to know about bench shooting as we do it in Schuetzen. Altho these books will deal mostly with smokeless powder the bench techniques for BP will be exactly the same. The difference lies in the need to wipe your bore out between shots, so as to get maximum accuracy. That can be covered here by any number of members.

PETE

AJC,

  A lot of caliber choice is going to be dictated by what you want to do. Schuetzen? Shilouette? Long Range?

  I have a Browning BPCR in the same caliber as yours and I plan on using it for BP Shilouette next year. If you plan on getting mostly into Schuetzen I'd recommend a .32/40 or .38/55 since you want to shoot BP. For Long Range it seems like the .45/90 is coming on strong.

  For strictly BP shooting I'd highly recommend Steve Garbe & Mike Venterino's "BP Cartridge Reloading Primer". It has quite a bit on the .40/65 and calibers from .38/55 to the .50/140. It's main thrust is for Shilouette but the info in it can be applied to any venue. You can get it from Buffalo Arms. If you don't know of them it's the candy store for BP shooting. If you need a phone number or web address let me know.

  Between this book and the one mentioned in my other post you will have all the basics for shooting any SS rifle with either black or smokeless. You'll really need both if you'd like to get into Schuetzen, or any type of bench target shooting. The Garbe/Venterino book deals exclusively with BP & Shilouette shooting off cross sticks, and the Schwartz/Dell book will give you the basics of bench and target shooing plus a lot more.

  As I mentioned in the other message...... SS shooting, whether with black or smokeless will be exactly the same in how you handle the gun. The only difference will be in how you manage your gun between shots. As I like to say.... When the bullet exits the muzzle it doesn't make any difference what powder pushed it out!

PETE