SPORTS

Big black powder blast

a3

DAVE TAYLOR

SMOKE POLES, cap-locks,
tossing knives and
tomahawks may sound like
things that belong in a mu-
seum, but history is still
alive in the minds of those
who shoot black powder.

Enthusiasts hold regular
shoots out at the beautiful
Hankin Creek Ranch, at the
end of the Kitselas Canyon
— the latest being on the
weekend of September 15
and 16.

Nearly 20 shooters
showed up for the event,
which included a paper
target-shoot, tomahawk and
knife tossing, and a trail
walk.

Competitors scored points
for accuracy, and winners
received prizes at the end of
the weekend,

The most interesting event
is probably the trail walk.
Shooters walk along a trail
through the woods and have
to hit a variety of targets
that are set up in the trees.
These range from gangs to

SKEENA. ANGLER»
ROB BROWN

Tarnished totem

ount Baker rose out of the ozone-
saturated smog that hangs like a
Shroud in the Fraser valley on hot
summer days, inhibiting the growth
of crops and angering residents. They have a le-
gilimate beef. The low-level smog is spewed
out of the back-side of cars in Vancouver where
motor vehicle metastasis has trucks, busses, all
kinds of automobiles, crawling over the paved
- | landscape like rats. The occupants of the: Fraser
: valley villages —- where only thirty years ago,
the occasional] whiff of manure was a reminder
of how pure the air was — are only small-time

: contributors. So were we, Bob Taylor and J, metal rabbits, and from
: sharing the pilot’s seat of his Volkswagen van string-cutting "to tack
: on our way North. driving.

: We passed a sign put up by the Chilliwack
: Chamber of Commerce declaring that their
: town has plenty of fertile soil for entrepreneur-
ial Johnny Appleseeds. Rows of housing
crouched on the hillsides, for the most part, held
in check by the Agricultural Land Reserve
legislation of the early seventies,

But this isn’t just any or-
dinary target-shoot. Compe-
litors are firing vintage
tifles, and many are dressed
in old-fashioned buck-skin
outfits,

MIKE BROWN takes a shot at a black powder event two weekends ago, using a rifle his father made.

that his father made. And he
plans on handing it down to

science involved,’ says
George Brown. ‘‘And con-

aim and pulls back the first tease their cohorts after a
of two triggers which sets miss.

Views were clearer at Hope and crystal clear
by the time we reached the Coquihalla Pass, I
was happy Bob had decided to come north and
fish, partly because it had saved me a long trip
on the Gray Dog, but mostly because it gave me
the opportunity to fish with a veteran angler
who is a link to the men who pioneered the
sport in B.C. a 4

Bob knew ‘and fished with Bill Cunliffe, he’
knew Tom Brayshaw, some of the first men to -
show flies to Coquihalla steelhead; like them he:
knew the strcams when they were stable and

full of fish. Naturally, we were talking about the

Coquihalla as we climbed up the pass. I looked
down to the river, shrunken in the dry summer,
exhausted now after the construction of a rail

“Almost all black powder
shooters make their own
clothes,’” says George
Brown, one of the competi-
tors from Prince Rupert,
“We do a lot of bone and
antler work too. When we
hunt, we use the whole
‘animal’? 2 0
* >Brown’s son Mike shoots
as well. He says he got in-
volved because of the fun
and challenge of the sport,
and because of the intrigue
of the forefathers.

Mike Brown uses a rifle

his own son,

tion,”’ he says.
Loading and
those rifles is a real art.

the barrel with a stick.

“We hope to pass it on
from generation to genera-

shooting

A small amount of gun
powder is first poured down
the barrel. That’s followed
by a patch of cotton, and.
then a small, steel bal! —
the black powder version of
a bullet. The ball is then
pushed down to the end of

**There’s actually lots of

sistency is the key.’

Brown explains that it is
important to use the same
amount of powder each
time, and that the patch
must be pure cotton.

“Synthetics dowt burn
evenly, so they act as an ob-
struction in the barrel,” he
says.

Once the barrel is loaded,
the hammer is pulled back
and a cap-primer is set up
that will supply a spark to
ignite the powder.

The competitor then takes

the second on a hair trigger
— so the slightest touch will
set it off,

When it does fire, the rifle
has surprisingly little kick,
and in an explosion of
sparks and smoke, the ball is
blasted out with amazing ac-
curacy. Nia ate nt

This shoot drew competi-

; tors from all over the North-
“west. For some, it was their
first. black-powder event,

while others were seasoned

veterans, always willing to

give tips io beginners, or

Overall winner of this
shoot was Carl Gustavsen,
Gustavsen won the paper-
larget shoot and came in
second in the knife and
tomahawk throw, which was
won by Peter Nicholson,
Rick Gilker won the trail-
«Walk competition.
The shooters are now
: Bearing up to host the black
-powder event for the BC
Northern Winter Games,
this February,

line, flood dikes, a Gold Mine, a gas line and |
finally the super highway, and saw a fish strug-
gling through a skinny riffle, I swear.

By early afternoon we were in the valley of
the North Thompson, sweltering in the desert
heat. We talked of Thompson steelhead and
Kamloops trout, making good time until we
reached the outskirts of Little Fort where the
driver of a low-slung Juxury car of yesteryear’
decided to pass on a solid double line and enter
oblivion through the grill of a transport truck.

It was an hour before we could proceed. We
talked of conservation and fishing technique.
‘Bob told me about the Totems, B.C.’s oldest
and most distinguished fly fishing club, and
how, after attempting to revive a dead fish, he'd
been the less than proud recipient of the
Tamished Totem, the trophy awarded the club
member deemed to have committed the gaffe of
the year,

I was intent on reaching the Stellaka Lodge
and the excellent campsite its Swiss owners
have there, It was late when we reached it. The
sky was clear, the air cold. We popped the top
and transformed the van into a house. Bob took
out the gear and slid the rods under the van,
then sipped some scotch.

In the moming we breakfasted, then folded
the van into road shape. German designers and
engineers are masters of ergonometry. Their
products have no sharp edges — they are tough
and smooth. After a short stroll, Bob took the
wheel and we rolled off toward Smithers, not
stopping until Houston where Bob looked up
from under his bushy gray eyebrows and said,
“We've got ta go back to Fraser Lake.”

At first T thought his clutch had slipped, ‘“We
forgot the rods,’’ he stammered, eyes widening,

We had indeed forgotten the rods: driven off,
leaving them on the grass, where they had lain
under the van. Had we driven over them? That
was the five thousand dollar question, for
replacing two Sages, two Hardy trout rods, a
rare Walton Powell cane pole as well as their
reels and their lines would take a cool five
grand casily. ‘First we'll phone,” I said dig-
ging through my pockets for a quarter,

I got through. The Swiss proprietress ans-
wered in a cheery voice. In a desperate voice I
urged her to check the campground. In a two
minute hour she was back on the line, The rods
were there, and they were intact as far as she
could tell. We hurtled back. Bob, ever the gen-
tleman suggested we buy.a bouquet for the
sweet woman, saviour of our beloved poles, but
we were in Endako by the time he thought of it,
with no florists in sight. We gave the woman

$20 In lieu of the flowers. oo

On the retum wip to Houston, [ considered
submitting Bob’s name for that year's
Taraished Totem, :

Crafty curling aid helps seniors
: McGowan has

lofty ambitions for
patented product

OLDER CURLERS who have trouble with the physical
demands of the sport may be able to keep playing thanks to
an ingenious new invention by a Local man.

Retired Alcan engincering technician Al McGowan was
familiar with being given problems at work and then being
told to find a solution. So when he saw a problem with his
favourite sport, he just had 1o find a way to fix it,

The problem is that curling rocks are darn heavy at 45
Ibs. Just picking them up can be a problem for many
seniors. And to loft the rock, then go into a deep knee-bend
while sliding down the ice can be down right impossible.

So many curlers with arthritis, a bad back, or a bad knee
simply can’t go through the motions without being in pain.
In many cases they have to quit curling.

“What motivated me was being out on the ice and seeing
a player looking through the glass with a long face because
he can’t curl anymore,’’ McGowan says. “To me, there’s
nothing sadder in the world than seeing someone who's
had an active social life for 40 years revolving around curl-
ing have to quit,”’

That gave McGowan the incentive to find a way to get
ex-curlers curling again.

Always interested in inventing, McGowan had built up a
list a list of ideas that he was hoping to get to when he
retired. But the curling problem made its way to the top,
and McGowan was determined to find a solution,

“‘T've never slarted anything I didn’t finish,’* he says.

So McGowan went down to the rink and studied all the
moves in curling. He quickly discovered that everyone had
a different curling style. That meant the aid needed to be
adjustable to individual needs,

McGowan’s original prototype was actually made from
an old lawn chair that he cut up. It worked, and allowed a
curler to deliver a stone without bending over.

But McGowan knew that many senior curlers would still
want to loft their stone — that is, swing it behind them be-
fore making a delivery — something that couldn’t be done
with the prototype.

So McGowan spent hundreds of hours designing and
building a rig that could loft a stone. The result was an
amazing piece of enginecring that allowed a curler to loft
and release a stone, without bending over.

But to perfect his aid, McGowan needed to work with
someon who was disabled — to get rid of any bugs, Then
Rick Llewellyn approached him.

Llewellyn is a 46-year-old logger who was injured in a
logging accident and left with a stiffleg, He had curled for
20 years bul had to stop because of his injury.

Continued Page BY

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AL MCGOWAN demonstrates one of his curling alds — the Lofter,