Entry tags:

guns

Lots of great traditions fall by the wayside over the years. One such was the Schuetzen match. They're around today -- there are shooting matches for *everything* today -- but the Schuetzen had an unfortunate decline in America at the height of anti-German sentiment during WWI, and they've never really recovered. As you'd gather from the name, they're Germanic in origin, and were hella popular in Germany and Switzerland. Schuetzen matches are also very, very old. As in, before they were done with guns, they were done with *crossbows.* Way old school. They were done as grand days out -- people wore awesome clothes, went shooting, and (because they're Germans) drank beer. Then came the double-whammy of dislike for Germans and Prohibition. Ow. But the matches themselves are cool. They're shot at 200 meters or thereabouts (I've seen references to 200 yards for old American matches), offhand, using single-shot rifles. Very suitable for a steampunk shooting match, if anyone were so inclined.

Anyway, a while back I saw an absolutely beautiful engraved Schuetzen rifle at a gun show. There were no pics allowed in the show, but I got some off the dealer's web site. They were selling it for nine grand. It looked worth it. I love the detail of the woman with a gun.







The set is here.