Black Powder

The immediate pre-Confederation predecessor of the DCRA, the Upper Canada Rifle Association, was conducting two day All Comer and Any Rifle black powder annual prize meetings, including team events, out to 800 yards as early as 1862. The DCRA first annual prize meeting of 1868, at Lachine, QC, attracted 2,076 entries, of which no fewer than 403 were in the thousand yard match.

The present DCRA Black Powder Program was re-instituted in 1967 as part of Canada’s Centennial celebrations, and endeavors to preserve the general flavour and conditions of the long range black powder matches of the latter half of the 19th Century. Chapter 19 of the DCRA Rulebook lists the current Black Powder rules, which intentionally permit wide, but not unlimited, latitude of individual choice in the selection of equipment and shooting style as an encouragement to newcomers.​

Nearly two inches of rear sight elevation adjustment are required to range out to 1,000 yards in black powder shooting with elongated bullets. A shooter can fire, put his rifle down, roll over, and watch through his spotting scope for impact of his bullet in the backstop. The midrange trajectory is typically over 40 feet, and the popular .45-70 Govt. 500 grain bullet takes 3.29 seconds to reach the thousand yard backstop.