I will be hosting the 2012 Department of Missouri Muster July 13, 14th & 15th, in my pasture. This will be open to anyone in the GAF. If not currently a member I can help you register. (Membership in the GAF is free and easy) You need not be headquartered in the Department of the Missouri. By using Google Earth and going to 41°40'16.24"N Latitude and 99°19'42.54"W Longitude you can see the Dept. Muster site. Registration forms are available on the dispatches page of the Grand Army's Web site. Particpation will be limited to 35 shooters. Everybody wishing to take part in a door prize drawing should bring something for the pot and we will run the door prize drawing sort of like an old fashioned blanket shoot. Those wishing to attend but not compete may do so without registration fee, but be sure to pay the meal fee.
This muster will be a primative camping event. The planned activities include: a 3 stage GAF steel target main match, a 300 yd paper target long range match and a GAF Expansion Era Match. While 3 stages for the main match doesn't sound like much these two stages will be of the skirmish format and will feature about 30 knock down targets per stage. Round counts will be dependent on the number of times the shooter needs to shoot at each target to get it to fall. 90 to 100 rounds at least would be a good plan.
I will have a tent city and have tentage for about 20 individuals if you don't have your own. We should be easily able to get photos without anything modern in them. We should have plenty of time to sit around the campfire and visit.
The muster itself will be low budget. The meals will be cooked by Delmonico and participants will pay him not me. I don't intend to issue medals to the winners, but entry fees will only be around $40.
Unless something falls through between now and then, there will be artillery there. I have a guy lined up to come who has a parrott, a howitzer and several mortars. By the time of the muster there should be running water on site with an actual shower being a real possibility.
The format for the long range match will be a little different that the way it was held the last couple of years. Shooters will be able to sight in their rifles on Friday evening using the bench in Fort Scotsman. When the actual long range match is held on Saturday it will be shot from the shooters choice of positions from the ground. The idea behind this is that it will be more of a real world type of match.
Another change for 2012 is that the long Range match will be included in the competition for the Department Champion. I've wanted to include a third criterion for the Department Champion for some time. I had considered including the camp award but felt that this would place participants who had to travel at too big a disadvantage. The Long Range Match has been quite popular at the last two Department Musters. With the change in format I felt that it really made sense to include it with the main match and the Uniform competitions for the Department Champion. This should make the competition a little more well rounded.