Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
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    Arrow Annual Fort Ross Gatling Shoot - First Sunday of Every November

    Get your jawing, mowing, raking, worshiping, and chain sawing done by the end of October. Because the first Sunday of every November is a religion of sorts for folks who share a similar interest with suitable devotion:

    ANNUAL FORT ROSS GATLING SHOOT
    (10:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M.)
    1451 Harmony Ridge Rd.,
    Drumore, PA 17518


    This event is always hosted the first Sunday of November
    (my calendar says it's on Sunday, Nov 4, 2018) and
    it's around twenty miles south of Lancaster, PA
    on a beautiful farm with a Rev. War blockhouse. Dress for
    cold weather hunting (you’ll undoubtedly remove some layers
    during the day). Be sure to bring your shooting buddies, eyes,
    ears, camera, and sling-back chair.

    If you're bringing a NOOB or special person, heavy lap blankets are PERFECT, but please, NO TENNIS SHOES! (feet get cold and eventually, you'll leave early because of all the whining - and miss all the fun). There's a great pumpkin shoot at the end.

    No admission fee, on-site bathrooms,
    food & coffee (great hotdogs and sauerkraut) are free.

    If you feel suitably fed, consider leaving a tip in the jar for the foodservice folks...

    There’s usually between 10 – 17 Gatling guns that show up for
    this event. It starts off with a 12lb Napoleon cannon (think
    “Civil War” era) shooting length-ways though the engine block
    of the target vehicle. Makes you really wonder how anyone
    survived at Gettysburg…

    And then they bring out the mortars just so you can get a little of that Civil War "Vicksburg" feeling...

    Here's a link for the shot that starts everything (notice the recoil on the 2,800 lb Napoleon - remember it's "only" shooting a 12 lb. cannonball):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygStDZrZeU8


    Be sure to set your clock back one hour on
    Saturday night (“Spring forward -Fall back”
    time change).

    See you there…
    Last edited by bamboomaster; October 20th, 2018 at 02:31 PM.
    - bamboomaster

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
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    jersey shore, Pennsylvania
    (Lycoming County)
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    Default Re: Annual Fort Ross Gatling Shoot - First Sunday of Every November

    Oooohhhh. I might have to talk the family into this one.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Annual Fort Ross Gatling Shoot - First Sunday of Every November

    Quote Originally Posted by R L Suehr View Post
    Oooohhhh. I might have to talk the family into this one.
    It'd be a road trip fer sure where you're at, but there's nothing like the smell of 2A religion, powder, and free hotdogs....

    Just remember, this goes into the memory bank where your kids are concerned!
    - bamboomaster

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Bridgeville, Pennsylvania
    (Allegheny County)
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    Default Re: Annual Fort Ross Gatling Shoot - First Sunday of Every November

    Quote Originally Posted by bamboomaster View Post
    It'd be a road trip fer sure where you're at, but there's nothing like the smell of 2A religion, powder, and free hotdogs....

    Just remember, this goes into the memory bank where your kids are concerned!
    Looks cool.

    About an hour and a half past Jersey Shore. 274 miles. Looks like a great 4 hours of fun. If it was closer, I'd do it for the hot dogs and kraut.

    After all, I'm going to the westie group shoot tomorrow just for the bacon and that's 55 minutes.

    27
    Opinions are like anal apertures. They all stink but mine.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    Douglassville, Pennsylvania
    (Berks County)
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    Default Re: Annual Fort Ross Gatling Shoot - First Sunday of Every November

    This sounds like a fun event, have to see how things go.
    Gender confusion is a mental illness

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Annual Fort Ross Gatling Shoot - First Sunday of Every November

    Well, a couple of things to report:

    1. Best weather ever - sunny, 4-6 mph wind, around 52 degrees when the action got started.

    2. About 400 folks there - vehicles appropriately parked by their owners for around 200 yds. on each side of the field.

    3. Who showed up? Nobody from PAFOA that I know or other folks who asked "Now when is the November Gatling shoot?" But 11 Gatling guns showed up, four mortars, one 12-lb Napoleon cannon, and a Hotchkiss 1.65" light mountain gun, plenty of pumpkins, and of course, the target vehicle.

    So it was a fabulous day and we sorta had a family reunion with our 1 YO bro' sitting on the Gatling with his folks around him who have attended this shoot the last 8 years (we've been attending this religious service for around the last 15 years on the first Sunday of every November). And there were grand parents, friends of grand parents, parents, siblings, sons and daughters, and their friends too.

    Notwithstanding the fun I had shooting off the opened hood on the target vehicle (sneaky suggestion - aim for the hinges - easy to do when you're shooting at the pumpkin, miss, and hit the hinges), for the first time there in around 15 years, I was totally humbled/blown away.

    Apparently last year, a new farm building in progress at the time was completed this time around.

    Just want to let you know that a farm building (basically like the size of an ice hockey rink without patron seats) held over 60 cannons and other stuff that if you're a student of history, may have only imagined.

    Ummm, no pictures were permitted/allowed and when I saw a dufuss taking them, I just pointed to the signs that were posted. He said he didn't mind having folks taking pictures of his "guns". Just told him that it's not about his collection, it's about what's being displayed here.

    I've never seen a display like this before - mostly all were original - and in spectacular condition.

    Honestly? It took my breath away in about five seconds after I walked through the door.

    You lazy-ass folks missed out on perhaps the best display of Civil War artillery than you could have ever seen. It beat the Smithsonian by more than a country mile.
    - bamboomaster

  7. #7
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    Douglassville, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Annual Fort Ross Gatling Shoot - First Sunday of Every November

    Thanks for the report, nope, my lazy ass didn't go either. Maybe next year we'll get a couple together for a group visit.
    Gender confusion is a mental illness

  8. #8
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    jersey shore, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Annual Fort Ross Gatling Shoot - First Sunday of Every November

    I gotta be honest, I completely forgot it was yesterday. I thought it was this Sunday coming up. Very sorry I missed it. The Mrs was even going to go with me. She's never gotten to meet you guys.

    My lazy ass was humping up and down the PA Grand canyon with my daughter all day. It was a great trip, but not Gatling gun great.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Annual Fort Ross Gatling Shoot - First Sunday of Every November

    No apologizes required from PAFOA folk. We all have families and are doing our best. Just wanted to extend this invitation (and free hotdogs) to other PAFOA members. Don't worry if you missed things - we ate the hotdogs...

    While many of us are so accustomed to a PAFOA Gatling or other really cool machine-gun shoots, there's absolutely nothing like walking through this on-site barn and looking at cannon that are not only museum-worthy, documented, and taller (and thankfully, many times heavier) than most of us! No matter what books you have on the Civil War, what movies like "Gettysburg" you've ever seen, whatever national parks, battlegrounds/cemetaries, or military academies you've visited, if you know anything about history and the destructive confrontation of a Civil War, this walk-through just blows the socks out of your boots.

    Whatever your favorite historical car/vehicle is, just imagine 60-90 of them in perfect condition, all ready to go. That's what it felt like for me for my first time through.

    Enormously humbled in many ways...

    While I recognized many of the cannon, I've never seen the magnificent quantity of originals in perfect condition - anywhere...
    - bamboomaster

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
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    Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania
    (Lehigh County)
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    Default Re: Annual Fort Ross Gatling Shoot - First Sunday of Every November

    I was hoping also, but did not make it. I did pass it along to my BIL who lives a lot closer and suggested the kids would really enjoy it, so I hope they made it. I have not heard back yet.
    Illegitimus non carborundum est

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