It's kind of died out around here now, but up until about ten years ago we had a very active black powder cartridge rife match circuit. We typically fired two day stage matches at 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600 yards. A couple of times a year we shot at 1,000 yards on a local military base. Rules were NRA Target Rifle or Dominion of Canada Rifle Association. These rules allowed for rifles up to 15 pounds, cast lead alloy bullets only, and either straight black powder, Pyrodex, or black powder duplex loads. Interestingly, the top shooters always used straight black powder, shunning the substitutes or duplex loads.
Our scores would match those of NRA High Power competitors at similar ranges. We would actually shoot side by side with them on the military base, since they had so many firing points and neither group could fill it up. They were always stunned that our scores meet or beat theirs. It was a lot of fun showing them what these old rifles could do.
I had two main match rifles, an 1875 Sharps in .45-70, aka .45-2.1", and an 1874 Sharps in .45-100, aka .45-2.6. I used a 540 grain Paul Jones Creedmoor cast 20:1 lead/tin, fired as cast at .460" diameter in both:
