By all accounts, the Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club’s 17th annual Easter Weekend April Fools’ Blackpowder Shoot on Aberdeen Road was a success.

Organizer Jim George said that 72 blackpowder shooters were registered, an event record. Competitors came from across the province, including Prince George, Vernon, Kelowna, and Surrey, and included former European and World blackpowder championship competitors.

Blackpowder events included musket, pistol, and cannon. Ivor Ivorsen, of Agassiz, won the cannon competition for the second year in a row, deploying his field gun with a cool confidence that matched the easy authenticity of his buckskin clothing. Hawken Knife and hatchet throwing, were also popular, with both men and women competing.

Judy Scholz, from Chilliwack with her husband Wolfgang, and grandson, Ethan Lyftogt (who was dressed in genuine Royal Engineer uniform of the period), became quite animated when asked what she enjoyed about her involvement in the blackpower re-enactments. She spoke of the friendly participants, the period cooking, and in particular how her historical research, “opened up a whole world,” to her; her very real delight in her hobby was obvious.

Sitting with them was Louis Seguin, also from Chilliwack, a helicopter technician, and ex-RCMP officer. Seguin was dressed in an eggshell frock and red Voyageur sash, and, like his friends, was outfitted for a day of archery. This group was seated under a canvas tent held erect with rough poles, the Scholzs’ home for the Rendezvous. Like them, many enthusiasts prefer to set up housekeeping during the event, in the Primitive Encampment, where all tents, clothing, and equipment is required to be period-accurate. Visitors to the camp get the eerie feeling they’ve been suddenly thrust back two hundred years; Hollywood couldn’t do any better.

This year’s Shoot, or, Rendezvous, also hosted the Adrian Empire Medieval Group, who sported the armour and dress of that period. After a potluck Easter dinner Saturday, everyone gathered outside the Primitive Encampment. The Medieval Group, led by Rory King (character name, Ruaidhri Argetlam), “a Hiberian Norseman in service to the Byzantine Empire,” and his wife, Judith (character name, Her Grace, Gabriele Silverhand), a Health and Safety Auditor in Vernon, hosted sword fighting competitions, and challenged their blackpowder friends to a little hand-to-hand.

A very satisfying conclusion to a very enjoyable day of escapism with some very nice people.