Monthly Meet – June 2024 – Independence Day theme

by John White
June 22, 2024

So last month we suffered through a rain storm of epic proportions and did not get our shoot finished dang it. First one ever for us in our history. January we shot in between rain bursts. But summer is here and our Independence day celebration is almost upon us. Believe it hit close to 92 degrees with little to no breeze today during our shoot. Maybe we should call the shoots this year the survivor series? We had 22 shooters and 7 guests on what is the hottest day we have shot.

Patricia came by to see what we are all about and thank us for the support. She also brought Mike’s firearms to pass on to our shooters and Patricia, we all promise to make Mike proud and take care of them. They have all gone to good homes as well as his other treasures. Thank you for coming over to meet us, take a tour of our range and experience who we are and are about. As you could tell Mike was a friend to all of us and missed by all of us.

We started the registration sign in at 8:30am started the course of fire description and safety briefing at 9:00am. We shot two relays, 10 shots each, patch and roundball, any caliber in these two shooting classifications off hand and bench. We took a couple breaks to stay hydrated and in the shade. We also had four new shooters join us today to shoot and all welcomed them as if they had been shooting for years with us. Welcome all, we hope you enjoyed the day with us.

First Relay:
10 shots at 50 yards, we will had a new colorful fourth of July themed target. Pretty good size bullseye and with the added colors maybe easier to see for some folks. Feedback says the target in more the heat of the day was awful busy with colors and such. But it was a different target, fun target and all shot it.

Second Relay:
10 shots at 25 yards, of course to celebrate independence we all have to have some type of beverage so we are busted up the empties with a bottle shooting relay.

Both relays were added together for placement within the shooting category off hand or bench. We stayed focused and finished our 20 shots at about 11:15. We beat the heat just a bit, stayed hydrated and safe from the heat.

The results are as follows. Each shooter was awarded a meat prize from pork ribs to bacon with chicken and pork chops in between.

Off hand:
1st – Brad Thomas
2nd – Billy Townsend
3rd – Erik Rolle
4th – William Van

Bench:
1st – Tim Coleman
2nd – Charlie Russel
3rd – Steve B.
4th – Mike Lamb

With our increased attendance each shoot we decided to reward more places. From the records even with last months storm we are averaging over 20 shooters and 9 guests a shoot this year. That is a 20% increase so far over last year.

Thank you all for attending and making this a fun and growing club. We are also experiencing an nice shooter balance. By that our stats are basically 50/50 number of shooters bench and offhand. Today 10 offhand, 12 bench. Sometimes it is the opposite but pretty consistent through the years.

Our third Relay, a pistol match: we canceled due to the heat factor. No sense in pushing our health limits as it is more important to be safe. It is difficult to describe how warm it was without much air movement but everyone was focused on staying safe and not pushing themselves too far.

We had our after shoot debrief at the Talking Rock brewery to share stories and ideas for the future. Very nice, quiet and friendly place. Supporting a local family building their dream. Their restaurant is opening next month we hear.

So we look forward to everyone coming and shooting with us next month Saturday, July 27th at 8:30am, at our Blanket Prize meet. Cost of entry is to bring a blanket prize. If you have any questions please holler as i am sure we all have em. Our membership renewal is also in full swing now and is $40 annually. It runs from June 1 to May 31.

Enjoy the other pictures below and the video at the end.

---

Enjoy the video of the June 22, 2024 Monthly Meet: