Squirrels and Rabbits
by John White
Sept, 2023
WOW!!!! What a day. Last month 104 heat index, today what a gorgeous day. Bright blue skies, mild mid sixties temperature and a light breeze in our faces so we could just smell the Black Powder all morning. Oh what a lovely smell it is. Thirteen shooters split as even as possible, 7 on bench, 6 off hand with 5 more guests. Three new to us shooters and two blasts from the past coming back. I will also add we may have had the finest group of custom rifles at this shoot as any shoot we have ever had. They were simply outstanding in looks and finish. Folks could have spent a couple of hours just handling and studying them alone. So as the fall season is almost upon us, leaves beginning to change, high school and college football season as well as other family activities are here. The end of summer September shoot with cool breezes happened and folks came to shoot with us, check us out and see what we are about.
So we started the registration sign in at 8:30am the course of fire description and safety briefing started at 8:45am and started the shoot at 9:00am. There was of course the usual cast of characters running around to distract and entertain you. They even helped out when you need a hand with anything including the dreaded dry-ball. Yep we had one, claimed he had not done that in four or five years. He received one of our PGIF instruction tickets to post on his range box as a reminder.
We had our two shooting categories, off-hand and bench to compete in classification for fairness. We do not want to exclude anyone who wants to shoot with us but we will not compete against centerfire or scopes to be fair for example.
We shot two relays, 10 shots each, patch and roundball, any caliber in these two shooting classifications off hand and bench for rifles this month.
First Relay:
10 shots at 50 yards, we shot two big bullseye targets with a practice bull as well. Five shots each bull for score.
Second Relay:
10 shots at 25 yards, small hunting target squirrels and rabbits for points. They were tough little buggers of a target this month. These targets have been donated and picked out by Bobbie.
Both of the relays were added together for placement within the appropriate shooting category off hand or supported as always. So it was 64 degrees, a little to no breeze and sunny.
Our Shoot Results Were:
Off hand
1st – Jim Gravely
2nd – Bob Wilson
3rd – Robby M.
Bench
1st – Dennis Schmidt
2nd – Barry Dean
3rd – Bobby Witherington
Prizes given were gift certificates from Appalachia Gun and Pawn and our newest sponsor Boots and Buckshot. A gun store located on Joe Frank Harris Parkway in Cartersville, GA along with some good ole sausage links and patties.
We added new target markers to help identify the shooter’s target with numbers to avoid shooting each others target and we were successful today! No one shot someone else’s target. Thank you Ken Hunt for this great addition to our range accessories.
We finished up 13 shooters, practice shots galore, dry balls, fixin’ flints at 11:20am. Very nice job, folks. Prizes awarded, range cleaned up, guns basically cleaned, gear packed up, loaded in the transportation and gone by noon in time to get home for ball games and family activities. Focused and fun. We had a lot of great interaction today with help and razzing. All good.
We also had our usual after shoot debrief at the Talking Rock train brewery to share stories and ideas for the future along with critiques of the match organizer. Very nice, quiet and friendly place. Support a local family building their dream.
So we look forward to everyone coming and shooting with us at our next shoot Saturday, October 28th, the 4th weekend in Saturday. Start time again by 9:00am. Goal to be done by noon. Look for further details in your emails in the next week or so.
Enjoy the video of the event below.