Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Running deer shoot
Years ago, some ingenious individual was looking at a couple of steel I beams, a bicycle, a few hundred feet of steel cable, and a few pulleys and said, "Hey Bubba! We could make a cool moving target setup out of all this stuff!".......and a legend was born: the annual Buckeye Running Deer Shoot.
Each year we set up this ancient contraption, attach full size silhouette targets of (what else?) a running deer to it, and shoot at it as the target frame moves between our 100 yard berms. All shooting is done offhand with rifles and pistols that are legal for big game hunting in Arizona. The target is exposed for 10 to 15 seconds, depending on how tired the guys cranking on the bicycle are......or how much your buddies have slipped them to give you an "impossible" target. Five shots cost $3. Ten shooters compete in a "round." The target is scored after each shooter has his or her turn, with the high score receiving $10, second place receiving $5, and the club keeping the other $15. This event has been our clubs #1 fundraiser for many years.
The non-Kaboom pictures below were all taken at the Running Deer Shoot. IIRC, I took second in one event with the beat up old Marlin in the picture, won another event with my crusty old .357 Smith & Wesson, and won another event with my Savage 10FP bolt gun. Nathan held right in with the big boys and took second place in two different rounds. Kathy would have dropped several deer if the targets had been real, but unfortunately the hits didn't add up to a winning score for the groups she was shooting against.
The day always ends with a jackpot round: $3 buy in, 5 shots at a standard smallbore bullseye target at 100 yards, offhand, with a 1 minute time limit. Pot split 50-30-20 between the top 3 scores. I won last year, but this year I pulled my 4th shot completely off the paper and ended up in a 3 way tie for third place. The kids didn't finish in the money, but they both shot well enough that they were in the middle of the pack. That's pretty good considering that they were shooting against adults, most of whom have been shooting longer than the kids have been alive.
Another fun day at the range.
_
Each year we set up this ancient contraption, attach full size silhouette targets of (what else?) a running deer to it, and shoot at it as the target frame moves between our 100 yard berms. All shooting is done offhand with rifles and pistols that are legal for big game hunting in Arizona. The target is exposed for 10 to 15 seconds, depending on how tired the guys cranking on the bicycle are......or how much your buddies have slipped them to give you an "impossible" target. Five shots cost $3. Ten shooters compete in a "round." The target is scored after each shooter has his or her turn, with the high score receiving $10, second place receiving $5, and the club keeping the other $15. This event has been our clubs #1 fundraiser for many years.
The non-Kaboom pictures below were all taken at the Running Deer Shoot. IIRC, I took second in one event with the beat up old Marlin in the picture, won another event with my crusty old .357 Smith & Wesson, and won another event with my Savage 10FP bolt gun. Nathan held right in with the big boys and took second place in two different rounds. Kathy would have dropped several deer if the targets had been real, but unfortunately the hits didn't add up to a winning score for the groups she was shooting against.
The day always ends with a jackpot round: $3 buy in, 5 shots at a standard smallbore bullseye target at 100 yards, offhand, with a 1 minute time limit. Pot split 50-30-20 between the top 3 scores. I won last year, but this year I pulled my 4th shot completely off the paper and ended up in a 3 way tie for third place. The kids didn't finish in the money, but they both shot well enough that they were in the middle of the pack. That's pretty good considering that they were shooting against adults, most of whom have been shooting longer than the kids have been alive.
Another fun day at the range.
_
