Nice shootin Tex

I'd like to start this post out by saying that when it comes to things guns and shooting...I don't do them. It's not that I don't like shooting or anything, I never grew up shooting guns or hunting and as a result can't hit a target (moving or still) with any degree of accuracy to save my life. If I had to hunt to feed my family...well we'd either starve to death or become vegetarians. That being said I married into a family that is not only into to all things gun they are very good at shooting too. My father in law was a lover of not only shooting but of guns as well. He had the most extensive knowledge of the type and history of just about any pistol, rifle, or muzzle loader ever made in the last 200 years. He was an excellent shot and instilled his love of shooting and marksmanship skills into his children. My loving husband grew up shooting and over the years became very good at the sport and still competes at a very high level of target shooting. He has won state championships in several states over the years including South Dakota where he has been the state champion these past 6 years. He prefers to compete in prone position which is where you are laying on your stomach and shooting at the target but he can still do pretty well if he has to shoot standing up or in the kneeling position.

My father in law passed away unexpectedly in 2002. For the past 7 years the family has held a shooting match in his honor. It is a day where friends and family come out to the local gun range he helped create and shoot the guns he loved to shoot and have a fun and relaxing time. This year due to time and budget constraints the match part was dropped in favor of a "just come out and shoot" format. On Saturday the family and friends gathered on a picture perfect day for some fun and guns. There were quite a few people out there and all had a good time. Not wanting to spend hours chasing small children (mainly Andrew) off the firing line I opted to come down to Yankton later in the day towards the end of the shoot. The weather was perfect. Sunny and clear with virtually no wind (most unusual for SE South Dakota). I got there around 5 pm just as things were winding down. Matthew and Carolyn did great. Matthew played with one of his second cousins who as about the same age and Carolyn wandered around with her pink earmuffs on. Andrew was a little more tricky but he discovered the gravel and spent time putting it in his hair. After visiting with people I decided that I wanted to shoot some targets. Hubby has this really awesome gun that he bought a few years back. It is a .22 caliber rifle but it is the type of gun used specifically for target shooting and does not look like a hunting rifle but more like the gun you see during the Olympic competitions. It is called a single action bolt because you can only load 1 bullet in at a time and must manually close the action before shooting and open the action after shooting to release the spent cartridge. This is different from the typical .22's hunter's use which are semiautomatic because you can shoot more than one shot with out having to stop and reload. For those who don't know what a .22 caliber is..it's the size of the bullet used in the gun.

There were other guns available but I really wanted to shoot the gun owned by the loving husband so I made sure to let him know I wanted to shoot the last round of targets of the day and on his gun. The gun range is equipped with benches that look very much like school desks. There is a type of shooting called bench rest. This sport has the shooters putting the gun on the table part and shooting from a sitting in a seat position. This is the type of shooting we were doing so I did not have to try and lift up and hold and balance 16 pounds of rifle with mounted scope. That gun is really heavy and it has a really touchy trigger--as in touch it and the gun shoots. Once the match started, hubby came over and helped me get the gun set up. He pointed it at the correct target and showed me how to dial the scope up or down so the little cross hairs of the scope were right on the x spot in the middle. Remember I have no clue what I'm doing. The targets I was shooting at were 100 yards away. To put that into perspective..on a football field I would be standing on the goal line at one end and my target would be on the goal line at the other end of the field. Up close these targets look huge but from 100 yards away they are really small and you do need a spotting scope (think telescope) to see what you are shooting at. The sheet has 3 targets on it. The target itself is a little larger than a dinner plate. There are 10 rings each worth 1 to 10 points depending on where you hit them. The first target is for sighting in or practicing. You can shoot as many shots as you want. These are not counted for score. You are allowed to shoot 10 shots on the other 2 and those count. The maximum score on the target is 200. There is a spot in the middle the size of a quarter that is known as the x spot. Shots in this area are worth 10 points plus an x. In the event 2 shooters shoot the same score, the x count is used to determine who the winner is.

Having shot at these targets in years past both on hubby's gun and other guns I knew that I had to take things slowly and concentrate on keeping the gun pointed straight and not make sudden moves or touch the trigger too soon. All it takes is a small move while firing the gun to make the shot hit the wrong part of the target. More times than I care to remember I have put my finger on the trigger and the gun went off before I had a chance to aim it. If I was lucky the shot hit the 6,7, or 8 ring and I got points but usually those were the shots that ended up on the top or side of the target well out of scoring range. Weather plays a big part and a little wind blowing at the wrong time can push the bullet off track and you don't get what you aimed for. I took my time and concentrated and tried to make each shot count. I shot at total of 25 bullets. 5 on the practice target and 10 each on the other 2 targets. I had no idea how well or poorly I was doing. I only hoped that I wouldn't embarrass myself or the spouse.

When the time limit was up and the line was safe we all headed down to pick up our targets. Hubby wandered over to mine first and was standing there looking at it when I walked up. He had a kind of strange look on his face..a cross between shocked and amused. I asked him if I did OK and "did I hit the black part". The black part is where the higher scoring numbers are. Jim turned to me and said "you shot a 200" He was quite impressed..and I was completely blown away. I looked at the targets in disbelief. As I looked closer and as people around me started to count the holes it became apparent that not only did I clean the targets but the second target was as close to a perfect target as a person could shoot. 9 out of the 10 shots were either inside the x ring or touching the line. The first target was also clean but I only had 6 shots in the x ring. What I thought was amazing though was the 5 shots on my sighter target were also in the 10 area with 3 of them being X's. Out of a total of 25 shots fired all 25 hit the center of the targets and 19 of them were in the x range. There are very few experienced shooters who could create a target like that and even fewer total amateurs like me. This was the once in a lifetime event.

So I ended up with the best target of the day and the highest score of the day and the most impressive shooting of the day and probably the proudest spouse of the day. If this had been one of the previous matches where plaques were awarded for the best Mens, Ladies, and Juniors scores or for a host of other things I would have had my very own plaque to put on the wall but this year we decided not to go through the hassle of timing the matches and scoring the targets and posting the scores or buying awards. Also hubby decided not to shoot as he was busy helping everyone else with their shooting so I didn't even have the satisfaction of beating him at his own game. I'm pretty sure there is a 98% chance that I would have beat him if he would have shot a target but I guess I'll never know. What I do know is that this was a one time fluke and due more to the performance of the gun and ammo than the skill of the shooter. I'm not gonna delude myself into thinking that I could do this competitively or that next year I'll do as good or better. All I know is that I kicked butt and made the hubby proud of me.