As you have noticed there have not been any posts for awhile and the reason is my time has been pretty much consumed with the shooting event for the 4th of July!  Always a fun event.  This year there were nearly 60 people in attendance and over 30 shooters, including 7 shooting bows.  We didn’t have any paper targets this year and that made it a very fun thing.  Paper targets get boring, plus I’m having a tough time thinking of a different and yet fun picture to shoot at.

So, this year we started with the “Ball Split”, shooting at the sharp edge of an ax and breaking two clay pigeons, one on either side of the blade.  Impossible!  You say!  Not so!  However the shooters had a tough go of it at first with only one clay pigeon being broken for quite awhile and then a young man named “Butt Shot” broke the trend and busted them both!  That put him in the lead and made the rest of the shooters have to bear down and try to match him!

As each shooter came forward and tried their hand at it, soon we had our leaders, but with only 4 prizes to give away, we had to have a shoot off.  Rather than shoot again at the ax blade we set clays on top of the log and had them shoot the edge of it.  You would think that if you could hit the sharp edge of an ax that the 3/8ths thick edge of the clay pigeon would be a given to hit….not so and in the end we ended up with our 4 marksmen.  And then we went into another shoot with these four to determine 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th….We had them each shoot at a 1 inch square sticker and the closest to the center with a hit would be 1st and so on.  That was a fun shoot!

Shoot number 2 had to be approved by the County Fire Marshall, and since he was on the scene and we had a backup fire department person with a pumper truck also on site, we went forward with a “Candle Shoot”….this was Weasels idea and it worked very well.  We cut windows out of the sides of some aluminum cans and hot glued a birthday candle in each of the cans.  Shooting 10 at a time, Bones, Weasel and I were able to get the candles lit and back behind the shooters so they could puff out the flame with their shot.  I was very surprised at how many of them actually shot and put the flames out without hitting the wax of the candle.  This shoot also ended up with the shooters breaking ties by shooting at the small black square stickies.  As this event was unfolding, one of the archers had placed his arrow neatly above his flame but the flame did not go out.  So, while we were busy making sure everyone had taken their shot, the flame from the candle licked the carbon shaft of the arrow and eventually the back end of the arrow sank lower and lower to form a ninety degree angle!  A ruined arrow for sure, but the man got a name out of it “Flaming Arrow”!

Our third shoot was at the pop top from the can that we used for the candle shoot!  A very small target for sure and it only took one volley of shots to get our 4 winners.  You think about it, a pop top from an aluminum can is not very big in the first place, but now take it 20 yards away from where you are shooting and it is extremely small.  Most gun sights cover it up completely.

The 4th target was a two shot shoot where the object was to hit the cotton on either end of a cotton swab.  I was amazed to see how serious these shooters were getting by now.  Many of them hit both end of the cotton swab and again we had to have a shoot off at a little black square sticky.

On to the 5th and last target, we saved the cut out portion of the aluminum cans and tied them to a string.  The object of this shoot was to hang it so the breeze would blow it around a bit.  Each shooter had to hit the piece of aluminum in order to proceed to the next level.  Several of the shooters were out of the competition after round one, but those still in it got to fold their piece of aluminum in half and shoot again.  Many more got to sit back and relax after round two, but there were plenty who hit it a second time….so….they got to fold it again for a third shot.  After the 3rd round we still had more than 4 people playing and we only had 4 prizes to give away, so they muscled one more fold and shot again.  This round yielded our 4 top shooters, but then we had to have another shoot off to determine who was first place…again out came the small black squares.  That round determined our winners quickly.

In addition to the shoots, we had made up two special events to add revenue to the pot for the Willard Volunteer Fire Department’s fund.  I made a cardboard cut out of a “near” circle (best I could do under my not so talented ways) and painted it red, white and blue.  Then we put 3 inch long 1/2 inch wide labels around the outer edge of it and numbered each one.  At the Firemans Ball the night of the 3rd of July, Weasel went around and sold each label for $1 each.  The people donating put their names on the label and also on a “totals” board with each numbered label being listed, they put their name and phone number.  Why?  Because this special wheel was to be spun on a bike wheel and an archer was to shoot an arrow into the spinning disk.   The arrow would pierce one of the labels and who ever had their name on that label got 1/2 of the money we collected!  Great deal for anyone into a little gambling.  We ended up calling it the “Wheel of Fortune”!

We let the archers decide who would be doing the shooting and Cory “Night Hawk” Barton drew the long straw and even though his first arrow was outside the wheel, his second attempt found its mark in Adam Christensen’s sticker!  Adam was called later that day and came over and collected his $36!  Congratulations Adam!!!!

Well, the very last event for the day was what I called “Drown the Bears Butt”!  I put together a make shift shelf and attached it with hinges to the door of the Willow Creek Free Trappers P.O.S. trailer.  A look in a rope is attached to this shelf, goes up and over a 3 gallon bucket of water sitting atop the shelf, through a pulley and then down range to the backstop.  Then a nylon string is attached to the rope and extended tightly down to an anchor stake.  For $1 per shot, shooters can try and cut the string, which then releases the upward pressure on the shelf and yours truly gets hammered with 3 gallons of water.

Night Hawk put up $20 in order to have the seven bowmen shoot at the string first.  Mostly because they have to have a backstop behind the target to stop their arrows.  Nobody would argue with this and so they had first crack at breaking the string.  Of course they were all using broadhead arrows.  As I sat behind them watching them fling their arrows down range, I could see and hear the arrows streaming toward the string one at a time and the thumping of the arrows as they hit the backstop.  After the sixth arrow hit the stop, I gave a sigh of relief to think I had escaped the drowning, when suddenly a seventh arrow went flying down range!  Things appeared to me in slow motion as the arrow cruised past the string and the edge of the broadhead cut it cleanly!  The overhead rope came back toward us and down came the cold water solidly dumping on top of me!

When the arrow backstop had been removed, Dry Dog, Lead Burn and 3 guns all had put money into the pot for their cracks at breaking the string.  I have to admit, Dry Dog can sure think up some strange things to try and make sure Bears Butt gets soaked.  He loaded and shot 4 inch lengths of heavy beaded chain and 00 buckshot, maxi balls and all sorts of other stuff trying to break that string but it wasn’t until he shot a maxiball and hit the ground stake did the string let loose and drown me.  3 Guns and Lead Burn each “did things the right way”, but didn’t connect with the string.  After try 10 times, Lead Burn finally took a stroll down range and cut it with his knife!

It was a wonderful day at the range and we will be doing it again!  Thank you to all who came and enjoyed the afternoon and donated their money to a wonderful cause!  The Willard City Volunteer Fire Department!

Thanks to my helpers, Bones and Weasel…I could not have been done without you helping!

Thanks also to the following sponsors and prize donors:  Arnell Wells, Granite Construction Inc., Cover Up Embroidery, Kendall Chambers, Garth Barker, Larry’s Service, Big Boy Toys and the many business’ that donated gifts to the Willard Fire Department (I don’t know who they were, but the prizes I received from the fire department were WONDERFUL)!!!!

Bears Butt

July 6, 2014