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"Wait 'til yuh see this, Maybelle! They got a rat hotel, an' chickens yuh can shoot, a plate rack an' clay birds, a elk that partly works an' a dude that tells dumb jokes an' a good time is usually had by all!"
"Go faster, Sam! I cain't wait to see it!"
Young couple on their way to the Shenango River Rats CAS match in Masury, Ohio!
Saturday October 12, 2019
Brookfield CAS with the Shenango River Rats
Saturday started off with rain in the morning – just like the weather man said.
Thanks to Hagen, Willie Goodnews, and the Brunswick Kid for getting the range ready for take-off. They set up the elk, trap machine, and blew all the fallen leaves away with a powerful Stihl leaf blower! Thanks, guys!
The plan was to start the match about a half hour late but before I could finish unloading my car, Duelin’ Diehl came down the hill with the tractor and a trailer full of carts and cowboys!
We had a brief safety meeting and a too lengthy Wild Bunch discussion and started the match with the Brown Twp. Regulator sweep and an exciting shootout in the “rat hotel!”
A good time was had by all!
Next was the combined Cactus Corral and Mercantile stage with plate shootin’, chicken blasting, high velocity geographical transitions, and catching 2 rusty outlaws red-handed!
Boonie Young was so excited, he shot the hook off the dump target under the plate rack! Quick thinking Deadwood Dave and Turkey Flats Jack(?) jumped in and wired that thing back up in record time! Thanks, guys!
That piece of target steel had a fine, tastefully rendered grinning bone-head human skull painted on it courtesy of our multi-talented Friday paint crew!
All the targets were painted up for the Halloween season! Pretty scary down there!
Stage 3 was the Cabbage Patch Double Tap stage where the outlaws stole the window from the Wells Fargo office and you had to blast’em as they got away! Get’em, Virgil!
The elk worked perfectly on stage 3!
Unfortunately, in our quest to provide new and different excitement and challenges to our fellow shooters we decided to shoot at the moving elk with 5 pistol rounds. Great idea on paper! Not so great in real life and I apologize!
We could not see the hits on the elk even though it was painted white but we couldn’t hear the hits either! This was terrible! Bang but no clang!
The only sound to hear after the bang was a slight “tic” sound if you listened closely! Very discouraging!
We scored each shooter by averaging what the spotters said after each shooter! Lessons learned this day!
Had the range not been closed due to a selective forest thinning operation; we would have had our target test crew go in Friday afternoon with hardware in hand to test shoot said elk for movement, ease of operation, degree of jollification, and clang factor! As it was, it didn’t happen therefore slight grief was had by all our dedicated spotters.
The last stage was the Fort, of course. The big spring on the trap machine mysteriously fell off at our last CAS match so the birds didn’t fly.
This day the trap machine worked really well! It perfectly and precisely threw each bird smack into the big Red Oak tree 3 feet away showering the air with flack and orange fragments!
That’s not what was needed so we abandoned the clay bird routine and shot the stage as a “stand and deliver” stage with the shotgun lastly.
“Let’s go eat, Woodrow!”
It turned out to be a nice afternoon. The sun came out and dried up all the rain and the inky, dinky spider went up the spout again! Spiders do that.
All of us went up to the clubhouse for a Kat-made lunch that consisted of pulled-pork sandwiches, tater chips, cole slaw, A&W Root Beer, coffee, and sugar cookies! Yum!
After that came ribbons, prizes, and scores.
Willie Goodnews was our top shooter today!
Congratulations, Willie!
Thanks to everyone for coming out to join us and thanks to everyone who came to help on Friday and on match day.
Lots of posse members came to help despite physical difficulties and their help is greatly appreciated! Don’t think it doesn’t go unnoticed! We can’t thank you enough!
Our last match of this outdoor shooting season will be on Thursday October 31, 2019.
I hope the weather’s nice and by “nice” I mean nice and dry, not too cold, with plenty of sunshine! I’ll keep my fangers crossed!
Five more fun-filled stages of Old West wackiness with a few surprises!
Same low price!
Coffee and donuts in the morning!
Hagen said he would bring in a cauldron of soup and Grandma Barb might bake cookies!
I hope to see you there!
Visitors and spectators are always welcome at the Brookfield CAS matches. Bring your safety/shooting glasses and hearing protectors!
All the best,
Slow Mo Dern and the Shenango River Rats