So I let myself be cajoled into trying the annual teeny target match at the range on Saturday. Apparently it has become a tradition over the past 10 or so years and I just heard about it.

Rimfire rifles only, 50 feet, indoors. Unlimited time. from a rest… Oddball homemade targets (by the organizer). Prizes were only bragging rights.

‘Twas fun and challenging… I chose the Non-Ruger RWB 10-22  for the competition as it is the only rifle I have that has a scope that will focus at 50 feet…the other rimfire rifles I have won’t focus that close….and the targets they use would be hard to see well enough for proper aiming at 50 feet without an optic. I shot the sportsman class, with a forend rest that I use for sighting in rifles and a sandbag for a rear rest. Others used lead sleds and other such devices and really expensive rifles and optics….. The largest target that they had used scoring points that were 3/8 of an inch across…the other 2 were smaller than that…down to 1/10 inch. Other classes had toothpicks as targets…. They had to be cleanly broken to score.  And then, for fun, we had a series of 10 staples that had to be hit in case there were ties on the regular targets. (Oddly, I scored 9 out of 10 on the staples)

2 strings, one morning, one afternoon, with lunch and some raffles and such in between. Lunch was excellent: pulled pork shoulder sandwiches. They even brought turkey sandwiches for the 2 jewish shooters.

Lemme tellya, these fuckers I was shooting with were GOOD.

I came in 6th in my class, with an overall score of 95.7%. It was challenging and fun, if totally useless and non sanctioned. I’ll probably do it again next year.