The morning started for me at 4AM. I had to get up and drive 245 miles across the state to get there. When I arrived at 9AM, most everyone was already there setting targets that consisted of water filled milk jugs, pop bottles (all plastic of course) and clay birds at ranges of 25 yards all the way to 500 yards. As a special treat and noted on the shooting page, we had a special Coke bottle only about 3" in diameter on a string at 500 yards--for now well call this the $200 bottle! After setting targets and the meet and greet hoopla out of teh way, we began to oogle over every one's toys. As in everything else in life, the grass is always greener in someone elses gun case. We had the full gamut of calibers ranging from 22lr up to 500 S&W and big chunks of lead up to 750 grains.

Theshooting line-up consisted of your's truly, Gerry -aka Bullelk Hunter, Bill(some think it is Paul??) and son Ben, Fran, JimmieLee, Jim, Ian, and host Dan Bowers. I sure hope I didn't forget anyone! All are very capable and everyone demonstrated thier abilities today.

After about an hour waiting for Bullelk to finish sighting some guns, the fun began. We didn't have any jugs closer than 200 yards. The only targets closer were clay birds and Bill's metal silohettes and some nice furry sheep that he made just for this event. Everyone was lined up on the benches with whatever they felt confident to shoot. At 400yds jimmylee was using his dead-on accurate .243W Striker (factory rifle barrel trimmed to 16"-ish) and I was using the XP-100 .243W (Kreiger Match barrel) then handed it over to BillyPaul (pahandgunhunter) and I used the Striker .260R (McGowen 17" w/ Ross brake). At 500yds I still used the .260R for a little while (think I went five for five to start!) then broke out the XP-100 7mm-270WSM. Jimmylee brought out his Striker 7mm-08 (mine from a couple years ago...Shilen SS Match barrel). I have to admit...he can shoot that gun way better than I ever did!! He's wicked at 500yds with that gun. The wind was a bear this year but each year I see that we get better and better at knocking out the LR jugs. Everyone connected at all ranges, but I have to admit, my 223 was far outclassed at 500 in the wind and rain, and my 7mm was at a clear disadvantage past 400 with only a 7x scope. Surprizingly, the jusgs at 200, 300, and 400 didn't last very long. We couldn't get Fran to shoot much becuase he fell in love with my Zeiss spotting scope. He was having fun reading the labels on the jugs and telling us which jugs were just leaking a little. We actually got a lesson on the non-explosive tendancies of 30cal 168gr match HP's from a .308! They didnt explode jugs like other styles of bullets--but they were very accurate. Ian didn't miss many, but the next guy always had to blast the jug again to get it spray in grand fasion. JimmieLee's 22-250 and Dan's thingamajig did most of the busting at 500yards. Bill's facotry 6MMBR was fantastic as you can see by what his 10yr old son could do with it. That kid is gonna be a shooter. The mid-day break was one of great stories, but much better food. Dan's wife Cindy prepared a fantastic Prong Horn barbeque with macaroni salad, chips and ice cold water. Bill's wife fixed some absolutely delicious salsa and chips for snacking. No one ever broke the small Coke bottle at 500 so we had to move it up to 300. The wind had the flags at 100 yards flying straight out to the right, and flags at 300 straight out to the left--the wind was tough to say the least. We called it the $200 bottle because that's how much ammo we expended trying to hit it at 500!! Ben did in at 300 for us--in that wind. I have alot of new respect for the 6BR!!

After the jugs were busted, we broke out the fun stuff. We tried 460 and 500 S&W's on the steel silo's and the furry sheep. All we ended up with was ventilated silo's with .430 and .500 caliber holes in them and sheep that looked like they lost a tussle in a pillow fight. The fur carried by each shot ended about 15 yards past the sheep. All in all, Ben asked his dad to buy him a S&W MP-22 like BullElk Hunter!! Everyone got to see how much fun Black Rifles and be! This year was one of the best yet; cool and drizzly in the morning, but not hot and humid or hazy. We had an absolute blast and I think everyone will back again--at least I hope so. This shoot is one of the best stress relievers known to me! Thanks Dan and thank your wife for lunch!! I hope we do one in th fall.