Aug 6, 2016 4 min read

Last Saturday it rained!

Actually that is an understatement, as most locals know.

Despite the quagmire the rain created, along with the limited visibility, most of the regulars were not only present, but seemed to enjoy the deluge.

Rim-fire rifles lined the rack under the bench-rest roof. The quality of scope and rifles varied in quality from a high-priced Remington topped with a Leopold to Mike’s old well-used Remington single-shot with nothing but open sights.

It was Bill Pierce’s annual egg shoot and the group consisted of friends and acquaintances take part by invitation. After the shoot was done, there would be a lot of good food and liquid refreshment and a big bash celebrating not only the winners but everyone who was present and even some that couldn’t attend for various reasons.

Water ran over the shooters feet and mud was everywhere yet the shoot went on as scheduled. Everyone was a bit wet, although Bill had canopies set up. One of the more intelligent attendees trudged up to the group carrying an umbrella.

“Look” someone hollered, “it’s Mary Poppins.”

A miracle occurred that day as no one actually fell in the mud, although two people came close, one of whom was the host.

I attended the shoot last year, so I was prepared for the 200-yard shoot at an egg. No, I wasn’t allowed to use a goose egg.

The firearm had to be a rim-fire and finding drop data at such a range with a .22 is all but impossible. So I did a bit of calculating and decided the bullet would drop somewhere in the neighborhood of 48 to 54 inches, depending on ammo.

After quite a bit of shooting, I finally got the old 144 Mossberg hitting the target at 200 yards. But, my group was a bit bigger than an egg. I thought I had a chance for four of five shots to hit the target.

But I found out Friday Bill came up with a new 50-yard shoot called threading the needle. He had drilled 3/8 inch size holes in a metal plate and the idea was to put the bullet through the hole and hit a balloon behind it.

I rushed to the range a few days before the match and hurriedly sighted in my Remington 513S at 50 yards. The 513S is a sporter version of the popular 513T and was made back in the 1960s. Mine is super accurate. The scope I have on it is nothing more than an old Weaver 3 x 9 with an adjustable objective.

After all, who shoots a rim-fire beyond 100 yards?

It was raining hard when the thread-the-needle shoot came up and this old man decided not to shoot because I couldn’t see the target very well in the rain.

That’s when Kelly McElvain, otherwise known as Spanky, came up to me and asked if he could use my rifle. Of course, I agreed as long as he used the DDI green tag ammo sitting next to it. We agreed if he lost I was not to blame.

Guess what?

Spanky cleaned house, outshooting the other entries and taking home the top gun prize. He offered me half for doing a good job sighting in my rifle, but I declined.

It was the first time I lost, but my gun won at a shoot, and I sort of liked that. Of course, he suggested buying my old Remington, but I declined the offer.

We did learn something from this shoot. To put a .22 rim-fire on target at 200 yards you have to hit 12 inches high at 50 yards.

I had to leave early for a family birthday party so I couldn’t shoot the 200-yard .22, but I believe had I stayed, Spanky might have borrowed my 200-yard rifle and won that too!

Congratulations to Jim Reedy who won this event. All too often shooting matches are stern and taken too seriously. That’s not the case with Bill’s egg shoot. It’s just a good time taken by a bunch of fine shooters. The spectators had fun too. Maybe clubs should try one.

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.