The National Champion at work. I will have to say that the boys in PA take their Cowboy shooting as seriously as the 1/5th game. They shoot to win and shooting shoulder to shoulder with them was a great experience. John and I headed South West on Thursday afternoon and then finished the trip Friday. Consolidated Sportsmen is about 6 miles North of Montoursville, PA. It is an 8 hour drive, not an easy Friday drive and shoot Sat morning. Not when there are 50+ shooters. They were just shy of their max 60 shooters.
On Saturday they had 5 banks. 5x4 makes for 20 shooters on the line at every relay. They had 3 relays which moved along quickly with excellent and experienced target setters. Berms were dark soil to mud. Animals were white. Conditions were excellent and frankly it was a shooters dream. PCCLA was in the morning. I had hurriedly loaded up 130 rounds for my 44 Rem Mag. I have not loaded or shot that gun since 2012. After ringing many a ram at the GSR last year with my 22LR, I concluded I had better bring a gun that will knock over Rams. I was rusty with the gun and my results showed with a meager 43/60. Still, it was great to be enjoying a match and seeing all the others shooters. It makes me want to spend some more time with the 44 time permitting. It printed well on paper at 100 yards so the problem was the shooter not the gun.
They served lunch while the animals were switched to the "thin" animals. A brief practice and off we went. Now things got exciting. We started on Rams and the two hot dogs and barbecue must still have been settling in. 11 Rams was not the best of beginnings. Things took an exciting turn for the better as I cleaned 15 Chickens and 15 Pigs. Now all I had to do it hold it together on Turkeys. 13 out of 15 was a solid effort to undo the rather poor Ram results. 54 was my ending score only topped by a National Champion with 55. Of course another Champion, Al Bean also shot a 54 so the fight was on for 2nd overall. I managed to meet his two hits but missed my 3rd turkey in the shoot off. Fun to be rubbing elbows with the guys who really know how to shoot. Sure glad John was able to help me get my trusty 1985 39A running again. I might add, I use Federal 510 for Chickens and Pigs and MiniMags for Turkeys and Rams. Anything works that close IMO.
Below are the results from Day 1. I have to get some sleep. I will make another post on Day 2.
