By George...

[Lead pot]

semtav,

I had drop out and not shoot. I looked for you but only saw the bug bomber fly over Sorry to have missed you.

Kurt

[semtav]

Congratulations fd. Glad you were able to take it home. Hopefully they will get all the bug's out for next year and everyone shooting paperpatch gets signed up.

[mdatlanta]

Many thanks to Bent Ramrod (and everyone else who chimed in) for this very interesting thread. ��

[semtav]

Didn't realize you made it out Kurt.
Wanted to run down but just couldn't make it.

[Old-Win]

Dave, another great write-up! I think you missed your calling. We had a great time this year once again. I didn't see you this year so couldn't give you at least passing nod. My daughter (see above) has really taken to this and wants to do well. We started on the #3 target or the postage stamp as some call it and it was tough on all of us for some reason. When it was my daughters time to shoot, it was dark and cloudy and hard to see. She missed her first shot and I gave her a correction and her next shot was 10' right. I' didn't know what to do so wrote it off as a bad round. Next shot was again in the same spot and I'm thinking "loose sight". Now, panic is starting to set in and I jump up and check the rifle out before her next shot. No loose sights. I got back in the scope but don't know what to give her for a correction. Her next shot, in the same place. All of a sudden, she turns around and says, I'm not shooting at the target but a spot on the hillside. It was there behind the old place where the target use to be as they moved the target about 10' left. Long story short, she took a zero. It took her a while to settle down after that and our next target is the diamond. What does she do? Gets another 8 pin. Bounced back pretty good. After that, we shot fairly well until the next day. Everybody did well on the buff except me. for some reason, a little 4-5:00 tail wind ate my lunch with the vertical and I ended up with a 1. Never before have I shot even close to that on that target. Sunday night, we're all sitting around saying how much fun we have and can't wait to be back there next year. Here's hoping

[Bent Ramrod]

Sorry I missed seeing you as well, Bob. It seemed that a lot of the people I was used to seeing there didn’t show up this time, so I sort of slacked off my looking during the practice days.

On the other hand, there seemed to be a lot of new blood there, a lot of younger shooters, especially. Very gratifying that this kind of shooting continues to “catch on” with the younger set. Hopefully, the Quigley will continue on for another 31 years, continuing to “hook” new people. Delighted to hear that your daughter has gotten the bug. Shooting is one athletic competition where body strength doesn’t matter that much; the women competitors are showing some pretty impressive totals.

The Match is funny like that; past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, just like the Mutual Funds people caution in their ads. This year’s winner might not even be in the top twenty next time. One of our guys was doing very well the practice days (4 consecutive hits on the Bucket, and even better strings on the sit-downs), but starting out on Match Day he missed all 8 on the Bucket and this rattled him so badly that he wound up doing worse than I did, overall. And on a good day with light winds, the targets can get greyed-out quickly, despite the painting schedule and relay switches. The occasional sprinkles that controlled the dust at the Line also obscured the dust at the targets; some misses were hard to see sometimes.

But that’s the way it seems to work in Gong shoots. You might feel like John Bodine when you do well at long-range Bullseyes, and Wright Mooar when you knock down a bunch of Silhouettes, but when you clean a Gong Target, you feel like William Tell; you pulled off a major-league Harmonic Confluence in the face of disaster against all odds. You not only did good, you did right, with Lady Luck curled securely in your lap, cooing into your ear. Nothing else like it.

Wally told me the Las Vegas shoot at Desert Sportsman’s is going in November. It’s great Quigley practice, obviously; he came in 5th at the Quigley this year. Other than that, I’m hoping to stay vigorous enough to be at the Quigley again. Only 11 months to go!

They put the scores up, but haven’t broken out the categories ( Trapdoor, Ballard, Scope, etc). I’d like to see how the average Paper Patch score compared to the average of all others.

Thanks again, everybody, for all the kind words and compliments. I get a lot of good info off this site; glad to contribute where I can.

[Old-Win]

Dave, did your buddy Wally shoot a 38-50?

[Bent Ramrod]

Bob, that’s what I was told. 55 gr 2f and a 360 gr Money bullet.

That caliber seems to be the magic combo of power enough to get out there plus minimal recoil.

[ragnar]

What is the Las Vegas shoot at Desert Sportsman’s, dates, description, etc?

[Bent Ramrod]

Email Wally at wpinjuv931@gmail.com for particulars.

[Lead pot]

I just went back over all of these posts and Dave you did a fine job documenting all of the events, best I have seen these reports. I hope to meet you there one of these years.
I wimped out of two Q shoots now since 2005 and this shoot. I look forward for the Q shoot because it got to be like a reunion with friends we shot together with all of these years.
Twice I had eye damage for shooting a large caliber rifle all of those hundreds of rounds before the start of the match and twice I got retina separation and this last time in both eyes that I lost my center vision. I go in on the 19th to see if the good Doc can repiar the damage.
I now have two .38-50's so I can keep this up for years to come.
I think Age is catching up with me

Kurt

[Bent Ramrod]

Thanks for the kind words, Kurt. I'll be up there again next year if I can move at all. The Quigley has gotta be more fun than the Burning Man reportedly seems to be, for sure. No less rain or mud in Montana, but a lot more community spirit and none of the whining and sniveling Victimhood on display in Nevada now. I'll ask around and see if I can find you.

Old age ain't for sissies, for sure. I had cataract lens replacement and had eagle eyes for four years or so. Then got a retinal detachment in my right (good) eye and had to switch to left-handed shooting with my less-good eye. Could stick with right-handed if all I used were scopes or pistols, but did the switch to keep the muscle memory going regardless of what I was shooting. I surprised myself with a 23 at Silhouettes this weekend; haven't shot an A score in a while. Hope springs eternal!

[Lead pot]

Just look for a Winnebago Micro-Mini Flex Gypsy Wagon. There is usually a Flag high above it.

I just passed my driver test a couple days ago so seee you next June.