A day late and a dollar short ..................Part1
..............Well DAMN IT!!!!!!!!! I am sorry to say I won't be able to attend this year. I had just told Deputy AL that I would be able to go. I didn't know the date had been changed until just now reading this thread. I was able to get the traditional dates in May for myself, as the vacation times were being posted by all us here in the office. I have the first weekend in May off, sheesh!
Major issue is that personel wise here at work there is NO slack. If someone calls in sick, that means someone stays an extra 6 hours and someone else has to start 6 hours early to cover. The terminal manager is the 'fill' guy during vacations. So when us 2 weekend guys have vacation, poor Bill works his week, my weekend, his next week and then the other guys schedule.
It would be too tedious and complicated trying to explain why I just can't ask the other guy about swapping, as there is a weekday guy also involved during the new shoot dates. Crap! That shoots rat blasting in Cedarville in the head too.
To any of you new guys, or people that have never been, you really REALLY NEED to go. It's not that you should go, it's you NEED to go. It really is one big family deal, and I mean that literally.
It was Ammohead back in 1999 who brought up the whole idea to begin with. There were several active posters on the Shooters.Com BB, cast bullets board who lived within a reasonable distance of each other to make a get together not unthinkable. As the months past the concept firmed up to the point that a place (Topaz Lake, NV) and time was agreed upon.
Now this comprised several fully grown adult males who had been communicating via the net and the board for a couple years. One thing we forgot was each other's real names or pictures of what we looked like 8). So we showed up. I remember being somewhat uncomfortable standing there at the desk of the motel, wife at my side, and trying to figure out some halfway intelligent way to ask the nice lady there if any other guys had shown up, who liked to shoot cast lead from guns.
Donna turned and said, "You don't even know anyone's name?" Ah, no was the somewhat sheepish reply. However as it turned out we all somehow seemed to clan up and gravitate together. I remember that night as the entire 1st annual Cast Lead Bullet fellowship sat around 2 tables pushed together in the upstairs bar. That first Rooles Kommittee meeting consisted of drinking and screaming at each other back and forth over the table, as the band was like ten feet away and you couldnt hear crap.
Donna had won $100 on the slots so for dinner we had prime rib and all the BS with a couple others.
The next morning we were going to caravan to the shooting spot. Problem was there were 2 seperate parking lots we were split between. Each group thought they were supposed to wait for the other group. It's just luck that we're not still sitting there waiting. We eventually did get it all ironed out and we moved on out.
You can go to www.castpics.net and then 'Events' and click on Topaz 2000 to see the original cast and crew and a few other photos of the event. For a rough and ready hasty put together, it was a real blast. We had targets out to 600 yards. I would also like to say we were shooting in a hurricane, which the locals call a mere zephyer of a breeze. When you shoot a golfball cannon and the golf ball only goes 30 yards, and then makes a sharp 90 degree left turn and heads for Idaho it's a bit more then a breeze.
My one major triumph was to hit the steel plate at 600 yards with a 1871 Mauser shooting a 475gr boolit. I think I held about 8' into the 'breeze' to do it. As has become the rule, so far as shooting went it everyone saying, "Here, try this, or here, shoot this and see what you think".
In the years since it has remained the same. When the group stake shoots were first put on, a couple shooters were short ammo for guns they'd brought (shooting is fast and furious) there was no problem in finding a rifle or pistol loaner to compete with. A word here is that in anticipation of these 2 group events (one rifle and one pistol) that you make sure you have sufficient ammo for one of each event!
Originally the stake shoots were just that. Each team at the 'GO" signal tried to shoot a board in half. Winning team was that with the shortest time. At the first such rifle event the rifle boolits were zipping right through without making much of an impression. As it turned out it was called at 6 minutes and bullet holes were counted. I remember Curmudgeon's Springfield barrel was smoking. After that the boards were particle board and since changed to ballons. Yet peestols with their fat lumbering slugs still do a number on the wood.
One year it was clay birds on nails stuck into celotex ceiling panels. It was tough hitting those birds. However BruceB's wife Karen came up with a novel answer. She merely hit rocks in front with the 404 Jeffery and the resultant shrapnel literally ground sluiced the birds off! Speaking of Karen, a previous year during the team rifle shoot she'd run out of ammo for the 30-06 (I think she was shooting). She grabbed up the 416 Rigby and unleashed a shot that flatly rocked her back on her heels! She hurridly laid that one down and hunted up something else.
I think the first year Powderburner came he was all loaded up with blackpowder. During the pistol team shoot not only did he do a good job of obscuring the team's target, he also did a bangup job of pretty well gassing them into submission. Lesson here is to shoot upwind of those afflicted with BP :-) BruceB's capable daugher Kim was banging away in a team pistol event when she discovered daddy had ill supplied her with ammo. There was a heated father/daughter conversation of where additional ammo might be located.
While such things are fun, they are NOT taken lightly, believe you me!
A suggestion here. For the team pistol event: Use a pistol with a swingout cylinder. Shoot wadcutters. If it's a stake, aim for the black stripe! Once well perforated aim for the top of the board to snap it off!
For the team rifle event: Use a rifle that either feeds very well or that you can just drop a round into, lockup and shoot. Trust me here, a Trapdoor Springfield is just about tits! Assign areas of the target to each member.
I don't know how the Rooles Komittee will treat those firearms with box or detacheable magazines this year.
Part II .......................
...........................Speaking of the Rooles Kommittee. Watch them VERY closely. A more heathenish bunch of near do wells you're more likely to never meet again in one place. They can be twisty slithery devils and hard to pin down. Working with them is like herding ferrets.
Ammohead may offer you money for points on the long range off hand shoot. Don't do it. He's so far behind me he'll do anything to catch up.
They're all great, every single one. Idabull, Mac, TimB, Urny, their wives and all the rest, or whoever else new comes, you'll have a blast. Seems like last time the shooting got off to a little slower start then usual. In fact it was remarked upon and the answer was that we were all more interested in talking and catching up then shooting at first. The family reunion deal I guess?
I'll sure miss it! Maybe something will happen and I can come. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
......................Buckshot