It's hard to say what my favorite part of this past weekend was. The cold, rainy weather was the worst part.
Now, the highlights;
RIO7 rolled in early and brought a bunch of steel targets including a life-size, anatomically correct silhouette of a 400lb hog, complete with painted highlighted body parts.
Miles helped us set up the course and we got ready for the rest of the activities.
Friday saw most of the crowd show up and brought more food, drinks, and condiments than we could possibly consume.
Kaywoodie set up his shelter in the yard, replete with his own street sign in French, which translated to "Leper Street"
Kaywoodie kept us all in stitches with his foreign language skills, sense of humor, and anecdotes.
Friday evening, he was in rare form and I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.
We had several folks show up who are not Campfire members, including a long-time lurker here, Elton, who really should join in the conversations as he has a LOT to add to this group!
A relative of Paladin's, Kristy, (she was at the Quemado Gathering last August) brought her husband, Randy, and their three kids along, too.
Saturday morning saw folks jumping in to feed the crew; Wtxj, Milespatton, tex n cal, and others cooked breakfast, kept three coffee pots going, and fed the crew scrambled eggs, bacon (peppered & regular), Tex n cal's Campfire Hog Hunt pig sausage, muffins, cinnamon rolls, juice, and tortillas.
Folks were so busy meeting & greeting that we didn't start the shooting part until after 11:00AM.
Oldman2003, his bride, and his son Allen (who also needs to join here!) brought crawfish, potatoes, & corn for lunch as well as what has to be the best pecan pie I have ever eaten!
Oldman2003's lovely bride also baked a chocolate cake with chocolate icing that was inscribed "Happy Birthday Blue" as this coming Tuesday (tomorrow!) is RIO7's birthday.
We adjourned to the back pasture via the "hay ride" and Elton set up three shooting benches he had brought, complete with bags/rifle rests.
Curdog4570, Paladin, and Elton (an accomplished firearms instructor) tutored a couple if ladies (curdog4570's lady friend and Texczech's wife) on handgunning, and then folks took turns shooting at the reactive targets with various handguns.
Sponxx brought a brand new .243Win that needed to have a scope mounted and sighted in an proved that he can shoot!
Once the shooting began, we quickly discovered that there were some outstanding shooters in attendance. Kaywoodie, shooting a great example of the 1903A3, was ringing the steel out beyond 200 yards with iron sights.
Paladin brought his Merkel .470NE double rifle and let anyone who wanted to, shoot it at the targets. What a hoot! It really smacks the steel without killing the shooter.
RIO7 was ringing the steel out to 288 yards (the life-size hog) with his .405Win, and proving that old catridges can get it done.
Once again, Paladin showed his handgunning skills by hitting a pig silhouette at 200 yards on the first shot with his 500 Linebaugh, then shooting quarters out of the air with his Model 41 S&W.
Websterparish47 was there, quietly doing his best to deplete the worlds supply of .22lr ammo with his pistol.
Wtxj let me shoot his .30-40 Krag carbine. I DO like those guns!
At about 1:30 PM, the dinner bell rang and we were treated to a MOST scrumptious lunch of crawfish, potatoes, and corn cooked by Oldman2003, his wife, and son. That was my first experience with "mudbugs" and I can assure you, it won't be my last!
Paladin showed us how it was done by eating two massive servings of crawfish.
For those who didn't partake of crawfish, TexCzech cooked hotdogs & hamburgers on the grill.
The Prairie Dog Shoot finally kicked off about mid afternoon. One shot, cold bore, any caliber, any rifle, any sights, any position at a 1/2" orange dot on a printed prairie dog silhouette. CCCC won the shoot with his Low Wall .22-250 by clipping the orange dot, Sponxx was about 1 1/4" out from the orange dot, shooting his 7mm Magnum, and Tex N Cal & Allen (Oldman2003's son) tied for third place at 1 1/2" out from the dot on their targets. I know that Allen shot a borrowed .270Win, but I don't remember what Tex N Cal shot.
The weather moved in before we could shoot any more competition, so the "Elk Hunt", 200 yard .22lr shoot, the "William Tell" archery shoot, and the Daisy Red Ryder shoot all had to be postponed until next time.
BrotherBart got sick at the last minute and couldn't make it and stxhunter had to work, so Plan B had to be put into place for Saturday night supper.
RIO7 stepped up and had Barbara go pick up steaks for the crowd along with some great potato salad, and coleslaw. Sponxx supplied baked potatoes, and then treated us to scratch-made Pisco Sours. That was a real treat! His son and daughter helped make the sours by forming a small assembly line to juice the several dozen key limes needed to make this wonderful beverage.
There were bags upon bags of chips, jars of salsa, and milespatton brought several jars of his famous pickled peppers.
Saturday night saw cold rain set in, curtailing the festivities, but not before we awarded the Prairie Dog Shoot prizes. CCCC won a sporterized .30-40Krag, Sponxx won a brick of Eley .22lr, and Tex N Cal & Allen each won 100 rounds of CCI Sub-Sonic .22lr. The Krag and the Eley .22lr ammo were graciously donated by butchlambert1, who was unable to be there but wanted to participate in some way. I'd say it was a heck of a participation!
Sunday morning we were treated to another great breakfast by Wtxj, Milespatton, Tex N Cal, and others.
People started filtering out all day as the cold rain continued, but Allen stayed behind to help clean up.
Paladin & RIO7 stayed here last night and Paladin helped me set up my bullet casting outfit and we cast about 75-100 475gr .458 cal Parker-Hale bullets for my Sharps. I had to lube and load some of them in .458WM cases to see how they shoot until my Sharps gets here next month.
We didn't have much to clean up, but finding a place to put all of the food that was left behind was a challenge!
RIO7 and Paladin finally pulled out about lunchtime today, putting and end to the adventure.
Folks, it was a pleasure and a heck of a lot of fun. I got to meet several new friends, learn more about the ones I had met before, and plan on expanding those friendships.
Barbara and I have spent most of this afternoon going over how things progressed and how we can do it better next time.
I can't wait.
Ed
