For a mid December day in Southwestern Ontario, the weather was pretty much what one would expect, not hope for, but expect. There was snow on the ground, the temperature remained below freezing all day and some snow started falling to complete the winter scene. We set up a twenty-four shot outdoor course and a variety of shooting challenges on the indoor range. All together there was a possibility of one hundred, three points.
Five of the eight shooters braved the element and competed on the outdoor field target course. The snowfall was pretty steady during the entire outdoor match, but it seemed to bother Don the least as he shot a 22/24 to place first in the outdoor section of the match. Dennis was close behind with a 21 and Mike placed third with a 19/24. We then headed back inside to let our guns warm up and the lenses on the scopes had to go through the fog up and clear up period. That gave us all time to have a hot chocolate and get out of the layers of outdoor clothing.
While the five were outdoors shooting, Hans, Bert and Danny completed the indoor events. There were four events indoors, including a stationary chalk shoot, a moving chalk shoot, toy soldier sniping and a buffalo silhouette shoot. Ten pieces of chalk were lined up with about a half an inch sticking up for the stationary shoot. The moving chalk involved a rotating wheel with nine pieces of chalk peeking briefly over the wall by about one half inch and then disappearing. We were given ten shots to hit the nine pieces of chalk. For the snipers in the group, ten toy army men were place along the edge of a table at twenty yards and we were given ten shots to take them out. They had to be knocked right off the table to count, which would not be a problem with a solid hit, as it turned the soldier into green plastic shrapnel. The buffalo shoot involved looking at the cardboard target with the scoring template in place, then trying to remember where the ten ring was located, with no markings on the target and shooting the buffalo five times, with a minute and a half time limit. It was a lot of fun.
| Shooter | Gun | Scope | Pellet | Score /103 |
| 1) Dennis Eden | Anshutz 2025 | Leupold 35X | CPH | 95 |
| 2) Tim MacSweyn | ld/SS 04 | Deben 10-50 | CPH | 92 |
| 3) Mike Ferrara | NJR100 | Leupold 18-40 | Baracuda | 89 |
| 4) Don Irvine | Steyr FT | Deben 8.5-34 | CPH | 87 |
| 5) George Harde | HW 97 | Hawke 5-20 | CPL | 70 |
| 5) Bert Habitcher | AAs300 | Simmons 6-20 | Baracuda | *75 |
| 7) Hans Bormann | AA 410 | Bushnell 8-32 | Baracuda | *64 |
| 8) Danny Reginato | TX200 | Bushnell 8-32 | Air Arms | *51 |
Hans, Dennis, Don, Bert and I all managed to turn the ten pieces of stationary chalk into dust. On the moving pieces of chalk, I managed to create nine dust clouds with nine shots. The one shot, one kill snipers were Hans, Dennis, Bert and I. Bert proved to have the best memory and a steady hand by scoring a perfect fifty out of fifty on the buffalo silhouette target. With a strong showing indoors and out, Dennis was the top gun for the day.
At this point we had a feed of fried chicken, french fries and salads. We went up and chose our favorite mini cap gun off the tree as a prize and also picked a gift from the pile under the tree. It was a great day and a special thank you to Hans and Bert who took care of the indoor events. Thanks also to the guys who chipped in and helped Dennis and I with the outdoor set-up and tear down. I hope to see everyone in the spring for another season of field target shooting.
Tim MacSweyn
*Took part in indoor events only.