The darkening ominous clouds had held their fire admirably well as we concentrated on finishing the trail walk of the annual Spring Shoot. The sky began to perspire or leak as we completed the last gong and turned in our scores.
The soft, light rain on the overhead canvas while I swabbed the blackish filth from the swamped barrel's interior was hardly noticed as I alternated a couple patches or tow with casual sips of steaming black coffee; a relaxing way to do my chores leisurely, no clock or calendar hanging on any nearby tree.
Recalling the variety of targets or should I say "challenges" experienced at various rendezvous, trail walks, spontaneous "friendly wagers" or simple blanket shoots of 4 or 5 "front stuffers", I realized that for me, a large slice of the blackpowder apprenticeship(which is a lifelong endeavor to strive for Journeyman status), is the laughter, hoots, ribbing, howls, facial expressions, snickers, coughs and worst of all: painful silence.
Personally, (and choosing my words carefully now) I have shot AT, and occasionally connected on Cheetos skewered with toothpicks erected in the crack of a log, lifesavers on string, retired steel gas cylinders, log chain paralleling a tree trunk in vertical motion thanks to an overhead pulley and someone's rope, charcoal briquets, ice cubes, potatoes, eggs, grapes, cucumbers, farm tractor steering wheels, corn cobs, mason jar lids spinning in the breeze on string, orange re-bar, lollipops, spider rings from rubber-tired skidder chains, saltine crackers, whitepine cones, wind-fall apples, 8" well casing, saw blades, candle flames in the dark, wooden stakes, ketchup packets that bleed, paper playing cards before they went plastic, baggies of flour, a blaze on a dead tree trunk, inside the loop of a pretzel, the hollow end of a pipe, purple blossoms on Canadian thistles, marshmallows, turkey tail feathers, thumb tacks, Oreos, dynamite (those fun times are gone!), bowling pins, balloons, aluminum cans of water, various scrap metal gongs, wooden turtles on a log, and as I pause to remember more examples, I pity those who only experience round holes in paper.
I enjoy viewing the forum topics "let's see your squirrel rifle" and ..."your Hawken", etc., so how about sharing YOUR novelty targets so other groups can expand their inventory to draw from??
