With the warmer weather comes the annual migration of a
species common to much of North America.
They start off following the cherry and apple blossoms up the milder
coastal climates then as the storm season subsides they move into the Midwest
to partake in the sweetcorn and watermelon, eventually moving south with the
fall festivals before the cold weather.
I speak of course of the common American Carny.
Back before the lawyers and legislators made it a liability
nightmare carnivals would commonly feature shooting galleries with actual .22
rifles. Anyone young or old could walk
up, pay their money and be handed a little pump action 22 loaded and ready to
go. I’m sure some of these were rather
shady affairs with plenty of bent front sights and glued down tin cans, but
some of them were absolute mechanical marvels.
Animated targets, gongs, and falling silhouettes were common features
and if you had enough nickels you could destroy an entire fleet of steel ducks
and an army of jumping hares.
Since you can’t really go to one of these galleries anymore,
I’m bringing one to you.
This month’s edition of Mr. Completely’s e-postal match.
Here are the rules.
Print the PDF at 100% scaling (you may lose the edges
depending on the margins on your printer.
That’s OK)
Tape it to a cardboard backer and place it at 10 yards (or
25 feet)
You have 10 shots.
Animal targets count for 10 points but may only be counted once. (Just imagine them falling with a satisfying ‘ting-GOOOONNG’
sound.) The three bull’s-eye targets are worth a maximum of 20 points with 15
points for the center dot and 5 for the surrounding circle. Each shot can only be counted once so it’ll
take two shots to get the full 20 points out of one of these.
The target should be shot standing unsupported. There is no time limit.
The classes break down as follows
1 Rimfire pistol with iron sights.
2 Rimfire pistol with magnified sights.
3 Rimfire rifle with iron sights. (This is how this target
is meant to be shot so if you submit a picture of your slide action 22 with
your target you get 10 bonus points!)
4 Rimfire rifle with magnified sights.
5 Centerfire pistol with iron sights.
6 Centerfire pistol with magnified sights.
7 Centerfire rifle with iron sights.
8 Centerfire rifle with magnified sights.
If you care to shoot the target with anything else, let me
know. I’m sure we can accommodate.
Send a picture of the target to my email (posted on the upper right side of the page) by the end of the month.
Have some fun with this one folks, after all, It’s a
carnival!
