November 13, Sunday
Up early and in the truck with Sterling I'm off for a new experience. Sterling's passion is competitive shooting and the back of the truck is loaded with guns, ammunition and shooting gear. I'm guessing the range was 45 miles away. The road winds thru hills and valleys. When we arrived my goal was to stay out of the way and observe.
The first thing that caught my attention was a few of the participants with baby carriages. Hmmm, must be a family sport.
Looks a little unusual, can't wait to get a look at the children. Must be twins, rather warm to have their little heads covered in this heat.
Now it all makes sense. An equipment transport. Rifle, shotgun, handgun, ammunition, magazines, loaders, ear protection. Everything needed for a day at competition. Quite a sport, very competitive. What I gathered from todays event. The hosting team sets up the stages, today there were six. Today the competitors were divided into six teams at random. Each team competes on a stage until everyone has shot and scored and then moves on to the next stage. Each stage is designed to test your skills in different ways. Most stages test your skill with at least two of your weapons. Close up with handgun or shotgun and long range with rifle. It always involves movement and different positions. They take turns with keeping the stopwatch and range safety. After the competitors run everyone helps retype the targets, sitting up the knockdown or tip over targets and resetting the trip or moving targets for the next run.
It is hard to imagine the distance of the rifle targets. Practicing for a future event Sterling shot with a self imposed handicap electing not to use a scope on his rifle and only used his iron sights. He did very well. There was one target that seemed to be a tough one and I failed to get a picture of it. It had a paddle on both ends and revolved moved when you hit the paddle. Placed hundreds of yards away you had to time your shots to get it swinging. The object was to have it do one full revolution. Very tough.
I had done some searching on the Valkyrie forum for a motorcycle shop for a new front tire and perhaps take a look at our carburetors. Bigmac from a Moreno valley had suggested one up in Highland CA. Today was the day. After Bigmac and the mechanic listened to our poor beast it was obvious that just adjustments wouldn't make our beast whole again. Perhaps I made a rash decision, my side was bothering me more today and I didn't take the time to think it through. Ruthie isn't crazy with the Valkyrie and I should have just had the new tire installed and then perhaps sold the Trike and built a new one using a Gold wing. However I didn't, I agreed to overhauling all six carburetors, rented a car and headed back to the ranch.
The rest of the week nervously waited for our trike to be finished, and helped with preparations for the big event at the ranch.
If we hadn't have been worried about our trike it would have been a restful week. The only thing we accomplished was the rewiring of the craftsman tractor. At least one project accomplished. I did have one saxophone lesson, this is going to be a little tough.
Bobbie taking credit for the tractor repair while her friend looks on. I should point out she really didn't help that much. Just handed me a few tools and offered advice.
Up early and in the truck with Sterling I'm off for a new experience. Sterling's passion is competitive shooting and the back of the truck is loaded with guns, ammunition and shooting gear. I'm guessing the range was 45 miles away. The road winds thru hills and valleys. When we arrived my goal was to stay out of the way and observe.
The first thing that caught my attention was a few of the participants with baby carriages. Hmmm, must be a family sport.
Looks a little unusual, can't wait to get a look at the children. Must be twins, rather warm to have their little heads covered in this heat.
Now it all makes sense. An equipment transport. Rifle, shotgun, handgun, ammunition, magazines, loaders, ear protection. Everything needed for a day at competition. Quite a sport, very competitive. What I gathered from todays event. The hosting team sets up the stages, today there were six. Today the competitors were divided into six teams at random. Each team competes on a stage until everyone has shot and scored and then moves on to the next stage. Each stage is designed to test your skills in different ways. Most stages test your skill with at least two of your weapons. Close up with handgun or shotgun and long range with rifle. It always involves movement and different positions. They take turns with keeping the stopwatch and range safety. After the competitors run everyone helps retype the targets, sitting up the knockdown or tip over targets and resetting the trip or moving targets for the next run.
It is hard to imagine the distance of the rifle targets. Practicing for a future event Sterling shot with a self imposed handicap electing not to use a scope on his rifle and only used his iron sights. He did very well. There was one target that seemed to be a tough one and I failed to get a picture of it. It had a paddle on both ends and revolved moved when you hit the paddle. Placed hundreds of yards away you had to time your shots to get it swinging. The object was to have it do one full revolution. Very tough.
Sterling in the grey putting his weapons on
the range for a run.
Click on the play button and watch Sterling in action. The time keeper warns everyone that a shooter is at the ready, asks if you are ready, there's a beep, time starts. The time keeper follows closely, on the long rifle shots he might give you a direction if you are left, right, long or short and indicates a hit. He stops the time after the last shot and makes sure the guns are empty, secure and proclaims the range safe. Impressive, it was a new experience for me. I enjoyed watching the competition. I think it would be a fun sport, certainly never a dull moment. Thanks for including me Sterling!
Monday evening Lynda and Ruthie were off to a Bunco party wear fuzzy slippers and bring a candle the calendar said. Don't know what that's about. Sounded like she had a good time playing dice and meeting a nice group of ladies.I had done some searching on the Valkyrie forum for a motorcycle shop for a new front tire and perhaps take a look at our carburetors. Bigmac from a Moreno valley had suggested one up in Highland CA. Today was the day. After Bigmac and the mechanic listened to our poor beast it was obvious that just adjustments wouldn't make our beast whole again. Perhaps I made a rash decision, my side was bothering me more today and I didn't take the time to think it through. Ruthie isn't crazy with the Valkyrie and I should have just had the new tire installed and then perhaps sold the Trike and built a new one using a Gold wing. However I didn't, I agreed to overhauling all six carburetors, rented a car and headed back to the ranch.
The rest of the week nervously waited for our trike to be finished, and helped with preparations for the big event at the ranch.
If we hadn't have been worried about our trike it would have been a restful week. The only thing we accomplished was the rewiring of the craftsman tractor. At least one project accomplished. I did have one saxophone lesson, this is going to be a little tough.
Bobbie taking credit for the tractor repair while her friend looks on. I should point out she really didn't help that much. Just handed me a few tools and offered advice.
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