The Annual DMay Fun Shoot
I remember years ago reading about a Mardi Gras in the 1970s that was rumoured to be cancelled… it ended up happening but it was so last minute that no one from out of town came. It ended up being one of the smallest Mardi Gras ever celebrated and has been remembered by the locals as the greatest Mardi Gras ever…. youd think I’d be able to find that information again and verify it but alas the internet has failed to provide me this information.
The annual DMay fun shoot suffered a similar fate. The week before the shoot Darrel, myself, and my friend brad had set up and painted all the steel and cut all the necessary grass. Things were looking good until the evening before the shoot when it appeared some rainy weather was rolling in. As a result the turn out for the shoot itself was down from the original projection. Typically we see around 30 shooters, this year we saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 15.
The morning was drizzly and overcast, but that did little to dampen our spirits. We still got on our rifles and spotting scopes and made steel sing at 400, 500, 700, and 1000 yards. That last one was easier for some than others… I did it, but it took time and a very large target. In the afternoon the rain rolled in heavy, we officially had a downpour. Luckily we had several shelter tents set up. Rather than be dissuaded, many of us saw both the challenge and humor in shooting in heavy rain. I found my rifle still accurate to 500 yards but had trouble at 700. I also found that I received a brisk blast of water to the face with every trigger pull. I was under the shelter but the front half of my rifle wasn’t, that placed it in a small waterfall.
When the rain subsided we went back to our benches and continued to shoot. I had to chuckle, when I picked up my rifle from under the tent water poured out of the stock and action all over my forearm. I was surprised it could hold that much. It was an interesting experience to shoot in heavy rain and the smaller number of shooters gave us all more time to chat with one another and try each others equipment and at a place like a long range shoot there is a lot of fancy equipment to see.
Much like “The Greatest Mardi Gras” the 2017 DMay fun shoot has minimal photo evidence and few witnesses, and perhaps thats part of the fun of it. Knowing that those there, were there for the moment, and any story of it will be a short and poorly written blurb (see above), that fails to do it justice… I guess you just had to be there.
The Only Picture I Took, Sorry
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