A couple of months ago, a few of the men in our church happened to be studying a book called Heart of a Warrior by Michael Thompson which focused on men stepping up and taking back their rightful leadership roles in churches. It was a pretty good study, but that is not the focus of this article.
This article will focus on a really great offshoot (no pun intended) that brought a number of the men together to enjoy a day of fellowship, a day that many might not have tied in with church outings. We organized the day at Jon's farm around an afternoon of shooting, followed by a bonfire and carry-in dinner. At the study sessions for a couple of weeks leading up to the event, a couple of guys and I were debating who was the best marksman in the land. I have to admit, some of them (the Heater in particular) had some pretty impressive arguments and endorsers in their corner. So we kinda set one of those old western "high noon" dates to get to a range and shoot it out. Could the country boy really out shoot the Army guy? We'll see (maybe I don't really want to know). Besides, if it all goes south, at least the food will be good.
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| Our handgun "range" consisted of a standard target (on the right) and a swinging bowling pin suspended from a support (on the left). The bowling pin was a good challenge. |
We set the day up for a couple of hours of handgun shooting. There were lots of the guys who already owned firearms and welcomed the opportunity to sharpen their skills. But, there were several other guys who had never even held a handgun and wanted to try it out. We had three very highly-trained range control people who coached up the shooters and made sure things went smoothly and safely. The different segments included familiarization with several kinds of handguns, shooting from various distances, and then shooting at water-filled pumpkins. Boy do they explode when they are hit.
The second part of the day was devoted to trap shooting with 12-ga. and 20-ga. shotguns. I would say that most of the guys there had not tried this before and were apprehensive at first. However, with coaching and patience, almost everyone who tried it ended up hitting one or more of the clay birds. Shooters aged from school-aged youngsters to old guys like me. We went through a carton and a half of clays and several boxes of shotgun shells, but really had a good time.
After lots of trash talk, and lots of alibies and laughter, it was getting dark so we adjourned to the bonfire and dinner.
Well, this was so much fun, we did another one a month later (in January!). Several other men in the church heard of our fun and decided to come and have at it. We ended up with about 40 guys there for the second day.
So not only has this generated some enthusiasm in the mens' circles, it has also sparked our group to look for other ways to have fun, generate fellowship and maybe develop more leadership from these men in the church. Plans are being made for a golf scramble in the April-May timeframe, and a shooting/fishing/overnight camping event out at the farm.
I can't wait to hear the tall-tales that get spun up leading up to the fishing event. Should be a great time.
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| Just to give you an idea of what our shooter is looking at ... the clay "bird" is just at the tip of the blue arrow, and still moving away. Lots of fun...especially when you hit it. ( P.S. Our shooter was actually a pretty good shot!) |
One thing about shooting -- almost everyone has a "saying" when they are finished. Here are a couple of the better ones I heard:
"Did you break em all?
"Yep I broke em all, even the ones I missed."
and,
"It's not that they're so hard to hit, it's that they're so easy to miss."
Yep, these boys are getting the hang of this sport.
