A turkey shoot

I assisted in presenting a safe firearms handling session this past Friday evening at the 33rd annual Turkey Shoot hosted by the local Trail Life USA troop in Big Lake. I’ve been doing this gun safety workshop for something like 25 years and it’s always a challenge to try to summarize safe gun handling into a half-hour to 45-minute session. A video is shown which summarizes the key points in a dramatic way which sinks home with the kids. We emphasize a few key gun handling rules and rely on the adult range supervision during the actual shooting.

There were about 90 young folks participating. In addition to the Trail Life troops, there were folks from the Civilian Air Patrol. Of all the shooters, about half were girls, but I don’t know what group they may have been representing. Ages of the shooters ranged from around eight-years-old to eighteen.

The kids shot 22 rimfire rifles, high power rifles (usually 223 Remington caliber), shotguns (either 12 or 20 gauge) at aerial targets, slingshots, and bow-and-arrows. Points were awarded based on hitting the respective targets. The youngest shooters generally didn’t shoot the shotguns, and their scores were adjusted accordingly.

This is a huge undertaking on the part of the organizers and requires around 30 parents (usually fathers) to help, supervise, and run the various ranges. Without naming names, my hat is off to these volunteers helping to keep alive youth mentorship and the Second Amendment in our local community.

A little history is in order. The turkey shoot originally began as an activity held for a local troop of Boy Scouts. After the Boy Scouts organization took a hard left turn, politically, with their “wokeness,” and allowing “gay” troop leaders, this local troop decided to sever all contact with the Boy Scouts organization. As an aside, the federal government Department of War (Defense) is currently looking to sever their relationship with the Boy Scouts as well.

The troop went looking for an organization to align with and the Trail Life USA group emerged. I had never heard of them and went looking online to find out who they are. Quoting from their website, this is what I found, “Trail Life USA is a church-based, Christ-centered, boy-focused mentoring and discipleship journey that speaks to the heart of a boy. Established on timeless values derived from the Bible and set in the context of outdoor adventure, boys from age 5 to 17 are engaged in a troop setting by male mentors where they are challenged to grow in character, understand their purpose, serve their community, and develop practical leadership skills to carry out the mission for which they were created.”

That sounds an awful lot like how the Boy Scouts used to be!

One of the requirements to form a troop under the Trail Life USA organization is to be sponsored by a local church. The Big Lake troop is sponsored by the Faith Bible Fellowship church, located off Hollywood Road in Big Lake. Scott Johnson is the “Teaching Pastor” at the church and was present for the gun safety session and the shooting events the following day.

According to their website, there are currently seven Trail Life USA troops located in Southcentral Alaska, ranging from Anchorage (three troops) through Eagle River, Chugiak, Palmer, and Big Lake. If you’re interested in their operations, look them up online and contact the hosting church in your area for details.

For the past few years, V.F Grace, Inc., the main Alaska firearms wholesaler, has made ammunition available at a lower cost for the turkey shoot, donated items as door prizes, and donated a firearm as the grand prize for the overall top shooter.

This year’s “Top Shooter” firearm, in honor of our country’s 250th anniversary, was a special Ruger model 10/22 configured like the ones used by the US Shooting Team as practice rifles, complete with a red, white, and blue laminated, thumbhole stock, and heavy target barrel. As a Federal Firearms Licensee, I have a feel for gun prices, and this is a significant value firearm. Only a little over two thousand of these rifles were made in this configuration, and the rifle awarded at this shoot is serial number 44. I know the happy winner will undoubtedly shoot this rifle, but I hope he understands this gun will have significant collector value as time goes on.

In addition to the Trail Life volunteers, the V.F. Grace company should be applauded and thanked for their generous donations.