Gun shows and shooting matches

If you’re still Christmas shopping for your favorite outdoorsperson, this weekend’s gun show at Raven Hall on the Alaska State Fairgrounds might just provide the perfect shopping experience. This 14th Annual AlaskaYESS gun show and Christmas extravaganza will see over a hundred vendors on hand to help with your Christmas shopping plus 3 Bears Outpost will be sponsoring a Wall of Guns. A dollar raffle for a Volquartzen precision 22-caliber firearm will also be happening. Tickets for the raffle can only be purchased at the event.

The show is hosted by member teams of Alaska SCTP-YESS, a 501c3 non-profit corporation involved in training and overseeing our youth clay target shooting teams and athletes. The hours are 10-5 on Saturday and 10-4 on Sunday. The cost of admission is $6 for ages ten and up. If you would like more information, go to HYPERLINK “mailto:akyessgunshow@yahoo.com” akyessgunshow@yahoo.com or call Lindy at 907-354-5244.

I made the trip to Birchwood shooting facility this past Saturday to participate in the December Bang ‘n Clang shooting match. The weather was clear, calm, and cold! I mentioned before how I had skipped the November match for lack of loaded ammunition and because the weather wasn’t looking too promising. The weather for the November shoot caused the match to be cancelled half-way through because of sub-zero wind chills, blowing snow causing a white-out, and the inability to even see some of the targets because of the blowing snow.

I looked in my shooting notes for last year’s November Bang ‘n Clang and noted the temperatures were in the mid-30’s to low 40’s. Quite a change compared to this year’s event!

I’m still not done reloading ammo for the Bang ‘n Clang shoots, but I had more than enough for this match. Because of weather and declining daylight, the match was shortened from the normal 40-shot, 4-relay format, to a 20-shot, 4-relay shoot. The match organizer wanted enough time after the regular match to hold a turkey shoot and timing worked out well for all the shooting. Pat Reed won the turkey – fine shooting, Pat!

Instead of shooting at ten targets for each shooter per relay, in a 20-shot match, only five targets were shot. With this format, two shooters could fire in each relay at the same bank of targets – one shooter firing at the left-side targets and the second firing at the right-side target bank. Relay times were halved, from ten minutes to five, as well. Everything went smoothly and the match moved along quickly.

So how did I do? Not very well, I’m sorry to say. Here are my excuses, and I’m sticking with them! First, I was shooting a different rifle. I had bought some 38-55 cases at the last Big Lake gun show and about half were loaded with a mild smokeless powder reload. I had only ever shot blackpowder loads in that rifle and I really had no idea where it would shoot the smokeless loads. Second, I had an old-style scope mounted on the 38-55 and, since I hadn’t shot that rifle since 2021, I forgot how to work with the scope; basically, needing to reset the scope in the mounts by pulling it back into battery after every shot. I didn’t figure that out until about half-way through the match.

And finally, I was shooting off a cross-sticks bench set-up, rather than off my tripod. That should have been more accurate but getting adjusted to the change seems to take me a while. Anyway, I shot one of the lower scores for the match.

I was dressed for the weather, I thought, but my fingers and toes got cold, and I couldn’t seem to get them warm. I was slightly chilled most of the day and that never helps when trying to shoot a decent score.

Since I was out of 38-55 ammo, I used my little Martini rifle in 357 Magnum caliber, my normal Bang ‘n Clang rifle, for the turkey shoot. After missing twice while a couple of other shooters had hit the target, I was eliminated from the competition. I started putting away my gear while the turkey shoot continued.

After loading my gear and starting the truck, I wished everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year, since I wouldn’t see most of the folks until next year. With that, I hopped in my truck, ate a quick lunch, and headed for home. The heater was turned up, and the fan was on high. I was warm when I got home!