The Republican journal., 1918-12-05
Our Rifle and Pistol Club.
The Club Holds Its Championship Shoot,
and Tom Prunty Blows Up in Rapid
Fire.

DEAR BILLY: Well, since l wrote you
last the great news has come, and this
time for sure. The biggest event in our
lifetime, and bigger still because it is a
good outcome of good cause, backed by
the good people of the world.
| can't remember the Chicago fire
guess about the first big events | lived
through were John l.. Sullivan's fights
with Charley Mitchell and Jake Kilraln.
But even in the thirty-fve years | can
look back over, enough big events have
occurred to stagger even the sophisticat-
ed ina gination we have nowadays. Yet
| can we'll remember as boy often la
menting to myself that | was born too
late to ever see any big war, such as
those Waged bv Napoleon and our Civil
War, on any great disaster like the Chi
cago fire, or any big invention such as
the steam engine or the telegraph. Gee!
It's a good thing we can't see into the
future, isn't it?
Our local coon-hunt, about which
wrote last week, has been scheduled for
the last week in November, and l have
the most enthusiastic promises from
eight or nine of our club members. They
have even been so rash as to say that if |
tree coon for them-with the aid of
dog, of course-why, they will be so good
as to recommend that some other guy
ought to be made to be the clubs secre-
tary next year.
President Prunty is Guileless Guy
Oh, Yes!
Well, we have had some excitement on
our own hook. You know | told you Tom
Prunty, our president, went out and beat
my score in the qualification course by
one point and then told me he had losed
the range for the season. | thought that
was all there was to it, and old Tom had
had me up tree for a while, because |
thought he had carried off the club cham
ponship and the N. R. A. medal for the
year. ought to have known better, but
hadn't familiarized myself with the con-
ditions Of the medal shoot, largely due to
Toms holding out the N R. A, instrUc-
lions o. me. Then he sprung the shoot.
We had the necessary ten men out, but
no more-the fellows who had no chance
did not want to compete. Well, 1t was a
fine Sunday morning, but there was a
good stiff wind, quite puffy, and some
clouds. l counted on Tom to win 1T, sure
And right from the start he appeared to
i WV
wards, slow fire, and he certainly can land
on that blame little eight inch bull at that
range, whereas it is the hardest range OF
all for me.
| | was late and on top of that found that
as soon as l shot my 300 yard string
would have to get couple more fellows
to shoot, as we had not enough to comply
with the N. R. A. rule. Result, "pulled
| lo{ Thex ind aC
! switching around from about half past
twelve to half past two, and when lad
down to shoot it was blowing from almost
| twelve. That of course meant L should
use maximum elevation, which on my old
Springfield is sc points, but like fool l
did Just the opposite, set the sight low,
and having no sighting shots | started off
with a three. Nearly everybody licked
me at that range-I got 49,
was late again at 500, but also was
kind of mad, and | trimmed them all with
At and was then leading Tom over the two
ranges by one point, with our unpopular
friend Doc Henderson a close third.
However, 500 and 600 are my best ranges.
At the final range, 200 yards rapid ire,
l again had to wait till last to shoot, be-
cause the rest of them were shooting
| hIdRS-tuCIc SCVCA al JPA ing 80
the club but the fellows use the Krags for
rapid fire, because for one thing it burns
a barrel up mighty fast and for another II
you have got to use a battle sight the
worst one you can pick out is that on the
Springfield. Besides, the boys like the
extra 80 seconds they are allowed for
using the Krag.
Well, what do you suppose7 Old Tom
actually blew up in rapid fire-either that
or else he threw his chance away. lie
scored only 80 points. When my turn
came Doc Henderson almost had the
medal in his pocket, so to spea k, for his
score was 1876, and that is mighty good in
our club.
Real Drama in This Finish.
l shot, and then we waited for them to
disc my target. Up they came, "One B.
two S." and SO on-six fives, then one,
two, three AS, and-a miss. Good night
Doc Henderson had it by three points.
But couldn't understand that miss
fellow seldom will put nine shots all the IN
"head' of the silhouette target and right
alongside it, and then 60 and miss the
whole target with his tenth shot. called
for a REORGANIZATION of my target, anc
Tom went down to the butts to see that ii
was honestly done. Result, they gave
me for that miss. and nosed the Doc