Top Shot Competition

Our last outing was just for the day rather than a weekend event.  Our scouts elected to hold a “Top Shot” Competition within the troop.  They competed in 4 different categories:  .22 Rifles, Tomahawks, Archery and Sling Shot.

The .22 competition was pretty typical based on a paper target point system.  Our NRA Range Safety Officer also acted as judge to assist in point evaluations.  A former Scoutmaster who is also an armorer graciously donated a bunch of single shot target rifles for us to use and one of the boys in the troop with some wood working skills built us a target stand.

The Tomahawks were donated to us by a sister troop to use.  While precision and skill were never evident during the competition, raw destructive talent was prevalent.  The first target they used was an old solid wood door that had been discarded by our church.  You would’ve thought it would’ve lasted longer.  Not so much.

Archery gear was provided by one of our committee members.  He had purchased a bow from Jamboree Surplus from when he was a scout back in the 1970’s and shared it with the Scouts.  Another committee member provided hay bales to use for the back stop.

We had a couple of slingshots, so we setup an archery target and took aim at them  with paint balls.  The trick is not to squeeze the paintball before you release it!

After the competition, the boys played a team shooting game with the .22, in which they had to shoot playing cards down range to determine what their “hand” was.  (2 pair, 3 of a kind, full house).

It was a really long day, but a fun one.  The day started with a drizzle and ended with sporadic sprinkling.  Here in Florida you kind of expect that, but still the heat and humidity saps you.  Even through all of that, a few of the Scouts commented that this was their favorite event ever…  so, success!

Oh by the way, an invaluable resource for this was the National Shooting Sports Manual.  Our NRA RSO quoted from it extensively when asked whether or not we could do one thing or another.