Winter Shooting Weekend

Community Rod & Gun Club, Bechtelsville, PA

15-17 January 2010

The weekend of 15 through 17 January 2010 saw Scouts of Troop 461 begin the new year with a winter shooting sports weekend at the Community Rod & Gun Club of Bechtelsville, Berks County, Pennsylvania.  Since it was winter, the Scouts and leaders stayed inside of the Club cabin for the weekend, enjoying the amenities of heat, indoor plumbing, electricity and hot water.  Five Scouts and five adult leaders braved the colder weather to enjoy a weekend of shooting sports and fellowship.  The photo below left shows the boys getting ready for their Friday night snack.  The photo below right is not from the winter shooting weekend - which is obvious from the greenery in the background - but is from our spring 2009 shooting sports weekend and shows ASM Zachary Wile overseeing one of our younger Scouts on the shotgun range. 

The adult in charge of the kitchen was ASM Ernie Gambone who had two of the newer Scouts under his wing for the weekend completing their Tenderfoot cooking requirements.  In addition to assisting with the cooking and cleaning up during the weekend, the two Scouts also helped ASM Gambone plan the weekend's menu.  The cardinal rule of any Troop 461 camp is that the food is always good and there is plenty of it!  For the past several years, we have required Scouts and leaders to provide their own mess kits and utensils so that we don't have to both with paper plates or plastic utensils.  That requirement helps us stay green by reducing the amount of trash by more than one-half (1/2) and instills a sense of responsibility in the Scouts, who have to ensure that their dishes are washed and ready for the next meal.

Saturday morning started off with a quick refresher on gun safety in general and range rules.  SM Tim Wile also familiarized the Scouts with the particular .22 rifles that the Scouts would be shooting later that morning - the Mauser DSM-34 - a single shot .22 long rifle calibre training rifle that were produced in the 1930s.  The Bechtelsville rifle range opens for shooting at 10:00 o'clock a.m. and by 10:15 a.m., the Scouts were on the range and ready to begin shooting.  Fortunately, we had four of the single-shot Mauser .22 rifles so the Scouts did not have to wait long to shoot - seeing that only five Scouts were present for the weekend!  The balance of Saturday morning was taken up shooting the .22 rifles and by lunch at 1:00 o'clock p.m., the Scouts had shot more than six hundred (600) rounds of .22LR ammunition on the range.  Even one Scout who had never shot a rifle before was able to hit the black ring at 100 meters with the Mauser DSM .22.

Following lunch, the Scouts were treated to a black powder demonstration with an antique United States Model 1855 .58 calibre rifle musket.  SM Tim Wile explained how a black powder firearm differs from a modern firearm that uses pre-manufactured ammunition in that each of the components found in a modern round of ammunition has to be loaded separately into a black powder firearm.  SM Wile also informed the Scouts that the Model 1855 rifle musket was the first US military firearm designed to use the .58 calibre Minie ball as opposed to simply a round musket ball.  After demonstrating how the 1855 musket was loaded and fired, the adult leaders present were permitted to try their hands at shooting the musket at the 100 meter range.  The photo at left shows ASM Ernie Gambone trying his hand with the 1855 musket while the photo at right shows ASM Brian McKown seeing how he does with the .58 calibre musket.  A few of the advantages of shooting black powder firearms is that you don't have to pick up or collect any brass when you are finished shooting and you can clean up with simple soap and water!  If you click on either of those photos, a video file will download and play on Windows Media Player so you can see either or both of our heroes in action . . .

When the black powder demonstration was finished, our small entourage moved up to the 10 meter pistol range where some of the adult leaders showed the Scouts some of the various handguns that are available, how they work and the advantages and disadvantages of each.  The revolvers went from a .22LR single action to a .357 revolver with a seven-inch barrel - referred to as a small hand cannon.  The semi-automatic pistols shown to the Scouts included .22LR pistols up to a 9 millimeter military P.38 and a .45 ACP Model 1911.

Once the pistol demonstration was concluded, the Scouts returned to the 100 meter pavilion and resumed shooting the .22 rifles until dusk came around 4:30 p.m.

The photo above left shows ASMs Brian McKown (left) and Andrew Cowles (right).  While ASM McKown is wearing his proper Scout uniform, ASM Cowles is still enthralled at his new parenthood state as shown by his choice of attire.  The photo above right shows three of our Scouts anxiously awaiting another culinary masterpiece from Head Chef Gambone.