Sporting rifle shoot and prize draw in aid of H4H.
Well last Sunday saw Monmouth rifle club hosting the sporting rifle shoot and prize draw for the fourth year in succession. In terms of money raised for Help for Heroes it was the most successful so far with not quite £3,500 being raised in total by the end of the day, though this will rise slightly when all monies are eventually banked. This will take the total banked for H4H to something like £8,500 to £9,000 since the first SD sporting rifle event was held. Not too shabby really when you think that when we first suggested holding such an event we expected at best to raise only four or five hundred pounds on the day, the primary goal being to organise a bit of a social event and get together for members of the stalking directory.
I sat down yesterday afternoon and started to make a list of all the people and organisations who had made this possible this year. I decided the fairest way to do it was to list them alphabetically starting with BASC who donated the main prize draw (a new X-bolt rifle) and ending with the Sportsman Gun Centre who donated most of the shooting prizes. I had warned you previously that the list of people I needed to thank was extensive and would probably sound like an acceptance speech from the Oscars ceremony but my list extended the length of an A4 sheet of paper so in the end I have decided to simply say that this amount could not have been raised without the support of the many members of the Stalking Directory who have donated so freely and generously yet once again.
I got the range early on Sunday expecting to be first there, instead the two guys who had travelled the furthest Paul ‘O and NDT Man were waiting for me. Paul had set off at 04.00 hrs that morning and NDT Man was eager to erect the high seat that he had donated to the sealed bid auction. I have to comment on the quality of his work, simply fantastic. Too nice to leave outside in a wood which is where it will land up having criss-crossed half the country in a day only to return to a site not too many miles from where it was manufactured.
It was nice to actually get to meet some members of the Stalking Directory who I had not met before and to renew my acquaintance with others who have become friends over the last couple of shoots. Unfortunately there were several who could not make it this year, some of whom usually add to the fun and jolliness of the event even if they don’t take the shoot too seriously. I just felt that a little bit of the usual jovial atmosphere was missing; you know the good humoured **** taking that has been a part of it in the past, or perhaps it was just me not yet being on top form. It could however have been due to people turning up and leaving at different times because we had programmed the shooting details. The result of this being less people hanging around the range and consequently less burger sales, though I have to say that the quality of the catering has remained at an elevated level something that can’t be said of all event/game fair burgers. The prices were very reasonable also.
Well the catering may have been at the usual high standard but I can’t say the same for the standard of the shooting. I don’t know what it was but only Roedinator seemed to be on form the rest of us gave him an easy ride this year only with few 100 scores and several who should have retired early feinting illness. LOL Roedinator eventually took the SD Trophy back to Somerset having achieved the highest aggregate score after shooting all three classes. His smile was only matched by my 14 year old daughter who scored 98 in the rimfire class and went away wearing a Nightforce tee shirt and a big grin, neither of which have come off since. I will post all the scores at a later date so that those that can will be able to gloat and the rest of us will be able to cry over them.