Shooting Campout and Mom's Dinner Summary
   at Durham County Wildlife Club
November 2008

 
Another year has flown by and it was time again for the annual shooting campout and mom’s dinner. Yea! We gathered as usual on Friday at Apex Crossing and at the appointed time departed for the Durham County Wildlife Club in RTP. A short 20 minutes later we were at the club’s lake side camping area. Scouts and adults were setting up tents and dining canopies in anticipation of rain Saturday morning.

At 7:30 PM everyone went up to the clubhouse for a shooting safety briefing that took about an hour. After the briefing the Scouts working on the archery merit badge stayed for another hour to work on archery merit badge requirements. The other Scouts returned to camp and started a campfire, and all but four adults went to shoot trap (one of the shotgun games). Everyone was back in camp by 9:30 and lights out was 10:30 PM.

Since the schedule was to be shooting shotguns by 8 AM, wake-up was 6:30 AM.  In anticipation of the day’s activities, it was no trouble getting everyone up and fed in time to meet the schedule. Chris Meyer, Ed Rabenda, and Bob D. were the required NRA certified shooting instructors. Tom Brawn and Emerson Sox, who are also DCWC members, were also busy coordinating and assisting with the shooting programs through out the day. Ed ran one shooting field for “open Shooting” for the Scouts not taking the shotgun merit badge.  Chris and Bob each ran a field splitting the shotgun merit badge candidates between the two fields. Shotgun shooting was from 8 AM to 10 AM. Justin F., Matt K., Brenden M., Kevin M., Aaron R. and Mensheng R. all shot qualifying scores for the merit badge. A few younger Scouts tried but were not able to qualify.  This is typical and they can try again next year or at summer camp.

At 10 AM we moved to the rifle range and worked on the rifle shooting merit badge.  Ed and Chris ran the Scouts through the rifle shooting qualification and Bob ran a station for Scouts to shoot a .22 rifle with a scope at a 4” steel plate hung out at 100 yards.  Danny B., Josh E., Sam G., Glenn G., Brian H., Connor J., Dominic S., Evan S. and Paul T. all shot qualifying scores for the rifle shooting merit badge.  90% of the Scouts shooting at the steel plate were able to hit it 8 to 10 shots out of 10. These Scouts are good shots!

At noon we moved back to camp for lunch and a break. We also had some visiting Webelo (cub) Scouts visiting with us.  While we were on the shotgun range they were at the rifle range shooting BB guns.  They were also able to join our non-shooting Scouts at the lake for some fishing and work toward the fishing merit badge. David Keller brought plenty of fishing tackle and bait.  He was able to help the Scouts catch at least 4 or 5 fish, two of which they cleaned, cooked and ate (all part of the merit badge requirements).

At 1:30 PM we headed back out to the archery range. Tom Brawn, “Ranger” Rick Myers and Bob D. each ran a shooting lane. We had the usual problem with some of the younger Scouts not being able to pull the bow string back. That meant going to very low pull weight and that resulted in the arrows hitting the target but not sticking.  In fact since the target backing is heavy rubber, it caused the arrows to hit the target and bounce back at the shooting line.  That made scoring a challenge, but not impossible. Danny B., Alex G., Sam G., Brian K., Jack K., Kevin M. and Evan S. all shot qualifying archery merit badge scores.

The shooting day was done and everyone was back in camp by 4 PM for some rest and relaxation. That rest didn’t last long because the Scouts had to start cooking dinner for their moms at 5 PM.  The moms started arriving a little after 6 PM. All the cooking was done in camp and the food was then brought up to the club house about 6:20 PM. I saw spaghetti with meatballs, steak wraps, stew, Sheppard’s pie, salads of all kinds and deserts. The adult patrol had made cherry and peach cobbler and more than they could eat, so it was offered to the moms.  Hey! Those moms run for the desert line as fast as the Scouts. I hear they really enjoyed the cobbler.

Following dinner we had a “campfire” program run by Thomas M. in the clubhouse and around the roaring fire in the fireplace.  Thomas had a program of skits, stories and the highlight was a flag retirement ceremony. Thomas had a prepared speech to go along with the flag retirement that was one of the best I’ve heard. After the “campfire” program we dismissed the moms and the Scouts remained behind to clean-up. We were all back in camp by 8:30 PM and about 15 Scouts were then off for a game of manhunt.  The rest of the Scouts started a campfire and sat around talking, telling stories and generally relaxing.  Everyone was tired from our long day and even though lights out was at 10:30 PM, most were in bed by 10 PM.  Chuck Gay and Jeff Fausak got the short straw and stayed up to make sure everyone was safely down for the night.  Scoutmaster Bob D. was uncharacteristically down at 9:30 PM – it was a long tiring day. BUT…  worth it for all the fun the Scouts had doing something boys enjoy – blowing things up.

Sunday wake-up was 7 AM, but I didn’t see much movement until 7:30 – 7:45 AM.  They slowly got up and started packing and/or having breakfast. Our wonderful boys had made a pretty good mess of the lake shoreline, so policing took quite awhile. We rolled out of DCWC as planned at 9:30 AM and were back at Apex Crossing a few minutes before 10 AM. Thanks to Chris Meyer and Scout Gary M. for planning and running the campout and shooting program.

Bob De Contreras
Scoutmaster, Troop 216