4th of July Muzz Archery Trick Shoot

In the fabulous high heat of the 4th of July day with temps over 100 degrees was the annual muzzle loader shoot

It costs $10 to shoot and all the procedes go to the Willard Fire Dept

A few years ago they started inviting the archers to shoot

I have shot it with a muzzle loader years ago but this was my first time with a bow

Everyone had their canopys set up to battle the sun

The gravel was so hot it was actually burning my feet through the bottom of my tennis shoes

I couldnt hold my feet still on the ground

No lie

We gathered around Bears Butt who was sporting his pink Brigham Bowmen shirt and listened to the instructions for the shoot

Jana came to watch

She wanted to get out of the house and she was our picture taker

How this all works is there are 6 different targets to shoot

Muzzle loaders have their targets set up and they put them on the card board thats spray painted with sponsors

The archers are set up at the same line and our targets were on the end

We have to have special targets to stop our arrows

Everyone meets in the middle, they are given the target to shoot and everyone hangs theirs and walks back to the caution tape which is the shooting line

The muzzle loaders and archers shoot at the same time

Normally in any archery shooting its almost silent

Now you are trying to shoot as there is BOOM 

BOOM BOOM all aroud you and powder smoke in the sky

Adds a new dimension

They give prizes for places 1-4 on each target

The targets are set at 25 yards out

The first one was about the size of half a popcicle

It was a piece of ice with a string frozen into it

They called this shot "make it snow"

You had to hit the ice and bust the target

The next target was called "Johnny Two Hole"

It was a piece of paper wtih + drawn to each edge of the paper making it 4 quadrants

The idea was you found a partner

Each person shot one shot into each quadrant of the paper

If you shot the line that square was disqualified

After you took your 4 shots your partner had to shoot your hole

The closest 4 holes won

HOWEVER they added a twist

After everyone shot and before they let us walk down to the targets they read a poem that changed the rules

The WORST targets won!

Jeff and I were a team and placed 2nd on the worst target lol!

I was shooting horribly that day!

We won lunch for two to Rickenbackers

The 3rd shoot they took those little suckers with the safety rings on them and placed them out on the boards

Remember again this is 25 yards

You had to shoot THROUGH the safety ring and not break it

Two archers did it!

Jeff and Judd

Between each shoot they had prizes for things too

Like first two people to bring me a penny gets a prize.. first two in blue shoes..first two to bring me.. this wins

Dad won a Maverick cup in one of them

The next shoot was those little Necco candys

We each got one.. had to cut a slit in the target and hit the SIDE of it 

Those things are about as thick as a quarter

A few people hit it too

Judd got into a shoot off for one of the rounds

Dad was being a smartass and held up and umbrella for him

Uppity pro shooters will sometimes make people with umbrellas stand next to them and cover them while they shoot so that they can see their sights better

its called an umbrella shooter.. and we laugh at all them

Todd and Chris werent able to go shoot because they were setting up fireworks for the 4th in Brigham

When they finished up they came up to see the last few rounds

It was so hot

Kennedy started breaking out in a little heat rash so I had her take off her shirt

I told her she had to stay under the canopy since shes shirtless and poured some water on her

She was already sipping on some Gatorade

She was just too busy playing around and needed to hold still 

After one round when we were replacing our targets apparently she forgot the stay under the canopy part..

she comes running out to where I am putting up my target and whispers to me

"mom if im shirtless my nipples will get sunburned!!!!"

The 5th shot was a half a sheet of white paper with a small white asprin glued on it

The headache shot

You had to shoot the asprin

The 6th shot was the most difficult

I didnt shoot this one because I was sucking bad enough for the day

It was too hot and I was done ha! But I did take pictures 

They had a piece of wood set down the range at an angle.. On the center of the piece of wood was an axe blade. On each side of the blade was a clay pigeon

You had to shoot down, split your bullet on the axe blade and hit both ends of the clay pigeon

Now an arrow tip is strong metal

It doesnt split like a lead ball does

A half dozen arrows that most people are shooting are between $50-$100 for 6

So for an archer to do this wastes an arrow if they hit it .. but its some pretty awesome bragging rights

Everyone was gung ho to try it

Judd was up first

And he nailed it!

The arrows didnt split of course but they could tell where it had hit the axe head

Then Jeff

He hit it too!

They let all the archers shoot first so they could check the divits in the axe head

Dad took his turn too

he busted one of the clays

was it a hit!?

Yep! We can see right here there is a new mark

You can tell by all their smiles they were super sad about their broken arrows :)

Chris couldnt be left out he had to be the arrow puller!

We left after this

It was too stinking hot

I heard there were some muzzle loaders who split the ball too!

Congrats to all!
It was a great shoot!

Way to go for all the sponsors and helpers

They ended up donating $400!
Way to go!

And thanks for letting us archers come play