Did You Say BOWLING BALL CANNON?

The long range table of goodies.

While I'm not quite as busy as Rambling Anne and her mad transplanting, I accomplished more than I intended this weekend. As I'll happily proclaim a billionth time, I can now enjoy weekends off after working my arse off for most of 2010.

One of numerous things I did this past weekend was attend a shotgun shoot with my church. This was my first time going with fellow church members and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Past experience (at non-church events) told me we'd be shooting tons of ammo at metal plates and other random targets like discarded bottles, signs etc.

Boy was I wrong. First off, there were three shooting areas set up: long range, shotguns, and handguns. The table displaying the rifles was so captivating, I had to take a picture. Not only were there tons of different models to try out but there was plenty of ammo and various targets. I must have (attempted) to shoot around 50 clay pigeons myself. I also took my turn hand throwing (hand throwing device, not tossing by hand) and a few spring-loaded throwers to the tune of another 50 pigeons.

But one of the best parts of the event was when the bowling ball cannon was brought out. It looked like a large CO2 tank cut in half. Mounted on a large anchor and heavy spring, the tank was first loaded with gun powder followed by a bowling ball. I was told it would launch the ball around 400 yards and I believe it. What a spectacle to see that ball explode from the tank.

Ad hoc bowling ball cannon.

We had bountiful refreshments on hand.  Did I mention there were so many bakery muffins that I got to take 12 home to the kids? Dad was the hero of the day when the kids got chocolate chip muffins the size of large grapefruits.

"Practice makes perfect" as the saying goes. Survival skills needs to be practiced ahead of time, not just WTSHTF. I'll gladly go shooting any time I can.  I enjoyed myself so much, I didn't even mind the hot pink shotgun shells ;-)

Hot pink shotgun shells, must have been on sale...