October 2005

WOW! That’s the best way to describe what the Woodcock Rifle Range fraternity endured at the last Egg Shoot of the season. Talk about horrible conditions! All week long Randy Costa (Mr.Egg) and I conferred on the weather. It was not good. But to call the shoot off and reconvene next weekend didn’t look any better. Hurricane Wilma is supposed to knock on our door sometime next week and after that we could be well into snow season. Now that the range is covered, (thanks to the generosity of Richie of Richie’s Sporting Supplies in Westport who donated the entire structure,) we decided to hold the shoot and separate the men from the boys! Winds gusting at 25 mph, rain, fog; all we needed was fire and brimstone to complete the picture! But shoot we did! This shoot had a twist to it. Savage Arms had donated a certificate for 50% off any rifle of the winners choosing. We decided to award this prize to the winner of the 200 yard factory rifle class, where lots of Savage supporters play. As it turned out we had 10 folks compete for this prize and six of them were shooting Savage rifles. It’s interesting to note that when we started these shoots some 10 or 12 years ago, most rifles on the line were Remingtons. But not a Remmy was to be found among this group. Rounding out the firearms was two CZs a Ruger and a Tika. Interesting.The shooting started and it was fierce competition. After the first relay we had five folks shooting a perfect 5 for 5. (Five eggs with five shots). The second relay had four of the riflemen vying for the reward with perfect second relay scores of 5 for 5. The third and final relay had a three way tie for second amongst Steve Evangelho, Richard Douglas and Alphonse Mattia. But they couldn’t outshoot Steve Sylvia who logged in a perfect three relay score of 15 for 15. And he was using his box stock Savage 112! Steve says he has his eye on a Low Profile Varminter in 204 Ruger with the certificate he won from Savage Arms. Good shooting guys!Custom Rifle 300 yards had the usual suspects present and accounted for. This is simply amazing. In conditions like we had, we ended up with a three way sudden death shoot off! Gary Maciel, George Harrison and Mike Cabral all turned in “perfects”, 5 for 5. They proceeded to shoot a couple dozen more eggs without a miss during the shoot off, but in the end someone had to win and this time the trophy goes to Gary. Who is not unknown on the podium. Great shooting boys!Hunting Rifle 100 yards is shot using basic hunting rifles. The firearm must have a usable magazine, a factory barrel and a scope set at 9X or less. In the last couple of shoots, 17HMR rifles have been dominating this class. The 22RF rifles, of any brand, just can’t keep up. We ended up with a shoot off between Bob Pinatore and Steve Carreiro, both shooting 17HMR rifles. But this time Steve had his way and took home the Gold.Just when you thought conditions couldn’t get any worse, we started the 300 yard competition. Now, 200 yards is interesting in these conditions, and you would think that a grade A size large chicken egg would be pretty safe out at three football fields. You would be wrong Rooster breath! The long range artillery was on target. Factory 300 yards went to Steve Guillette shooting the “Want Ad” rifle. Now you might ask, “What the heck is a Want Ad rifle”? If you get my emailed “Egg Shoot Newsletters” you might have received an email a few weeks ago telling you about a Savage rifle I found in the Want Ads that was just too good a deal to pass up. It was an old Model 110 Varminter in 22-250 with a vintage Burris scope with dies, brass, and a bunch of loaded rounds for $450. The varmint style wooden stock is beautiful and it just cried out for an Egg Shooter to own it. Well Steve drove the hour and a half to buy it and he shot it in this Egg Shoot and whacked 15 eggs with 25 shots out at 300 yards! That’s custom rifle performance on a good day! I’m sorry if this is starting to sound like a Savage advertisement, but I’m just reporting the news.Custom 300 yards is where the big boys play. They pull out their $3000, fast twist, high velocity firepower and really shake things up. The shooting on this day was no different that what you would have expected. Lots of scrambling! When it was all over we had a three way tie for second. Gary Maciel, Mike Cabral and George Harrison all shoot 15 eggs with 23 shots, but Ryan Bertalotto (my son I might add!) beat the field with a 15 for 22. Excellent shooting by all.Well that’s it for this year. The schedule for next year will be posted sometime in February. Stay tuned.I would like to thank the following companies for donating prizes to this year’s event. If you can, support them, they are supporting our sport!Sponsors
Richies Sporting Goods
Savage Arms
Wal-Mart
MidWay Shooting Supplies
Kreiger Barrels
PacNor Barrels
Shilien Barrels
300 Below
Otis Shooting Accessories
Lyman Reloading
Lee Reloading
Redding Reloading
Forster Reloading
Berger Bullets
Sierra Bullets
Nosler Bullets
Hornady Bullets
Decot HY-WYD Sport Glasses
Vias Muzzle BrakesSee you next year…You can review all the EGG SHOOT recaps and lots of other articles on shooting and firearms at www.rvbprecision.comRoy Bertalotto