Mr. Completely's September e-Postal Contest: Trying In Vane

Many years ago, I think it was in the late 1960's, I saw a western that inspired this month's contest.  One cowboy wanted to see if the other cowboy could shoot, and told him to shoot at a nearby windmill.  The second fellow launched several rounds with no effect, then proclaimed that he was shooting between the vanes!  We are going to see if any of our e-Postal shooters can pull that off with our target, "Trying In Vane".

The object of the contest is to shoot ten times, and to make clean shots, totally in the white between the vanes, or in the center of the windmill.  Just to keep anyone from being discouraged, we will give you 5 points for hits on the mill, so everyone should be able to make at least 50 points.  Clean misses in the windmill are worth 20 points, so if you are good and extraordinarily lucky, you could score 200.  Two Bonus Buzzards are circling in the sky, and if you want to try for them, they are worth 50 points each.  (This will even up the odds for folks shooting larger calibers.)  They are small and very hard to tag; but if you can hit them and make eight 20 point shots, you will have an impressive score of 260! 

This contest definitely favors .22's and .17's, but we will include all of the regular classes and see if anyone can keep all their shots in the middle of the mill with their favorite centerfire pistol.  Take 10 shots from 25 feet, or as near to that distance that you can shoot at your range.  Shoot with your favorite unsupported stance; one or two hands.  Just to keep it simple, you can shoot rifles from the same distance.  The distances between the vanes are tight enough that it will still be an impressive shot at 25 feet with a rifle.

Class 1: .17 or .22 rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, iron sights.

Class 2: .17 or .22 rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, optic sights, no magnification.

Class 3: Any centerfire (non-revolver) handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, iron sights.

Class 4: Any centerfire (non-revolver) handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, optic sights, no magnification.

Class 5: Any revolver with no more than a 12" barrel, iron sights.

Class 6: Any revolver with no more than a 12" barrel, optic sights, no magnification.

Class 7: Any handgun with no more than a 14" barrel, any sights, scopes, laser, whatever. This class is primarily for target pistols.

Class 8: .17 or .22 air pistol, iron sights

Class 9: .17 or .22 air pistol, optic sights.

Miscellaneous:  Any other firearm that doesn't fit the above classes.

This contest will run through September 30. Send scans of your targets to truebluetravelinman (at) gmail (dot) com.  We are starting this contest a few days early so you can shoot it and Danno's August contest during the same range trip.  Don't miss the August contest, because you might win some great Top Shot swag, just by sending in your target to Danno.

Click the picture at the top of the post or HERE to get the pdf of the target.

Many thanks to Engineering Johnson for making the pdf for this contest!  Yes, he is still out there, and one day he will start posting again!


UPDATE!!  A comment over at Billll's Idle Mind points us to the scene in Five Card Stud that inspired this contest, and it shows that I don't remember things very well after forty years!