Triathlon

[BirchOrr]

Gentleman, Thanks for all the encouragement and congrats!

As I said before, the triathlon is 3 events: Bow or crossbow, muzzle loader, and Euchre tournament. 20 guys total. Names are drawn and you end up with a random partner for the whole day. 10 teams. We got there at 7:30 AM and I left that night at 11:00 PM. Everybody brings an assigned dish (I had to bring a desert and baked pies) but the food was fabulous. All kinds of wild game dishes. During deer season this year I took both hind quarters of a deer in and had them smoked and shaved. It was so good, I gave several packages away for my pals to try. One of the things we had for lunch was that smoked/shaved venison made into Rubens... awesome!

For each event the 1st place team scores 190 points. 2nd place 170 points 3rd 150 points and so on down to last place which scores 10 points. So you must win at least one event and place in the top 3 on the other events to win. It's tough!

The bow shooters shot at 30 yds and crossbow at 40 yds. My partner was shooting bow, so I decided to shoot crossbow. (I took both with me) So I was using my Excalibur Equinox. (It's a recurve with a 225 pound draw & shoots 350ft a second)! There were a few mishaps, one guy blew his bow string and another rolled his string off the cams trying to let it down. When stuff like this happens, you have no choice but to shoot someone else's bow and hope for the best. Big disadvantage.

My partner and I won bow/crossbow and were the team everybody was "out to beat" the rest of the day.

Next was muzzle loader. Targets were set at 60 yds and all off-hand shooting. Each team gets 1 practice shot each and then the competition is 2 shots per person. I took 2 guns, my old brown barrel CVA Hawken, and a stainless T/C Triumph with a 3-9 Nikon Omega scope. The Hawken was the 1st BP gun I ever owned. bought it used for $75.00 when my kids were babies. The Hawken was loaded with 70 gr of Swiss, wonder wad and a .495 round ball. The T/C with two 60 gr pellets of T7 and a Barnes MZ sabot. I shot both guns Friday and they were perfect. My partner had not fired his gun since deer season and decided to use mine since I'd just checked them. He shot the T/C and I decided to shoot the Hawken. I shot a 7 and a 10, he shot two 9's. We took 3rd in BP (150 points) and things were really looking good, but not out of the woods just yet! Other teams did have their share of problems, hang-fires, etc you all are very aware of everything that can go wrong! In a competition, and only getting 2 shots, everything had better be perfect or you're done. The team that won BP, one of the guys had a hang-fire, managed to hold it and still had a 10 on that shot.

Finally the Euchre tournament (and also the drinking begins)! My partner was an excellent player and we did OK. Euchre is like any other card game. You can be an excellent player but if ya don't get the cards, ya don't win. We came in 4th and had enough points overall to win. I've included a picture here of us holding the trophy and the cash. I'm the guy on the left.

I'd love to do this with you guys here, it would be a blast even if we changed it up a bit and did BP pistol/long gun instead of bow, less people and I'd be willing to travel to do it!

You guys are the best,

Birch

[shortwave]

Well done on your win Birch.

Sounds like you all had a blast.

[Doc Hoy]

Nice going!

[BirchOrr]

... I appreciate the congrats!!!



Birch