{"id":1625,"date":"2011-10-24T01:29:04","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T08:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/?p=1625"},"modified":"2011-10-13T12:44:47","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T19:44:47","slug":"good-grief-%e2%80%93-uncle-jock%e2%80%99s-great-pumpkin-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/good-grief-%e2%80%93-uncle-jock%e2%80%99s-great-pumpkin-challenge.html","title":{"rendered":"Good Grief \u2013 Uncle Jock\u2019s Great Pumpkin Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s that time of year when the trees in upstate New York start to get streaked with color, when dried leaves begin to crunch under foot, when I get the urge to make sure that the stove on the sun porch is working properly.<\/p>\n

While part of me wants to get ready for hibernation with a plentiful supply of warm beverages and good books next to a warm fire, another part of my inner man begins to nag at me: \u201cThis is a great time to get out and shoot. Find something fun and challenging to do!\u201d And so, with my wife\u2019s help, I did.<\/p>\n

My wife is a frequent \u201csilent\u201d contributor to this blog. About a week ago she was thumbing through all the advertising circulars that get stuffed into the Sunday newspaper when she encountered a flyer from a craft shop.<\/p>\n

One of the items in the circular was a \u201ccraft\u201d pumpkin. A craft pumpkin, as it turns out, looks just like the kind of pumpkin that grows in a pumpkin patch, but it is made some kind of composite that can be carved like a regular pumpkin but won\u2019t turn rotten over time like the real ones do. \u201cThat would make a great airgun target,\u201d my Better Half said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps it would,\u201d I said, as I began mulling the idea over in my head. A jack o\u2019lantern would make an interesting target, I thought, but I wasn\u2019t particularly keen on the notion of shooting up a craft pumpkin. Maybe I could come up with a paper target that would suffice.<\/p>\n

A couple of more days of cogitation produced what you see below: Uncle Jock\u2019s Great Pumpkin Challenge.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it works: first, download the PDF file for the Great Pumpkin Challenge from this link<\/a>. Next, print out the file at 100% on 8.5 x 11 paper, attach it to a safe target holder, and have at it.<\/p>\n

These are the rules:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Distance:<\/strong> 20 yards for match rifles and pistols under 12 foot pounds; 30 yards for air rifles and pistols 12 foot pounds and above. You can use any caliber you desire.<\/li>\n
  2. The objective:<\/strong> Hit the black circles as close to the center as possible. There are 19 possible targets on the face of the jack o\u2019lantern. Only one shot per black circle.<\/li>\n
  3. Scoring:<\/strong> We\u2019re using worst-edge scoring. If your pellet hole stays entirely within the black circle, you get 2 points. If any portion of the pellet hole breaks out of the black circle, you get one 1 point. If in doubt, you get the lower score<\/span>. If you miss the black circle entirely, you get zero points. On some of the circles, it may be possible to squeeze a pellet entirely into the open space inside the black circle. If you manage that, you get 3 points. If any part of your pellet hole touches the black circle from the inside, you get 2 points.\u00a0 When in doubt, you get the lower score.<\/li>\n
  4. Position:<\/strong> You may shoot from any position that is supported by the human body. SteadyAim harnesses are allowed, but shooting from a mechanical rest is not. If you want to shoot with your air rifle or pistol supported by a cushion, the airgun must be supported entirely by your hand or your arm which is resting on the cushion.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    That\u2019s it. Now print off your targets, go have fun, and let me know how you did. You can respond to this blog or you can email me with your scores and photos or scans of your targets at jock.elliott@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

    Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.<\/p>\n

    –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jock Elliott<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It\u2019s that time of year when the trees in upstate New York start to get streaked with color, when dried leaves begin to crunch under foot, when I get the urge to make sure that the stove on the sun porch is working properly. While part of me wants to get ready for hibernation with…»<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1625"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1632,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions\/1632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}