The Independence Day Shoot, July 1st and 2nd at Camp Stasa was one of those that we will always look back upon fondly. This was the type of weekend for which we can only feel truly, truly sorry for those who were not there.

We had sent out tons of flyers, newsletters, and emails. Looking back, it seems kind of silly, but my big worry was that too many people would show up. Oh well…

Friday afternoon, Nick and Kristin arrived early with their younguns, and Frank Stasa cleared several new camping sites, behind the little shack. One of these areas was also utilized as the cooking and eating area, to avoid crowding the rifle range.

I showed up, with my youngest son (Bubba) in tow, Saturday morning. The range looked in good shape, the new campsites were impressive, and the eating area had several tables arranged. The food was there, and the grill was ready to go.

State Commander Ron Gaydosh and Calhoun County Commander Brian Shimkus led a detachment of gate guards at the front, with a neat canopy over the road leading in. This only became a small problem when The Macomb County Brigade, commanded by Mike Wilks, arrived in their military surplus deuce-and-a-half, which they had to drive around the canopy.

The deuce-an-a-half was an impressive sight. One day we hope to have an entire convoy of them filling up the camp…..

So with three month’s worth of notice, several newsletters, and hundreds, if not over a thousand flyers handed out, we had eight people compete in the first 100 yard rifle target shoot. With a field this small almost anyone could have won, except that our own Weapons Information Officer, The Gun Guru himself, Dave Franey showed up to shoot, so maybe it was better that a lot of people didn’t show up. They probably would have been competing for second place anyway…

Dave won handily, by getting the first and second best score (82 and 74 out of a possible 100 points). The target was a hard one to see, much less hit. Dave won with a Remington 700 chambered in .22-250. He got the second best score with an AR10.

There was also some kite-flying going on, and thanks to Samantha for finding Bubba’s shoe.

Up front, Frank fried up some of the local greens (Lamb’s Quarters) for the folks at gate guard. He also brought out a jar of pickled zucchini , and a jar of pickled mixed vegetables. They were good.

The shooters agreed to cancel the 100 yard pin shoot, due to lack of participation, so we still have another Mauser for the October shoot.

Mustache Bob also came out to give us a brief class on a wild plant (Jewel Weed) which can be used as a field expedient treatment for poison ivy, which was all around us. (Fortunately, no one was affected by this, to my knowledge….)

Dave gave out some good technical advice on weapons and some of their malfunctions. He also proclaimed it his duty to teach us all how to shoot better, which we are looking forward to.

After a very disappointing turnout on Saturday, we were prepared for the worst on Sunday. It really wasn’t that bad, though, with a total of 26 competitors in the absolutely riotous pin shoot competition. (If you haven’t been to either one of these yet, you still have a chance during the UN Shoot Oct 21st and 22nd. More on this later…) We have video tape of some of this.

On Sunday morning, The Macomb Brigade drove their Deuce-and-a-half into town to get some McDonald’s for breakfast. Commander Gaydosh let them post a magnetic "militia" emblem on the doors of that truck. Needless to say, that’s one McDonald’s that is completely aware of The Michigan Militia.

This day also saw a good deal of berry-picking by my two year old son, Caleb (Bubba), who probably would have picked Frank’s farm clean, if I had let him. The berries (I thought they were black berries, but have since been informed that they are black raspberries. Seems like a good year for these berries...they were good, and plentiful.)

Congratulations to Gerry Runkle, who swept all five pins off the table in 7.22 seconds. Next came Brian Shimkus, with 8.10. We would also mention Jeff Smith and Tom Peterson, for coming in with very good times. These competitions are close, and fun.

Some of the shooters would have made better time, were it not for some slight malfunction, like a feed problem, or bad ammo. Drills like these are great to find your weaknesses, and get them out of the way now, instead of waiting till a critical moment….

One shooter noticed that his time has improved a full two seconds over the Tax Blast Pin Shoot. This alone made the entire weekend worth the effort. One man has improved his skills quite a bit. One man is now a bit more confident in his pistol ability. One man is now a bit more of a threat to potential tyranny. That is what this is all about, folks.

Some shooters, like me, were shooting new and unfamiliar pistols. While we all should be berated for not having shot these before we took them to compete with, we could stand to be berated less than folks who didn’t show for the same reason.

Learn your weaknesses now, while they don’t threaten your life.

Do the new magazines that you spent a lot of money on cause your .45 to jam? Okay, fix this now….while all it costs you is some embarrassment at the range….

Shooting in the Ladies’ category were Kristin Stoner and Kathy L. Considering that there were three prizes to give away for the ladies, this means that the next lady to merely show up would have walked away with a nice gift certificate….Think about this...the fewer people that show up, the better your chances will be to win something….

Congratulations to Kathy for winning, and more importantly, for having fun.

As an extra special treat, we had two shooters in the youth category: Cody Vojtech, age 9, and Alex Stoner, 7.

These two fine youngsters handled their weapons well. It was a heartwarming sight to see….The first time they shot, it was a virtual tie, so they got to shoot a second time to see who won. Cody pulled it off, but any time you get to have a seven and nine year old compete like that, and do so competently and safely, nobody loses. Alex got the next place prizes. Most importantly of all, we had some young ones learning how to shoot, so we all won.

If you are a youth (particularly a 15-year old nephew of mine) who had the chance to show up, but didn’t, then you missed out.

We will still have ladies’ and youth categories for upcoming events, like The UN shoot in October, but they’ll likely be scaled back a bit, to avoid any more big losses.

Thanks to Nick, Larry, Frank L, Mike J, and Tom P for donating most of the prizes. (Larry, it’s okay, I’ll get the Victoria’s Secret Certificate next time. Commander’s Prerogative and all that…)

As usual, Nick and Kristin ran the base of operations, with Nick doing another outstanding job with the food. Frank’s greens and pickled vegetables were the perfect compliment to the vittles.

Thanks also to Frank L for scoring the bowling pins for us. If you can get these, anybody, pick some up, we will always need them. Thanks also to Bill, Kristin, and Mike F for the footage and still pics.

Thanks to State Commander Ron Gaydosh for covering the gate for us.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Always, always, extra big thanks to Frank Stasa. His kindness and generosity in letting us do these events is to be commended.

The next shooting event, aside from regular training, will be The UN shoot, with powder blue bowling pins, and possibly a shotgun event with powder blue clay pigeons. This will be on the weekend of Oct 21-22, just prior to the UN protest on the 24th.

See you there… -Lee