Our club, Westville Sportsman's Club, just sponsored our first ever .22 rimfire "egg shoot." Since it was a success :lol: , I thought I would share it with other .22 rimfire fans. Simply put, it makes for a great fundraiser and lots of fun.
The following will explain how to sponsor such a shoot. The first thing we did, was to buy 5 sheets of steel. Each sheet was a quarter inch thick, 12 inches wide and 44 inches long. The cost of the steel was less than $200.00.
The next aspect was to drill out 10 different diameter size holes. We started with a 1 1/2 inch at the bottom of the steel and worked our way up to a little under a 1/2 inch (last hole). You can make your hole sizes whatever you want, but make sure to keep 4 inch spacing between the holes. This will allow proper spacing for when a egg "shatters." If spacing is to close, it can affect the egg above it. Our club member, Ron Powell, volunteered his services to drill the holes. This saved us money and he did a great job.
The next aspect we had to do, was to weld 1 1/4 (inside diameter) nuts to the backside of the steel. This is where the eggs would sit. We had no idea how this aspect would turn out, in terms of vibration coming from a missed shot. In the end, this aspect worked great. We had one egg out of 22 dozen break. Must have been the last egg ole Mother Chicken dropped out :grin: . Another club member, Albert "Sandbagger" Royce, volunteered his welding services to also save our club money. Thanks Albert! If you or your club decides to build such steel sheets, just make sure you weld the top of your nuts as close as possible to the bottom of the hole that was drilled out. This will allow the egg to "splatter" more, as you will be shooting the bottom half of the egg. This then allows spotters (judges) to see a "hit" better. The cost of the 1 1/4 nuts (remember, inside diameter) are not cheap. We purchased them through a St. Louis area Cummings Diesel trucking repair shop at a $1.06 a piece. This may not be cheap, but it was better than the $1.60 a piece we were quoted at from a local retailer.
The next stage of building our plates after drilling the holes and welding, was to paint the sheets of steel black. Club member Keith "Homer" Walker painted each sheet with black rust-oleum spray paint. This makes for a great background when shooting. In other words, the egg really shows up well. The cost of the paint was around $15.00. Thanks Keith, job well done.
After the painting was completed, we were ready to go.
Our club had 5 shooters per match. We charged a $1.00 entry fee per shooters and then $2.00 per match. The $1.00 entry fee went to help cover the cost of the eggs, which were $.69 a dozen. We had a gross of $10.00 per match. We gave out cases of Pepsi or Rc, ham, bratwurst, hotdogs, bologna, etc that cost us about $5.00 each. Basically put, we made roughly $5.00 a match.
What is a match? We shot five shooters to a match. We allowed one shooter at a time and had a spotter judging each shot, with a spotting scope. The yardage we shot at was 45 yards (due to range limitations) and 25 yards. If we had the range, we would have shot 50 yards. Each shooter would aim and shoot at the largest hole (1 1/2), which was at the bottom of the steel sheet. If the shooter broke the egg, he or she advanced. If the shooter missed, he or she was done. If the egg was broke, the shooter would aim and shoot at the next smallest hole. The winner simply boiled down to a process of elimination.
As stated earlier, this was the first time we ever ran such a match. As with any new idea, there will always be brainstorming on how to improve a idea.
The first thing we are going to change for future matches is scoring what we term "splatter." Splatter is where a bullet does not go through the hole cleanly. The bullet instead "slices" on the edge of the drilled out hole or hits close to the edge of the drilled out hole. Once the bullet hits the steel, it either splits or fragments off . We had eggs shatter, split or barely crack from splatter. We ruled that if the egg broke, we would rule it as a hit. We were not prepared for "splattered" eggs. We thought either a egg would break solidly or not at all. We soon learned other wise. To correct this matter, we will be be judging all future matches on where the bullets hits the steel. A good spotting scope will clearly show where a bullet hits. If a bullet hit the edge of a drilled hole and slices into the hole and hits the egg, it will be ruled a hit where the egg shatters or just cracks. If the bullet clearly hit all steel and not the edge of a drilled out hole and the egg cracks from "splatter," it will be ruled a miss. Just remember, it is shot placement first.
A little side note, when putting up new eggs. Spray paint where the missed bullet hit of each shooter, so the spotter (judge) will be able to clearly make a decision. Also make sure all eggs are standing upright and not crooked from vibration, etc..
In terms of guns, you should classify all shooters into a equal classification. Put target .22's into their own class and hunting .22 into their own class. We shot scoped rifles at 45 yards, allowing the highest magnification being a 9. A shooter may have had a 3-14 powered scope, but could only turn it up to 9 power. Any peep sight rifles had to shoot in scope classes. Our next shoot, we are even thinking of making semi-auto guns shoot in their own class and bolt actions in another. Yes, this leaves lever guns, which will probably be put into the semi-auto class.
We allowed shooters to shoot from a bench using sandbags, towels, pillow, etc.. We did not allow them to use a rifle rest or any sort.
Our goals coming into our first ever egg shoot was simple, have fun and make some money for our club. We defiinetly had fun and made some money.
In closing, if anybody is wanting to put on such a shoot and needs any advice or help please feel free to email me. If you live close to Westville, Illinois and want to be advised of our next match, drop me a line. For roughly over $300.00 and some elbow grease, our club was able to come up with a fun and challenging fundraiser.
yours truly,
Kenny West
