First, on behalf of the Sharp County Search and Rescue Team, we would like to give a huge shout out, gratitude and Thank You to our sponsors! Turkey Pen Shooting Range, Bear Creek Arsenal, Triple R Pawn, Sportsman’s Edge, and a very huge thanks to Spring River Law. Without these sponsors the event would not be possible!

While being our first shot at this, we expected a low turn out. I feel this was a good thing and it was because it allowed us to figure out some things we need to adjust for next year. With that and suggestions from the participants we hope to make next year even better.

I contribute the small turn out to various reasons, that being it was still Turkey Season and the Sheriff’s Department’s Non-Profit held a Soft Ball Tourney fund raiser which drew a huge crowd. We have already started to look at dates for STSL 2026 in which it wont be scheduled during any hunting seasons and hopefully not during other non-profit fundraisers. It is our desire to get the date out here VERY soon, like in at least 12 months in advance.

All in all, the event went well and everyone stated they had fun, in fact, it was stated that “this event was more fun that the past events I attended here” and of course this made us feel good. This was and is our goal with this event/fundraiser as most of us on the team are avid gun nuts and shooters. We wanted this to be something we would enjoy ourselves.

Since we had a small group, we decided to run the event in stages, Pistol shoot first, Rifle shoot then 22 cal shoot.

Our course of fire for pistol, 50 rounds in various stages, best score and best time.
It appeared to be that the course slightly different than they were expecting. There were some hardware issues, forgetting to load magazine, and yes, I was one of them when i shot the “just for fun” round, and a little razzing of each other. The question of the day, or second guessing, was taking a little more time rather than trying for best score AND best time since time was factored into the final score. One shooter may just have won the Pistol Competition if he had taken a few more seconds longer and more precise shoots, he would have not placed 2nd but won the competition.

after the pistol shoot was done, the guys got to take a little break and enjoy some hamburgers and hotdogs while still talking about the pistol shoot.

While they were snacking, the 50 cal was broke out and fired a few down range. A couple of them will later take a round or two when the competition is over.

Next up was the Rifle Shoot, 500 yards, 13 rounds in 2 minutes, 1st (bonus point) round and only 1st was the cold bonus point and each took their shot at silhouette with center round orange plate. They next had to shoot 12 rounds starting at a 8″ plate moving down to a smaller plate each time (total of 6 plates from 8″ down to 2″) or they had the choice to simply shoot the 8″ eight times but the catch is the smaller the plate, the more the points. We saw some pretty sweet shooting but only one had impact on the 4th plate down and the wind played a part in all this big time.

Our plans are to do some modifications to the shoot, add some stuff and event get some videos out so you can see what to expect.

It was a great day and a lot of fun, cant wait for next year!

Below are some of our shooters and Kris (Spring River Law) who presented the winners with their prizes.