SHOOTING MATCHES: SHOOTERS TRY TO BRING HOME BACON

Jamie Dodd of Cape Girardeau, manager of Sides Metal and Steel Recycling, 800 S. Giboney, used a single-shot Winchester Model 37 with a scope to win fourth-choice prize in Friday night's shooting match at the KC Hall in Leopold.

Tony DeWitt, left, of Zalma won second-choice prize at Friday night's shooting match in Leopold. Lifting the piece of beef off the cooler rack was Thomas Wofford of Zalma.

The shooters aim at their target 30 yards away and fire their 12-gauge shotguns.

They look through their scopes to see how they hit the 6-by-6-inch boards on the first shot. Most aim and fire again.

If one of the 1,500 No. 9 pellets from the two shots finds its way to the center of an "X" on their board, the shooter might be declared a winner and take home some meat as a prize.

"People like shooting matches because it's a lot like hunting," said Ralph "Humphrey" Beussink, manager of the Friday night shooting match at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Leopold.

"Anyone who really enjoys the outdoors and hunting will usually like shooting matches. It's the only legal hunting that you can do after dark," Beussink said.

Jamie Dodd of Cape Girardeau, manager of Sides Metal and Steel Recycling at 800 S. Giboney, had the fourth-best shot at the Leopold match. He took home a hind leg of beef, which gave him lots of round steaks and some ground beef.

Dodd goes to a shooting match two to three times a week. He has nine shooting-match guns. He takes four with him to any one match and he uses one while a friend shoots another.

His favorite shotgun is a single-shot Winchester Model 37, mounted with a scope -- something almost all shooters have to check their pattern on the board after the first shot.

The barrels on all shooting-match guns are choked beyond the manufacturer's design. Dodd has a solid, 3-inch sleeve inside the end of his gun barrel to compress the shot and produce a tighter pattern of shot from the No. 9 shell.

The goal is to have a gun that shoots consistently, one that will put 250 to 300 pellets in a board when it is shot twice, Dodd said. He has been using his gun for about five years and estimates that he wins a choice of meat at four of five matches -- an excellent record, he said.

"I have a winning gun," Dodd said. "The gun that wins for you is the one that you use. Attitude about your gun is most important."

Shooting matches are his pastime, Dodd said. "It's the only thing I can do that I really like. And they take place at night so I can be there.

"It's a shame shooting matches don't happen year-round. I look forward to colder weather so I can go to shooting matches," Dodd said.

He spends about $30 per match, buying three boards at $10 each. On two of the boards he'll put 20 centers at 50 cents each and shoot at them twice. He'll shoot at his third board only once so centers cost 25 cents each and he's able to put 40 Xs on it for the same $10.

Beussink starts selling boards for the match about 6 p.m. The shooting starts at 7:30 p.m., a half-hour after the bingo game begins in the main KC Hall. The bingo game and the shooting match usually end about the same time, around 9:30 p.m.

This setup gives the whole family something to do on Friday night in Leopold, Beussink said. The men come to the shooting match and many of their wives play bingo. Some of the men slip over to the bingo game until it is their turn to shoot their boards.

If a shooter misses his turn during the first rotation, he has to wait until the end of the match to shoot his board. Things move along pretty quickly when the shooters are ready to go, Beussink said.

Most shooters buy multiple boards, but once they shoot their first board, they're not allowed to buy any more.

Shooters can ask for a particular place in the shooting line. If a shooter has four boards, he might want them spaced about 20 boards apart. Having the boards spread out by 10 numbers is plenty of time to check the first board to see how the shotgun is shooting that night.

The club receives an average of about $8 for each board shot, Beussink said. On an average night, he estimated 160 to 180 boards will be shot.

From that gross, he tries to keep about 20 to 25 percent for the KC Hall. He has to pay for the meat with the rest of the money, so he offers a certain number of choices to the winning shooters.

Friday night about 150 boards were shot by the approximately 50 shooters. The prize was cut beef, which is half of a quarter, and there were 10 choices offered to the winners.

The first two winners took home the part of the beef that produces T-bone steaks. As the remaining eight winners were called in order, they walked into the cooler and carried away the choice of meat they had won.