WHY DO THEY GO? THREE GIVE REASONS

Wanda Ross of Allenville was the only woman in the shooting-match room Friday night at Leopold. She doesn't care to play bingo. Her husband, Terry, was one of the shooting-match judges.

"There's usually four or five girls here at a match, and some of them shoot. I like to watch and visit. I'm related to about half the folks here."

She doesn't think her husband's hobby is expensive. He bought four boards and had 10 centers on each. Total cost: $22. Results: None.

Bob McCall is owner of the Toddle Inn in Chaffee and member of the Chaffee Elks Lodge.

"The reasons I go to shooting matches are to win meat, blow some money and drink some beer. It's not to see the pretty girls because they don't show up."

McCall usually buys three to four boards and spends about $50 at a match. He's been to six matches this fall and won four times. He shoots an old shotgun, a Hopkins and Allen model with a scope and pull-down choke.

He recalled a story about a $100 one-shot board in a match that won three choices. Four people split the board and put 400 centers on it at 25 cents each. The result was worth it, he said, but the board could have won nothing.

Hubert Burton of Chaffee is owner of Right-Way Pest Control and a member of the Chaffee Elks Lodge.

"Luck is what it is. The more centers you have on a board, the better off you are. But it's still all luck."

Burton goes to shooting matches about three times a week: Laflin on Tuesday night, Farmer's Frolic at Randles on Friday night and the Chaffee Elks match on Sunday afternoon. He spends $30 to $50 per match.

Burton shoots a Winchester 97 pump shotgun with a screwed-in sleeve and a scope. He has about $600 invested in his gun -- a lot, he admits. "But I've won a lot of meat with it."

Burton thinks he's better off shooting a one-shot board since he can put twice as many centers on the board for the same amount of money. He feels he doesn't gain that much by shooting the board a second time with his shotgun.