Rifles and caches and frogs, oh my!

Yes, that is me in the colorful cap and Carolina Blue sweatshirt, firing a rifle!

I spent all day Saturday at the Women in Nature Outdoor Skills Workshop at the Bridgeport Rod and Gun Club. Sponsored by the Onondaga County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, the purpose of the workshop is to involve women in outdoor sporting activities. I learned about the workshop from a woman with whom James works and I will admit that I was hesitant to sign up at first, but my friend Jennifer told me that I was crazy if I let a free opportunity such as this one slip away. So I sent in my information and I was fortunate to be one of the hundred women who were registered.

The weather was gorgeous, particularly welcome after so many days of rain. Almost everyone there was friendly and pleasant, even the few scary looking outdoorsy type women! Most of the participants, however, were average Jills like me and there were a good number of teenage girls. Among the volunteers there were lots of old codgers, mainly doing the rifle and muzzleloader, and several big belly bubba men.

My first session was rifle shooting and I am pleased to say that I did fairly well. It seemed very awkward to me but I managed to hit the target most of the time, a few times close to the bullseye:


The targets weren't too far away, but far enough:


After rifle shooing, I went to a session on geocaching. The geocaching was tremendous fun and we are going to have to do it as a family; even me, who can't find my way out of a paper bag, was able to use the GPS and find the caches. The two college women who led the workshop cheated a bit and had the coordinates already entered into the GPS units, but even that didn't help some of the participants enough to find the geocaches!

Lunch was fascinating. Here is a photo of the menu:


I tried just about everything, except the Philly-style venison and the deep fried turkey - I was running out of room on my plate! While some items were better than others, I enjoyed it all. I couldn't believe the number of participants who wouldn't try the food, and ate the potato and macaroni salads almost exclusively.

After lunch there were demonstrations, one of which was a dog retrieving duck decoys (CNY Wildfowlers Association). Bella was a gorgeous black lab and did an excellent job of following her handler's instructions, both verbal and non-verbal. I couldn't get very close, but here is Bella bringing in a decoy:


I wandered over to the hatchet throw:


When the hatchet man said "Does anyone want to try?", I eagerly said "yes!" Out of three tries, two of the hatchets stuck! Not in the target, but on the stand to which the target was attached. Two big belly men who were instructors in other areas had tried before me and neither one got a hatchet to stick, so they were quite amazed.

After my success at hatchet throwing, I went to watch the muzzleloaders and, again, when one of the men asked if I wanted to try, I stepped right up. IT WAS AWESOME! It was loud, it was smelly, it kicked and I came damn close to the target. When I see all the steps and time it takes to load a muzzleloader, it is a wonder to me that wars in the past were ever won.

Then it was on to my last session of the day, reptiles and amphibians. Our instructor was a college student from (State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry) and she was adorable - so enthusiastic about her subject. She told us all about native New York frogs, salamanders, snakes, et al. We went out searching in the swamp and although we did not find much, it was fun to wade out in the mud and water.

I was exhausted and muddy as I drove home but I can honestly say that I had great fun and hope to attend next year. Both James and Aidan were eager to hear about my adventures, and were even impressed a little by my marksmanship!