KIDD03 CATCH TROUT, SHOOT TARGETS AIJD SAT: (Continued from page one)
Monday the boys took their -sir-st hike, covering the dour miles of uphill
trail to Lily Lake in an hour and twenty minutes-good marching time,; consid
ering the quality of -he trail. Half way up Hie clouds, which had threatened'
rain, broke up and the gang shed their slickers' underthe rays of a warm !sun. En
route they ran into the tracks of a bear cub, no novelty to mostof these sour
dough youths. It didn't worry them at all, since they were used to seeing tracks
and knew that the grown-folks af the party-were armed to repCilse any attack Bruin
might make on their advance guard.
The first job after arrival was to patch up the raft which has Survived
eo many icy winters on the lake. Scout axes were unsheathed and dry logs were
soon chopped to suitable lengths. Then the fun began. The boys were paired off
and each pair was given ten minuteson the raft, which was hitched to the shore (fror
safety's sake) by Scoutmaster Redlingshu-ier1 s 60-foot rope. The game was to see
who could catch the most fish in ten minutes, which was ail the time any pair were
allowed on the raft, Carl Jensen and Stewart Larson set the pace for the rest with
three fish each caught within the allotted tine. Mr. Sperling, from a log, caught
five, but he wasn't in the contest. Robert Waggoner has the honor of catching the
only fish hooked from the shore. After the sandwiches were eaten for lunch, the
fish were apparently through eating too, for bites were scarce. Nevertheless a
goodly number of trout were in the bag when the Scouts took the trail for the Bap
racks at 3:30 and these were, by vote, presented to Captain /right with instruc
tions to share them with Major liaddox especially and the other officers as far as
they might go. as a result the commanding officer and four other officers, with
their families, dined that night on trout, which they greatly appreciated and for
which they wish (through this paper) to "thank the skilled fishermen. The joker
of the whole thing is that Lily Lake is not very good fishing, and the trip was
made chiefly for the hike —- yet the youngsters caught a sackfull of £ish, where
others have fished in vain.
As for shooting, the boys are entitled to all praise, -they started iues
day morning to learn the nomenclature and care of rifles, as well as how to handfe
guns safely, and how to sight properly. Major Maddox, Captain Wright and Asst.
Scoutmaster Sperling acted as instructors. After lunch "Che boys were instructed
in the proper position for firing and the proper manner of holding the rifle. In
order to make things interesting, each boy was allowed to fire one shot. A sur
prising number of bulls eyes resulted.
Yesterday morning Cheatham’s and Ramsay's patrols fired five 9hote per
boy with gallery rifles of the type used by the Regular Arny. All firing was at
an 1-f- inch bull's eye at 50 feat from the prone position. ihe following scores
were obtained:
Byyan Harlan, age 12, a ''possible’' of five straight bull’s eyes; Harry
Fleury, age 12, Robert Mize, age 14, and Winston Oheathwi, age 16, each 24 points
out of a possible 25 (four bull's eyes and one in theinner ring); Ludwig Bagger,
age 13, and David Ramsay, age 15, each 23 points; Jack «Lee, age 12, uardiner Coo£ •
age 11, and John Hansen, age 15, each*22 points; Carl Jensen, age 12, and Robert
Waggoner, age 12, each 21 points, and ClarenceDunn, age 13, 20 points. Several of
these boys were left handed and used to firing a rifle left handed (in so far as
they had fired a rifle at all) 30 it was remarkable they could do so well firing
right handed, as is almost necessary with the military type rifle. Some were so
small they had great difficulty in getting the stock of the gun (which is the
same size as the Army .30 calibre Springfield) to their shoulder.
Ihe above scores give the boys who have already- fired an average of 22.75
points out of a possible 25; or on a basis of their doing equally ’veil with five
more shots, ah average of 45-J- points for ten shots, well above the "expert*' re
quirement of the regular Army. Considering the youth of-the firer offsets the
diference in calibre between the .22 and the .30, they may be well credited as
at least, potential expert riflemen.