Thing to Do #42: Go Target Shooting-The Turkey Shoot

Shooters line up to "get on the board" and have a crack at the target at the Wilson's Mills Fire Department turkey shoot.

For those of you that ain’t from ’round here, you may not not know what a Turkey Shoot is.  In fact, you may have never even heard of one.  (In full disclosure, I’ve never been to one myself).  Here in rural North Carolina, Turkey Shoots are usually done by the local Fire Department as a fund raiser (often volunteer fire departments that need supplemental income above and beyond the small amount in public funding they receive).  During the nights proceeding Thanksgiving, people gather to pay about $3 or $4 for the opportunity to win a turkey.  They bring their own shotguns and to make it fair, the fire department provides everyone with the shells.  The participants line up to shoot at targets (not, as you may have originally thought, a turkey), usually at least 35 feet away, and the person who gets the closest to the “X” wins a turkey. 

Any good ‘ol boys (or girls) out there that have participated in a Turkey Shoot?  How about other traditions or fundraisers that organizations held in your community that “outsiders” may think were strange?

A reporter for the local paper wrote an entertaining recap of his first experience at a Turkey Shoot; the first part of his story is below:

I was holding a shotgun for the first time since Boy Scout camp about eight years ago. I didn’t even know how to load the thing.

When I finally fired the shot, briefly deafening my left ear, I found I’d completely missed the paper target. But I considered it a success since I hadn’t hit one of the cars parked nearby.

Not surprisingly, I didn’t come close to winning a ham or a turkey — the object of the annual fundraiser for the Wilson’s Mills Fire Department.

But Clayton resident Allen Pulley did walk away with a ham for his Thanksgiving dinner, and he had a few words of advice for me.

“You’ve got to have a good gun, a good shell and luck,” said Pulley, sporting a camouflage jacket and a faded cap promoting a pheasant hunt. A crack marksman, he travels to shooting contests all over the country, and he’s been to just about every turkey shoot the fire department has ever had.

Pulley said the main reason he comes is to support the local firefighters. “I think I done bought one fire truck already,” he said.

But organizers of the event — which runs several nights a week throughout November — said attendance has been down in recent years.

“Turkey shoot ain’t what it used to be,” said Charles T. Wilson, the last original member of the fire department, which started in the 1970s.

Firefighter Bill Hardison says the community has changed. “Now 75 percent of the people in town don’t know what hunting is,” he said.

http://www.theherald-nc.com/news/story/12348.html