SPORTS
MyEagleNews.com
SPORTS
SCHEDULE
THURSDAY,
OCT. 24
Grant Union cross country
hosts Gold Rush at Sev-
enth Street Complex in
John Day, junior varsity
4 p.m., varsity 4:30 p.m.
FRIDAY, OCT. 25
Ukiah/Long Creek soccer
@ Irrigon, 5 p.m.
Grant Union football vs.
Heppner, 7 p.m.
Dayville/Monument foot-
ball @ 1A six-man classic
vs. Echo at Sherman High
School in Moro, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY, OCT. 26
2A Blue Mountain Confer-
ence Volleyball Tournament
in Union, TBD
Prairie City and Dayville/
Monument volleyball @ 1A
High Desert League Tourna-
ment in John Day, 9 a.m.
Prairie City/Burnt River
football @ 1A six-man
semifinals vs. Joseph at
Sherman High School in
Moro, 3 p.m.
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
A13
A young’un’s first rifle
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
I
still remember the day we
spent perusing all the major
sporting goods stores in Bend
and Redmond. It was 1994, and
my folks had decided it was time
to graduate from the BB gun.
Finally I was to have my very own
first .22 rifle. It was something that
had seemed like an eternity to wait
for.
Excited as I
was to have my air
rifle, and a good
trainer it was, I
lost sleep waiting
for the day I would
get to bring home
Dale Valade
a .22 to call my
own. All that day
in the big city we looked at vari-
ous .22 rifles. Lever action seemed
to be the style I preferred, no doubt
due to a steady diet of John Wayne
and Clint Eastwood, et. al., west-
erns and the fact that my old man
carried a lever-action rifle to the
hills for big game each fall. But we
looked at bolt actions and pump
actions that day as well. The only
style my Dad forbade me was a
semi-auto. While he had nothing
against them, he didn’t want me
Contributed photo
This Rossi model 62A pump-action
.22 was columnist Dale Valade’s
first rifle.
to turn into some “spray and pray”
kind of shooter.
I’m not sure how many stores
we visited that day all told, but
the cycle of anticipation and delay
had me near tears all day. The last
store we entered, a Rossi model
62A (Brazilian knock-off of the
Winchester 62) on the shelf had a
price tag that my parents thought
was reasonable. Though the folks
used diversionary tactics to try to
sneak it home without me know-
ing, I found out. It was everything
I had wanted in a .22. It had an
external hammer, basic open sights
and a 14-shot tube magazine. I was
elated.
The first targets I slew were
soda cans. I perforated them over
and over again with the Win-
chester 40-grain Wildcat ammu-
nition. Gradually I moved them
farther and farther out to test my
reach at long (for a .22) distance.
Dad would gather the spent 12
gauge hulls left behind by skeet
and clay shooters and set them
up as targets. Squinting down
the sights and squeezing off each
shot with care was excellent prac-
tice. From this training and more
like it, I learned the principle of
“aim small, miss small.” Finally I
had my own real gun to begin my
hunting career.
With it I was able to learn and
regularly practice the fundamen-
tals of rifle marksmanship such as
sight picture, breath control and
trigger squeeze. Being as it was a
takedown model, it was relatively
easy to disassemble for cleaning
and then reassemble for use.
As the years went by we spent
countless hours afield and thou-
sands of rounds of ammunition
informally plinking and shoot-
ing small game. The one draw-
back to this rifle was its inability
to easily mount a scope. A scope
doesn’t enhance your effective dis-
tance substantially with a .22 long
rifle, but it does make tougher tar-
gets much easier to hit. A wise
man knows “you can only shoot as
good as you can see.”
Today, years later, I still take
her out occasionally for the odd-
ball soda can, ground squirrel,
grouse or rabbit. I own many other
.22s and will likely buy more
yet, but this one was and always
will be the first. There is nothing
that compares with the practice
a young’un gets from his or her
“trainer rifle.”
What was your first .22? Write
us at shootingthebreezebme@
gmail.com and tell us all about it.
Dale Valade is a local coun-
try gent with a deep love for hand-
loading, hunting and shooting.
week 7 of 13
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6.Boston
College vs
Clemson
Broasted
Chicken,
Pizza &
Burgers
• IT’S FUN!
Touchdown! Cheryl
Hoefler scores with
13 correct picks!
Eric Rausch was a
close second with
12 correct picks.
Ny
da
m’
s
CONGRATULATIONS!
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2. Each game is numbered. Clip the
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