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MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
A9
WEDNESDAY
March 11, 2020
Panthers finish sixth in state
Contributed photo
The .22 Short, left, was intro-
duced before the .22 Long Rifle,
right.
SHOOTING
THE BREEZE
Selling
you short
I
n 1857, Smith and Wes-
son developed a .22-cali-
ber rimfire cartridge flinging
a diminutive 29-grain bullet to
the blistering speed of 1,000 feet
per second using a 4-grain pinch
of black powder. While origi-
nally conceived as a pocket pis-
tol self-defense round, the .22
Short as it came to be known
was soon cham-
bered in rifles. It
quickly became a
favorite for gal-
lery guns at the
county fair and a
favorite for those
needing an accu-
Dale Valade
rate, short-range
small game
round.
In 1871, the .22 Long was
introduced, followed by the
.22 Long Rifle in 1884 and the
.22 WMR in 1959. With con-
stant improvements in power
and range, one would think that
the .22 Short is a waste of time
at best, right? After all, a quick
perusal of hardware store shelves
shows just how much more prac-
tical it is to shoot the Long Rifle
or Magnum? That depends.
There are situations, shall we
say, where there can be too much
of a good thing, even yes with
the .22 Long Rifle. The glory of
the .22 Short is that it’s a very
short-range cartridge. There is no
excess of power and very little
risk of over penetration. In some
states in the south, it is manda-
tory to use a .22 Short when rac-
coon hunting at night, being as
these ring-tailed bandits are shot
out of trees at night and what
goes up, must come down.
During the Great Depression,
.22 Short ammunition was much
cheaper than any other ammu-
nition. Many country folks kept
their family in meat and in turn
their garden pest free with these
economical gallery loads. These
days the .22 Short ammo costs
considerably more than anything
.22 Long Rifle. But hardly is it
useless, maybe only if your only
.22 is gas operated; a .22 Short
will not cycle autoloading guns.
Most .22s with any sort of man-
ually operated action will cycle
and shoot these stubby rimfires.
The .22 Short is a fun and
accurate little cartridge even
today. Years ago I lived over in
the outskirts of Powell Butte
and was working in Bend at the
time. Being new to the area I had
no idea of the exceedingly large
amount of jack rabbits indigenous
to the area known as the high des-
ert. Our landlord was eager to thin
them down yet worried that a high
velocity .22 may ricochet into any
of a number of nearby houses less
than a quarter of a mile away. Not
to worry, I purchased two boxes of
.22 Short at a local gun store after
work one night in Bend. For the
next few weeks at dusk one could
easily pick off between eight
and 12 of the loping Lepus out
in our back yard. We were care-
ful of our back stop and shoot-
ing a pump-action rifle with open
sights, we kept our shots inside of
40 yards. The landlord was grate-
ful, and the neighbors never suf-
fered a single ricochet.
Are we likely to see a resur-
gence of popularity with the .22
Short? Although that’s about as
likely as growing a third set of
teeth, those who know what they
have in the little .22 that started it
all will keep the seasonal ammo
runs continuing. Because this lit-
tle cartridge, for what it is, works
just right!
Are you a fan of the .22 Short?
Write to us at shootingthebree-
zebme@gmail.com!
Dale Valade is a local country
gent with a deep love for hand-
loading, hunting and shooting.
Prairie City comeback
cannot overcome
16-point Ione/
Arlington lead
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
For the third time in three years,
the Prairie City Panthers boys bas-
ketball team came home from the
1A state basketball tournament in
Baker City hoisting a trophy. This
time around, the boys took sixth
place, losing to fourth-place Ione/
Arlington 57-53 in the consolation
finals Saturday.
The Panthers, who at the end of
the first period of play were down
by 16 points, chipped away at the
Cardinals’ lead and tied the game
up at 45 apiece by the end of third
quarter.
Senior Lucas McKinley said,
if the Panthers would have played
like they did in third period
throughout the entire game, they
would have won by 30 points.
McKinley said the team played
at half-steam for the first two peri-
ods of the game. McKinley said,
after the team lost to the No. 3 seed
Crosshill Christian 63-40 in the
quarterfinal game Thursday, tak-
ing the Panthers out of contention
for first place, there was not much
incentive for the team to play to
win and take fourth place.
“A lot of us had the mentality
that we did not need to play too
hard since we were only playing
for fourth place,” McKinley said.
McKinley said the team turned
it around after a pep talk from head
coach Bo Workman. He said that
Workman reminded them that this
was their last game of the season,
and for the seniors this was the
last time they would be playing
together.
Workman said the talk was
short and to the point.
“I told them that this is it, this is
the last time you guys will all get
to play together,” Workman said.
“I told them they might as well
make the best of it.”
“We realized after that we had
to play with a lot more intensity,”
McKinley said. “And that is what
we did, but we came up a little
short.”
In his last appearance as a Pan-
ther, senior Cole Deiter, the team’s
leading scorer all season, said the
Panthers “could not go out like
that.”
Deiter said, while the season
did not end the way he wanted it
to, to come back from us as much
as a 16- to 20-point deficit was in
and of itself a victory.
Deiter scored 22 points and
added 12 rebounds and three
blocks in the game. McKinley had
11 points with five rebounds, two
assists and two steals.
Falling in the quarterfinals
Going into the state tournament,
the Panthers, with a 9-0 league
record and just one loss overall,
could not overcome the No. 3 seed
Crosshill Christian in the quarterfi-
nals Thursday, losing 63-40.
EO Media Group/Ronald Bond
Cole Deiter (23) blocks Ione/Arlington’s Taylor Rollins’ shot Saturday during the fourth-place game at the 1A
boys state basketball tournament at Baker City High School. The Cardinals beat the Panthers 57-53.
Prairie City scored first on a bas-
ket by Deiter, but Crosshill Chris-
tian quickly tied it up. McKinley
gave the Panthers the lead with a
3-point shot, but Crosshill Chris-
tian answered to tie it at 5.
Deiter again gave the Panthers
a lead, 7-5, with a field goal with
4:13 remaining in the first quarter.
But Crosshill Christian hit another
3-pointer and never gave up the
lead after that.
Crosshill Christian led 18-9 at
the end of the first quarter. At the
half, the score was 31-18. Prairie
City scored 14 points in the third,
but Crosshill Christian added 19.
Crosshill Christian had three
players score in double digits, led
by Evan Dallum with 15. The team
shot 46% from the field and hit
9-24 from 3-point range.
Sophomore Marcus Judd said
the Eagles played their best game
of the season.
The Panthers, on the other
hand, shot for 29% from the field
and were 5-23 beyond the arc.
Deiter led the Panthers with 14
points, followed by McKinley
with 12 points. Deiter also had six
rebounds, a block and an assist.
Judd had seven rebounds and three
blocks, and Zweygardt had five
rebounds.
The team had 16 turnovers and
five assists.
Winning in triple overtime
Deiter, who was named player
of the game of all three games in
the tournament and scored a total
of 52 points in the tourney, said the
team’s win over the Joseph Eagles
in triple overtime in the first con-
solation game Friday was great
experience as well.
Deiter said the Panthers, who
lost their only game of the reg-
ular season to the Eagles Dec. 6,
had long wanted an opportunity to
avenge the loss.
McKinley said, while beat-
ing the Eagles in such a dramatic
fashion was exciting, it was, in
his experience, the lowest-scor-
ing triple overtime game in recent
memory.
“It had to be the most boring tri-
EO Media Group/Ronald Bond
Prairie City’s Jojari Field, center, and Cole Deiter, right, double up to get
possession of a loose ball Saturday in the 1A boys state basketball tourney.
The Panthers took sixth place in state after losing to the Cardinals 57-53.
ple overtime game ever,” McKin-
ley said. “We only scored 51
points.”
Judd said that the early-morn-
ing start played a role in the team
not hitting their shots.
“After the first quarter, we were
not hitting our shots,” Judd said.
When it counted, the Panthers
stepped up and improved their
accuracy. Prairie City shot 33%
from the field overall and 39% in
overtime, compared to 23% over-
all for Joseph and 22% in over-
time. The improvement in over-
time made the difference in what
was their only win in the tourney.
“It was a great feeling to pull
off a win like that,” Judd said.
Judd said the fact that it was the
team that dealt them their only loss
in the regular season made it all the
more satisfying.
Prairie City Athletic Direc-
tor Billy Colson said the Pan-
thers have a lot to be proud of and
should hold their heads high.
“It is impressive that the boys
team has been to state three years
in a row and have won games,”
Colson said.
The future
Workman said he expects eight
players to return to varsity, but he
is losing four. Along with Deiter
and McKinley, Opie McDaniel
Five deer hunts in Blue Mountains canceled
because of disease outbreak in fall 2019
(Orchards), 655B1 and 655B2 (Walla
Walla Valley No. 1 and No. 2). While
The Oregon Department of Fish and some of the bag limits for these hunts
Wildlife is cancelling five 600 Series allow an antlerless mule deer or white-
deer hunts, meaning hunters will not be tail to be harvested, most of the harvest
able to apply or draw
is white-tailed deer in
the tag for them for
these hunts.
the upcoming fall 2020
These hunts will no
season.
longer be available for
The cancellations
application through
are in an area of the
ODFW’s
licens-
ing system. ODFW
Blue Mountains from
License Sales Service
Milton-Freewater to
staff will be contact-
Pilot Rock where an
ing hunters who have
outbreak of Epizootic
already applied for
hemorrhagic disease
Contributed photo/ODFW these hunts and asking
is estimated to have
killed 2,000 white- Tests conducted by Oregon De- them to adjust their
tailed deer late last partment of Fish and Wildlife application through
year. The hunt cancel- veterinarians confirmed that Epi- their online account
lations for these 227 zootic hemorrhagic disease is re- (applications can be
tags are needed to pro- sponsible for the die-off of an es- edited online under
tect does and allow the timated 2,000 white-tailed deer in Recreational Portfo-
lio/Controlled Hunts;
white-tailed deer popu- Eastern Oregon.
lation to rebound.
see how-to online).
The hunts cancelled
While EHD typi-
are on private land, where antlerless cally does not have long-term impacts on
deer hunting addresses damage to agri- white-tailed deer populations, cancella-
culture. The hunt numbers are 649A tion of these hunts should help the pop-
(N Ukiah), 654A (Rawhide), 655A ulation rebound faster.
Blue Mountain Eagle
and Carson McKay are graduating.
Workman said he expects four
players from junior varsity to
move up to the varsity squad.
“It all depends on how bad they
want it and how much work they
put in over the off season,” Work-
man said.
For his part, Judd said he plans
to attend a basketball camp over
the summer and work on his free
throw shooting.
“I just want to improve my
skills,” Judd said.
As for the seniors who are mov-
ing on, the end of the season is
bittersweet.
“It has been a really fun expe-
rience to play on a team that has
gone to state two years in a row,”
McKinley said. “Most people
don’t get that experience even
once. I got to do it twice.”
Deiter, who transferred to Prai-
rie City two years ago, said the
basketball program allowed him to
grow as a player.
“I evolved and matured as a
player, and I owe that to the coach-
ing staff,” Deiter said.
He said the commitment, cama-
raderie and chemistry all contrib-
uted to his growth.
“I just want thank them (coach-
ing staff),” Deiter said. “I am really
going to miss playing with every-
body. “
Madden signs to play
softball for Columbia
Basin Community College
Contributed photo/Tanni Wenger Photography
Prairie City senior Shaine Madden, center, signs a letter of
intent to play softball for Columbia Basin Community Col-
lege, flanked by Grant Union/Prairie City head coach Zach
Williams, left, and assistant coach Mike Strong.