The Rural Voice, 2000-05, Page 38t is a Saturday
afternoon in late
winter and half
a dozen vehicles
are parked along
the edge of the
gravel sideroad half
a kilometre from
the Beaver River.
Several footprints
in the dusting of
fresh snow lead
towards the back of
a weathered shack
with barn-board
siding and a rusty
steel roof.
Inside, the old
wood stove
crackles in the
centre of the room
and a few people sit
close by on the
wooden benches
lining two walls.
One person sits in
front of one of the
windows, an
opened notebook in
front of her,
looking down the
shooting range.
Another person is
behind a rough
partition at the far end of the room
preparing to shoot while the youngest
member of the group awaits his turn.
Today 12 members of the Quiet
Valley Rifle Club have gathered for
their weekly shoot.
Rifle Clubs have been a part of
rural life since early in the last
century, but when the economics of
farming changed and people started
working off the farm, their number,
size and importance waned.
At one time the men and older
boys would take a break from the
farm work once a week during the
winter and meet for an afternoon of
socializing and friendly competition.
They looked forward to a few hours
of playing cards, hearing the latest
local news, shooting, and ribbing
each other about their scores. No
gathering would be complete without
lots of sandwiches and cakes, which
of course were prepared by the
women, who in those days did not
participate directly in the shoot.
The routine at each shoot is for
two shooters to alternate firing out
Rifle Clubs preserve
rural tradition
Dating back to the early 1900s, these Grey County clubs
continue to bring people together for training and
companionship.
By Greg Brown
Members of the Quiet Valley Rifle Club took time out from practice in
1954 for a photo. Members include: (front row, left to right) Mervin
McConnell, Gerald Rogers, Ronald Hewgill, Gerald Cornfield, Eldrid
Hewgill; (back) Herman McConnell, Gordon Tumer, Maurice Dawn,
Harold Foster, Percy Prentice, Tom McCulloch and Kenneth McCausland.
the window behind the partition until
each has taken 10 shots. The target is
nailed to the end of a very large, short
section of log 100 yards away
through a clearing about 10 feet wide
along th': edge of the swamp. In the
centre of the target is a four -inch
black dot which is the bull's-eye,
around which are circles one inch
apart which are marked from 9 to 1.
Standing near the target is the
"score clock", a large piece of
plywood with the numbers one to 10
painted around the edge, with two
movable arrows. The larger black
arrow is used to indicate the score,
the coloured arrow is used to point to
where the bullet hit the target in
relation to the bull's-eye.
The score clock is manned by one
or two "markers" who stand well
away from the target in a designated
safe location. After each shot the
marker covers the hole in the target
with a plug and indicates the score
and position of the shot on the clock.
The person sitting with the notebook
records the score, with an "X" for a
34 THE RURAL VOICE
bull's eye, or nine down
to one.
Once the two
shooters have 10 scores
each in the book, they
take a turn recording or
marking for the next
two. A perfect score is
100 which is a very rare
achievement, with most
shooters being content
with a score in the 80s.
Only one person in
recent memory has shot
a perfect 100, "off
hand" (not using an arm
rest), and that is Ken
Holden when he was
shooting at the 10th
line. Paul Venning, the
Club president, points
out that Aleeta Sheridan
also shot 100 a few
years ago off a rest. On
this day Peter Brown
has shot an impressive
94, which included five
bull's in a row.
The conversation
among those waiting to
shoot is probably not
much different than it
was 70 years ago,
except today there is
talk about the price of fuel rather than
how much hay is still in the barn, and
today people don't tend to linger as
they once did. Soon the club house
will be empty and this weathered
shack, which has seen horses
replaced by automobiles, witnessed
the planting of utility poles and
stringing of the power lines and felt
the trees from the swamp slowly
infringing on its yard, will again be
mostly ignored by those passing by.
Several kilometres to the north the
same scene is taking place at the only
other active rifle club in the area.
When Grey County was being
settled by Europeans in the mid -
1800s some families, including
Dinsmores, Mackeys, Ruthvens and
Hammonds, put down roots on the
slopes of the Beaver Valley
overlooking southern Georgian Bay.
A community called Hurlburts,
named for one of the first pioneers,
became established on the townline
between St. Vincent and
Collingwood Townships. The
settlement adopted the name Maple