Sergeant York And His PeopleCowan, Sam K. (Sam Kinkade)
History
Sergeant York And His People
Cowan, Sam K. (Sam Kinkade)
Appalachians (People); Tennessee, East -- Social life and customs; York, Alvin Cullum, 1887-1964
The turkey-shoots were over two ranges--some forty yards and one a
hundred and fifty yards. At the latter range the turkey was tied to a
stake driven in the center of the opening at the further end of the
glade. A cord, about two feet in length, was fastened to the stake and
to one leg of the gobbling, moving target. It was ten cents a shot,
tossed to the man who offered the prize.
Often the bird fell at the first trial, and a hit was any strike above
the turkey's knee. But the long-distance turkey-shoots were the opening
events, and the marksman had his gun to warm up, his eye to test and his
shooting nerve to be brought to calmness. So frequently it would happen
that the entrance money ran into a sum that gave a prize value to the
turkey, as prices ran for turkeys in those days. There was the element
of chance for the man offering the prize that was always alluring.
The second turkey-shoot was held at the forty-yard range. But the bird
was now tethered behind a log, so that only his head and red wattles
could appear. Here, too, the turkey was given freedom of motion and
granted self-determination as to how he should turn his head in wonder
at the assemblage of men before him; or, if he should elect, he could
disappear entirely behind the log if he found something that interested
him upon the ground nearby, and the marksman must wait for the untimed
appearance of the bobbing head. It took prompt action and a quick bead
to score a hit.
And it was years afterward, after Alvin York had become the most expert
rifle-shot that those mountains had ever held, that he sat in the brush
on the slope of a hill in the Forest of Argonne and watched for German
helmets and German heads to bob above their pits and around trees--just
forty yards away.
The event in which centered the interest of all gathered at those
Saturday matches, was the shooting for the beef.
Each man prepared his own target--a small board, which was charred over
a fire built of twigs and leaves. On this black surface was tacked a
piece of white paper, about two by three inches in size, and in the
center of the bottom margin of the white paper was cut a notch-an
inverted "V," not over a half-inch in height. This permitted the
marksman to raise the silver foresight of his rifle over a black,
charred surface until the hairline of the sight fit into the tip of the
triangle cut into white paper. It was a pinpoint target that left to the
ability of the marksman the exactness of his bead.
The tip of the triangle in the paper was not the bull's-eye. It was
simply the most delicate point that could be devised upon which to draw
a bead.
The bull's-eye was a point at which two knife-blade marks crossed. When
the target was in position this delicately marked bull's-eye could not
be seen by the shooter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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