A young Penticton brother and sister had a blast at the Penticton Shooting Sports Association annual Exploding Pumpkin Bonanza Saturday.
And while the pair didn’t exactly hit any of the smiling jack-o-lanterns, some filled with an explosive compound, they really got a “kick” out of firing an SKS semi-automatic rifle.
“It was really fun and it was really loud but it was really exciting. I fired a bb gun but not one of those guns,” said Riley Remington, 11, after taking out her earplugs. “,”
Her brother Declan agreed: “It was really loud and it’s really fun.”
Exploding Pumpkin Bonanza
Overseeing the shoot at the rifle range was association president Cory Miller along with two range officers.
“We’re a local organization that does, what I would call it education. Everything we do is family based as you can see we’ve got young people learning how to shoot that’s the whole thing we’re doing is actually learning how to shoot safely in a supervised environment,” said Miller. “Our whole club is based that way it’s in a supervised environment, nobody is shooting alone.
“Here today we have a lot of leftover pumpkins because that’s what happens at Halloween people don’t know what to do with pumpkins, we know what to do with pumpkins.”
Inside some of the pumpkins was the legal explosive material trade marked Tannerite which is used often at firearms ranges to help identify when a target is hit, especially from a distance.
“If you hit them (pumpkins with Tannerite) they explode and you win a prize,” said Miller. “How else do you make shooting way more fun than what it is? You make it explode.”
The association is active throughout the year and holds a variety of events for firearms enthusiasts and new members are welcome.
