Donald
Teuma-Castelletti
SHAWVILLE Dec. 2, 2017
A local hunting club served up a bit of something special Saturday night, when they held their annual awards show at Atkinson’s Sports Bar.
Handing out nine awards, the Rusty Rifles Annual Members’ Awards Party welcomed their club for a celebration of the season, complete with a venison spaghetti sauce freshly made by their own meambers.
“We usually have 50 people here,” said Bruce Hodgins, president of the hunting club. “We hand out lots of different prizes for categories in hunting and fishing.”

With 62 members in the club, everyone competes in the hunting season for awards such as widest rack, nicest rack, largest buck and biggest pickerel. However, some categories saw no entrants this year, as members didn’t catch certain types of fish in the area, leaving the season’s record blank.
But winners in the fulfilled categories didn’t just take home a plaque or trophy this year.
“Whoever gets trophy gets a prize,” said Hodgins. “Plus, we usually give their next club membership for free.”
Awards
Trophy and plaque winners for this year included: Hodgins for largest turkey; Eric Guindon for largest pickerel; Logan Greer for largest speckel; Joey Hannaberry for biggest buck; Jim Crawford for biggest doe; and Reuben Hodgins for both widest and nicest rack. Becky Hodgins took home the sportswoman of the year trophy and Willard Smith was the sportsman of the year.
Though, really, all members in attendance got a good enough deal with their membership just for the meal alone serviced. Chunky, hearty venison sauce was heaped onto pasta, with the club gaining three new members that night just because of the meal’s appeal.