Minnesota Rifle Shooting

2012-12-31T22:31:00.000-07:00

Shooting is a great sport--Great for the mind and great for the body. Exercise both and you will be successful.
subscribe to "The week ahead for MN Area Shooters" newsletter to ARman772@aol.com

2012 Berger Bullets Long Range Nationals

2012-02-13T14:45:00.001-07:00

Just In !
Mid Tompkins awards Berger winners! Video

More video to follow (asap): "A view from the pits"

Phil Klanderud

Berger Bullets Long Range Nationals -- Friday

2012-02-10T19:35:00.001-07:00

Friday at the Berger Long Range matches was the competition for Individual Palma honors. Shooters fired at 800yds, 900 yds, and 1000 yds.
Phil Hayes was the Match Winner with a score of 448-29x

Interim Results -- Friday Palma

Junior shooters pulling Targets (Palma Match) and earning money for the AZ Junior team.

I spent the whole day in the pits, not pulling Targets like I signed up for, but on a radio as a Pit block officer. If you are working a big match like this, you just do what you are told. Running 70 targets today, it was necessary to have 4 block officers to keep things going smoothly. It was important for all to run well today because the NRA was out "observing" the match as Ben Avery range is in consideration to hold the World Championships in 2013. Other than a few Radio problems, we did have a smoothly run match.

Berger Bullets Long Range Champs --Just in!

2012-02-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning dawned slightly overcast and 57 deg for the opening match of the Berger Bullets Long Range Championships in Phoenix, AZ. Almost 200 shooters would be on the line today, firing 3 strings of 15 shots and unlimited sighters, at 600yds in this warmup Mid-Range match. Thursday they would move back to 800 yds for the Palma matches, and then Saturday, back to 1000 yds for the last two days of shooting both individual and Team matches.
Mid Tompkins welcomed every one, by saying that this was the biggest participation for Ben Avery match in recent memory. Indeed, more and more shooters are discovering that 5 days of Top Notch shooting competition in the warm southwest is a great way to spend the 2nd week in February.


Capt. Bob Peasley at Berger Bullets

This year many top prone shooters from the Mid West are attending this match-- Bob Peasley, Jay Johnson, Brian Myrnak, Phil Klanderud, SSgt Matt Griffin, Frank Fisher, John Andres, Jim Evenson, Larry Miller, Bob Mead. and Bill Lair were all enjoying a chance to pull some triggers in the warm sunshine, and shoot some Long Range at one of America's premier Rifle Ranges -- Ben Avery, Phoenix, AZ.
Bill Luth and I arrived at 0745 and saw that the Squading line was already stretching across the parking lot. This was going to be a fun match. Both of us had brought "Space Guns"--.223 AR match rifles, even though we would be competing aginst national class prone specialists firing everyting from 6BRXs to 6.5x.284s. We both felt that the .223 loaded with good bunch of Varget behind an 80 gn match bullet, could hold its own against those wildcats at 600 yds.
Michelle Galegher, and Mid got this record number of shooters squaded in pretty good order, and after some additional targets were made up, first shots were going down range by 0930. I was up first and saw that the prevailing condition was a 3 o'clock wind blowing a good ten mph with the flag sticking straight out more often than not. I quessed 3 moa Right windage would do it, and fired a first sighter into the 8 ring down wind. Going for Record at 4 moa right, I got the first shot into the Xring, and then broke one left that held for a 9. By working the windage Knob for every shot, I got off the line with a 148, down 2 pts after losing one more pt to a gust. In this crowd, my 148/150 was good for 20th place. Maybe a 6 BR would have held that one 9 in the 10 ring, so my choice of calibers, might have cost me one pt already. I spent the next 3 strings of fire in the pits, pulling targets, and listening to Sea Stories from Mike Sinclair, fellow Marine, who served a couple tours in Viet Nam as a Recon team leader.
Match Two went good for me, as I was seeing the mirage well and had the confidence to make large changes as the wind varied from 1- 1/2 moa right to 3.5 moa right, shot to shot. I was able to take all 150 pts on my score card -- my first Clean in a good while, and good for 2nd over all behind Brian Lizt. The mighty mouse gun was definatly holding it's own against all comers.

Results for 600 yd Berger match

Going into Match Three, I knew I had a good chance for a high finish if I didn't blow it by doing something stupid. By this time, the wind had veered to the SSE and was fishtailing to SSW catching people on the wrong side for 7's and 8's if they were not constantly on the scope watching the mirage. I saw a shooting window with the wind from the left now - about 1 moa, and by paitently waiting each time the wind was from the right, I was able do score a 149, losing only one pt to my own bad shot low in the 9 ring.
It certainly was my best day on the range in a while. Having a good day once in a while is what keeps us coming back week after week. We endure losing often, knowing that sooner or later we will have a good day and that makes ait all worthwhile.
My 447-17x for the day was good for 4th over all (3rd Palma rifle), behind Leo Ahern 448-25x, Emil Kovan -447, Doug Frerichs 447-24. Better than I expected, and it just shows that the mighty .223 can compete with the big boys and show off a little.
It was a great day!

SSgt Matt Griffin at the Berger Bullets Long Range matches.

Washington's B-Day Match

2012-02-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

What a fantastic day it was for the 120th consecutive Washington's Birthday Rifle match. It was cool and crisp in the Phoenix desert for the opening of this longest running rifle match in America, but by late morning it was sunny 75 deg with just a nice SE breeze to keep it interesting.

50 Rifle Teams competed for honors, and that means 200 shooters were enjoying the day trying to shoot 10s and Xs on tough targets. Each shooter fired the standard 50 shot National Match Course for Service Rifles, all at 200 yds, and using those challenging reduced targets to simulate longer ranges. There were teams of Springfield '03s, Teams of M-1s, and of course lots of AR-15s, even a few M-4s with optics were on the line to try and shoot them in the 10 ring.
This was my 13th year at the B-day match, but I was watching from the center of the line and not shooting on the Accuracy Speaks team this year. The Accuracy Speaks team is now history, but the 14 winning team and individual plaques residing on my walls represent a lot of great memories,-- memories of great team matches shooting with top service rifle shooters-- Derrick Martin, Phil Hayes, and Tom Albinito. Some one else would win today, but who knows, maybe next year we could get the old team together for one more try.

Washington's Birthday Match -- 2012

Prone Rapid Fire -- 10 shots in 70 sec with a magazine change

300 m Match at Mpls. Rifle Club -- Feb 12th

2012-02-01T08:42:00.004-07:00

From Brian Shiffman:

Hi all,

Pre-Registration for the Feb 12 MRC 300 meter match is now open. We plan on two relays; the first one starts firing at 10am and the second starts at noon. Email me with your preference and I will put you on the list in the order received and confirm with you next week. I will also look for a confirmation from you a day or two prior to the match.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Brian D. Shiffman shiff004@umn.edu

Hey Brian-- how bout some pictures ?

Washington's Birthday Rifle Match -- coming up!

2012-01-23T08:48:00.002-07:00

Washington's Birthday rifle match-- always one of the best matches ever! It's the "The longest running annual rifle match in the country ("SINCE 1893)! and the largest High Power Rifle Match in Arizona. Over 200 rifle Competitors" --Bill Poole.--
This is a Service Rifle match that you want to make it to some time in your shooting career. It's a tradition that brings people from all over, to shoot on a team in the "Washington's B-day Match". Like Poole says -- usually over 50 teams of 4 shooters each, compete for the first place team Plaque and individual awards. 'Top Police, Top military, High Senior, High Women, and High Junior, etc' are all awarded Plaques and other brass badged ammo boxes.
The B-day match is run like a CMP match. It's 3 sighters and 50 shots for record, all at 200 yds, and using reduced targets for the 300 rapid, and prone slow fire phases. Two shooters on each team shoot through in the morning, flip flopping on the line through the 4 positions. During the lunch break, the Az Juniors grill burgers and dogs for everyone's lunch, unless your team is tailgateing with its own grill. In the Afternoon, the coaches bring their #3 and #4 shooters to the line and they shoot through till the end of the match. Each coach has to make the decision to either bring his 2 best shooters to the line in windy morning or the usually calm afternoon. Which strategy would gain the team the most points?

Top three 2007 -Tyler Riko, Tom A., Jim E.

After the match, and while the 200 team and individual scores are reconciled, the Match Director, Bill Poole brings all shooters to the line who have shot an individual Master score for the "Shoot Off". Usually about 20 master score shooters are quickly squaded at the center of the line, and take up the 'Standing Position", They will all fire one shot at a time, Offhand, while the target is exposed for 60 seconds, then withdrawn. All targets are then scored and kept in the pits till Poole calls for "Disk all 5s". If no targets come up with a 5, he calls for disking any 6s,. If any targets come up out of the pits with a 6 spotted and scored on it, Poole will announce -- "Targets number 52, and 84 Thank you for your participation. Please remove your equipment from the Firing Line", and just that quick those folks are back into the crowd, awaiting the next shot, cheering on the survivors, and seeing who will shoot and 7 or 8 and be banished from the line. Eventually, it works down to two or three shooters, and they may battle two or three more shots, all scoring 9s and 10s at the same time. Every 'Shoot Off" of the 10, I've been in goes at least 11 shots before someone is the last man standing. Last year I went out on the 4th shot, but I've made the top three twice and won the thing in 2006, after going 3 equal shots with multiple winner Jess Anatoli. It was one of those 'good shooting' days that I put a the top of my list.
Last year the Tucson Rifle Club's Master Blasters, put an end to the decade long reign of Derrick Martin's, Accuracy Speaks team by shooting good solid scores on a day where I shot offhand in the rain, blowing water out of the peep sight on every shot, and gusty storm winds plagued most every relay. That Club will be tough to beat again this year, and I know that one of the Junior teams has some hot shooters, such as newly Distinguished Rifleman, Tarvis Burian, and other young shooters who are also ready to take that "Top Team" award.

Traveling shooters take note: This is one of those "bucket list" rifle matches. This years entry form -- Click Here
Washington's Birthday match 2012 web site: http://washingtonsbirthdayriflematch.org/

Winter shooting Mecca - - Phoenix, AZ

2012-01-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

Trigger finger itching? Got the Winter Shooting Withdrawal Syndrome (WSWS)?

This year, once again, Phoenix AZ becomes the winter shooting Mecca for shooting sports. If you are a Highpower shooter or a Sm Bore shooter, this year's lineup of championship matches offers top notch competition throughout 6 weeks and 19 days of clinics, individual, and team shooting. What better way is there to spend that winter vacation than enjoying the warm weather of the Southwest, and shooting lots of matches.
Note: the temp in Phoenix will be about 70 deg today !

Highpower
   For the Highpower shooter, this championship series starts on:
Feb 7 thru Feb 12th, with the Berger Bullets Long Range Nationals -- match program Click Here. March 21 thru Mar 25 is the Berger Bullets OTC Nationals.
Both matches held at Ben Avery range.

Small Bore -- "March Madness" starts again!
    Do you like to shoot Sm Bore? Do you need to practice your prone shooting (doesn't every one)? SB March Madness offers you the chance to shoot 14 prone Championship matches, and 2100 shots for record in 5 weeks!
   February 24-27th -- Tarantula 4800 metric prone -- Program: click here
   March 3-4th         -- Road Runner 3200 prone   --    Program: click here
   March 10-11th     -- Diamond Back 3200 Prone --
   March 14-18th     -- Western Wildcat Matches 6400 Prone -- Program Click Here
   March 24-25th     -- AZ Sb State Prone Champ 3200 Prone -- Program: click here

Where else can you ever find that much competition in one month? You can't. Don't miss this chance to shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. There are plenty of hotels, motels, and Park Models in the RV parks to rent, so load up or buy a ton of ammo and Fly, Drive or Hike to Phoenix -- your prone skills will skyrocket.

Note: All Match programs for these Championship weekends will be posted ASAP on this Blog.

Out of Town Match-- AZ Service Rifle St.Champ.

2012-01-16T10:31:00.003-07:00

This weekend was the AZ Service Rifle State Championship. I thought it was time to dig out my trusty AR Service Rifle and have some fun. I hadn't shot a leg match in a long while, and since those usually great matches, I decided to make that my Sunday match choice. I probably should have shot the Sat. 80 shot champ match as the scores in the Master class where I am classified not really high and I would have had a good chance for a class win. However I wanted to shoot a smallbore 1600 on Sat so that didn't work out. I did have a good (for me) score in the SB match (1584-85x) so I was happy about that. Note: on the first target (50 yd) Nancy Tompkins shot a 200-20x so I knew that the pressure was off for the day.

The Sunday Leg match started out a little cold in the morning, but by the start the temp was a balmy 65 Deg, and the wind was a light breeze and worth nothing on the sights. Not having practiced with the Service Rifle for a half a year showed up right away in the Standing match where I was a little wobbly and only scored a 92 and was very happy with that. Sitting Rapid was also weak and I dropped 4 out low right. Then we went back to the 300 and the wheels fell off. The targets came up, and I dropped into position as best I could and racked the charging handle to load the first rd, and found it would not move. I pulled and pulled and it was stuck forward --- jambed tight. Nothing would get that bolt back, so I was put on the aliby relay while a NG armorer was cking it out. Someone handed me a gun and I shot with that. That gun must have had 200 yd zeros on in so my ragged group ended up in the 8 ring and I lost 21 pts. Oh, well, I just came for fun anyways. Off to the 600 with my "repaired" rifle, I would shoot for personal satisfaction. I called the first shot a high 10, but the target stayed down for at least a minute, then came up a miss on target at 12:00. What is that? I know it was a good shot, so I pondered and then dropped 5 clicks to fire again. I didn't want another miss out the top. Of course you know what happened -- it was a 7 at 6:00. I came back up to what I started with and drilled an X followed by the best string of fire I ever shot with the service rifle at 600, finishing with a 183-6x including the miss and that 7 on the first two shots.

AZ Service scores

Daniel Rodrigues won with a 484, while 2 legs were given out with scores of 474, and 468.
I figure I lost about 23 pts due to rifle problems and add that to my 450 final score, I thought I had shot pretty good, but scored poorly. Oh, well. As Steve Merritt said later -- "The Service Rifle giveth and the Service Rifle taketh away".
All in all it was a good day. I didn't win, but I had fun and that's what counts.
Thanks to Mid Thompkins for running a great match.

How can I see my Sight Picture better ?

2012-01-01T09:52:00.015-07:00

"Old Eyes and Iron Sights" -- part 5
Today was a good day. Yes, it was my birthday, but that's not why. It was a good day because I could see the target (dropped 5 in a 40 shot team match at 500 yds). I was using the AR match rifle, and I could see a good black dot to aim at, and the the front sight aperture was black and pretty sharp. That was exactly the opposite of Thursday, when Bill and I went to Ben Avery to shoot in the 1000 yard practice match, where I was shooting a 6BR. We zeroed at 600yds but I could hardly see the Bullseye at all. I could adjust my shooting glasses to get the front sight sharp, but no mater how I moved the lens in and out there was just a light shadow of about 1/2 the bullseye, and I ended up using a "frame" hold to some success (9s and 10s).

     I have been alternately shooting my .223 AR match rifle, or my 6BR Anchutz match rifle in mid-range matches. I know that the 6BR is a tack driver because I get high X counts when using a scope in "any" sight matches, but I always get a higher score, and hold elevation better with the AR space gun if both are shot with Iron sights.

     So, why is this? The 6BR has a fully adjustable Anchutz 2213 alum stock. The AR space gun is less adjustable with a fixed height cheek rest. Both have good sights -- Phoenix rear, and 30mm Right Sight front on the 6br, PNW rear with a std. 22mm on the Space gun. Both have .3 and .5 diopters available.

Two things that always seem different from one to the other.
     1. I always get a comfortable position with the Space gun. It fits me perfect. No adjustable cheek piece - so what! I get on the gun and My eye is always lined up with the iris, no matter how high I have the sight set.
With the Anchutz 6BR, I seem to be always adjusting the cheek piece, hand stop, and sling. When I get it adjusted just right, I find that the measurements are way different than with the AR--Huh? When I shoot the Anchutz stock with either the .22, the 6BR or the .308 barrels, the measurements are pretty much the same....But not the same as the AR.
     2. I always see the front sight, and target better with the AR. I always struggle with my vision while shooting the 6BR.

So where does all this lead to ---

Thoughts on front sight optics, shooting glasses, and stock settings,.

Front Sight Optics:
I use a .3 diopter in the front sight for Mid Range and a .5 diopter for long range. I purchased these diopters from the usual sources. I 'assumed' that they were quality lenses. However, it's certainly possible that the diopters I use are not good quality lenses, and that is the reason why I see the target well with one gun and not with the other. Each gun has it's own dedicated front sight and diopter.
   These diopters are simple concave/convex lenses---i.e. both sides are curved towards the front.   They could be plano/convex with the back side flat and only the front side curved and that would work fine also. These lens are not hard or complicated to grind. They should be accurate, and precise if coming from any reputable lens shop.   However, I suspect that many of them are mass produced and coupled with most being plastic lenses, they may or may not be the quality that shooters really need to see the target properly. Its also possible that these lenses are cut from larger pre-ground lens blanks, and therefore the optical center may not be in the center of each lens we get. Grinding one 3" lens and then cutting out a doz smaller 22mm lenses from that blank would be more profitable for the mfg. but only one of the doz would maybe have been cut from the from the optical center of the parent lens.
Solution ?
   1. I intend to take all my diopters to an 'friendly" optical shop, and have them looked at. The optician can easily measure the grind with a lens diopter guage and tell me if they really were ground to the proper focal length.
Remember: from Bill Luth
"focal Length = 1/diopter . The lenses that we call 0.3 and 0.5 are really 1.3 and 1.5 diopter with corresponding focal lengths of 30" and 26" (about), so you are correct that the focal length and sight radius are directly related. Now should we think about the image formed at the rear sight or at the front surface of the eyeball?
1/1.3 =.7692m .7629 X 39.36 in/m = 30.03 in focal length
1/1.5 =.6667m .6667 X 39.36 in/m = 26.24 in.
The diopter values refer to the reciprocal of the focal length in meters

    2 .Since the diopters have a "focal length" I will do more experimenting on moving my front sight in and out to test the sharpness of the image formed fore and aft of the exact focal plane. Moving the front sight farther out will, also change the size of the image our eye examines. Our eyes have a daylight adapted Pupil opening of about 5mm and if the Focal plane is too far out, the image size will be too large for best viewing.
3. If there seems to be any problem with the quality of the diopters I have, I will have the optical shop grind me lenses from good optical glass, and make sure that the optical center is in the center of the lens. I may experiment with diopters other than the standard .3 and .5. Small lenses like this are not expensive, so having "good" ones is not a luxury. This would be the easiest with the 30mm lens as it uses no lens holder to fit into Stallings Right sight I use on the 6BR. The 22mm have their own lens holder and I'm not sure how easy it will be to change out the lens.

Shooting Glasses
Once we get past 40 years old, our eyes start to slowly fail. Most of us compensate for this by getting special shooting glasses to help us see better. I use Knobloch shooting glasses and could not compete in matches without them--period! These specific glasses allow me to slide the lens left and right, raise and lower it, and twist it to a position perpendicular and directly in line with the axis of my sights, even though my head (on the gun) is not pointing straight toward the target. These glasses also allow me to move the nose piece in and out to position the lens the proper distance from the eyeball --- This is very important! The lens must be the same distance from your eye as your regular glasses or the focal length of the lens will not focus the image at the back of your eyeball.   I see many shooters who have their shooting glasses lens way out from the normal position of about 3/4 inch from the eye. No wonder they can't see the target or the front sight! These (knobloch) shooting glasses also allow the lens to "tilt" in and out a bit, so I can tilt it in a bit to bring the bullseye into focus or tilt it out a bit to bring the front sight into better focus. That's right-- I can focus these glasses from the front sight to the bull, and find what looks the best on any particular day.    Think about that advantage! With my bad eyes (7.50 sph. prescription) I need all the help I can get. If you cant see, you can't hit the middle.

Stock Settings
My Stock Measurements (when feels good)
                                                        AR-15 match,              Anchutz 6BR
Pull (from trigger) =          13.25"        12.0" (shorter)
Butt to Hand stop =      24.0"                        22.2" (shorter)
Butt to Rear Iris =       11.0                     10.6" (shorter)
Rear iris behind Trigger =                 2.6"    1.6"    (shorter)
Sight axis above Trigger =    5.2"    4.5"    (shorter)
Sight Radius(Iris to iris = 34.7"                        31.0"    (shorter)
Sling at       #3 hole    #6 hole (longer)

   It's obvious that I shoot a lower and more stretched out position when I shoot the AR space gun even though I end up with the sling 3 holes tighter. This, I cannot understand. Why would a comfortable position with these two rifles have such different stock settings? I can only think of one reason -- I can't move the Rear Sight as far back on the Anchutz 6BR as I can on the AR. I think that therefore I shoot that gun hunched up, and straining a little to reach the short rear sight eye relief that suits me best.
    Solution:    Since the AR feels best when shooting, I will now (again) set the Anchutz stock to all the settings I use on the AR, and start over from there. I have a 3/4 in. iris extention for the rear sight to get that back a little farther.
   However, somehow, I just know that when I get done adjusting it for comfortability , those measurements will end up right where they are now. It's a mystery!

Old Eyes and Iron sights -- Part 1 (First thoughts)    Click Here
   Part 2 (Iron sight optics)    Click Here
                                       Part 3 (Techniques to see better)    Click Here
                                         Part 4 (Too much light from spotting scope)    Click Here
Hawkeye

It's time to think about range improvements !

2011-12-26T09:22:00.001-07:00

Now that the shooting season is generally over for Northern shooters, we all should be looking at how we can help with range improvement projects during the next season. Keeping your range up in good maintenance is the job of all club members and competitive shooters. We can't just assume that someone else will do the job. Get in contact with your discipline chairman and offer your help in planing and execution of some project that will help keep your range up or improve it. Enjoyable hours can be spent away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life while doing some project at the range.

Here is the new target pit project from 2 years ago at Rio Salado. Lots of volunteer help got this big project done, and we all enjoyed the process.

Dec. 300 m Match Results --

2011-12-21T20:18:00.004-07:00

It was another great turnout for Mpls. Rifle Club's monthly 300m match.

From Brian Shiffman:

This was the last match for 2011 and we sent it off with a great turnout and some close competition. There were 23 shooters in two relays.

Again, we were blessed with fair weather, no snow to obscure the targets, and winds from any and all directions at any given time. The wind, although not really stiff, was tricky, and it took some strategy to take it into account; or, you had to be lucky. It was a good day to get experience in dealing with variable winds.

There were two 3-Position shooters with Mark Havlik using is AR15 with battle sights beating Erik Hazelton using a really nice wood stocked .223. Erik is a junior.

Of the 5 Prone shooters, Bill Lair bested the rest with a 571.

The remaining 16 shooters were in F-Class and mere points separated most of the shooters. Robert Smith came armed with his new secret weapon; a front rest made of kryptonite with eyes of its own; he took the class with a score of 589. A scant one point back, in second, was David Leis with 588. Then a tie for third between Karl Kupl and Johan Boden with 584 each. From then on down, the next 8 shooters were only 1 or two points behind the ones above.

The full results are at http://www.edfpages.com/mgfc/results.php?match=12

The next match is scheduled for January 8, 2012. It is as early in the month as it can be (second Sunday). We will go through the pre-registration procedure for this match. I am NOW taking pre-registration for 1^st or 2^nd relay. I will also send out an email with your assigned relay and you will need to send me a confirming reply.

Here is wishing all a very merry and happy holiday season. See you at the range next year.

Brian D. Shiffman shiff004@umn.edu

That 300 m target is a hard target. Not a lot of 200s are shot on that target with Iron sights. That target forces you to hold hard and use your best trigger control. It has a 10 ring about 4 inches in dia. and is shot at 30 yds farther out than than the 300 yd Highpower target, which has a 6 in Ten ring (MR63). Shooting Sm Bore on the 100 yd metric Sm Bore target is similar, as that target is really a "reduced" 300m target.

Notes:

Berger Bullets Southwest Long Range Nationals en Avery Range, Phoenix AZ Match bulletin -- Click Here
Rooms discounted to $67 for this match. Cure your winter blues and shoot 5 days in sunny, warm, Phoenix.

Watch--- from Berger Bullets:

Dec 11, 2011

2011-12-11T22:19:00.003-07:00

This in from Steve Knutson:

" Fun Smallbore winter league.

Come shoot, learn, eat! Just to get out of the house!!!

Winter "port hole" doors have been installed

Also posted on mrcnews.org." Click Here for more info

These winter Sm Bore matches (7) are fired at the Mpls Rifle. Club's heated shooting house at the Now Then range in NW Anoka Co. It's a nice facility and heated. All matches are 50 yds, with classes for modern, and vintage rifles.

Shooters News for the MN area - Dec 8

2011-12-08T13:48:00.019-07:00

Shooters News - The Week Ahead

Yes, there is a Rifle match this Sunday!
Get your mid range rifle out and shoot some 300 m matches from the comfort of the enclosed (read - warm) Mpls. Rifle Club's shooting house. All this on Electronic targets so there is no need to go out and pull targets. it's been a long time since they had two full relays, so email Brian and go shooting.

From Brian Shiffman:
"This Sunday, Dec 11, will be the December 300 Meter Club Match at the MRC range.

IMPORTANT:

Since we have had high turnouts for the past two months I am going to follow a suggestion proposed be several shooters: For this match we will have pre-registration so we can squad for first and second relay. First relay will shoot at 10 AM while second relay will shoot at 12 PM. Send me email to choose your preferred relay. If you are not pre-registered there will be no guarantee that you will get to shoot when you walk up. BUT, I have to believe that the second relay will not be full.

If you choose a relay that is already filled, I will send you a reply to let you know and we will attempt to work out a satisfactory arrangement.

This is FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED; earlier email responses will take precedence over later email. If you are bringing a friend to shoot the match with you, let me know that in your email, OR, have your friend contact me by email; one of you should indicate that you need to shoot on the same relay.

You can also indicate your first and second choice of relay in your email. I will respond (to all those that pre-register) on Saturday afternoon with the relay shooter schedule

If I missed anything, let me know immediately.

The fee is still $15 for the match.

I don’t know what the weather will be (my fuzzy caterpillar is on vacation) but it will be cool for sure but we will be nice and cozy in our shooting house.

Brian D. Shiffman

shiff004@umn.edu

Notes:
Capt. Bob Peasley passed this on from the NRA ---
"Notes from the Director

Rodriquez Range Rebuild

Each year at this time the CMP, Ohio National Guard and the NRA meet to go over after action reports from the just completed National Matches held at Camp Perry. I was pleasantly surprised to see a great deal of construction activity being done at Camp Perry when I arrived for the Fall Planning Conference. Completion of the power upgrades, buildings being re-roofed, parking lots being repaved but the most exciting activity was seeing the Rodriquez butts being taken down. On the priority list for many years has been the complete reconstruction of the Rodriquez butts and targetry replacement and this project will be complete by the National Matches 2012.

Construction crews with major earthmoving equipment were tearing out old concrete pit walls, walkways and targets. The plan is to use modular concrete walls to rebuild the pit walls and walkways, but a great deal of earthmoving will take place before that part of the project begins. Talking with the project foreman, the June 1, 2012 project deadline would be met without much trouble, weather is always a question mark up on Lake Erie but the project is moving along at a fast pace. New targetry will be installed and I have been assured that all of the bugs that we found in the Viale range targetry have been addressed.

I would like to pass along the best wishes for a very Merry Christmas to everyone from the entire staff of the NRA Competitive Shooting Division.

Best regards, Mike Krei, Director NRA Competitive Shooting Division

last Week

The AZ Palma Championships were held over 3 days of 50 deg weather, under Sunny skys and interesting winds to test the shooters. See a few pictures and results - Click Here

Read Rick Curtis's short match report - Click Here

As a retired Long Range shooter, I spent this match in the pits pulling targets for the F-class shooters ($$). They like to shoot fast, they tend to stay in the middle, so I can give them HM target service. F-ers will always hire a HM puller.

I ended up pulling for one of the fastest shooters there is. If you think that you have shot with fast shooters in the past, you havent seen anything till you have pulled for Dave Gosnell. In his Sunday 900yd match, when the wind was 8 to 10 from the SW and steady, he fired a solid 10 on the first shot (10 in. ten ring), and after that, with easy 6 second target service, he fired a shot every 10 seconds on the clock and never once was it 2 seconds after the target hit the top that the next shot arrived. He finished his 2 sighters and 15 shots for record in about 3 min flat. Dave said "I don't like to dilly dally". He also won the match and after 3 days took home the F- Open championship.

As you can read in Rick's rpt, Bob Gustin won the sling shooter side of the match, and Phil Hayes came in 2nd, just 5 behind after 3 days. I had shot service rifle team with Phil in the Huge Washington's Birthday match for years, and won a lot of 1st's. I asked Phill how things were going on Sat, down in the pits and he said that he was doing well, and then said "Jim, I'm just on top of my mental game right now. I'm seeing the conditions. I'm looking down there at the flags and mirage and I just know what to do."

This was not surprising, as I had somewhat the same conversation with Rick Curtis in the morning line up for squading. Rick (I think 5thplace) said almost exactually the same thing. "I'm seeing the conditions." Rick said that he could just lay there between shots and see these up and down 2 and 3 min changes. I think that this shows us all where the Top Shooters are at. They are at the top of their mental game and are applying that to reading the conditions.

In the F-class team match Sunday, German Salager's team of Warren Dean, Jeff Calhoon, and 2 others, were comfortably in the lead, and on the way to a new F team record score for a Palma match. German's first three shooters held their own, as the wind started to get a little more nasty. All of them benefited by Germans HM wind reading skills. Shooter #4 came to the line confessing that he had only 17 rds and hoped he had no misfires. Of course it didn't go well. On the 12th shot the Spotter fell out of the X ring as the target hit the top, then the puller waited a few seconds and decided to pull the target and replace it just as shooter #4 fired his irreplaceable round, which went over the target (withdrawn target). The shooter shot his last rds but was one short of 15 record shots there at the 1000 yd line.

What to do? All the other shooters on the team were using way different loads and bullets (It's F class). German had his last shooter move on to the gun of the #3 shooter and he would take the shot with that gun. Now the wind had changed and German waited and waited till the last minute of the match, put 1 min left from the last shot from that gun and the shooter fired an down wind 7 ----- on the Paper! Germans team takes the record.

Oh, by the way German Salazer won the FTR class as his shoulder injury heals. All the other F-ers hope German gets well soon and re-enters the ranks of the sling Shooters.

Up coming:
The Berger Bullets SW Long Range Matches are on again for February at Ben Avery range in Phoenix. Michelle says it will be ever bigger and better this year with the addition of more shooting days. Stay Tuned.
February 6th - Practice Palma
February 7th - Palma 800-900-1000
February 8th, Mid-Range 300-500-600
February 9th - Palma
February 10th - Palma
February 11th - 1000 Yard
February 12th - 1000 Yard
All most all 100 target frames are now working at Ben Avery. Mid Tompkins has put in a bid for the "World Championships" a few years from now. Plan ahead

Plan Ahead -- Western WildCat Sm bore matches and March Sb madness in Phoenix.

This news letter will be intermittent this winter -- especially if no one sends in any news. I know the juniors have winter matches. Let's hear about it. Even without the news letter stuff will be posted on the blog as it dribbles in.

That's all folks !
Its 60 deg and I'm off to the range to sight in the new Shillen "ratchet groove" barrel, that the G-man helped me install on the Anchutz 2013.

Hawkeye

Just IN ! Results of AZ Palma Champs

2011-12-05T17:01:00.007-07:00

Read Rick Curtis's report at : SouthWest Rifle Shooting

Click to expand

Nancy coaching the ladies record holding F Class team

You can expand the results larger after clicking by Rt. clicking it, then selecting "view Image" and then left click expand to readable size.

Robert Pritski Coaching wind for the Nat Guard team -- all firing AR-10 .308 cal "Service Rifles"

German Salazar coaching his F-class team to a new National Record score.

Just having fun !

Next Up -- The Palma Matches at Phoenix AZ.

2011-11-27T10:36:00.009-07:00

Well, Next week is the big winter Palma matches at Ben Avery Range in Phoenix.
Click Here for Palma Matches weather report.
Those are always good matches, as there are huge amounts of competitors, and (normally) great weather. Now that the Firing lines at BA have been regraded and 1000yd line rebuilt to A+ standards, it's the place to shoot long range during the winter. We have had great weather the past 5 years or so, but I do remember shooting in the cold rain about 2005. This year I might work in the pits again. Since I'm not really good at 1000 yd shooting, I think I'll pull targets for $$$. It's a long day to pull for both the individual, and the Team match, but fun to watch the battle of the Top shooters from the Pits when the word is passed up and down about who has a good X count and is shooting clean.


Oliver Milanovic firing from 500 yds at Rio

I usually get hired by the F-class shooters because they want 4 to 5 second pit service, and I can give them that service because they are shooting very small groups -- even from 1000 yds. There's no reaching all over the target when pulling for the top F-ers like John Chilton or Steve Lockwood, and now German Salazar who is storming the FTR class this year.
I can pull targets next weekend and not feel guilty about not shooting as I had good shooting this weekend at the Rio Salado 500 yd match, coming in 2nd to Allen Elliot who only dropped 2 pts in the 3 twenty shot matches. I dropped 2pts. in the first match, cleaned the 2nd one for my first 200 score in a long while, and thought I could challenge Allen for the win in the last match but lost 6 pts in that match (4 to a mental error about which way to turn the elevation knob while shooting lower and lower for 3 shots and 4 lost points). Well, 592 wasn't a great score compared to Allen's 598, but I was competitive and that makes for a good day at the match.
I shot the space gun because its become obvious to me that I shoot the "space gun" better than the other 3 match rifles that I trade off on. I can adjust my Anchutz rifle stock in every direction for good fit, but the space gun always feels more comfortable to shoot. The space gun also shoots the .223 cartridge very well, out to 600 yds so recoil is low and good ammo is easy to make. I like that -- easy ammo to make. .223 and 6BR cartridges are easy to make and the "standard" match loads work in pretty much everyone's gun. Keep it simple. The AR-15 platform must have been designed for someone just my size. Even the A2 service rifle is the perfect configuration.

Well, this was a good weekend for shooting and I'm looking forward to the Palma Matches next weekend.
Hawkeye

Now This is a Bargain

2011-11-23T07:55:00.003-07:00

From Ron Berg
SHOOTERS CHRISTMAS SALE

"Due to health and age I’ve decided to give up the shooting sports that I’ve enjoyed for many years and offering for sale my competition rifle and related reloading equipment,

Winchester Model (post)70 long action in 308 cal with a 1 in 11 Rock competition barrel (at the Sept match on the F Class target my avg was 96-97 per 10 shot string)

Included with the rifle are; set of RCBS 308 dies also

10X40 Tasco Target Scope with sun shades

Front Rest and Rear Rests

The rifle also can be setup for OTC Iron Sight Competition it has an adj butt stock and forend stop (included are bases for front and rear sights and clip slot attachment)

Included also are 34 loaded rds 168 hornady A-Max and

About 100 win cases

All this for $800.00

Contact me at my E-Mail address or by phone Home 1-715-845-7843 or cell 1-715-829-5160

1 spotting scope (champions choice) with stand $100.00

2 RCBS Rock chucker loading presses $30.00 ea

1 RCBS Jr loading press w/lee priming attachment $30.00

1 REDDING Powder scale $20.00

1 powder measure w/stand $10.00

Thanks

Ron"

I first met Ron pulling targets on on the low end of Viale range at Camp Perry in about 1990. Since then I have shot a lot of matches with Ron at ranges such as Eau Claire, Northwestern Gun Club, Red Wing, and Harris MN, and enjoyed his company always. Hawkeye

Out of town match -- AZ long Range Champs

2011-11-21T13:53:00.008-07:00

This in from Rick Curtis:
Southwesternrifleshooting

"The Az Long Range Championship is now in the books, with both days being nearly identical in the conditions that challenged the shooters this year. Each day started with near zero wind and cloudy light conditions that quickly progressed to a fishtailing 6 oclock wind that at times exceeded 18 mph.
   In the F Class divisions, David Gosnell absolutely whipped his fellow F-Open competitors like rented mules all weekend. Day 1 saw him finish with an
outstanding 589, a full 23 points ahead of second place Eric Cortina. Sunday saw Dave pour it on by agging a 591 to finish head and shoulders above the rest with a brilliant 1180. Congratulations David on securing a well earned place in Arizona F Class history!
   Over in F-TR the bipod boys witnessed no less than an epic performance by first time Long Range F-er German Salazar. The G-man absolutely destroyed the competition, winning every single match but one, including an F overall win in match two. His day one 579 agg outdistanced second place winner Steve Lockwood by a considerable margin.
    Lockwood put in a valiant performance on day two to finish just behind Salazar in that agg but the damage was done and German emerged as the 2011
Az F-TR Champion.

    Finally over on the sling side of the line, which by the way was pretty evenly split between F and sling shooters this year, Arizona's own Phil Hayes put in a masterful performance all weekend. Hayes was running the Berger 115's in a new chamber configuration of his own design known as the 6X51 Hayes.
    Based on the 243 case Phil guesstimates he can effectively triple the barrel life over the parent case with his design. They say the proof is in the pudding, well Phil and his little cartridge crushed the competition, posting a 593 on Saturday and a nearly perfect 599 on Sunday to earn a decisive victory over the rest of the bondage boys and girls, laying claim to the title of State Champion! Congratulations to Phil, David and German on your respective division victories.

In closing I would like to give a big tip of the hat to Joe, Jack and Richard who setup and ran the pits each day, Fred Filkins on another great call of the line
and to Mid and Nancy Tompkins for all there hard work in the stat trailer. Next up is the Az State Highpower Championship this coming weekend that starts
off with a 3X600 on Friday. Great way to work off all those Thanksgiving calories. Then we hope to see many of you for the Az State Palma Championships Dec 2nd,3rd and 4th."

Thanks Rick. We'll see you this weekend at one of the prone matches. I got back in the sling again Sunday with an 80 OTC at Rio Salado. Had a 197 at the 500, with the space gun, so I'm going to try it again Friday at the AZ 600 champ, or on Sat at Rio in the 500 yd match. Darn, that .223 match rifle shoots good at Mid range! Hawkeye

2011 Sm Bore outdoor Prone Final aggregate.

2011-11-18T16:54:00.002-07:00

From Chad Danielson:
Jim, Below are the final standings for the 2011 Season Smallbore Prone Aggregate Championship. Congratulations to Elk River Junior Shooter Eric Hazelton who won both the Junior Category Aggregate Championship, and the Overall Aggregate Championship with a total of 15,202 . Behind Hazelton for 2^nd was Duluth Shooter Jim Biles who accumulated 12,663 points throughout the summer. Brooklyn Park Junior Shooter Emily Quinner finished 3^rd for the season with 11,073 points. Seven of the top ten finishers posted over 10,000 points for the season, but Hazelton set what will more likely be the mark to beat come next season with his 15,202 as he competed in all 8 of the tournaments making up the season, as the last scheduled tournament date of September 18^th, in Elk River was rained out.

1. Eric Hazelton (Jr.) 15,202 - 660
2. Jim Biles 12,663 - 696
3. Emily Quiner (Jr.) 11,073 - 700
4. Steve Knutson 10,944 - 564
5. Chad Danielson 10,882 - 479
6. Nick Learn (Jr.) 10,789 - 413
7. Jim Evenson 10,669 - 501
8. Stacey Tamulinas 9,449 - 571
9. Lori Huseby (Jr.) 9,360 – 368
10. Julie Huseby 9,316 - 354

Mpls. Rifle Club Nov. 300 meter Match -- Results

2011-11-15T15:21:00.001-07:00

From Brian Shiffman:

"We had a wonderful day to have a match with indoor heat and electronic targets. While it was not really cold the heat did take the chill out and made for comfortable shooting. Very little wind to contend with. We had a full house of 14 shooters; well, actually, we had more but the few additional people did not want to wait until the first relay was complete before shooting. So, we did not have to have a second relay. I would have been the only one shooting it!! I made the executive decision that it was better to return back to the house for leaf clearing.

Among the group we had a couple of new shooters to our matches, and, a few interesting story lines:

Erhardt Bruderer took top honors in the 3-position class.

Kathy Nickell had never shot our matches and was using a borrowed AR 15. I enquired about the specs and she knew them all. Although the Nightforce scope went up to 22 power, she had it on 7 power and then proceeded to come in third place, behind Bob Eckstein and Johan Boden. She was consistent throughout the match with two 195’s and a 194.

Bob and Johan tied with 590 for top spot but Bob bested Johan by one point on the third string to take first place. Bob was shooting a Savage model 12 F/TR in 308 with a Nightforce scope and a front bipod that looks like a brace from a bridge.

Tom Loberg did not shoot his usual 308 but and a “new” one. He and Johan had been battling month by month for top honors, both shooting factory Federal match 308; Tom using 168 grain bullets. Well, his new rifle did not like that factory ammo. Although he was also consistent from series to series, he finished in 6^th place. After the match he shot a few Federal 175 grain match loads which seemed to group quite well. I expect he’ll be using that load at the next match. For those who would think the poor performance of the 168 grain ammo was due to a different barrel twist it turns out that both the old and new rifles were 1 in 12. We have to look elsewhere.

A new shooter for us was Matt Hankes who won the prone position match with a score of 303. How? He was the only prone competitor.

We had 4 shooters shooting 3 positions. Unfortunately, I failed to record the score of Ed Facundo so as soon as I get his score from the scoreboard at the range (or someone gets it to me) I’ll post it on the match results web page. We also had two shooters shooting offhand. Mike Marzitelli was shooting 222 Magnum while Robert Smith was using his AR 15.

I had loaded the 108 grain Berger BT for 6mm BR to try in a match for the first time. I have been working up a load for this new to me bullet. Since I did not shoot this match I’ll have to wait until the next match. I had been shooting the 105 Berger VLD bullets with the length set into the lands by about .015”. The 108 is not a VLD so it should not be loaded as far forward, usually these bullets are at their best with about .001 to .015 of jump before contacting the lands. I have not played with seating depth, yet, choosing a “little” jump as a starting point and just playing with powder charge.

All in all it was a good shoot

The results for the match (minus Ed Facundo’s score) can be found at:

http://www.edfpages.com/mgfc/results.php?match=11

Brian D. Shiffman shiff004@umn.edu

Click Here for complete Results

Shooting Tutorial

2011-11-09T11:15:00.003-07:00

From: Kurt Borlaug - MN State Service rifle team coach and Capt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0H08JTs1Lg

"Gents, The USAR team has posted a bunch of videos filmed last summer at Perry. This one is of extreme value to us all. Pass it on to your buddies not listed here and talk it up. Follow links to more. There are some other good ones of 600 yard team shooting w/ Anderson coaching.
Also, Tom heard today that the Nosler order is on the way and we should be expecting the drop at my place early next week. Maybe we can do some testing on those pills before the snow flies.
Later, Kurt"

Some thoughts on this:

Gents
This is a good tutorial.
The most important words in it are "shooting window".    No matter what the wind is doing over a long period of time, there will be a "average condition" where the wind goes back to after rising or falling. This "average condition" should usually be your shooting window. Wait for it!
   As we all know, there are two ways to play the wind. David Tubbs is very successful at "chasing the spotter"-- He continues to shoot as fast as he can through small wind changes in order to minimize the number of changes that he faces. Other shooters wait out the changes and shoot only in their "window".
The two best shooters that I watch all the time use the window method.   Rick Curtis, and Nancy Tompkins are Window shooters. I watch them weekly in Sm Bore matches, and they are the last ones done in each 20 shot match, and usually have the top scores.
Other shooters, like me, use a combination of both methods, because I have a hard time staying in position for the 22 min it might take to get all 22 shots off using the window method---and it takes better wind reading skills to use the window method.
   Other things come into play---
The wind does not rise and fall evenly.   It rises more quickly than it falls. The wind also changes direction as it rises and falls, and usually with a predictable pattern. Wind gusts (big or small) are sinking cells of air. These cells of air have rotation. In the Northern hemisphere gusts of wind usually have a somewhat clockwise rotation. That means that "usually" a gust of wind will "veer" in the clockwise direction, (Click Here) and when the wind is dropping, the direction will change (backing) in the counter clockwise direction. So--if the wind is from 7:00 and it rises, you can usually notice that it is changing towards 9:00 and therefore may have even more effect on the bullet flight. Think about this in a 6:00 fish-tailing condition.   When the winds goes to 7:00 (left wind), it will be at a higher velocity than a change to 5:00 where the wind is dropping. So the 7:00 wind will blow you twice as far out, as you would be by misreading a change to 5:00. The corollary to this, is that a veering wind from 10:00 to 12:00 might be rising in velocity, it will also have less value as a head wind.
   If you want to learn about the wind, study a book on sailboat racing. Sailors get "all" their power from the wind. The angles they sail relative to the wind and the course they want to follow are what makes the difference between the winners and losers. Sailors are the masters of the wind. They go to great lengths to understand the changes in the wind and write a lot about it in books on sailboat racing.
Yes, the wind is complicated, hard to understand and apply correctly. This is the real reason to shoot only in your "shooting window:"
   As for the coach telling the shooter to "favor" in prone slow fire with iron sights--- Come on!   What is the point of that? Does the coach not know the value of the wind? Are they in such a hurry that the shooter can't click? I believe that shooters who are not Highmasters, should never be told to favor in prone slow fire. Generally, they don't have the skill to do that properly and it just shows that the coach is not sure about his wind call and wants to put the onus of that shot result on the back of the shooter. Master and below shooters should always shoot every shot straight away, while using Iron sights. The shooter worries only about elevation, while the coach handles the wind call. Can you imagine a Palma coach telling his shooter to "favor".
   Once again it's good to point out that the best prone slowfire shooters are also Sm Bore shooters, or have a Sm bore shooting background. If you want to learn to read the wind-- shoot Sm Bore.
Jim E

Shooters News for the MN area - Oct 25, 2011

2011-10-25T13:22:00.003-07:00

Shooters News for the Minn Area - Oct 25, 2011

The Week Ahead.

Believe it or not, there is a rifle match this week. The Air Rifle league has started its season with matches on Wednesday evenings at Bills Gun Shop in Robinsdale.

From Mike Marzitelli:

"We will be beginning the air rifle season at Bill's in Robbinsdale on Wednesday evenings beginning October 5th. We will be shooting every Wednesday from then to the end of March. The Olympic course will be fired at 10 meters on regulation targets. 60 shots for record per match. First relay will begin shooting at 4:00 and Second relay at 5:30. Range fees are $6. A contribution once during the

season is requested as well. Contact me for further information.

Mike Marzitelli at mmarzitelli@hotmail.com or call 651-489-9164."

Click Here for Match program

300 meter

The only other match coming up for centerfire rifles will be Sunday, Nov, 13th at the Mpls. Rifle Club. This will be a 300 m International style match using those nifty electronic targets.

Results - Oct 9th 300m match

from Brian Shiffman:

"For the third month in a row we were blessed with excellent conditions for a match. Light breezes and very comfortable temperatures made for a good opportunity for scoring well.

There were two new match shooters for F-Class who both did quite well. Deb Hughes is an IPSC shooter competing in rifle for the first time (if I recall correctly) and came in one point behind Johan Boden for 4^th place. She did was using a rifle from Garold Jones (who also spotted for Deb).

All in all it was a very good shoot with all targets working properly.

The full results can be seen at http://www.edfpages.com/mgfc/results.php?match=10

MRC 300 m match -- The early years

Here is something interesting for you to do: while viewing results of a particular match if you click on a name the year average for that shooter in the particular class of that match will be shown. For example, while viewing the October results if you click on my name the software will show that I have shot 8 matches in F-Class (since that is the class I shot in October) and show the average for each of the three series and the average of all series. The averages will include all matches shot for the year in that class.

Click on tom Loberg and the system will show that he has shot 8 matches in F-Class with an average total score of 589.9; Johan Boden has shot 6 matches in F-Class for an average of 590.0. That just about sums it up for the way the competition has gone between these two.

The next match is Sunday, November 13. I cannot guarantee that the weather will be a cooperative as we have had for the past 3 months but it will be comfortable inside the shoot house.

See you at the range.

Brian shiff004@umn.edu

Winter Highpower league

George Minerich (MRRA Pres) will once again be running a Winter Highpower League starting on Dec 3rd and continuing approximately every other Saturday through March 2012.

From George Minerich: -- Minneapolis Rifle Club Winter High Power League

The Minneapolis Rifle Club (MRC) will be hosting a winter High Power club league starting in December. Shooting will take place in the MRC heated facility on electronic targets. You must shoot match bullets or full metal jacket bullets (no A-Max or expanding bullets).The league will shoot every other Saturday December 2011 thru March 2012. Shooting will start at promptly 11:00 AM. We will shoot 50 shots for record with sighters between strings. The National Match Course will be shot. Prone and F-Class shooters are welcome and will shoot 50 shots for record slow fire. Time will be accommodated forprone & F-Class shooters. The Season fee (9 Saturdays) $75.00. The daily fee is $10.00.To get the discount you must pay the first Saturday.For more information contact George Minerich: (320) 968-6898 or george.minerich@q.com

Click Here for match program

Report on the GRRC Full bore match.
From Kurt Borlaug:
" October 9th saw the area's first ever Fullbore Prone rifle match. The weather was spectacular for the 14 sling, and 4 F-Class competitors. Firing started at a rather leisurely time of 10am and the match ran well under the able management of Mark Rohmann. Mark is a new GRRC member and has stepped up to help when asked. Mark studied the Fullbore rulebook thoroughly and all questions were anticipated and answered confidently.

The format was pair-firing, with 15 record shots per competitor at 300, 600, 800 and 1,000 yards, for a possible score of 600 points. Adding to the pair-firing, shooters are required to break their shots within 45 seconds of the target coming out of the pit. This means you cannot wait out wind conditions. This forces shooters to quickly judge wind conditions and make BOLD corrections at times.

Brian Mrnak from Ashland Wi. started off only dropping one point at 300 yards. Klanderud, Peasley, Borlaug and Junior Eric Hazelton hung tight all at 148 points.

Mrnak had the only clean of the day at any yardline with a 150-7x. Peasley was close behind with a 148-6x. After 600, Mrnak had the lead at 299-16x, with Peasley close behind at 296-12x. Hazelton and Klanderud tied for third at 295-12. Did I mention Hazelton is a junior.....?

At 800 yards, the GRRC famous fishtailing conditions began to frustrate the competitors. Mrnak, unfazed, again was on top with a spectacular 149-12 x. Klanderud and Borlaug tied at 147-5x, with Phil's higher value on the last shot putting him in second for the stage. The format at the long-range portion was evidently challenging all comers, as a lot of shooters fair pretty well at the 800 line when they can wait out conditions.

The 1,000 yardline was the biggest points dropper for all shooters. As the day wore on and the conditions continued to challenge, Mrnak finished again on top at 142-3x. Peasley and Borlaug tied at 139-3x, with Peasley Creedmoring Borlaug on the last shot.

At the end of the day Brian Mrnak walked away the winner with 590-31x.

Three shooters had scores of 578 with close x-counts. Borlaug and Klanderud tied at 18-x, Peasley at 17-x. Borlaug's higher score at 1k put him in second place overall and first in the master class. Eric Hazelton came away first in Expert class and fifth overall with 575-20x.

The positive response of this match has spurred the club to add this format again in 2012. There has been calls to revive the National Long-Range Course also. Thanks to all competitors for trying something new, and a BIG THANKS to Mark Rohmann for giving up a day of shooting to run the line."

Thanks Kurt for that match report. I'm sure that this "Two to a mound shooting" might become a very popular match format.

Junior Shooters
Would someone please keep us informed on Junior shooting activities over this winter season?

Note:
Long time competitor Gordy Kordowsky has some once fired LC Match .308 brass for sale.
Contact Gordy at gskordosky@aol.com

That's all folks

Hawkeye

Shooters News for the Minn Area - Oct 5, 2011

2011-10-05T10:19:00.001-07:00

The Week Ahead

Highpower

This weekend it is Full Speed ahead to Gopher Rifle and Revolver Club (map) for the last Highpower match of the season in this area. This will be a "Full Bore" type match to be shot at 300 , 600, 800, and 1000 yds. Shooters will be firing 15 record shots with 2 sighters at each distance for a total of 60 shots for record. So, get out that "NRA Match Rifle, Palma Rifle or Service Rifle, or International Standard or Free Rifle. .223 Rem/5.56 Nato or .308 Win/7.62 Nato cartridges ... Metallic sights only...." for one more match this season. The weather is going to be great, so come out and launch a few down range. Click Here for "Full Bore" match bulletin.
    I just talked to Match Director, Kurt Borlaug. He has received a large amt. of interest in this match.
    From Kurt: "The GRRC Fullbore match schedule is as follows; 8:30 regs open, 9:30 close, pits seal at 9:45 and firing will begin at 10am."
    I think the chance to shoot "two to a mound" Full Bore style, will make this match a popular choice for the weekend.

300-Meter Match

The monthly 300 meter match series will continue Sunday, Oct 9th at Mpls Rifle Club. Shooters will fire on 300 meter electronic target, and may shoot either 60 or 120 shots or record. They may fire 3 position or all prone and may also choose to shoot F-class (scopes and rests) or even scope all day as in the Senior Scope class. With so many ways to participate, there is no good reason to stay home. Think about it! -- you can stay home all winter.

Notes:

Young shooters

Do you have a youngster that you are looking for a Junior shooting program that will get them started off on the right track. There are many opportunities locally for that young person to be a part of excellent junior programs. Juniors are shooting and competiting, in Air Rifle, Small Bore, and Highpower shooting, and many local junior shooters are making a name for themselves at the collegiate and National level. You just have to get them going. Click Here for info

Cheap Brass?
From Jim Soderstrom:

"Cabelas has all Lapua brass on sale at a good discount. The .308 brass(non-Palma) is $55.99/100. Best I've seen in a long while. Brunos is $65.00 - $68.00/100 depending on quantity.

Jim S."
Tks, Jim for the heads up!

Sad Day
After many, many years of operation, the 3M rifle and pistol club is shutting down. Many thanks to Sharon and John Ruffing for (probably) 20 years of running that club. We are diminished.

Two Weeks Out
Nov 13 - 300 meter match at MRC
Dec 11 - 300 meter match at MRC

That's all Folks
Hawkeye

Shooter's News for the Mn Area - Sept 28, 2011

2011-09-28T06:30:00.006-07:00

The Week ahead
Traditionalists will be heading south to Bucksnort, Mo.this coming weekend for the last Mid Range match on the calendar. Too far to travel for a match? Then a weekend of reloading will be in order for the "really" last match of the year to be held on Oct 9th at GRRC. I'm sure that there is one more beautiful fall day on the schedule, so plan on this match as the season's last chance to pull some triggers. Click Here for ''Full Bore" match program.

Last Weekend

It was the last Service Rifle Leg match of the year, and the weather was perfect -- light wind, sunshine and comfortable temperatures.

The GRRC range was in great shape and the match was well run.

From: Mark Havilk There were 29 shooters, 26 non-distinguished. Bob Harper won with a 472-?x followed by Kurt Borlaug with a ?. Matt Cwach took the second leg and bronze medal with a 469-?x. Al Schneider, Dean Gillette and myself all shot a 464. Dean beat me by 2 x's and I think Al beat dean by 3 x's.

Mark's excellent slide show of this Leg Match -- Click Here

click "full screen" and turn up the volume!

Notes:
MRRA Board Meeting rescheduled to October 9 - Gopher Rifle & Revolver Club, Harris MN. (after the match)
Agenda

Two weeks out
Oct 9th Full Bore match at GRRC - Click here for Program

That's all Folks
Hawkeye

"If you are unwilling to defend your right to your own lives, then you are merely like mice trying to argue with owls. You think their ways are wrong. They think you are dinner." -- Terry Goodkind

Shooters News for the Minn area - Sept. 21, 2011

2011-09-21T08:44:00.010-07:00

First---
from Capt Bob:
Hello Minn. HP shooters:

Today, Sept. 20 is Dr. Ken Erickson's 87th birthday. Ken was NRA national champion in about 1962 and a serious Minn HP shooter until his late 70's. He then became one of the first F class shooters in Minn. and in fact the F class trophy is named for Ken. He is also one of the founders of the North Star club in Red Wing. Please join me in sending Ken a HAPPY BIRTHDAY greeting. Let's load up his in box for all day reading!

Ken Erickson -- topgun53@yahoo.com

HOLDHARD" Bob

The Week Ahead
The days are getting shorter and it sure feels like fall has arrived. Unfortunately, that means the rifle match season is drawing to a close in the upper mid west. This coming weekend there are still two good choices for the discriminating shooter looking for just one more match before putting the equipment away for the season.
Service Rifle shooters will be heading up to GRRC on Sunday, Sept, 25th (map) for the last local Leg Match of the year. This "Excellence in Competition" match will award some "all important" Leg points to the top scorers and is the only path toward the life time achievement award of a Distinguished Rifleman's badge. Other than winning the National Championship, earning a Distinguished Rifleman's Badge is usually the crowning achievement for most competitive shooters. Service rifle shooters motto: "If it isn't a Leg Match, its just practice"
Click Here for program and Schedule for this leg match. Leg Match weather report.-- Click Here Note: This weather rpt. seems to update every 5 sec.

If you are not "gunning" for Leg Points" (why wouldn't you be?), this will be a good fun 50 shot match to close out the season with. So, dig out the service rifle and head up to GRRC and watch the big dogs sweat it out, while you just shoot for fun.

Traveling shooters, might head over to Eau Claire for the last weekend of shooting at the Eau Claire Rifle Club

The standard format will be in order. Saturday is a Mid Range prone 80 shot match to be shot at 600 yds, and on Sunday the shooters will be contesting for the win in an 80 shot Over the Course match. Click Here for match program and Schedule.

Last Weekend

Phill Klanderud ignored the cold rain at NorthStar Rifle Club in Red Wing, MN and won the Mn State Service Rile Championship. Phill has been a long time member of the MN St. Service Rifle team and a top competitor for many years.
Complete Results of Sat's Service Rifle championship -- Click Here
The Service Rifle Team Championship was won by the team of Larry Weidell and James Pennington.

Pictures by Mark Havlik

Sunday's Leg match at NorthStar Rifle Club in Red Wing, Mn might have been wet and chilly, but the action was hot for Scott Brabec who won his Bronze Leg on the way to his Distinguished Rifleman's badge. Congratulations to Scott.

Larry Weidell wins the Gold medal, Scott Brabec wins the Silver, and Sgt. Al Shneider wins the Bronze.
    Complete Leg Match results:   Click here
    Don't miss Mark Havlik's Slide show (with music) of this Leg Match -- Click Here

300 Meter International
From: Brian Shiffman:

"This past Sunday, the 11^th turned out to be an ideal day for a match. There was very little wind, except for a puff now and then, bright and sunny with a mirage to contend with. I could see two targets nearly superimposed as they drifted in and out of focus while shifting a bit. Since the wind was so low, the mirage was basically a vertical change of point of impact. Some just waited a while until the mirage passed (and read the wind which caused it to pass) or did as I did and just pick one target and shoot. It served me pretty well.

We had four shooters new to our matches who did pretty well, indeed. Clearly these folks had handled rifles before. One, unfortunately, was not able to complete the match due to technical issues but I hope he returns to shoot with us. Ed Toensing came out to the match. It has been about 18 (or was it 30?) months or so since he shot with us. Too many honey do’s and a broken bone kept him away. For not having shot in so long he did pretty well.

The battle between Johan Boden and Tom Loberg that has been going on for the past few months saw Tom come out on top by 2 points over Johan.

Robert Smith came with his A game and took top honors with a 596, 3 points better than the two who tied for second followed by two who tied for 4^th. Complete results can be found at http://www.edfpages.com/mgfc/results.php?match=9.

The next match is scheduled for October 9^th."

Brian D. Shiffman shiff004@umn.edu

Small Bore
from Chad Danielson:
Hey Jim, The below is the current top ten standings of the Smallbore Prone Aggregate Season points as it stands after the August 27^th and 28^th State Prone 3200 Championship that was shot in Hibbing. The final prone match of the season is a one day 1600 coming up this Sunday September 18^th in Elk River

1 1. Eric Hazelton (Jr.) 15,202 – 660
2. Jim Biles 12,663 - 696
3. Emily Quiner (Jr.) 11,073 - 700
4. Steve Knutson 10,944 - 564
5. Chad Danielson 10,882 - 479
6. Nick Learn (Jr.) 10,789 - 413
7. Jim Evenson 10,669 - 501
8. Stacey Tamulinas 9,449 - 571
9. Lori Huseby (Jr.) 9,360 - 368
10. Julie Huseby 9,316 – 354

Notes:
From Capt. Bob:

"I thought you guys might find this interesting --- Click Here for Accurate Shooter article on "X-Ray Spectrometry of Cartridge BrassX-Ray -- Spectrometers Reveal Metal Content of Major Cartridge Brass Brands"

I've recently had a batch of S&B in 45 ACP that between 15 to 20% of the cases SPLIT on the bullet seating area (lip or front end). S&B gave me one box of 50 for my inconvenience."

Bob

Two Weeks out (or longer)
Oct. 9th - Full Bore match at GRRC -- Click Here for Program
Oct 9th -   300m match at MRC   (map)
Nov 13th - 300m match at MRC
Dec 11th - 300m match at MRC

That's all Folks

Hawkeye

Scott Brabec wins Bronze leg !

2011-09-19T05:59:00.006-07:00

Phill Klanderud ignored the cold rain at NorthStar Rifle Club in Red Wing, MN and won the Mn State Service Rile Championship. Phill has been a long time member of the MN St. Service Rifle team and a top competitor for many years. Pictures by Mark Havlik
Complete Results: Click here

Sunday's Leg match at NorthStar Rifle Club in Red Wing, Mn might have been wet and chilly, but the action was hot for Scott Brabec who won his Bronze Leg on the way to his Distinguished Rifleman's badge. Congratulations to Scott.

Larry Weidell wins the Gold medal, Scott Brabec wins the Silver, and Sgt. Al Shneider wins the Bronze. Complete Leg Match results: Click here

This slide show of the match is brought to us by Mark Havlik

Shooters News for the MN area - Sept 14th

2011-09-13T15:13:00.019-07:00

The Week Ahead for MN area Shooters - Sept 14. 2011


Distinguished Rifleman's Badge

Highpower
Service Rifle shooters, this is your big weekend coming up! The MN State Service Rifle championship will be held Sept 17th, and 18 at NorthStar Rifle Club near Red Wing, MN (Map). The individual match starts Sat. morning with first shots down range at 0900Hrs. Shooters will fire from the Offhand position, and the prone position in slow fire matches, and will fire from the sitting position, and the prone position in Rapid fire matches. Following the 600 yd prone match, the mid-range part of the the Team match will be fired,with the short course part of the Team match being fired on Sunday morning. The big match of the weekend, of course is the EIC Leg match which will start somewhere around 1100 hrs Sunday morning after the team match is completed. This 50 shot OTC match will award much coveted "Leg" points as the big prize. I wonder who is close to earning their last points toward the Distinguished Rifleman's Badge?
Click Here for Service Rifle Championship match Program

From: Capt. Bob
"Attached is your program for the 2011 Minn. service rifle championship & EIC match at North Star. NOTE that we are shooting 2 person teams this year. We want to promote club vs. club competition but if you can't find a team mate from your club let me know & I'll try to pair up some pick up teams under MRRA or some other state Ass'n. If you wish to camp on Fri. let me know and I'll get the top secret gate code to you. Advance entries are preferred and keep in mind the entry orifice closes at 0830 SHARP so if you are just showing up be there before 0830!

HOLDHARD, Bob dilligas@means.net

Larry Sawyer is hosting a Rifle Coaching Training Session -- Postponed till Jan 2012
Click Here for program

Small Bore shooters have one more chance to practice and show off their skills in prone competition this weekend at Elk River Sportsmen's club on sunday Sept. 18. Chris Hazelton will be match director at this once a year oppertunity to shoot at the Elk River small Bore range. This facility is really under used and I enjoy the chance to shoot there. Click Here for a match program and a map to the range.
Click Here for a few pictures of this excellent range and a slide show of last years match.
Highpower shooters should note that these prone SB matches are the absolute best way to practice for Mid and Long Range prone matches. Two of the top 3 shooters at this past weekend's Mid Range State Championships regularly participate in Small Bore prone matches. That should tell you something. These matches are shot 20 shots per target, and because you can see the hole in the target through your spotting scope, you get instant feed back on position, trigger control, and wind reading. The targets are shot at 50 yds, 50 m and 100 yds, with both Iron sights and Any sights being used during the day. Seniors can shoot scope all day and Fclass is welcome.

Last Weekend
The 9/11 memorial Mid Range State Championship matches were held this past weekend at Northwestern Gun Club. The weather held to forecast and was arguably the best conditions these matches have seen in many years. With pleasant temperatures and little wind to confound the shooters, plenty of great scores were shot.

Stacey, Eric, Steve, and Rick

From Stacey Tamulinas:
"Hi Jim:

I knew the 911 Match was going to have a good turn-out when I arrived and there wasn't any room to park at the 200 yd line. This is the first time I've ever seen 4 relays at a MN match. There were 6 or 7 firing points for sling shooters and the rest were F-Class. Saturday had perfect wind conditions but as usual the targets were very dark and did not get sun on the faces until about 12:30. Wind was about 0 - 5 mph and mostly 0.

Shot my Palma rifles all weekend but should have left the scope off for the Sunday Match. The MR-63 target at 300 yds has muted rings and X that made finding a point to aim at (at least for me) difficult. Things went extremely well on Saturday (800-57x). Steve Knutson was in 2nd place with 791-42x. He was using Hornady V-Max in a 240 I think. At least 4 of his points were lost when one of his bullets took a detour to the 6 ring, going through sideways! Personally, I never trusted those funny plastic tips.

Steve Knutson - Champ

Scope day, the wind picked up to 5-15 mph but seemed to have a very limited effect (maybe 1/2 min) for most people. Bryan Murnak continued to shoot his 6.5x284 with irons to good effect Steve K. was shooting very well. My three 9s were off call but probably due to operator error. Bryan ended the second day only dropping 1 point and Steve K. dropped 2 points.
There was very close battle between Phil Klanderude and Mark Rhomann with Mark taking 1st Master by 1 pt.
Rick Sievers won the F-Class State Championship with a 1594 - 93x. That is hard holding on that little target.
Eric Hazelton was 1st SS/Expert with a High Master score and a possible National Junior Record score for 500 yd any sight. Fair warning to the upper classes, his Master Card will be arriving soon.
I checked the NRA National Records and Eric Hazelton missed the Junior 20 shot 500 yds, Any Sight record by 2x's. Still very impressive for a SS Junior and he's not even close to exiting the junior class.

However, there were two National Geezer Records Set. Omer Hamer set a new 500 yd any sight,

grand senior record with a 200 - 14x and I set a new 500 yd metallic sight senior record with a 200 - 15x.

Rick Sievers - F class Champ

Thanks to Elliot Zunich. He ran a great match although his Serbian good nature was tested. If you weren't there you missed a good one. Attached are the photos. I can barely make out the Sunday scores. If there is a way to increase the contrast, it might help.

Best regards, Stacey

slide show - click here Results ---click here

Stacey Tamulinas

GRRC Palma Match Sept 3rd
From Kurt Borlaug:
Last Saturday, Sept. 3rd, GRRC hosted a Palma match and the turnout was less than stellar, but we had a ball anyway. Brett Kratt and Bob Woods came down from Duluth and with myself we made a party of it. The wind was dead calm for 800 and 900, picking up a bit at 1k just to tickle the bullets a bit. Brett Kratt ,shooting an M1-A fired a 410-4x. Bob Woods' first ever Palma match fired a 421-9
Kurt Borlaug, Palma rifle fired a 435-14x
Thanks, Kurt

Notes:
Full Bore Match coming up! (Oct. 9th)
From Capt Bob:
Greetings prone shooters:    Attached is a program for a first ever full bore match to be held at the Gopher Club on Oct 9thnear Harris, MN. I believe full bore rules require a 308 Winchester; however there may be some latitude in this since this is a first time event for Gopher. Contact Kurt for specifics. Watch the weather closely. It can be dandy or nasty this time of the year in Minn.
Capt. Bob                   Click Here for "Full Bore" match program.

From me--- This should be a fun match. Full Bore matches are usually shot "Two to a Mound". This means that the two shooters on the line alternate firing. Both are in firing position,. One shooter fires and the other records the shot on the shooters score card. As soon as the the score is announced, the scorer then has only 45 sec to fire his shot while the first shooter becomes the scorer. They alternate shooting then scoring after every shot. The "game" here is that you can't wait for the wind to be in your "shooting window". You must fire your shot within the 45 sec allowed. You must correct for the wind that is present and cannot wait out a bad condition. Go over the 45sec time limit twice and you can lose the value of that shot. This makes for a good learning situation. "Two to a mound" is a fun way to shoot a match. See Full Bore Match Rules -- pg 11-12

GRRC's Service Rifle clinic scheduled for Oct is for Nat Guard troops only.

Two Weeks Out

Sept 25 EIC Leg Match (Service Rifle) at GRRC - Click Here for Program
Sept 24-25 Mid Range and OTC at Eau Claire - Click Here for program

That's All Folks !
Hawkeye

Shooters News for the MN Area - Sept 8, 2011

2011-09-08T11:54:00.013-07:00

The Week Ahead
This weekend we observe the 10th anniversary of the attacks against America. This weekend will also be the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 Highpower Matches held by Northwestern Gun Club (map) to memorialize that tragic event. This year the 9/11 matches, as before, will be prone Mid Range matches, and will be the State Mid Range Championship. Each day, shooters will compete in four 20 shot prone slow fire matches to be fired from 300 yds to 500 yds. These matches are always seem to be shot on beautiful early fall days with a little pine sent in the air. Head on up to NWGC on Saturday for the Iron sight matches, and stay over through Sunday for the Any sight matches. There is Camping at the range and more than one club house to set up a cot indoors for the night. There are two good places to eat on the Lake within just a few miles.       Contact person is Bob Woods - bwoods@nvva.us
       9/11 Mid Range Championships - Click Here for Program
     Accurate, Weather Info for NWGC - Click Here -- updated by the minute from Airport (near the range) This weather site will be posted on the Blog throughout the weekend.

Sunday, 9/11 there will also be a 300 meter match at Minneapolis Rifle Club. (Map) Brian Shiffman, match director, invites all to these matches, which are shot on electronic 300 m targets. That means you just fire the shot and then ck the shot place on the computer screen next to each firing position. Neat stuff!    F-class and Senior scope shooters are encouraged to come and compete.
From Brian Shiffman:

"The Minneapolis Rifle Club (MRC) 300 meter match for September will be held this Sunday, September 11. Shooting starts at 10AM so get there early to set up and ensure that we have enough targets ready for shooting as well as for administrative and chatting purposes."

Brian D. Shiffman shiff004@umn.edu

Last Weekend
Highpower matches were shot at Eau Claire all weekend. Mark Schoess sent in pictures of the score board from Saturday's OTC match, and you can notice that Minn shooters were numerous and well placed in the final standings. Kurt Borlaug continues his mastery of the Service Rifle by shooting an excellent 775 which was good for 4th over all. Kevin Bangen took 2nd place with a awesome 781, and Dean Gillette, topped the large expert class, by shooting a Master score of 759.
Complete Results -- Click Here and Click Here Tks to Mark Schoess for sending in the score board pictures.

Small bore
The 3 Position Small bore Regional Championships were held at Mpls Rifle Club, and once again Emily Quiner came out on top, and took home the Gold medal for her winning efforts. These matches saw the return of Bruce Blahut as a competitor. Due to injury, its been many years since we have seen Bruce on the firing line. Welcome back !

Emily Quiner - 3P Gold medal

Alex Giesar - Silver medal and 2nd place

Complete Regional 3P Champ Results-- Click Here

Small Bore Prone Outdoor Championships
From Ross Ewert:
"Jim, I am not sure if anyone sent you the State prone results from Hibbing a week ago, if not, here it is. Emily shot an outstanding 3196 to become our latest MN state smallbore prone champion. Click Here for Complete Results

300meter International
From Brian Shiffman:
"What a great day for a match. Fine weather, sunny skies slight breeze and not many excuses.

For the second month in a row, Tom Loberg and Johan Boden had a real battle that was not settled until the last shot was fired. For the second month, Johan bested Tom by one point, 590 to a 589. Tom was ahead after the second series but dropped 4 points to Johan’s one in the third series.

Prone class was decided by two points with Garold Jones ahead of Russ Siakel.

Two shooters new to our matches were John Swenson and Bryan Peterson (Ya, for sure) who behaved themselves well while posting good scores for newcomers to 300 meters. John was a model of consistency, shooting 188, 187 and 187.

Russ Siakel was cruising in Prone until the third series then things just fell apart for him. As for me, I gave up really early, like just after sighting in! My eye was playing tricks on me as I tried shooting Prone. I would have switched to F-Class but did not bring scope or rests. So I enjoyed myself watching others shoot."

Full results are at http://www.edfpages.com/mgfc/results.php?match=8.

Brian D. Shiffman shiff004@umn.edu

Notes:
Olympic Free Pistol (and Air Rifle, and Shuetzen rifle)
from Mike Marzitelli
"Gentlemen and Ladies. We are winding down the 2011 Free Pistol season with the State Championship coming up October 15th at the Minneapolis Rifle Club/Minnetonka Game & Fish Club facility. We have one more match before the Championship the third Saturday in September at MRC/MG&FC.

Starting October, we are beginning the Air Pistol matches at Bill's in Robbinsdale on Tuesday evenings. Again, there will be two relays, the first at 4 in the afternoon with the second beginning about 5:30. There has been in the past a full house at the first relay but there always has been plenty of room for additional shooters at the second relay. These are open matches and all are invited to shoot any or all of them. We will have as optional for those who want to establish National Rankings affiliation with USA Shooting . The few dollars extra is elective only for those who wish to register their scores and is not required for participation. The fees will remain $6.00 for range use along with a contribution for targets when they are required. We have sufficient targets from last year to last a few months.

Olympic Air Rifle will also be starting on Wednesdays in October using the same format.

Olympic Free Pistol Schedule Issues.

For the last few years, we have been scheduling during the summer two matches a month, one on the first Saturday at Oakdale, and the second at MRC on the third Saturday. This last summer, the attendance at Oakdale has been light. During the summer, there are many conflicting activities hence that can be expected. These are things such as marriage, children, vocation, other travel, and other interests such as boating, cabins up north and so on. These are all good things in and of themselves. The question I have is given the conflict, is it in our interest as a competitive group to maintain the two match per month schedule from May through September for Free Pistol. I would like some feedback on that as I have to meet with the other match directors this coming Saturday to work on the 2012 Oakdale schedule. Feedback please. mmarzitelli@hotmail.com

Schuetzen Team Formation. Gerry Barnes has proposed that we should consider forming Schuetzen Teams for national competition. These teams would be in rimfire as well as centerfire Schuetzen. We would meet once a month shooting together as a team and forward our scores to the governing organization. In this case it would be the American Single Shot Association. These scores would them compete against similar teams throughout the United States. It would be shot from both Offhand and Bench and in Iron Sights and Any Sight categories. If you are interested in becoming involved, let me know so we can begin the organizational ground work. In as this is a postal match of sorts, we have scheduling options so we would be able to work around being on call , being elsewhere, being cold, and other concerns. The rimfire matches could be shot from the climate controlled facility available to us. The submitted scores would be for a five member team. Feedback please.

Mike" mmarzitelli@hotmail.com

MRRA fall Board meeting
From George Minerich - MRRA pres.
"Hi All: Please find attached the Board meeting agenda for Saturday's meeting. Thanks! George PS: I know you can't make it Matt" Click Here for agenda

Service Rifle Championships (Sept 17-18)
From: Capt. Bob
"Attached is your program for the 2011 Minn. service rifle championship & EIC match at North Star. NOTE that we are shooting 2 person teams this year. We want to promote club vs. club competition but if you can't find a team mate from your club let me know & I'll try to pair up some pick up teams under MRRA or some other state Ass'n.

If you wish to camp on Fri. let me know & I'll get the top secret gate code to you.

Advance entries are preferred and keep in mind the entry orifice closes at 0830 SHARP so if you are just showing up be there before 0830!

HOLDHARD, Bob"

Two Weeks Out
Sept 16-18 NRA Rifle coach training classes by Larry Sawyer -- Click Here for program
Sept 17-18 Service Rifle Championships at NorthStar - Click Here for Program
Sept 18 Small Bore1600 at ERSC -- Click Here for Match Program
Sept 24 Service Rifle clinic at GRRC
Sept 25 EIC Leg Match (Service Rifle) at GRRC - Click Here for Program
That's All Folks -- Note: Match programs etc always avalible on Blog

Hawkeye

Shooters News for the MN Area -- Aug 23, 2011

2011-08-23T19:16:00.016-07:00

The Week Ahead
This coming weekend has the Championship trail shifting to the North with the Prone Small Bore St. Championships to be held in Hibbing, Mn, at the the Hibbing Rifle and Pistol Club. There will be matches both Saturday and Sunday (Aug 27-28), and each day will see the shooters facing off in prone matches to be shot on targets from 50 yds to 100 yds. The four matches on Saturday will be shot with Iron sights and then on Sunday, any sights may be used at the shooters choice. This will be the a great opportunity for all you northern Highpower prone shooters to practice for the 9/11 Mid Range Matches at NWGC. Don't miss this opportunity. St. Prone SB Champ Match Bulletin (pg 8-10) -- Click Here

For the Highpower shooter there is the South Dakota St Champ matches at Yankton, SD over the two day weekend of Aug 27-28. There will be a sporter rifle match on Sat, and Sunday is the State Champ match. Click Here for match bulletin.

There also is a rumor of Mid Range Matches at Lacrosse Rifle Club this weekend, but I don't have a match bulletin to share.

Last Weekend
Highpower
The NRA Regional Championships were held. The contest was contested. The shooters fired matches at 200 yds, 300yds and 600 yds. The Champion was crowned after a tough match. Capt. Bob Peasley is the 2011 Mn Regional Champion. Capt. Bob fired good consistant high scores to come out on top and win the Gold medal. While he didn't win any of the matches outright, he made no mistakes though out the day and had the most points at the end.
Capt. Bob was just out Xed by Kevin Bangen in the Standing match. Both had fired awesome 190 scores in that that difficult match. In the Sitting Rapid fire match it was Dale Wickstrom that had just one more point that Capt Bob, and his Sitting Rapid fire score of 196 took that match. At the 300yd line, it was

Erick Rhode who dropped just two pts and won that rapid fire match with his 198 score. At the 600 yd line it was the last chance for Capt Bob to take a match win, and his 196 score was again good for a 2nd place but again Kevin Bangen was just one point better and took the prone slow fire match with a 197. Actually, the match wasn't just 1 point difference, Kevin drilled 14 Xs, while the next best shoot could only manage 6 Xs -- No, It wasn't even close. Kevin won that match going away!
In the end, it didn't matter who won each of the 4 matches, Capt Bob's solid performance in every match won the Day !
Congratulations to Capt. Bob Peasley for winning the MN NRA Regional with the top score of 775-15x.
Other great scores were fired by Jim Schonke (763) who was in town for the next days very important Leg Match. Dick Van Valkenberg might be close to earning his Master card if he continues to shoot 765s like he did in this tournament.

Click Here to see Capt. Bob fire his 200 yd Rapid fire match on the way to his Gold medal. It almost didn't go the way it was supposed too.
From Capt. Bob: " As you could see by watching close I had a couple minor feed problems and had to double clutch a couple shots. It was worse at 300. I think I had about 1/4 second left after all 4 strings."

Sunday, was the big Service Rifle Leg Match. Mark Havlik sent in a copy of the results. Thank You Mark.

Results of Leg Match: >>>

It looks like Jim Schonke made his trip from Wisc. worthwhile by holding hard in the beautiful weather, and taking the Gold Medal and Leg Points with a well shot 475-7x. I believe that Jim has traveled here before and taken home well earned Leg Points. Jim should now have enough pts for his Distinguished badge or be very close to it. Congratulations to Jim Schonke such good shooting. Terry McDonnell was not far behind in 2nd place with a 469, but with only 14 shooters, I'm not sure if a 2nd leg was given for even that good score. Right behind Terry was Thomas Holm, and Dean Gillette both firing competitive scores above 465 and next in line to be taking Leg points from less practiced shooters.

Mark Havlik has also sent in for us another excellent slide show, set to music, of the pictures Mark took at the Leg Match. I have to say that Mark is getting very good at producing these moving slide shows and they are as good as any I've seen of shooting events.
Click Here to view Mark's latest slide show.

Small Bore
The last of Mpls. Rifle Club's summer series of prone small bore matches was held this past Sunday under Blue Bird skys, and with little wind to plague the assembled shooters. It was to be a great day for most every body. The conditions meant that just about every shooter had a really good or great match to remember after. In the end, it would be a battle between Metric State Champ and collegiate shooter Emily Quinar, High Power prone specialist Stacey Tamulinas, and all round High Master Steve Knutson. The 50 yd match started with a light breeze from 8 o'clock, and Steve and Stacey cleaned both 20 shot targets, while Emile dropped one pt for a 399 score. Marksman shooter Julie Huseby was dialed in and fired a competitive 397 just behind Jim Biles for 5th place. Next up was the Dewar Match and that meant first a 50 yd target and then a 100 yd target with the regular 20 shots on each. Steve Knutson again cleaned both of these challenging targets for a 400-29x and now had a 1pt lead over Stacey, and 3 over Emily.

   The third match would be the 100 yd match and since this was a " One Day Regional" course of fire, this match and the following 50m match would allow the use of "Any Sights". I had shot pretty good in the 2 iron sight matches, and was down only 8 for the day, but I was having trouble with blurry eyes and would go to a Scope for rest of the match. Jim Biles, Steve Knutson and others made the same choice. It was also a good day to test the inexpensive SK yellow box ammo with the light wind and 20 pwr scope to help out.
Two shooters decided not to use scopes -- Stacey and Emily. Emily, because she shoots only iron sights in collegiate competition, and besides she just won the State Metric Champ with iron sights over the best scope shooters.   Stacey chose iron sighs because he wanted to shoot head to head with Emily and if either won the day, it would have been a fair fight -- not exactly mano a mano, but you get the idea. It was a good choice because the use of a scope did not help Steve in this match as he scored the same 397 as Stacey and Emily, but Stacey scored the most Xs with 25 and gets the win. Jim Biles was just a pt behind and now only 9 down for the day.
Now we were down to the last two targets to be shot at 50m. The "meter" match is always considered to be the hardest match and so it is proper to make it the last match. it's easy to drop a bunch of pts in the meter match.    Steve K. was now ahead for the day, but only one pt over Stacey, and with only a 3 pt cushion over Emily. Any one could win yet!   Two folks cleaned the first target of 20 shots. Stacey and my self. Emily dropped a couple and was slipping away from a possible win. Steve K. shot a 199 and this meant that going into the last of the 8 targets shot, it was a tied up shooting match. 20 more shots on the 50m target would determine the winner. First off the line was yours truly dropping 3 and posting a 397- good for 2nd in this meter match. Then, Steve came off the line having dropped 3 more for a 396. Stacey and Emily were taking their time and were the last shooters off the line. Emily could not make up earlier lost pts, and posted a 396. She would not win today.
   It was up to Stacey to take the win on the last shot or not. Shoot a 10 and win the match out right on points or shoot a nine and risk being creedmoored by Steve on who shot the last x.
It was a 10 and Stacey wins this last MRC 1600 Sm Bore match, after a good battle down to the last point and the last shot. What a great way to win the day. Steve came in 2nd with a SB Master score of 1593-106x. Emily was third. Stacey not only won the match, but fired his first Master iron sight Sm bore prone score, shooting somewhere around 99.6% possible (1594-126x) .

Everyone had fun, and it was a great day at the range. Thanks to George Minerich for 8 hrs of range prep on Friday to make this match possible.
Complete Results: Click to expand

Two Weeks Out
Sept 3 Palma at GRRC -- Click Here for Program
Sept 3-5 Mid range and OTC at Eau Claire -- Click Here for program
Sept 10-11 Mid Range prone champs at NWGC Duluth - Click Here for program

That's All Folks!
Hawkeye

Regional OTC championship at ERSC

2011-08-22T08:45:00.004-07:00

Capt. Bob Peasley Wins the MN NRA Regional Championship.

Capt. Bob fired solid scores in all 4 matches of the NRA Regional Championship\, held this past Saturday at Elk River Sportsman's Club, and topped the list of final aggregate scores.
Here is Capt. Bob firing the Sitting Rapid fire match from the 200 yd line on his way to the Gold Medal.

Results:

Shooters News for the MN area - Aug 16, 2011

2011-08-16T09:33:00.007-07:00

The Week Ahead
Highpower Championship weekend again --- The NRA Regional Over the Course Championship and a Service Rifle Leg match will be held this weekend at the Elk River Sportman's Club this Saturday and Sunday. On Aug 20, Saturday, the match will be the Individual Championship -- a 80 shot OTC match. This match will have an Offhand stage shot at 200yds, a sitting Rapid fire stage also at 200 yds, followed by a prone rapid fire stage from 300yds, and finally 20 shots prone slow fire from 600yds. The prone slow fire phase of the Team match will also be shot Sat.    On Sunday, the 21st, the team match will continue with the Rapid fire, and the Offhand stages at the start of the day, and then be followed by an Excellence in Competition Leg match for Service Rifles, which will probably start around 1100 hrs.
I know that the range is in excellent condition, and as usual, the targets are in good shape. This will be a great match. See you there?
         Weather forecast click Here
             Regional OTC and Leg Match Program Click Here
From Scott Olson: (match director)
A BBQ dinner will be served to all match participants Saturday evening after the completion of all shooting.This meal is included in the entry fee.
            CONTACT: Scott Olson Pullbanger@aol.com

Small Bore
For the Dedicated prone shooter, on Sunday, Aug 21 there will be the monthly Sm Bore 1600 match at Mpls. Rifle Club. Shooters will be firing matches on NRA targets at 50yds to 100yds. This match should be good for everyone's ego as these NRA targets are notably easier to score on than those intimating UIT targets we shot on two weeks ago. If you need some prone practice for Highpower, this is as good as it gets. F-Class and Senior scope shooters always welcome.
Small bore match program Click Here

Last Weekend
International Friendship match: From Stacey Tamulinas:

"The Swiss Rifle Club of Minneapolis hosted the International Friendship match between the Gopher Club and the Zuckenriet Shooting Club. As usual, this was a very casual match on the extremely hard international 300M target. The Club was also competing against Vancouver and Los Angeles Swiss Rifle Clubs in a separate postal match.

For next year, I must notify local shooters that they are eligible to compete and win some nice medals by achieving a 90% score with a "standard rifle"(European rules - heavy Trigger -no diopter, etc). If you don't make the medal the first time you get to try again.

Attached are a few photos for your viewing pleasure. The after-match debriefing at the North Woods Bar lasted almost as long as the match. We did manage to solve most of the problems in Switzerland and the USA.

The folks who attending in the Group Photo (lf - rt): Stacey Tamulinas, Steve Petschel, Erhard Bruderer, Russ Siakel, Brian Shiftman, Joel Peabody, Rinhard Dediker (Pres) Chris Heeb, center: Patrick Fischer (Sec)

Stacey "

Notes:
Mark Havlik has produced a very good slide show (with music) of this years trip to Camp Perry, which has picts of many of the MN Service Rifle team in action--
Click Here to view
Tks Mark for sending this in!

Two Weeks out
Aug 27-28 S.Dak Hp champ at Yankton -- Program click here
Aug 27-28 Sm Bore St. Prone Champ at Hibbing - Program click here
Sept 3 Palma 800yds-1000yds at GRRC - Program click here
Sept 3-4 MRP and OTC at Eau claire Program click here

Camp Perry 2011 by Mark Havlik

2011-08-16T08:54:00.001-07:00

Karl Kenyon 1918 --2011

2011-08-13T05:45:00.005-07:00

In Memorial

from elynews.com

Karl B. Kenyon, 1918 – 2011, has left the range
Karl Beau Chene Kenyon, a resident of Ely, Nevada for 91 years, passed away in Sandy, Utah on Friday, July 29, 2011, at the age of 93. Karl was born on June 28, 1918, in Ely, Nevada to Douglas and Isabella Kenyon. On April 29, 1939, he married Zoe Anderson in Ely, Nevada. He served in the Army during WWII in both France and Belgium. Karl was an assayer and chemist for Kennecott in Ruth and McGill. Shortly after WWII, he developed his passion for guns into what would become a life long career in gunsmithing. He designed and built his own trigger for target rifles (known worldwide as the “Kenyon” trigger) and soon became one of the premier gunsmiths in the world.
Karl is survived by his children: Ronald E. (Ardath) Kenyon, Reginald D. (Alicia) Kenyon and Terry K. (Nickie) Kenyon; his brother Arien Wise; 20 grandchildren, 26 great grandchildren and 1 great great grandchild. He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Zoe, daughter Gayle Bronson, and brothers Doug Kenyon and Duke Hermansen.

The Shooting community lost a great friend this past week. Karl was legend in Sm Bore circles and will be missed by all. His accomplishments were many, but he was best known for his redesign of the famous Winchester Mod 52 micromotion trigger. Three years ago, I had Karl work his magic on my M-52 trigger and what a sweet trigger group it is now. Karl loved to talk on the phone with shooters and customers, and I twice enjoyed shooting stories from Karl, when I was his customer.
Karl Kenyon - Rest in Peace
We are diminished.

From Kurt Borlaug:
" Jim, Sad to hear but I believe I heard earlier this year he was failing. Isn't it wonderful that God gives us passions that reach so many in ways we could never concieve of. Just imagine what he saw as an improvement to an already good mechanism and a desire to surpass it. One can only ponder how many shooters put extra X's into a target from his talent.
Thanks for the notice, Kurt."

South Dakota St. HP Championships

2011-08-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

Not enough rifle matches? For those traveling shooters in need of just one more rifle match, you are saved. Yankton County Sharpshooters are hosting both a Sm bore, and a High Power State Championship this month. Aug 14, this Sunday will be the Sm Bore state Champ. Click Here for match Program. Following that there will be HP St Champ matches on Aug 28. These matches include a Grand Match on Saturday, and a Sporting Rifle match. Click Here for Match program.
From Match director George Cwach: gdcwach@svtv.com
Attached are the programs for South Dakota State Championship to be held a my clubs range in August. I know it is a long way to drive for 200 yard match, but you and the rest of the Minnesota team are welcome to attend if you choose to.

George

Shooters News for the MN area - Aug 9, 2011

2011-08-09T13:44:00.011-07:00

The Week Ahead

Even with many of the competitive Highpower shooters off to Camp Perry for the Nationals, this next weekend still offers two rifle matches for the shooting aficionado to work on their trigger pull, and NPA. Both matches are prone matches at Mid Range distances, so it's easy shooting, and comfortable weather is forecast to make for a pleasant day at either match.

Sunday, Aug 14th there will be a 300 meter International (it's still mid range prone shooting) match at Mpls Rifle Club. This match had been listed incorrectly on the MRRA schedule for Aug 7, however the proper date for the match is this next Sunday, Aug 14, and will be shot then.
Note: The 300m shooters might have to get freindly with the Swiss club who also have Aug 14 scheduled for their match at mrc
From Brian Shiffman: (On the confusion of match dates.)
300 Meter club matches are held on the 2^nd Sunday of each month throughout the year. On occasion the April match is scheduled for the 3^rd Sunday, but that is know and posted at the beginning of each year. The August match will be NEXT Sunday, the 14^th since that is the second Sunday of the month. The MRRA calendar has the date of August 7^th but that is in error. I never caught that problem until this evening. If you look on the MGFC-MRC web site under Events you will see that the match is shown on August 14^th. http://www.mgfc.org/calendar.aspx

I am sure that there will be a lot of confusion but I hope this email will get to people in time to prevent unnecessary traveling, etc.

That said, the August match will be on the 14^thand the usual rules and fees apply. We start at 10 am. Come early to set up.

Results of the July match are posted at http://www.edfpages.com/mgfc/results.php?match=7. F-Class was hotly contested by Johan Boden (a film star) and Tom Loberg. While I shot F-Class and used a rest, I again tried to use iron sights. I’m encouraged enough to try Prone at the upcoming match.

Russ Saikel was the lone Prone competitor and has bullet seating issues that probably kept him from posting a better score.

Brian" Click Here for MRC Map

This match offers a local competition for Shooters on the NW side of the cities, and will be shot on those really neat Electronic targets.

Sunday Aug 14th there will also be a great prone Mid Range match just SE of the cities at NorthStar Rifle Club's great facility this side of Red Wing on Hwy 61. Click Here for map This match will be shot at 300, 500 and 600 yds.

From Capt. Bob:
"I just received confirmation that Jerry Johnson will run a 9AM (stat orifice closes at 0830) $5.00 practice MRP at 3, 5 & 600 on Sun. Aug. 14 at North Star. Depending on turn out it might be a 2 relay, score in the pit, no award, gone by noon 30 event."

Last Weekend

Poor man's Camp Perry matches at Northwestern Gun Club -- no news or results passed on to me, sorry.

The Sm Bore Metric Prone Regional at Mpls Rifle Club was contested with 160 shots for record on both Sat,

Emily Quinar- Gold medal

and Sunday last weekend. 12 Competitors from both the USA and Canada fought both heat and humidity on Saturday during most of the 4 stages of 20 shots each on two targets.
Saturday was Iron sight day, and fogged up glasses was one of the problems I faced on every shot for the first half of the match. These UIT targets we were shooting, left no room for error. The 10 ring is only about 1 min of angle and to hit that 3/8" 10 ring at 50 meters , or the 1 in. 10 ring at 100yds requires all the skill I didn't have this day. In the last Metric match I had shot, this past April in Phoenix, I had been practicing a lot during the Sm Bore "March Madness" of a 3200 or a 6400 every weekend for a month. My scores reflected that amt of shooting with averages scores of 191-193. Not today, though. I was shooting 186-187 (or worse) and falling way too far behind to worry about being competitive for a place on the podium.
Not everybody was having problems though. Lots good scores were shot by the younger, fitter and more practiced shooters. Age and treachery were not going to win today. Youth and Skill would define the eventual winners.

Bruce Blahut ran a great match. We all should not forget all the work it takes to put on these championship tournaments. Bruce does all this work for the benifit of the Kids -- the Junior shooters. While this was the Regional Champ match, it was in reality, put on for the kids-- the juniors -- to shoot in tough higher level competition. If it wasn't for Bruce's effort to provide this competition fo r the kids, adults like myself would not have a match to shoot in. That effort (and that of others) has been going on for a long time, while a lot of junior shooters have benifited along the way-----so do the adults who have these matches to shoot in. I appreciate that.

Jason Jarvis fires at 100yd targets

    Saturday -- the Iron Sight match. In the first 50 m match Emily Quinar (387-18) jumped off to a 2 pt advantage over long range specialist, Stacey Tamulinas, while Canadian Jason Jarvas, and Steve Knutson,fired 381s were tied for 3rd.. The Dewar match shot at 50m and 100 m, continued to separate the would be winners from the rest of the pack. Emily and Stacey both posted scores in the 380s. to retain the lead, but it was Greg Quinar, that won the match, by shooting an excellent 386-13. Greg comes out of the MK class for this win. The 100 m match was plagued by winds that didn't know weather to blow out of the NW or the SE -- or when to switch. Emily Q, did the best of watching the shifts and put herself 2 pts up on the field with "good for the conditions" 385-13x. Sub Junior, Eric Hazleton shot a very constant 379-11 on his way to 4th place for the day.   In the last match, targets were shot at 50m again. Stacey T. clawed back 2 points of the lead that Emily had at this point and won the 2nd 50m Match with the high score of 388-17x. Greg Quinar kept the family in the running with his 386-13x score. So at the end of the day it was Stacey with a 1538 and Emily with a 1539. One point makes all the difference and Emily Quinar wins the Metric Iron sight championship!
    Sunday -- The Any Sight (scopes or Irons) Match
Sunday started out just a little humid, but a much lower temperature greeted the shooters and it looked to be a great day on the range. Again the wind was switchy, running 4-5mph from any direction and from all directions at the same time sometimes. Emily Quinar started out the day in the first 50m match by hammering the competition with a 393-23x, and the only one to stay close was Stacy with a 392. The rest of us sat in the middle 380s and were happy to get that score. In the metric Dewar, it was Greg Quinar who scored his 2nd match win of the weekend, by shooting first an amazing 198-15x on the 50m target, and finishing with a 391-26x after the 100 m target. Stacey was 2nd. He got the same 391 points but was 5 Xs short of Greg's great score. The 100m match is 20 shots each on two 100m targets. These targets are reduced 300m targets and it's darned tough to hit that 1 in ten ring. With 3 pts in hand, Stacey T. went into this match as the days leader. There were still 2 matches and 4 targets to go, but as Stacey later said to me, that he was getting a little tired and holding those cross hairs in the 10 ring was getting a little unsteady.    Stacey fires his worst score of the weekend and drops out of the lead. A few others, such as Chad Danielson are not so far behind with 381s. The last 50 m match sealed the deal, as Emily walks away with the day's Any Sight win by shooting the top score of 393-22x.   I miraculously get my only good score of the weekend and 2nd in this match with a 390-17x-(even a blind monkey..........)
   Oh, by the Way, did I mention that Emily shot Iron sights to win this Any Sight match.

   To View a Slide show of a few pictures from this Match -- Click Here

Emily Quinar, collegiate shooter on the Murray St. Racer Rifle Team, was top shooter at this weekend's Prone Sb Regional Championships at the Mpls. Rifle club. Using only Iron Sights in today's Any sight match, Emily outscored all the Scope shooters and doubled up her win in Saturdays Iron sight only match. With an excellent score of 3099-149x for the two days shooting, Emily takes the Gold Medal in these tough matches shot on those non-forgiving UIT targets.

Stacey T. Silver medal

Stacey Tamulinas wins the Silver Medal just a few pts back, and also took 2nd place in the irons only match, just one pt down from Emily.

Click to expand Results

More on this Weekends Prone Metric matches at Mpls Rifle club ---

Jason Jarvis, a rising young shooter, and Blogger from Fort Frances, Ontario, attended our Metric SB matches this weekend and Published this article about his shooting expedition to Mn. Click Here to read Jason's own article in his Blog: Prone In the Wilderness .
Jason fired an excellent score on tough targets at an unfamiliar range.

We were all disappointed when Jason could not come back on Sunday to enjoy less stressful shooting in better weather. We enjoyed his company and sure hope to see him at matches next year or sooner.

Sm bore Notes:
From Chad Danielson
Jim, Below you’ll find the Current Smallbore Season Aggregate Standings as they are after this weekends, Metric Prone Regional Championship. Feel free to post them as you see fit.

			1. Eric Hazelton (Jr.)	10,448 - 402
			2. Steve Knutson	9,351 - 458
			3. Jim Evenson	9,088 - 414
			4. Jim Biles	7,895 – 406
			5. Stacey Tamulinas	7,855 - 445
			6. Chad Danielson	7,705 - 298
			7. Alex Giesar (Jr.)	7,684 - 308
			8. Nick Learn (Jr.)	7,628 - 249
			9. Morgan Dietrich	6,337 – 391
			10. Emily Quiner (Jr.)	6,287 - 369

HighPower Notes:
Ammo Prices-
From: Capt Bob

"HP shooters: A source within the sales department of a BIG wholesaler told me this morning, July 29, 2011, that they are expecting a HUGE increase in factory ammo prices sometime in September. Something in the neighborhood of 25 freaking percent. Imagine that, just in time for hunting season.

This guy has always had solid information in the past so take it for what it's worth. He did NOT mention components, just factory loaded ammo. However since both use copper & lead you do the math.

GOODLUCK!" Bob

Two Weeks Out
Aug 20-21 - NRA Regional and Leg match at Elk River Sportsmen's Club - Click Here for Match Program

That's all folks
Hawkeye

Emily Quinar wins Sm Bore Metric Regional Championship !

2011-08-07T19:36:00.005-07:00

Emily Quinar - Gold Medal

Emily Quinar, collegiate shooter on the Murray St. Racer Rifle Team, was top shooter at this weekend's Prone Sb Regional Championships at the Mpls. Rifle club. Using only Iron Sights in today's Any sight match, Emily outscored all the Scope shooters and doubled up her win in Saturdays Iron sight only match. With an excellent score of 3099-149x for the two days shooting, Emily takes the Gold Medal in these tough matches shot on those non-forgiving ISU targets.

Stacey T. Silver medal

Stacey Tamulinas wins the Silver Medal just a few pts back, and also took 2nd place in the irons only match, just one pt down from Emily.

Click to expand Results

The Week Ahead and MN Long Range State Championship -- Results (1000 yd and Palma)

2011-07-31T16:55:00.042-07:00

Shooters News for the MN area - Aug 2, 2011

The Week Ahead

With the weather being forecast for warm and a little humid this coming weekend, the best choice of matches to shoot might just be to head to Northwestern Gun Club for this weekends ~~two days (Aug 6-7) of OTC Highpower~~ matches. Saturday, Aug 6 th is OTC and Sunday, Aug 7 th is a Mid Range Prone match. Yes, its time once again for the "Poor man's Camp Perry" on beautiful Hunter's lake. I have been going to these matches for many years and they are always some of the best of the summer. Click Here for a Match Bulletin.
If you need to stick closer to home, there is a great Championship match to shoot nearby. Dust off that Sm Bore match rifle and come to Mpls Rifle Club, both Saturday and Sunday (Aug 6-7), for the Prone Outdoor Metric St. Championship. Yup, it's all belly shooting - 160 shots each day to test your skill on those pesky little international metric targets. This match is also the F-Class Championship for Small Bore, and Seniors shooters are encouraged to come and shoot with a scope in all matches. Click Here for match bulletin
On Sunday, Aug 7th, there will also be a 300 m match at MRC. Prone or 3P shooting on those sophisticated electronic targets. This is cool stuff. If you haven't shot these 300m computer operated targets you've missed some fun.
So as you can see there is a little something for everyone, and you can shoot both days or just one day at either of these two matches. See you out there - let's pull some triggers.

Last Weekend
The Minnesota Long Range State Championship - 1000yd and Palma took place last weekend at GRRC's long range shooting facility near Harris MN.

Steve McGee, renouned rifle stock builder from Kansas, fired an awesome 592-36x in the Minn. State Long range championship to take the match win on Saturday. Steve started out by winning the Any sight match with a 199 and never looked back, following that with a 194 and another 199 in the two iron sight matches.

Jay Johnson, MN resident, won the State champ trophy and came in 2nd overall with his great effort, scoring at 589-24x. I believe that this is Jay's first major Long Range win. Congratulations to Jay and Steve for surviving the rain storm, and very hot humid weather while posting these top scores. Jay has a Master Classification and had to out-shoot 10 High Masters to win this Championship.

Just one point behind Jay was Stacey Tamulinas, and Shirley McGee. Both of these hard holders posted 588s with Stacey taking that 3rd place by only a few Xs.
Erick Hazelton, a junior Small bore shooter who just returned from a successful trip to the Nationals at Camp Perry, fired an inspired 195 in the first match with his newly rebarreled Rem 700 in .223 cal. Even though Erick lost a rd in the final match, his mature performance put him on the top of the Ex class for the day. I think we'll be seeing more of Erick in the winners circle not too long in the future.
In the F-Class division , Adam Shidla also came out of the Expert class to wrap up the overall F-class win by posting a 579-20x. Also drilling xs and 10s on those 1 moa targets was Scott Brabec, who took 2nd place honors (570-6x). Remember that the 10 ring on the F targets is only as big as the X ring on the Iron sight targets ! Great shooting guys!

Click Pict. to expand

--Complete results of Saturday's
1000 yd Minn. State Championship:

Photo from Capt Bob

Saturday and Sunday results: Incl. Palma Champ. --

The Palma Championship was shot on Sunday and again it was Hot and Humid conditions. Hot or not, it was a new day and a new match to win. 3 shooters took the lead after the first stage shot at the 800 yd line. 3 shooters who fired exactly the same score -- 150-11x for the 15 record shots. That's perfect scores and 70 % Xs. Brian Mrnak, Stacey Tamulinas and Robert Mead set the bar right a the top to begin this match and showed what it would take if you wanted to win.

How hot was it?

Moving to the 900 yd line, it was Larry Miller, Steve McGee and Jay Johnson who fired the clean 150 point scores and showed that they were not out of the competition yet and would go back to the 1000 yd line ready to win the match.    Only one pt down on the leader board are Stacey, Larry, and Steve.
1000 yds is a long way away. I can hardly see the targets that far away. The shooters in today's match not only could see those tiny targets, but they were putting a lot of shots in the middle -- in the X ring. Stacey and Steve fought it out to the end, and at the end they again ended up with identical scores of 149-6x. Tied for the match win - nope! Brian Mrnak had fired a clean 150 to take the 1000 yd stage. Stacey and Steve were tied in points total again for the over all match winner. Both had fired 448 for the day and it would fall to Stacey's count of 27 Xs to earn him the 1st place in this State Palma Match.
   The High Resident score was fired again Sunday by Jay Johnson, and you can see Jay had a pretty good weekend. Jay Johnson is the Mn State 1000 yd, Palma and Long Range Championship and he now has the trophies to prove it!
In the F-class, John Andres combined scores for the two days good enough for him to win the F-class championship. Steven Winzelman was only a few pts. behind in this class.
It was also nice to see our friends, Frank Fisher and David Simonsen come over from Wisc. to shoot some long range.
Shirley McGee fired match fired scores that were competitive in every match and ended up High Woman for the championship.

Champions !

From: Capt Bob

The 2011 3 gun match winner is Steve McGee from Salina Kansas standing on right. His wife Shirley is high woman in the middle. Junior Erick Hazelton standing on the left. And finally kneeling on the left is Stacey Tamulinas, Jay Johnson then Rick Severs - winner of the F class Palma match.
All state champions have been updated in my records.

More Notes:

From: Capt. Bob

"Those of you at the 1000 yard match last Sat. no doubt recall I had ammo trouble in match 2 and quit. I stopped shooting after 5 record shots in match 2 iron sights. I was holding SOLID 8 ring elevation with the 6.5X284 ! Last summer, my load of 50.0 gr H4350 & 142's shot 10 shots in under 2" at 600 yards with a .050 jam.

I blew 1 primer Sat. and the load was not that hot last year.

I loaded the last 150 rounds out of a Sierra box (142 gr.) early this summer.....same data but .025 jump. I kind of remember seeing that a few of the rounds seemed to be taller in the box but didn't think much about it.

Monday morning I started checking seat depth and discovered as much as .032 difference base to ogive between bullets. So I pulled the 2 bullets with the biggest difference. Lo & behold the long one weighed 155 gr & the short one was 142 gr. I have NEVER owned a 155 gr. 6.5 MM in my life which means the damn things left the factory that way. I kind of recall having elevation problems last year but not near that bad. Last year I was jamming .045, so even a 142 would have had a little jam. When I shortened the jam to .025 this year it got real ugly.

So the moral of the story is if something don't look right it's probably NOT!"

Two Weeks out
Aug 13 - From Capt. Bob -- I just received confirmation that Jerry Johnson will run a 9AM (stat orifice closes at 0830) $5.00 practice MRP at 3, 5 & 600 on Sun. Aug. 14 at North Star. Depending on turn out it might be a 2 relay, score in the pit, no award, gone by noon 30 event.

Thats all folks!

Hawkeye

Shooters news for the MN Area -- July 26

2011-07-26T09:10:00.009-07:00

Good luck to all those shooters who are now or soon will be competiting at the Camp Perry Nationals !

Meanwhile back in MN-
Now that the prone shooters got all practiced up at last weekends Mid Range Regional matches, they can head up to GRRC this next Saturday and Sunday for a little long range shooting. They will be joining the dedicated Palma and Long range shooting aficionados at MN's long range State Championships - just north of the cities at GRRC's long range shooting facility. Shooters will be competing in both NRA rifle sling, and Iron sight class or the F-class matches.
Saturday, July 30 the matches are all at 1000 yds and the 1000yd state champion will be crowned after the three 20 shot matches at that distance. It's a three gun match, so if you want you can shoot that first 20 Any sight match with a scoped gun and then switch guns for the following two Iron sight matches. Unlimited sighters are allowed in each match.
Sunday, July 31, Palma matches are the order for the day. Each shooter will take sighters and 15 shots for record first at 800 yds, and then the same course of fire at 900 and 1000yds. These matches require that .308 caliber be used and that puts more emphasis on the individual shooter's ability as most of the rifles will be fairly equal in performance capabilities. No trick wildcat calibers are allowed to give any shooter an advantage. This makes for very competitive matches.
Mn 1000yd and Palma State Champ. Program -- Click here

Last Weekend

This weekend's prone Mid Range (300-600yds) Championships at NorthStar Rifle Club, Red Wing, MN were affected by rain on Saturday during the Iron sight matches, and then by just plain beautiful weather on Sunday.

In the NRA Sling shooting Class, Brian Mrnak fired an almost perfect 599/600 on Saturday despite rain delays and hot humid weather, and then backed up this championship effort in Sunday with a 596/600 to win the Any sight matches and clinch the Regional championship. Steve Erickson, always threat in any prone competition, finished only 2 points back with a great shooting on both days.
Complete Results: Click Here

Notes:

I asked Brian and the other medal winners about the equipment that they uses to such good consistant success.

From Brian Mrnak: -- Gold Medal NRA class

"I used a Nesika bay chambered in 6.5-284 and nestled in a Master Class prone stock. I shoot 139 grain lapua scenars at a velocity of 2890 shooting 51.2 grains of reloader 22, lapua case, federal primer and the bullet soft seated to the lands." -- Brian

Years ago when I was shooting Long Range, I also had great success with using RL-22 in the 6.5 x.284. In my Rem. with the Kreiger barrel, 52.2 gns of this powder pushed the 142 Sierras at about 3000 fps.--and a lot of them into the x-ring - me

In the F-class division, Ben Winget, fired a 590 on Saturday while just getting warmed up, and then bettered that impressive score, with a 595 on Sunday and took the combined FTR and F-open championship. That was great shooting on those unforgiving f-class targets. Pat Scully, who dropped only 4 pts behind Ben, on Saturday, fired X for X, and 10 for 10 with Ben on Sunday, and at the end of the day took back one important point of Ben's lead. Pat's 596 score was good for the days match win. They both shot 33 X's during the 60 shots for record. That's 55% X's !

Ben also was kind enough to share with us what kind of Equipment it takes to be competitive in the micro-precision F-class world these days.

From: Ben Winget: -- Gold Medal F-class

" I am shooting a 6mm Dasher (6BR improved), My rifle has a BAT action, Master Class- F-class stock, Kreiger Barrel, and a Nightforce scope. Chambering was done by Jim Kobe, Alex Sitman bedded the stock. I am shooting the Berger 108 BT bullets with RL15 and CCI primers at about 2950 fps. Best regards," - Ben

From: Adam Shidla -- 3rd place F-class

Jim, I'm shooting a 6.5x47 Lapua in a Savage F-class rifle chambered by Jim Kobe

36.8 grains of RL15 pushes 130 Bergers to 2950 in a Lapua case sparked by a Federal 205m primer. Krieger barrel,Nightforce 12-42 BR scope.

From: Steve Erickson - Silver medal NRA class

Jim, For Mid-range shooting I use one of my OTC rifles; I do not have a special dedicated Mid-range rifle-I don't shoot enough of this specialized shooting to justify another gun. Last weekend I shot my post 64 model 70 on Saturday and my pre-64 on Sunday. Both are 243 Win caliber. The Sat gun was barreled by Randy Gregory with a Krieger barrel; the Sunday gun was barreled by Doc Erickson wth a Broughton barrel.

I have shot the 243 win for about a decade-I started shooting it due to advice and technical help from Carl Bernosky. There is not a better cartridge (ballistically) than the 243 Win (for OTC shooting). With Bernosky's load (47 gr. H1000, 107 gr bullet) this cartridge does it all. My Krieger barrel has 2100 rds through it-still shooting great.

My rifle stocks are OTC design made by Steve McGee and Alex Sitman.

My philosophy of long range shooting (technique) is as follows:

1.) I observed Rudy Wadekamper shooting when I was a junior-he fired his rounds at 600 yards very quickly.

Chuck Diehl at the 600 yd line

I observed David Tubb fire at 600 yards-he fired more quickly than Rudy. I read what 1962 National Champ Earl Burton said in the American rifleman- "If you can fire all your record shots in 10 minutes (at 600 yards) you will experience about half the wind changes you would experience in 20 minutes".

2.) If the conditions are changing look for a predominant condition to fire in- and when that condition is present shoot quickly-wait out reversals, etc.

3.) Have confidence in your abilities and have a good time.

4.) Don't plot your shots or use a scorebook-spend the time observing wind, mirage, and focusing on quickly breaking good shots (Xs).

Steve (Raoul) Erickson

Thanks Guys for the input.

From: SSgt Al Schneider -- MN Nat. guard and Highpower Service rifle competitor

   69 Minnesota National Guard Soldiers gathered at Camp Ripley July 16th and 17th to participate in the 2011 Minnesota National Guard State Marksmanship Sustainment Exercise. The two day event comprised of: four individual rifle, two individual pistol, and three aggregate matches; is an annual event designed to pit each unit's top marksmen against others from throughout the state. Highlighted by the Excellence in Competition in Rifle and Pistol Matches, Soldiers had the opportunity to win 'leg' points toward distinguished designation. The highest marksmanship badges in the Army, a Soldier must accumulate 30 EIC points, or 'Legs', to be awarded the Distinguished Rifleman or Distinguished Pistol Shot badges. Competitors in the State Marksmanship Sustainment Exercises are eligible for 4 EIC points in pistol and rifle, with the top 10 percent of competitors receiving their Bronze EIC badge............
.....Chief Sorben and SSG Al Schneider will be representing the Minnesota National Guard at the National Trophy matches at the end of the month. Guard shooters will have an opportunity to refine their marksmanship skills at the Gopher Rifle and Revolver Club at their annual Service Member Rifle Clinic September held September 24-25. For more information on the clinic and leg match at GRRC, go to: http://www.mrra.org/downloads/grrc/2011_Leg.pdf ............

   Note:   SSGT Schneider, CW4 Sorben and SFC Chad Blake, who regularly compete in MN Service rifle matches, either won or placed in the top three in every one of these Army Nat. Guard marksmanship matches.

Two Weeks Out

Aug 6-7 Small bore Outdoor Metric Prone Regional at MRC - Match Program Click Here

Aug 6 Poor Man's Camp Perry (OTC) at NWGC Duluth - match program Click Here

Aug 7 Poor Man's Camp Perry (Mid range Prone) at NWGC Duluth - match program Click Here

That's All Folks
Hawkeye

MN Regional Mid Range Prone Champ results -- Just in !

2011-07-25T09:13:00.013-07:00

Complete Results:

Click Pict. to Expand

Shooters News for the MN Area - 7/20/11

2011-07-20T11:08:00.007-07:00

The Week Ahead

Play it cool!
   It is supposed (?) to cool off a little this weekend. Temps down into the 80s and maybe some cool rain showers on Saturday. Forecast - Click Here
   That is good news as there is are some great prone matches to shoot just a few miles south of the Cities at the NorthStar Gun Club. That's right, it's nice easy belly matches all weekend.
   NorthStar is the host for the Mid Range Prone Regional Championship. Saturday, July 23rd, It will be Iron sights all day, with competitors firing 20 shots for record and two sighters at 300, 500 and 600 yds in individual matches. Saturdays matches will be followed by NorthStar's annual Barbeque and usual socializing. RSVP for this after match picnic please to let the cook know how much food to get ready. Call Bob at (507)744-5200 or E-mail to dilligas@means.net
   Sunday, July 24, the matches allow "Any Sights" to be used, so all you scope shooters can get out there and not have to worry about those pesky things like "sight alignment", while plastering that 10 and X ring. The format is the same for both days -- 2 sighters and 20 shots for record at the 3 mid range distances.   Click Here for Match Bulletin Bring plenty of Water !
F-class questions - Please contact F class chairman Ben Winget with F class questions.
bwinget1@earthlink.net
   July 23-24 The Grand Forks Rifle Club is having their North Dakota State Championship and Leg matches.

Last Weekend
The heat and multiple area matches to choose from kept the numbers of shooters down at the Over the Course matches held at GRRC on this past Sunday,   It looks like Larry Weidel is really hitting his peak form just at the right time. Larry won this match with an excellent score of 773-15x with his service rifle.   Larry has taken over as Captain of the MN Service rifle team, soon leaving for Camp Perry, Ohio and the National championships.

FINAL RESULTS NRA MATCH GRRC JUNE 17, 2011 WITH 8 SHOOTERS
			Stand	Sit RF	300 RF	600 SF	SF agg	RF agg	AGG
	CLA	CAT	MA 1	MA 2	MA 3	MA 4	MA 5	MA 6	AGG
MATCH WINNER			5.00	5.00	5.00	5.00	5.00	5.00	5.00
L. Weidel	M		190.01	192.03	195.04	196.07	386.08	387.07	773.15
T. Hendrickson	MU		169.00	192.05	186.03	169.04	338.04	378.08	716.12
K. Moline	EX		172.02	189.02	171.01	183.03	355.05	360.03	715.08
T. Torborg	EX		180.03	191.03	185.03	177.02	357.05	376.06	733.11
B. Datemd	MU		123.00	182.00	177.00	181.02	304.02	359.00	663.02
G. Mc Carty	EX		179.01	198.07	196.04	181.01	360.02	394.11	185.03
M. Schoess	EX		178.04	194.03	198.04	168.00	346.04	392.07	738.11
D. Gillette	EX		185.03	184.03	189.04	177.02	362.05	373.07	735.12

Also Last Weekend was the Annual Pig Roast Matches put on by the Eau Claire rifle club.
It looks like the Minnesota guys took the lead this past weekend at the pig matches, with Kevin Bangen back to his championship form, and winning these matches, and Mn's Omer Hamer taking 2nd place. Kevin fired an awesome score of 495 on Saturday, and then backed up with the match winning score of 785 on Sunday. Kevin didn't have it all his own way on Sunday though, as Randy Gregory was never more than a few pts back and finished with an excellent score of 781 and a 2nd place.

From Kevin Bangen:

Pig match results - click to expand

"The matches all went well, they run a good match over there and the barbeque on Saturday night was great. The heat was certainly a factor for both days and by the time we shot 600 yards on Sunday I think everyone had enough "fun" for the day, that heat just pulled the energy right out of everyone."

Kevin

Also Last Weekend

Mpls Rifle Club - 7/17/2011

Mpls Rifle Club's monthly 1600 prone Sm Bore matches saw a new winner this weekend. Stacey Tamulinas, a High Master prone

highpower shooter, used his brand new and self installed barrel on his 2013 Anchutz to fire a match winning 1593-102x.
Stacey needed everyone of those 1593 points, as he just barley out scored 2nd place shooter, Emily Quinar, by one point over the day. Emily, a member of the Murrey State Racer Rifles collegiate team, did fire more Xs than Stacey, but it's points that count in this game, not Xs .
Click here for complete results

NOTES:
Small bore:
Minnesota State Sm Bore 4P Regional Champ Results from July 3-4 -- Results click here
Congratulations to Alex Geisar as the new 4P Reg. champ. Alex fired a 3120-132x to win this match, with Nick Learn coming in 2nd place with his 3048-78x score.

Highpower:

We (the MN St. Team) Need You!

From Erick Rhode:

"I don't know if this is something that you'd want to mention in your shooter's e-mails or not, but we are looking for another shooter to fill out a MN State team at Camp Perry for NRA week. We currently have Kevin Bangen, Mark Rohmann and myself shooting. Phil Klanderud was on board but had to cancel on short notice due to scheduling at work. We are not terribly concerned with skill level, we just want to be able to shoot the match with a MN team. Mark and I are riding out together in my truck and I think that with careful packing we could even get a 3rd guy in for the trip and split gas and driving 3 ways. We also have a 4-bunk room reserved in the new barracks building on post with currently 2 open beds. Cost is $44 per night for the whole room so $15 a night with 3 people or $11 with 4. If someone really wanted to save money they could eat 2 meals a day at the mess hall for $11/day. Biggest expense a guy would have for the trip would be match fees and however much cash vendor's row can suck out of the wallet. We are leaving Saturday night 8/6 to arrive on post Sunday morning. Will probably be driving home the following Saturday. It's short notice, but I figure it is worth a shot to maybe scare someone up that's been on the fence about going and has a somewhat flexible schedule. If you know anyone who might be interested in coming out, please pass along my contact info. If you could put it into you next e-mail to the gang it'd be very much appreciated. Heck, maybe you want to come along - we could always use a Jarhead on the squad! Thanks,"

Erik Rhode erhode_1@charter.net 612-790-5076

If you are a highpower shooter and have never been to the Camp Perry Nationals -- this is your big chance. Everything is figured out for you! Every shooter should go to Camp Perry at least once It is a great experience! Make the decision today and do it.

From: Capt. Bob --- Rifles for sale:

Hello prone shooters:

A good friend has some rotator cuff issues and would like to sell 3 beautiful prone rifles as per attached letter. His email & phone # are included so contact him direct for further information.
Click Here for List w/prices

If you are shooting the MRP regional at Red Wing this coming weekend bring a cooler full of bottled water. It's still looking to be in the high 80's and humid. The club will also supply bottled water but bring your own just in case.

HOLDHARD,

Bob

Two Weeks Out
July 30-31 Mn Long range and Palma St. Champs at GRRC - Program Click Here

That's all folks!

2011-07-13T22:20:00.001-07:00

MN Smallbore 3 Position and 4 Position State Championship – July 9 and 10, 2011

We had two good matches this past weekend. During the first stage of Saturday's prone shooting there was a heavy rain. But, by the end of the second stage, the rain had stopped and conditions remained good for the remainder of the day. Sunday was perfect for shooting.

Larry Sawyer was the 4-P State Champion on Saturday and Alex Giesar was the top junior shooter. On Sunday, Larry Sawyer was the 3-P State Champion and Carmen Fry out shot all the other juniors for the Junior State Championship. Jonell Sawyer was the high woman shooter on both days.

Nick Learn, a sub junior from South Range, Wisconsin established a new National record in Saturday's 4-P match with a score of 1531-36X.

We had fourteen shooters each day. Nine of them were junior shooters who represented the State of Minnesota and the shooting sports with great skill and poise. I hope they can all make it back for the State Prone Match on August 27 & 28, 2011.

Bob Belluzzo, Hibbing Rifle and Pistol Club

Shooters News for the MN area - The Week ahead - 7/13/11

2011-07-13T12:46:00.016-07:00

The Week ahead
There is lots of matches coming up this weekend. There is something on the schedule for Prone shooters and more than one match for OTC competitors.

Prone shooters can hone their skills in the 160 shot Outdoor Conventional Prone Sm bore match that will be contested at the Mpls. Rifle Club Sunday July 17th. Bring about 5 boxes of Wolf target .22, your Sm bore rifle and have some fun. F-class and Senior scope shooters are always invited. Targets to be shot at 50 yds, 50m, and 100 yds. Click Here for match program

Over the Course Highpower shooters have the choice of 4 matches to attend.

On Saturday July 16th the MN Service Rifle team will be holding a practice at GRRC. Although Team Capt. Kurt Borlaug is down and out with illness for a while, Larry Weidell has stepped up to the plate and will run this practice session and is taking over as Team Capt. untill Kurt is 'up and at-em' again.

From Team Capt. Larry W
"Fellow shooters:

Thanks for the opportunity. I hope I can do as well as Kurt.

Practice is a go for Saturday morning just as Kurt was planning it. In my discussions with him the plan was to shoot a quick 50 shot match with two relays followed by some NTIT. What I would like to do for NTIT practice is to start at 600, shot three sighters, two strings of 3 shots followed by a 50 second exposure where you can shoot as much as you want. The focus is on hits so concept is to only shoot good shots. Example, if you can only shoot ten good shots but hey are all hits, that's a squared target and an acceptable hit count. The fifteen or so rounds that you didn't shoot are carried forward for more points as we move closer. And if things go well you can shoot 25-30 and run out at the same time the targets go down. After 600 we move to 500, two sighters and a fifty round exposure. A full load doesn't need to be fired. Ammo should be split between two mags if you plan to reload so you can practice the reload under pressure.

The other thing I would like to firm up is the travels plans/car pooling, housing, make up of teams, and a Q/A for the guys who haven't been to Perry yet? We have three open beds at the house that we are still looking to fill.

Hold Hard," Larry

It's a long ways with iron sights to that 10 inch Ten ring !

If any Service Rifle shooter is interested in shooting with the Service Rifle Team, attend this practice and start training with the team. New shooters are always wanted on the team.

Sunday, July 17 GRRC is hosting an 80 shot OTC match for those who are not attending the Pig matches in Eau Claire. I was up at
GRRC yesterday and that range is in great shape for this match. Most of the debris from last weeks damaging wind storm has been cleaned up with only one large tree near the 200 yd line to be turned into fire wood. The weeds are mowed, the targets all refaced, so come on out, as this should be a good fun match and just a few miles north of the cities !   Match program - Click here

The Pig Matches -- Yes, its time again for the Pig matches. Eau Claire Rifle Club's annual shooting and eating extravaganza will be once again on the agenda for area OTC shooters this coming weekend. Over the years these matches have been the seasons "go-to" matches. There will be a 50 shot OTC on Saturday July 16,, followed by the usual fantastic Pig roast and social get together. Sunday, July 17th, there will be an 80 shot OTC match. I think you even get a T-shirt to show you survived another Pig Match!
        Pig match - Click Here

It is forecast to be hot and humid this weekend with temps hitting 90 deg F. Preparing properly to shoot in the heat will gain you points over your competitors.

Tips for Shooting in the Heat - Be prepared!
1. Pre hydrate yourself by drinking Gatorade starting before the first match of the day and keep drinking all day. 2 qts or more during the day is not too much.
2. Wear a moisture wicking t-shirt, a lighter wt. sweat shirt than normal, and lightweight loose pants.
3. If shooting in the sun, wear white painters bib overalls, and white tops. Bibs are loose, and light weight. Be sure to have a wide brim hat - a straw hat would be great.
4. Drink more Gatorade
   From: Tom Torberg
Jim,   You bring up a good point. They are predicting a high of 95 on Sunday so please everybody bring lots of water!

Last Weekend

Although it was forecast for thunderstorms up at NWGC , the State Champ OTC matches saw a warm and sunny day for the Individual matches that I attended on Sunday. Fact is, it was hot, and humid Sunday morning when I was prepared for a cool and rainy day.
It was pretty much a full line on Sunday and that was good to see. Everyone knows the NWGC puts on good matches and that's why their events are so popular. A couple of old friends came down from North Dakota who we haven't seen for a while. Danny Markle, past All Guard shooter, and Denny Coulter came to participate.
Everybody sweated at the 200 yd line. During the Standing match and scores suffered because of it. By the 2nd relay the sun was really bearing down. I shot fast for the first ten shots and it went way better than I expected (94-4x), but then about the 11th shot I felt over heated and had to stop for a while and when I started to go again an 87-1x was the best I could do -- so 19pts down after only one match.

Steve Erickson, Jim Biles, and Omer Hamer

Steve Erickson did not let the heat bother him as he fired a match winning 191-4x to beat Kevin Bangen's 189 and go into the Sitting rapid fire match a couple pts. up on the field.

In the Sitting Rapid fire Match, Larry Miller shot only one nine on the first string and then came back to shoot clean on the 2nd string 10 shot and post a 199 score. That was a great score but not good enough to win as Jim Biles worked the bolt and shot all tens and Xs to take the Sitting Rapid fire trophy with a 200-8x. Erick Rhode took a well deserved 3rd in this match with his 197 score.

Larry Miller and Jim Biles shoot clean

It got a little less humid after the first relay at the 300 yd line, so the Prone Rapid fire match was a little more fun for me but I shot a slightly bigger than 10 ring size group and posted only a 195. Steve Erickson applied his long honed prone shooting skills and held hard for a 199-6x with everybody else dropping 3 or more pts in this match. Dale Wickstrom came close with his 197-4x and just out Xing Omer Hamer for 2nd place. SSgt Al Schneider firing a service rifle and Erick Rhode won their classes by shooting 195 scores in this match.
At the 500 yd line for the final match - 20 shots prone slow fire - the conditions were good except for some shadows on the targets, and all the heavy hitters assumed it would take a 200 to win this match. The mirage was good for reading the wind and the flag at the 300 yd line was the one to read for wind adjustments. As it turned out, no one fired a 200 to nail the lid shut on this match, and no one fired a 199 either. However, 5 shooters from the Ex class to the HM class did fire identical 198s and the match would be decided on Xs with Steve Erickson (11x) taking the win and his 3rd match trophy of the day. 2nd through 4 place were not so easy to decide as Stave Hays, Dale Wickstrom, and Kevin Bangen all fired the same 198-9x. Placement would be made be made on Creedmoore tie breaking rules--who shot the last X. It didn't matter as they didn't get the trophy.

Steve Erickson is the 2011 Mn State NRA Champion. He won three of the day's four matches and the trophys that go with those wins while shooting a 784-24 for the overall win.

Kevin Bangen - 2nd - 779-23x

Jim Biles - 3rd - 773-19x --- Senior Champ and Sitting Rapid fire St. Champ
Omer Hamer - 772-14x --- Grand Senior Champ

Highpower Notes:

From Capt Bob:
MRP shooters:

Attached is your program for the regional at North Star July 23-24. PUH-LEESE note the part near the middle regarding the cook out on Sat. after shooting. I need a body count for proper food order by NOON Thurs. July 21. Chef Mike May will be head cook once again.

YOU MUST REPLY TO THIS EMAIL WITH YOUR INTENT TO EAT....

or ELSE GO HUNGRY!

I'm out of town July 12 thru 17 but will probably have email access in the evenings. For planning purposes you may shoot one day only for $20.00 and you may shoot a different rifle on Sunday.

HOLDHARD, Bob

More from Capt Bob:
It's come to my attention there is at least 1 FUBAR in the MRP regional program. Under INDIVIDUAL MATCH SATURDAY it says for 600 yards "2 SS 15 20". That should say "2 SS & 20 for record." All 3 yard lines will be 2 SS & 20 both days. Corrected program attached.

Bob                    Match program for Mid Range Prone State champ match --   Click Here

Small Bore Notes:
   The State 4P champs were held at Hibbing last weekend -- no news.
   The Summer Offhand League held monthly at MRC is cancelled

   From Chad Danielson:
                          "2011 Minnesota Smallbore Prone Season Aggregate Championship Standings after 3 Matches"
   After the June 19^th 1600 match at MRC, Jim Biles of Duluth currently leads the season standings with a 6317-323X after the 3^rd match of the season of the 8 being taken for point accumulation. Junior Shooter Eric Hazelton holds a very close 2^nd overall with a 6296-282X, only 21 points behind Biles. Hazelton currently holds the top Junior position with that score. Jim Evenson currently holds 3^rd overall with a 6091-325X. Biles, Hazelton, and Evenson are the only three shooters to have made a showing at all of the first three matches , putting them in their respective positions, with the rest of the field having 1 or 2 matches shot. With five Smallbore Prone matches left on the schedule, the next match is scheduled for Sunday July 17, for a 1600 at MRC, which will definitely make for an opportunity for scores between shooters to tighten up, and shooters the opportunity to better their standing. Below are the current top 10 shooters as scores stand before going into the July 17^th match.
1. Jim Biles                 6317 – 323         2. Eric Hazelton (Jr.) 6296 – 282
3. Jim Evenson          6091 – 325         4. Morgan Dietrich    4752 – 294
5. Steve Knutson       4710 – 260           6. Chad Danielson     4701 – 210
7. Alex Giesar (Jr.)     4691 – 229           8. Lori Huseby (Jr.)    4650 – 171
9. Nick Learn (Jr.) 4641 – 180            10. Julie Huseby        4614 – 142

Two Weeks out
July 23-24     North Dakota State Champ and Leg - Grand Forks
July 23-24 Mid Range Prone State champ match Northstar -- Match program Click Here

July 30-31 LR champ matches at GRRC -- Match program Click Here

That's All Folks !
Hawkeye

Steve Erickson - State Champ !

2011-07-11T16:45:00.002-07:00

Steve Erickson won the NRA State Championship (OTC) this past weekend at Northwestern Gun Club. Steve Fired a 784-24x in difficult conditions as heat and humidity made the first part of the day very uncomfortable. Steve is always a top contender at these matches and his name is written on all of the trophies many times. Steve's father, Ken Erickson was a champion shooter in his most competitive days, and won the National Championship at Camp Perry some years back. Congratulations to Steve !

Complete Results

click to expand