Shooters News for the Minn Area - June 17, 2014

Extra - Extra !  Palma Team Championship Rpt from Lodi coming tomorrow !!
The Week Ahead
   The fun has already started for Minn area competitive shooters this week. Long range specialists and those just wanting to compete at those longer distances are at Lodi this whole week firing in the Midwest Palma Championship. Tuesday through Friday the course of fire is just Palma and more Palma matches for those 4 days. Saturday June 21, and Sunday the competition will be hot and heavy at the 1000yd line in order to decide the Wisconsin State Long Range Championship.   Good luck to all the local Minn shooters that are down at Lodi to compete.   I'm sure we'll get a match report from Erik Rhode when he gets back.  The way he has been finding the X ring this past year, he might have a good story for us.
  Those of us who are better off sticking to Mid Range matches and stayed behind from Lodi will our turn to shoot a great match both Saturday and Sunday at the Elk River Sportsman's Club. Both Sling shooters and F-class specialists alike will be out there to contest the Regional Mid Range Championship. All matches will be fired from the 600 yd line of Elk River's shooting facility northwest of Mpls.
   On Saturday, June 21, shooters will choose up teams and fire 3 strings of 20 rds each with coaching allowed.  Sunday, June 22 will see the matches for the Individual Championship fired.  Sling competitors will shoot two matches each with Iron sights and two with Any sights. This will be a good weekend to exercise my 6mm BR match rifle.
  Click Here for Mid Range Champ match program and entry info.

Last Weekend   
 Rain, Rain, and more rain pretty much says it all for matches near the Twin Cities this past weekend.  I drove up to GRRC Saturday a little after noon to get a couple pictures of the CMP games afternoon sniper team match. Larry Weidell and Kurt Borlaug were the only two shooters there in the drizzle and were practicing "Rattle Battle" for the Camp Perry Infantry Trophy match coming up in July. They said that 16 service rifle shooters had showed up for the CMP games match but rain and more rain put a stop to that.
I hope the Sm Bore prone match at MRC had better luck on Sunday, but as it was storming rain and wind all morning at my house, I didn't get out there to find out.

However--- someone did get to shoot a match  

 **On the Firing Line Report - LaCrosse Mid Range matches**       Part #1

From: Erik Rhode

Hey Jim,

Just a quick update on the Father’s Day weekend matches at La Crosse. 

This was my first trip to La Crosse, and it didn’t disappoint.  My plan was to use this as a warm-up for the Midwest Palma matches in Lodi that start tomorrow – apparently I am not the first guy to come up with this plan. 

For Saturday’s matches, the range was close to capacity with 55 total shooters spread out on 15 targets over 4 relays.  Sling shooters were definitely in the majority here, with 46 of us compared with 9 shooting F-Class.  There were a few familiar faces for me, but mostly shooters I hadn’t met before – and some really good ones at that.  I got to meet folks from all over the country on their annual pilgrimage to the long range shooter’s Mecca of Lodi. 

Conditions on Saturday were a pleasant – a little windier than usual(according to the locals), but very manageable and some good scores were fired.  At the top of the heap in the highpower class were the tremendous husband-and-wife duo of Steve and Shirley McGee, each putting up 797’s for the day.    Steve’s 48 X’s just edged out Shirley’s 43, so he was Saturday’s big winner.  4 points back and tied for 3^rd/4^th  with matching scores of 793-42x, were John Rhynard and myself. 

Down on the F-Class side, MN favorite Pat “Square Head” Scully put on a clinic by winning the first 3 matches outright.  He was well on his way to another victory in the 4^th when an unexplained squib round fell short of the target costing him 10 points in short order.  Even spotting his competition 10 points, Square Head still managed to win the day with his respectable 783-36x just squeaking by runner-up Brock Schmidt’s 783-27x.  This Scully character is turning out to be one tough F-er.

Despite an ominous forecast, almost everyone returned to do it all again on Sunday morning.  Rain looked like a sure thing on Saturday night, but bad weather seemed to be keeping it’s distance by match time.  Wind was much stronger than yesterday, and high scores today were going to take a lot more effort.  I was lucky enough to be squadded with the big dogs on relay 1, or so I thought.  Not 5 minutes into our first string, the clouds unloaded on us for several minutes straight.  This wasn’t a light, refreshing sprinkle either, but a bone soaking, gear soaking, pour-the-water-out-of-your-action kind of rain.  No one called a cease-fire, so most of us just kept on shooting.  This proved to be the only rain we got all day, but the wind never let up. 

Pat Scully survived the deluge, and kept his foot on the throttle on Sunday while cruising to a 4-point victory, again over Brock Schmidt.  Winning both single-day aggs, ol’ Square Head is the F-Class math winner for the weekend.

Not surprisingly, there was once again a McGee on top of the sling scoreboard for day 2.  Shirley taught all of the boys what hard-holding is all about, finishing with an astonishing 798-42x.  This is a score that most mortals will never shoot in any condition, let alone the nasty winds we had today.  This was truly an impressive accomplishment, by one of the best prone shooters in the country.  Shirley’s worse half Steve shot well again, and was still in the hunt with his 790-40x, but Team USA wind coach Rick Hunt had something to say.  Rick only dropped 7 points for the day to secure the #2 spot. 

Click to expand

Shirley walked away with the 2-day agg with a total score of 1595-85x.  Steve was next with a 1587-88x, and David Mayfield rounded out the top 3 with a solid 1579-73x. 

I had a bad 2^nd match on Sunday, but was happy to finish just a point and an X behind David for 4^th place overall, and 2^nd Palma rifle.  I feel like I got my money’s worth at this match, and should have no rust to shake off come tomorrow morning’s 4-man Palma team match.  Work prevents me from staying more than 1 day in Lodi this year, so hopefully the extra practice in La Crosse will pay off!  This week’s schedule is going to be a killer after I get back Monday night, but I will try to get you a report on the team match in the next few days…

Reporting from the Lodi, WI Quality Inn,    

Erik Rhode

Two Weeks Out
June 28,29  - Sm Bore Position St. championship at Elk River
June 28  -     State OTC Championship at MRC - Click Here for match program
June 29  -     State OTC Team championship at MRC  Click here for match program 

That's All Folks
Hawkeye

Shooters News for the Minn Area - June 10, 2014

Weekend Ahead
While the long Range shooters count their winnings, or lick their wounds after last week's tough match, this coming weekend belongs to the Highpower or Small Bore shooter that wants to pull some triggers and have a little fun.

    I just might dig out my older Service rifle and head up to Gopher Rifle and Revolver Club Saturday, June 14th, for the 30 shot morning CMP games match. I like these matches (I only have to shoot 10 standing).  The match consists of 10 shots prone slowfire, 10 rds prone rapid fire, and 10 rds standing -- all from the 200 yd line.  I could do that. The afternoon match is a sniper style match where two shooter teams are made up and Rds are fired at both 300 yds and 600 yds while the shooter team alternates coaching and firing.    Click Here for Match program

   Traveling Highpower shooters can find a great Mid Range Prone/F match just down Hwy 61 at the LaCrosse Rifle Club both Sat, June 14, and Sun June 15th.  Shooters will fire from the 600 yd line in four 20 shot matches each day for a 1600 pt two day aggregate score.  Click Here for match program  E-mail entries to deadeyepagel@yahoo.com.

  Small Bore shooters, both prone and position, will also be slinging up for matches Saturday and Sunday. Mpls. Rifle Club will host the matches both days. The Position shooters are first up Saturday morning to compete in a 3x20 three position match all to be shot at 50 m on the A-50 target.  In the afternoon the prone shooters take over the competition with 3 more matches at 50m also on the A-50 target.  Click Here for match program. On Sunday June 15 the hard core prone shooter will heading to MRC for the monthly 1600 pt prone match.  Where else do you get to fire 160 shots in a day for record on tough targets in usually great conditions, with instant feedback, and no pit pulling? Eight targets of 20 shots will test the skill of the shooter at distances of 50 to 100 yds.
Click Here for Match program
 If my new rifle sling comes from Creedmoor this week (been on order since April), I'll be there trying out a more modern rifle than I had a the last match. (anybody want to buy a pristine Unertl 2 in. 15x target scope in a presentation box?) Hopefully we can get 2 nice weather days in a row for the weekend so everybody can have a little fun out at the range. I'm ready for that.

Last Weekend 
**On the Firing Line -  the Minnesota Long Range Regional Championship**


From: Erik Rhode

Hi Jim,

Here's how things went down up in Harris over the weekend:

Saturday morning brought a steady rain that had started well before match time.  Both radar and hourly forecasts seemed to agree that things would let up around high noon, so the decision was made to postpone start time until then.  Since the match program had 60 shots of Any/Iron matches on the schedule for Saturday, and only 40 shots of Any/Any matches for Sunday, it was decided to swap the schedule and shoot the any/any matches first to better fit in the shortened Saturday timeline.  Fine with me - I just wanted to be able to try out my newly-restocked Palma rifle at it's first match!

Just as predicted, the rain stopped around noon and we were able to get the show on the road by 12:30.  Conditions stayed dark and dreary throughout the day with target faces being sometimes difficult to find for those of us without optics.  

Up on the high side of the range, things were tight with the F-Class gang, with only 5 points separating the top 5 spots.  One of only 2 men present to achieve the elusive F-Class Long Range High Master classification, Big Bad Ben Winget finished the day at the top of the board with a 392-10x.  His Saturday agg included what would prove to be the highest match score of the entire weekend with his 199-8x in the first match of the day.  A single point behind and tied for X's was Rick Sievers.  Rounding out the top 5 after day one were John Rykus, Wade Brown, and Pat "Square Head" Scully.  

Down on the sling side, the competition was no less fierce.  12 of the 15 shooters were High Masters, and nobody felt like giving up easily.   Brian "Short Pants" Mrnak set the tone early with a matching pair of 198-8x's to give himself a 4-point cushion over 2nd place Philip Klanderud's 392-16x.  Brian's 396-16x was enough to take the first day agg, and get his name on the "Any Rifle/Any Sight" trophy one more time.  Jay Johnson and I were both 5 off the lead with 391's and still in the hunt, with Us National Team Coach Bob Mead hot on our heels with his 390.  

On Sunday morning, we were treated to bluebird skies. 70º temps, and a nice breeze coming out of the north.  As is often the case at GRRC, the north wind was fishtailing fast throughout the day.  Luckily, mirage was much easier to spot than on Saturday, but it didn't always match the wind flags and could be difficult to pin down.  There were some pretty long holds while shooters waited and hoped for their preferred wind to return, and anyone not paying close attention to the rapidly-changing conditions was likely to be punished with surprise 8's or even worse.

On the F-Class side, Square Head Scully kicked things off in Match 1 with a 197-7x to top the field and gain a bit of ground on the leaders.  Winget's 195 and Siever's 196 tied them up for points, with Siever having the edge on X's with 2 matches to go.  It was starting to look like Saturday's leaders might be able to hang on until the end.  

As fate would have it, both Ben and Rick tapered off after that first match, leaving the door  open.  Adam Shidla posted solid scores to finish with Sunday's top F-Class agg of 588-16x, but after a disappointing Saturday, it wouldn't be enough.  Down in the Expert class, dark horse John Rykus saw that open door and heard opportunity knocking.  His 193 in the first match was good enough to keep him in the race, and with 197's in matches 2 and 3, John finished just 1 point behind Adam for Sunday's agg.  More importantly, his 587-21x combined with his 390-12x from Saturday put him at the top of the leader board for the grand aggregate! 

 John Rykus takes home the Gold Medal and is your 2014 Long Range F-Class Regional Champion!  Great shooting John, hopefully you dropped that Expert card in the trash can on your way out.  Ben Winget took home the Silver, and Pat Scully finished in 3rd for Bronze.

Back over by the sling shooters, Short Pants Mrnak was determined to be more than just a one-day wonder.  He negotiated a respectable 196 in tricky conditions in match #1, but Jim Soderstrom, Stacy Tamulinas and myself all shot 197's to inch our way a little closer to the front.  In match #2, Brian took off his long pants to let everyone know that he meant business, but 8 shooters gained ground - this was going to be a close match indeed.  Going into match #3, Brian's lead was razor-thin, and several shooters were charging hard.  Jay Johnson, Bill Lair and Stacy Tamulinas all put up 198's to keep the pressure on, and I was not far behind with my 197.  Stacy's remarkable Sunday scores of 197-5x, 197-12x and 198-6x gave him the Sunday victory and the "Any Rifle/Iron Sight" trophy for his already-crowded mantle.  But like Shidla, his Saturday scores just weren't high enough for him to take the whole shebang.  

So I suppose you're asking who won this thing?!?  Well, as it turns out, it was me.  Consistent scores both days allowed me to stay in contention, and finish with the top score of 980-35x.  The new rifle handled even better than expected, and after making a few minor adjustments after Saturday's first match, I couldn't have been happier with how it performed.  I didn't have time to do any load development before the match, and I guess I'm not going to do any now.  

Medal winners on the sling side:

Erik Rhode, 980-35x - Gold Medal - 2014 Long Range Prone Regional Champion

Jay Johnson, 977-38x - Silver Medal

Stacy Tamulinas, 976-39x - Bronze Medal 

    Thanks to Wade, Jeremy and the GRRC gang for running a great match!

Best regards,  Erik Rhode

  Thanks, Erik for that match report, I know we all enjoy reading them. So -you are the double winner this week. Not only do you write up a good match rpt for us, but you also win the Regional Long Range Championship. Great shooting, Erik !  I'm sure we'll see you out at the Berger Long Range matches again this winter showing those westerners how to shoot the X-ring.

All right, there's some good matches coming up this weekend, so lets get out there and do some shooting.

Two Weeks Out   

June 16 to 22 - Mid West Palma and Long Range at Lodi -- click here for program

June 21, 22    - Mid Range Prone/F Regional at Elk River - Click Here for program

That's All Folks !

Hawkeye

For Sale:   Unertl 2 inch, 15x rifle scope - pristine condition - $800  651-653-2206

Shooters News for the Minn Area - June 2, 2015

The Weekend Ahead
This coming weekend should be a great one for Minn area competitive shooters.  There are good matches scheduled that should appeal to most upper Midwest High Power shooters. 

Long Range shooters and prone specialists are looking forward to two days of 1000yd matches to test their skill or to just have some fun shooting bullseyes almost a kilometer away at Gopher Rifle and Revolver Club's long range shooting facility near Harris, MN. On Saturday June 7th,  traditional shooters will engage the targets 1000yds away with iron sights and using only rifle slings for support in three matches of 20 shots each with unlimited sighters.  F-class shooters will use scopes and rests in all matches on both Sat and Sunday trying to keep their shots into that small minute of angle ten ring. Saturday's competitors will have the opportunity to participate in a 4 man Team match where a wind coach helps the shooter gauge the wind and offers sight corrections as the wind changes throughout the match. If a shooter is not already on a team, they can join a pick-up team for that match.  Sunday June 8th, all shooters will fire two more matches of 20 shots and unlimited sighters using any sights. 
Click here for match program 

**Here is a video of last years Long Range Championships  showing both f-class and Sling shooters in action** 
 

Service Rifle shooters
Gather your gear and head to Oakdale Gun Club for a CMP games match on Saturday June 7th. Click Here for match program.  This is the 3rd CMP match of Oakdale's summer series of Service Rifle matches.  30 shots for record is the course of fire,  10 prone slow fire, 10 prone rapid fire, and 10 shots offhand. This is a great match for the beginning shooter or good fun practice for the OTC shooter looking for some practice and some fun.

Service Rifle clinic and match
Are you a new prospective new shooter that would like to know more about Service Rifle shooting? Post 435 Gun Club has a service rifle clinic and 50 shot match on Saturday June 7th that would be just the thing for you.  The day will start with classroom session to explain to the new shooter how to participate in a rifle match and the basics of marksmanship.  The classroom session will be followed by a 50 shot CMP service rifle match where shooters are coached for safety and skill. Click Here for match program. 
Contact Mark Havlik match director  651-655-4853

300 m International 

From Brian Shiffman
The June Minneapolis Rifle Club 300 meter match will be held Sunday, June 8^th.  There will be two relays scheduled; the first starts at 10 AM and the second at noon.   Registration begins Sunday June 1. Register yourself at http://edfpages.com/mgfc/match.php.  Read the instructions.  Pay attention as you fill in the boxes and make selections from the drop down lists.  There is room for only 14 shooters per relay.  The box at the top of the list shows the number of shooters for each relay  

May 300m match:

Now, these were just about as fine as it gets for shooting; sun, very little wind, comfortable temperatures.  And the scores showed it with many scores above 590 for F class shooters.  Linda Stern topped Bob Mann by 4 points for the F-Open win.  Gary LaValley and Chuck Van Heel had a nice match going with Gary winning the F-TR class by 3 points.  Ed Facundo was top 3 position shooter.  We deserve more shooting days like this one.  This is the link to the May match results:  http://edfpages.com/mgfc/results.php?match=5

Last Weekend    
"On the Firing line" 
 From Erik Rhode
  Hi Jim,

Just a quick report on last weekend's match.  

MN area shooters headed up to the great north woods last weekend for what was to be one of the most important match weekends of the year, the annual Highpower OTC Regional Championships.  Despite an ominous weather forecast, the die-hards still made the trek to take their chances for one of the top spots.  

On Friday, 8 early-bird shooters took advantage of what would turn out to be the only pleasant weather of the weekend to shoot an 80-shot practice match.  With only 2 relays, and keeping our own scores, we were able to get the whole thing done in about 3 hours.  Lil' Dickie VanValkenburg posted a cool 777 for the top score of the day, winning a crisp $1 bill from yours truly in the process.  Enjoy it Dick, you won't be getting many more!  Also of note on Friday was Jim Fernandez coming back from knee surgery to shoot a personal-best score of 770 - way to go Jim!

Next up on the weekend's schedule was the 4-man team championship on saturday morning.  The North Star Rifle Club Screaming Weasels were ready to scream their way to another in their seemingly unbreakable streak of team victories with new member Barb Bangen, but it was not to be.  The rain had already started well before 9 am, and satellite radar showed no indications that it would be stopping anytime soon.  At around 10:30 it was decided that the match would have to be scrubbed.  This was unfortunate, as there appeared to be enough shooters for 5 teams, which is a good turnout for an OTC team event these days.  A group of 8 ventured into Duluth proper for lunch and some light sightseeing.  Afterwards, the rain stopped for just long enough for 4 of us to get in a few shots from the 500 yard line before the clouds opened up again.  As of Saturday night, the forecast for Sunday looked even worse than Saturday's did, and I was fully expecting to be on my way back home by 10 am.  

On Sunday morning, it was still raining lightly, but the updated radar showed everything staying to the south.  The forecast had already done it's damage though, as none of the extra shooters from Saturday came back to shoot the individual match.  It was decided that since we were already there, we may as well try to shoot the match, even though with only 14 shooters, the NRA would only allow 2 medals to be awarded.  No problem, whoever was going to get a medal was just going to have to fight a little harder for it, and what a fight it would turn out to be!

In the combined Sharpshooter/Expert/Master class, Lovable Larry Weidell continued his streak from last weekend by putting up the top score with a solid 766-16x.  If you want to win any matches in the master class this season, you'd better hope that Larry has other plans for that weekend!  Nipping at his heels all day was newly-minted Master Mark "Rottweiler" Rohmann finishing just 2 points behind, including a match-winning performance at the 300 yard line with his excellent 200-12x.  Another recent surgery patient, Elliot "The Serbian Sensation" Zunich was back in action for the first time since having neck surgery over the winter and didn't miss a beat, putting a 757-18x on the board.  Lots of good shooting from these guys.

Up on the top of the board in the HM class, it was a battle between 2 shooters and the rest of us were just along for the ride.  2 men that are no strangers to Regional medals duked it out all day long to see who'd go home with the gold.  Always a contender at any match he enters, Campin' Kevin Bangen brought his "A" game as Jim "Big Match" Biles reminded us that while he doesn't come out of hibernation often, he makes it count when he does.  Kevin and Jim shot matching 190-2x scores in the standing match, then hung neck-and-neck all the way to the finish line.  Jim's 199 sitting score edged out Kevin's 198 to put him 1 point ahead as they headed back to 300.  Once there, Kevin drilled out a clean 200 vs. Jim's 199 to bring them back to even.  Looks like the whole match would be decided on the 500 yard line.  Conditions were good there, with light overcast skies and seemingly easy winds, but great scores proved to be more difficult than expected all around.  Jim's relay shot first, and he managed a respectable 195.  I know Jim would've liked to build himself  a bigger cushion there, but sometimes things don't work out like we hope in this sport.  Kevin brought his gear to the line needing a 196 or better, which is a score I've seen him top many times.  The conditions were tougher than they looked, and Kevin finished with a 195 of his own, leaving the 2 big dogs with scores of 783 for the day.  This is why they keep track of those X's.  After match director extroardinaire Denny Bertrand put his abacus back in the drawer, JIm's 32 X's left Kevin's 19 in the dust, making Jim the 2014 Highpower Regional Champion!  Great shooting to both, and congrats to Jim on a great match!

See attachments for scores and photo of the winners. 

Hope to see everyone next weekend in Harris for the 2014 Long Range Prone Regional.

Best regards,  Erik Rhode

Thanks for that match report, Erik

Two Weeks out 
June 14 -- CMP games service rifle match at GRRC - program click here   
June 14,15 - Mid Range prone at LaCrosse -- program click here  

That's all Folks !
Hawkeye

Shooters News for the Minn Area -- May 28, 2014

Next Weekend
I hope you all are well practiced up after the great rifle matches held last weekend, because this weekend its time to travel to the north woods to shoot the 'Over the Course' Regional Championship at Northwestern Gun Club. May 31st, and June 1st,  NWGC will host 2 days of OTC matches at their beautiful 500 yd rifle range on the shores of Hunter Lake, just a little NW of Duluth.  Both days are 80 shot matches and include a 20 shot Standing match, two strings of Rapid fire from the sitting position, two strings of Rapid fire from the prone position and finish with 20 shots slow fire prone shooting from the 500 yd line. Saturday's match will be a 4 man Team match with pickup teams organized for those not already on a team, and Sundays match is for the Individual championship.
  First rds. will go down range at 0900 hrs each day.
Match Director -- Jim Fernandez email:  jimvafern62@yahoo.com   (218) 729-5975 
Click Here for match program and Entry info
 

Last Weekend 

High Power -- OTC matches  at Northstar Gun club

 

 From Erik Rhode:

Hi Jim,

Just a quick recap of what transpired over the weekend.

Shooters from MN and surrounding states converged on North Star Rifle Club in Red Wing, MN for 2 days of good old-fashioned Highpower shooting.  The weather was perfect all weekend with high temps around 80º, and a nice breeze coming mostly out of the south.  We were unsure of what to expect for attendance as I had only received 1 early registration by mail, but when campers started pulling in on Friday evening, it started to look like we might have a pretty good turnout.  We ended up with a total of 29 shooters for the weekend, including some exotic, far-away lands like TX, MO, IA, WI and SD.  4 shooters were first-time shooters at NSRC, including 2 who were shooting in their very first match.  We had a very good mix of veteran shooters and new blood.

For many, this was the first official OTC match of the season, and the first real chance to shake off the winter rust.  There were an unusually high number of alibis and general weirdness as shooters worked out the kinks from the long offseason.  I was reminded early in the weekend that it doesn't take very many shots on other people's targets to really hurt a guy's score!

In the combined Expert/Shaprshooter/Marksman class, Mark "Sledgehammer" Schoess took top honors while placing 1st or 2nd in class in 7 of the 11 total matches.  Great shooting Mark, that's the sort of consistency that gets you to the top.  Close at his heels for the weekend was newcomer (can you call a guy with a P100 tab a "newcomer"?) Greg McCarty.  Greg had solid performances all weekend including a very nice 100-5x at the 300 yard line on his way to winning the Sunday Agg.  I'm guessing we will be seeing more of him this summer.

In the Master Class, in all the commotion to get scores tabulated and awards paid out, we had an arithmetic error that was not caught until I entered all of the scores in the spreadsheet this morning.  It was an honest mistake and my apologies to all involved - hopefully no hard feelings!.  After getting all of that sorted out, "Lovable" Larry Weidell was at the head of the class after winning both daily aggs and several matches on his way to the top of the Master class for the weekend.  His 1521-35x just edged out Craig Bennis, who also put in a solid performance with 2 class wins and a match win for his 199-4x at 300 on Saturday.  Jim Schonke was threatening all weekend, and it looks like between these guys and a few others, the Master class is going to be a tough one this season.

Up in the High Master Class, Campin' Kevin Bangen overcame some early struggles on Saturday to turn in a solid performance on Sunday (including the weekend's top 600 yard score) and add another match win to his collection.  Kevin has been the man to beat in MN for as long as I've been shooting Highpower, and it looks like he intends to keep it that way. Great shooting Kevin, and congratulations on the win!

Thanks to everyone for coming down, and we hope to see everyone again.  I think it's safe to say that a good time was had by all.  This is our last scheduled match at NSRC for the year, but we will most likely add another match or 2 as the rest of the MN schedule shapes up.  Cap'n Bob or myself will pass along any info as it becomes available.  

Hopefully everyone can make it up to Northwestern Gun Club in Duluth next weekend for the 2014 OTC Regional Championship matches.  On Saturday, the North Star Rifle Club Screaming Weasels will be defending their several-year streak of team match victories by taking on any and all challengers for the team title.  The individual match on Sunday should be hotly contested by all of the top shooters gunning for one of those big, shiny regional medals.  There is also an 80-shot warm-up match starting at noon on Friday for the die hards wanting to make sure they have solid zero's going into the weekend - I know I'll be there.

Best regards,

Erik Rhode    

Small Bore -- Regional prone Championships at MRC

The growing popularity of outdoor prone Sm Bore shooting was evident last weekend at the Mpls. Rifle Club.  Enough high caliber shooters showed up to contest this Regional Championship that for only the 4th time in recent memory 2 relays were required.  The weather was great with mild temperatures in the 70s and sunshine all weekend.  

  Both days saw the wind as most deciding factor in the competition.  Gusty winds plagued the shooters from the beginning to the end of the matches  and only the patient shooters were rewarded with the most tens and Xs.    Wind or not, the best shooters rose to the top of the scoreboard  fighting for every point and regretting every errant nine that leaked out  when the flags changed sides several times a minute. 

  Congratulations to Morgan Dietrich whose skill and patience reading the wind earned him the Gold medal and championship honors. 

The Silver Medal for 2nd place goes to Matt Griffin who's tanacity and hard holding kept him 3 points ahead of the always hard charging Stacey Tamulinas who had to settle for the Bronze Medal after two days of stiff competition and 320 shots for record.  Other great scores were shot by Steve Knutson,  Randy Gegory, and Junior Eric Hazelton.     

 Two Weeks Out 

 June 7th - Service rifle clinic at Post 435 Gun club 

                   Click here for Match program 

June 7th -  CMP Games match at Oakdale Gun Club

                   Click Here for match program

June 7,8 -  Long range Regional at GRRC

                   Click Here for match program

That's all Folks

Hawkeye

 

 

Shooters News for the MN Area - May 15th, 2014   

  The Memorial Day weekend this year, offers up two great 2 day tournaments with both the 'Over the Course' shooter, and the Belly shooter in mind. 
 OTC shooting enthusiasts will be heading down towards Red Wing to the NorthStar Rifle Club for 2 days of fun in the sun shooting Offhand, Sitting Rapid fire, Prone rapid fire, and Prone slow fire. A regular 80 shot OTC match is scheduled for Both days - May 24-25th
                        Click Here for Match program and Entry info

The Prone shooting specialists will be gathering at the Minneapolis Rifle Club both Sat, May 24th, and Sunday May 25th to compete in Prone Regional Championship for Sm Bore rifles. That match will test the skills of many of the State's top Prone shooters who will be trying to shoot that elusive X or Ten on those tough 100yd Small bore target. Saturday is all Iron sight shooting, and on Sunday, those who would rather shoot with scopes can do so in the Any Sight matches. There will be four 40 shot prone matches each day. While 8 twenty shot targets a day seems like a long day, each target usually only takes about 12 min to shoot and that makes for an easy, comfortable shooting day. With tough competitors, tough targets, but always good shooting conditions, Sm Bore prone matches always fit what German Salazar says about Small Bore competition-- "It's easy to participate in, but it is hard to Excel".   Click Here for match program and entry info 
  I'll be at this match, testing the technology of the 60's, and shooting my 50 year old Winchester M-52D (orig, barrel), as I have left my 2013 Anshutz in Arizona for use there. While the M-52 still does shoot quite well, I am looking around for a used modern Anshutz to buy.  I am also still looking for a used Creedmore style shooting jacket in Size 40-42 Rh. Take note. (651-653-2206)

With two great matches to choose from next weekend I hope you'll all get a chance to get out there and compete.    

 Above photo: Morgan Dietrich, Randy Gregory, and Steve Knutson shooting Sm Bore in Any/sight matches last year at MRC championships

Results:
300m Championships  George Minerich has made available to us the results from April's Minn State 300 m Championships --Click Here for scores and pictures. 
Congratulations to Erhard Bruderer who won the MN 300m State Championship, and to Junior Norman Lilyerd who won the prone Junior Championship, and to Junior Eric Hazelton winning the 3 position championship. 
That's all Folks
Hawkeye

Shooters News for the MN area -- May 6, 2014

Highpower
Gopher Rifle and Revolver Club to host Service Rifle matches
This coming weekend GRRC will host the 2nd in their summer series of CMP service rifle matches on Saturday, May 10th. These fun and easy matches will appeal to shooters who just want to get out and pull some triggers on what looks to be an actual 'sunny' day. Let's hope the forecast is right for a change ! The day will start out with an 'individual'  30 shot match, which consists of 10 shots prone slow fire, ten shots prone rapid fire and finishes with 10 shots offhand --  all from the 200 yd line.  After a break for lunch the 2nd match on the schedule is a Sniper Team match where two shooters alternate shooting and coaching from the 300 yd line and 600 yd line.  A good time will be had by all who attend, so dig out that older service rifle and give it a try. 
    Click Here for match bulletin

Sunday, May 11th head for Mpls Rifle Club near the small town of Now Then just NW of the Twin Cities.
From Brian Shiffman   shiff004@umn.edu
The May Minneapolis Rifle Club 300 meter match will be held this Sunday, May 11^th.  There will be two relays scheduled; the first starts at 10 AM and the second at noon.  My fuzzy caterpillar claims that it will be a nice, warm day.  I told him or her that if it made a mistake that it will become bird food!  (Contact Brian for entry & squadding )

May 10th &11th.Traveling shooters who prefer prone shooting only can find two good days of Mid Range prone shooting at the LaCrosse Rifle Club   Both days matches will be shot  from the 600 yd line and both days will have any/any, any/iron, Palma, Service, and F-class categories.   Click Here for match bulletin  E-mail entries to  deadeyepagel@yahoo.com

Small Bore

If you just like to shoot a lot and not pull targets, grab that small bore match

rifle and head to Mpls rifle Club Saturday, May 10. Starting at 0900, shooters 

will fire a 60 shot 3 position match, and after a lunch break they can fire a 60 

shot prone match -- all on the 50m A50 target.Click Here for match bulletin

Sunday, May 11 MRC will host a second day of sm bore shooting -- all prone.

This will be a 160 shot conventional outdoor prone match with targets at 50yds, 

100yds, and 50 meters.  Click Here for match bulletin

This match is a good warm up for the Regional Sm bore champ in two weeks

Last Weekend

From Erik Rhode
Hi Jim,

Attached are results from the April 26 4x600 at Eau Claire, and the Palma 

Regional at in Lodi for you to use or ignore at your discretion.  I've been 

meaning to get these to you sooner, but have been extremely busy.  I also sent 

a message to the new HP chairs at GRRC asking for their help in getting 

 results both to you for the newsletter/blog, and onto the MRRA results calendar.  

Hopefully we will have better luck than last year.

The weather at Eau Claire on the 26th of April was cool, but manageable.  Rain

threatened in the morning, but held off and everyone got in a full day of shooting.  

Light and fairly consistent winds led to some high scores being shot throughout the 

day. 

 Randy Gregory and Matt Griffin duked it out for the win, with Randy squeaking past

 Matt by X's with a 796-48 to Matt's 796-44.  I was 2 points back for a distant 3rd place.  

Sunday's OTC match ended up being called due to rain at about 11 am after the 

standing match and 2 relays of sitting.  I don't believe that anyone was too upset by 

this decision, as it was pretty cold and very windy.  When the rain started, the fun 

was pretty much over.  I'm pretty sure my 181 won the standing match, if that gives 

you any idea of the conditions.  Here's a link to Saturday's scores, in case they did 

not copy you on them:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwNBGsygr_lXVEpSaXJNOHFmRGM/edit?pli=1

On to Lodi.  This past weekend was the Palma Regional at Winnequah Gun Club.  

The forecast was threatening rain all week, but when I hit the road on friday 

afternoon, WeatherBug was showing a dry weekend.  It indeed ended up staying 

dry, but the conditions were anything but pleasant.  

Saturday presented us with an honest-to-goodness 25-30 mph gusting, fishtailing 

 headwind that would occasionally even kick up sand to keep everyone on their toes.  

Fast moving clouds were making light conditions very tricky on top of the extremely 

difficult wind situation.  I heard one shooter come off the 1000 yard line say that he 

didn't see the same target twice through the whole string!  Mirage was sometimes 

visible, but was often blown out and very hard to read, so most shooters switched to 

watching the flags.  I found the center flag on the 600 yard line to be somewhat reliable 

and based my corrections off of that.  Even the best shooters were getting caught for

 7's(or worse) and off-paper misses were not uncommon.  Several long-time Winnequah 

members stated that it was the hardest condition that they have seen at their range.  

Shooters left at the end of the day with wind-burned faces and dried-out eyes...

Brian Mrnak managed the only HM score of the day with a 439 for the win.  I was pleasantly

 surprised to find that my 433 was good enough for 2nd place!  The conditions 

managed to get even worse for the bonus 20-shot 1000 yard match, and not one 

shooter out of 29 was able to crack the 190 mark.  There were 3 189's shot, including 

the match winning 189-6x from Frank Evica, out of the Expert class, no less!  I was

happy to escape with a 186-3x, which gained me 3 points on Brian's lead and kept 

me in 2nd place for the 1-day agg.  

On Sunday, conditions proved to be much more favorable(though still not easy), and 

 scores were much higher for the day.  Rick Burbach posted a very respectable 445-20x 

for the top spot on Sunday, with crafty vet Bill Lair shooting a 441-15x for 2nd place.  

In the combined Master/Expert/SS class, Paul Cross won the weekend agg after 2 days 

of solid shooting with a 1036-29x.  A newcomer,  Sharpshooter-ranked Chris Veldkamp 

was just 8 points behind Paul for 2nd place using mostly borrowed equipment.  My bet is 

that we can expect for Chris not to remain a sharpshooter for very long.  

On Sunday afternoon when the dust settled, Brian "The Machine" Mrnak came out on top, 

and brought home the Gold Medal with a score of 1063-29x.  Brian is really at the top of his 
game
right now, and he will be the man to beat at any match he chooses to enter.  Waylon
Burbach showed why he's the #1 ranked junior shooter in the world by clawing his way up 

to 2nd for the Silver with a 1055-31x..  My pitiful performance at the 1000 yard line on Sunday
dropped me down to 3rd, but considering the conditions, I was happy to sneak away with the
 Bronze after shooting a 1051-33x.  

Over on the F-class side, Pat Scully made North Star Rifle Club proud in his first visit to

 Lodi by winning the F-Palma on Saturday AND the bonus 20-shot 1k match, giving him 
a comfortable lead going into day 2.  Sunday was a little tougher on him, but he hung on 
for the Gold medal and match win over 2nd place Bob Sebold with a 1048-23.  Pat also 
managed to earn the new nickname of "Square Head" from the Wisconsin guys - I think 
that one's gonna stick!

See score board photos from Lodi below.

Later,

Erik

Thanks Erik for sending in the Match report!!!

Thats All Folks !
Hawkeye

Shooters News for the MN area - May 1, 2014

Big Weekend coming up for Minn Area shooters.

  There are Rifle Matches galore this weekend, so grab up some of that ammo you have spent all winter loading and get out there and shoot--No excuses this weekend, there is something for everybody
  There are Prone matches for serious mid-range shooters, "Fun" matches for the service rifle shooter, and to top it all off there is an EIC (excellence in competition)  'Leg' match for the aspiring Service Rifle shooter to try and earn some of those elusive "Leg points" needed to earn the coveted "Distinguished Rifleman's"  badge.
  For the 'occasional' or beginning shooter that wants a "fun" match to go to, head on over to Oakdale Gun Club on Saturday morning May 3, and take part in the 2nd of their summer series of CMP Military rifle matches.  Easy and fun, these CMP matches are a good way to practice your skills. You will shoot some sighters and then 10 shots from the prone position, then a 10 shot string of  'rapid fire', also prone, and finally 10 shots from the standing position to finish out your turn on the firing line.
     Click Here for match program and entry info

Gopher Rifle and Revolver Club will also be hosting rifle matches both Saturday, May 3, and Sunday May 4th.  Saturday will see shooters on the line contesting the venerable Bob Hall Memorial OTC match.  Open to both 'match' and 'service' rifles, this will be an "Over the Course" type match--(50 of 80 shot?) and will be the warm-up for the all important Service Rifle Leg match taking place on Sunday May, 4th.  For service rifle shooters the 'Leg Match' is the holy grail of shooting. Come and participate and you will find out why.   Click Here for match program -- first shots down range at 0900 hrs.
   Belly shooters will be heading down to the beautiful NorthStar Gun Club just North of  RedWing, Mn, along the banks of the Cannon river. Two days of Mid Range matches await the faithful. Saturday shooters will fire 20 shot matches from the 300, 500 and the 600 yd lines, with Iron sights, and one 600 yd match with 'Any' sights.  On Sunday, all 4 twenty shot matches will be fired from the 600 yd line. Two with 'Irons' and two with 'any" sights. All matches on both days can be fired with scopes in the F-class.
   Click Here for Match program   Contact Bob Peasley (507)744-5200 for latest information

That's All Folks
Hawkeye