The Month Ahead
Note: all links to programs and Schedules in this news letter are permanately posted at the Minnesota Rifle Shooting blog: http://minnesotarifleshooting.blogspot.com/
Jan 2nd, 2010 -- Start off the new year with participation in the 2nd match of the new "Winter Highpower League"
to be shot at Mpls. Rifle Club (Elect. targets) and put on by George Minerich, match director and MRRA President. Match is in the OTC format, 50 shots plus sighters with first shots down range at 1000 hrs. There is no need to be cold shooting here as the target house is heated and very comfortable and no target pulling is necessary. Match program: http://mrra.org/downloads/mrc/MRC_Winter_League.pdf
If you can't shoot because your trigger finger is broken (or some other lame excuse), come by and shoot the breeze about the up-coming big dollar ($$$) prize standing match in Feb
Results of Dec. match were not received by me.
Jan 10th 2010 -- Will be the first 300 meter match of 2010 again at Mpls Rifle Club -- Prone, Offhand, or 3P Take your pick.
Mpls Rifle Club shooting house and shot monitor
2010 Highpower Sched from Bob Peasley
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23879501/2010-High-Power-Shcedule-Dec-5th-Version
Highpower
Kurt Borlaug has announced the schedule for the summer 2010 Thursday evening HighPower league matches at Gopher Rifle and Revolver club. Program (Schedule):
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24410947/2010-GRRC-Thursday-Evening-High-Power-Prone-League-Schedule
Kurt has also organized a Tuesday evening M1 Garand league for summer of 2010 (again at GRRC), and these matches will be shot as a "President's" match format -- 10 shots prone slow fire, 10 shots rapid fire Prone, and 10 shots Standing.
Program (schedule) is found at http://www.scribd.com/doc/24412448/2010-GRRC-M1-League-Schedule
High Power clinic
When --Jan 23 rd
Where -- Gander Mt.-- Lakeville, MN
What -- Everything you wanted to know about High Power rifle competition (rules, sight settings, how to zero, wind reading, basic sight alignment, trigger control, sling attachment, getting into position, scope placement, etc.)
Who -- Bob Peasley (High master shooter in Long Range, OTC, Mid range, etc)
Program: http://www.scribd.com/doc/24413996/High-Power-Rifle-Clinic-Bob-Peasley
Long Range:
Berger Bullets SouthWest Long Range Nationals -- Feb 4th--7th 2010
Get away from the Cold!
Shoot long range at the Berger Bullets Southwest Long Range Nationals-- Feb 4th thru Feb 7th. This is a good opportunity to shoot head to head with the top prone shooters in the nation and thaw out a little in the process. This will be 4 days of Palma and 1000 yd matches at Ben Avery Range in Phoenix, AZ. You can test your skill against the big boys and the Ladies, such as Trudy Fay, Michelle and Nancy Galagher. You know that you need a shooting vacation this winter----this is your chance!
See you there
Match program: http://www.desertsharpshooters.com/champ/2010/2010%20Berger%20SW%20Nationals/Berger_SW_Nationals.pdf
Small Bore:
Our friend from North of the Border-- NWOshooter-- has posted a couple of good articles on his blog (Prone in the Wilderness) about his own training regimen, and the one I think that bears reading is about keeping a shooting diary. Keeping such a diary forces you to confront and list your mistakes and thereby reinforcing your memory to what you did wrong. Reviewing your shooting diary before a match and during your training helps you concentrate on the things that have caused problems in the past and hopefully you can apply corrections to your methods. We do hope to see NWOshooter at one of our next MN Small bore matches this coming summer. here is an example of one of his methods : http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6GgWSR_71MKMTgxNDMyYTktMjBhNC00MWM1LTk3MjUtZGZhMGZkYWFlZGUw&hl=en
Article at: http://proneinthewilderness.blogspot.com/
Personal Notes:
Never get too Discouraged
OK, so you had the worst day of your shooting career today -- There is always tomorrow, and there is no place to go but up. Following is a letter I sent to my shooting Buddy who has vowed to Quit shooting due to lack of reward for all the effort he has put in trying to be a better shooter. ---
"(B.....)
Taking a break from an activity for a while can be a good Idea. However, one must be careful about over-reacting if one has had a bad day or a bad weekend. Recognizing "burn-out" for what it is helps one cope with the stress of relative failure in competition.
Remember, we don't shoot, at our skill level, in order to win, but to compete--to "play the game" as it were. I haven't won a rifle match in the last 5 years. It's doubtful weather I'll ever win another rifle match, so for me the competition is just to shoot at least above my average. If you think about it, this actually becomes easier and easier, as if we don't shoot well, our average goes down and then it's easier to shoot our average. So, eventually we win (shoot our average), and all is well.
I think there is no doubt that you shoot too much. I come to practice on Tuesday, and Thurs, and you are there before me, shooting away, and then when I leave, you are still there banging away. I shoot about 40 rds at practice and you shoot about 140. Now, you have added long range to your goal, and shoot a Palma match. I couldn't handle that much shooting, besides the fact that long range is very hard to score at. Too much shooting and too much loading ! Too much time spent on the sport for it to be fun. I becomes a chore, ---work. Work with no pay off.
So, think about what it is about the matches that is fun--- being at the match with the guys, -- having the opportunity to stretch your limits a little, --- Try new things out, -- a little friendly competition --- A person needs these things to stay young.
So, instead of quitting, just ease off a little, shoot less, enjoy it more. You will actually shoot better because of it. Go back to what you found to be fun when you started --- over the course, service rifle---well maybe not that far back. You now see why I don't shoot as much Long range prone. Prone shooters are so serious. The sport is boiled down too far to perfection. You have to shoot almost perfect scores or you are a failure. Like, Why did I drop those two pts yesterday---Why?
It's lots easier to have some fun in OTC matches-- No one shoots perfect scores there, and rapid fire is always fun --- and sometimes you get lucky.
So, take a little break from practice and loading, mix up your matches -- a little Prone, a few OTC matches, shoot scope in SB, set reasonable goals! Look at how far you have come in the last two years and be satisfied. Remember you shot a good score just last Sat in SB. Get back to the fun part of shooting.
I'll be at the OTC Sat with the service rifle, then a week so off.
Hawkeye"-
I also had to send this msg to myself last Sat night. I had just shot my personal record LOW score at a 500yd mid range match. I couldn't see the target, (old eyes) the new expensive sight I had bought didn't help, I couldn't read the wind (nothing new here), My trigger control was bad, and 2 x-fires didn't help much at all. Difficult wind (gusting to 25mph) and bad visibility didn't seem to hurt the better shooters (German Salazar shot a 598/600), so any excuses were I made were worthless. I was just not competitive --- period! Oh poor me. What a loser!
Well, Sunday morn.the sun still came up as expected, the weather was a little warmer, the wind was down, and I could shoot scope in a gentlemanly 160 shot SB prone match. I didn't have to worry about sight-alignment, and the scope substituted for old eyes. What a difference a day makes! Shooting was fun again. I shot the first 20x clean of my whole career, dropped only 2 pts for the day, and settled with a personal record high score of 1598/105x. What a difference a day makes. Two days of shooting, two personal records. I am rejuvenated. I can shoot well sometimes, and that makes it all worthwhile --- all the work, all the expense, all the mental anguish is worth it, for just one brief, shining moment when it all comes together (there is a Camelot).
Did I win that match ?--- nope. I was just 2nd loser. Rick Curtis shot 1599/136x and Allen Elliot shot 1598/112x. Oh, Well, I had fun and that's all that really counts. Think about it after a bad shooting day. The sun will come up tomorrow.
Hawkeye
Matches coming up:
Saturday Jan 2nd -- Mpls Rifle club -- Winter HP league
Sunday Jan 10th -- Mpls Rifle club --- 300m match
Saturday Jan 23 -- Highpower Clinic -- Gander Mt, Lakeville, MN
Sat & Sun -- Feb 13th &14th-- Mpls Rifle club -- Bob Sandager Offand Matches (Big prizes)
Note: all links to programs and Schedules in this news letter are permanately posted at the Minnesota Rifle Shooting blog: http://minnesotarifleshooting.blogspot.com/
Jan 2nd, 2010 -- Start off the new year with participation in the 2nd match of the new "Winter Highpower League"
to be shot at Mpls. Rifle Club (Elect. targets) and put on by George Minerich, match director and MRRA President. Match is in the OTC format, 50 shots plus sighters with first shots down range at 1000 hrs. There is no need to be cold shooting here as the target house is heated and very comfortable and no target pulling is necessary. Match program: http://mrra.org/downloads/mrc/MRC_Winter_League.pdf
If you can't shoot because your trigger finger is broken (or some other lame excuse), come by and shoot the breeze about the up-coming big dollar ($$$) prize standing match in Feb
Results of Dec. match were not received by me.
Jan 10th 2010 -- Will be the first 300 meter match of 2010 again at Mpls Rifle Club -- Prone, Offhand, or 3P Take your pick.
300 Meter match report from Brian shiffman-- Dec
Mpls Rifle Club shooting house and shot monitor"It was a pretty good day to have a match. Conditions required a bit of wind doping. We had 14 shooters with one abstaining. Several shooters that were new to me joined to shoot. We encourage all centerfire rifle competitors to participate in our monthly club matches; they are open to all. Just remember, no hunting or expanding bullets and no muzzle breaks.
The scores for the match are posted at http://www.edfpages.com/mgfc/results.php?match=12 As you look through the scores you will notice that ta number of shooters post consistent scores in F-Class and Prone. Philip Klanderud’s scores were very consistent; his first string only 2 points down from his next two strings of 20 shots each. Phillip was bested by one point by Matt Griffin. Their first and third strings were identical (187 and 189) but Matt shot a 190 to Phillip’s 189 in the second string. I shot F-Class with optical sight for my first string and got brave to shoot the last two strings with iron sights. Even using a rest, my scores are not good or consistent which means I still need work on my sight picture and alignment. I want to move to Prone but I’ll have to do better with iron sights before I tackle the other variables of position dynamics.
NOTE: With the upcoming Robert Sandager offhand match scheduled for February 13 and 14 we added an Offhand Class to the December and January matches for those wishing to get some practice under match conditions. We had two shooters at the December match that shoot Offhand Class, Erhard Bruderer and Mark Havlik. Erhard was shooting a full on match rifle while Mark shot his AR15. Our web scoring page does not have an Offhand Class so here are the results for Erhard and Mark:
Erhard 160 167 167 504
Mark 119 119 131 369
The January club 300 meter match will be on January 10th and as usual we will start at 10AM and a match fee of $15, all up. This match will again include the Offhand Class.
As I write this we are under a blanket of snow and the satellite dish is not getting a signal. It is a good time to sit by the fireplace and think about the many blessings we have had this year.
Happy holiday season."
Brian D. Shiffman shiff004@umn.edu
2010 Highpower Sched from Bob Peasley
Highpower
Kurt Borlaug has announced the schedule for the summer 2010 Thursday evening HighPower league matches at Gopher Rifle and Revolver club. Program (Schedule):
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24410947/2010-GRRC-Thursday-Evening-High-Power-Prone-League-Schedule
Kurt has also organized a Tuesday evening M1 Garand league for summer of 2010 (again at GRRC), and these matches will be shot as a "President's" match format -- 10 shots prone slow fire, 10 shots rapid fire Prone, and 10 shots Standing.
Program (schedule) is found at http://www.scribd.com/doc/24412448/2010-GRRC-M1-League-Schedule
High Power clinic
When --Jan 23 rd
Where -- Gander Mt.-- Lakeville, MN
What -- Everything you wanted to know about High Power rifle competition (rules, sight settings, how to zero, wind reading, basic sight alignment, trigger control, sling attachment, getting into position, scope placement, etc.)
Who -- Bob Peasley (High master shooter in Long Range, OTC, Mid range, etc)
Program: http://www.scribd.com/doc/24413996/High-Power-Rifle-Clinic-Bob-Peasley
Long Range:
Berger Bullets SouthWest Long Range Nationals -- Feb 4th--7th 2010
Get away from the Cold!
Shoot long range at the Berger Bullets Southwest Long Range Nationals-- Feb 4th thru Feb 7th. This is a good opportunity to shoot head to head with the top prone shooters in the nation and thaw out a little in the process. This will be 4 days of Palma and 1000 yd matches at Ben Avery Range in Phoenix, AZ. You can test your skill against the big boys and the Ladies, such as Trudy Fay, Michelle and Nancy Galagher. You know that you need a shooting vacation this winter----this is your chance!
See you there
Match program: http://www.desertsharpshooters.com/champ/2010/2010%20Berger%20SW%20Nationals/Berger_SW_Nationals.pdf
Small Bore:
Our friend from North of the Border-- NWOshooter-- has posted a couple of good articles on his blog (Prone in the Wilderness) about his own training regimen, and the one I think that bears reading is about keeping a shooting diary. Keeping such a diary forces you to confront and list your mistakes and thereby reinforcing your memory to what you did wrong. Reviewing your shooting diary before a match and during your training helps you concentrate on the things that have caused problems in the past and hopefully you can apply corrections to your methods. We do hope to see NWOshooter at one of our next MN Small bore matches this coming summer. here is an example of one of his methods : http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6GgWSR_71MKMTgxNDMyYTktMjBhNC00MWM1LTk3MjUtZGZhMGZkYWFlZGUw&hl=en
Article at: http://proneinthewilderness.blogspot.com/
Personal Notes:
Never get too Discouraged
OK, so you had the worst day of your shooting career today -- There is always tomorrow, and there is no place to go but up. Following is a letter I sent to my shooting Buddy who has vowed to Quit shooting due to lack of reward for all the effort he has put in trying to be a better shooter. ---
"(B.....)
Taking a break from an activity for a while can be a good Idea. However, one must be careful about over-reacting if one has had a bad day or a bad weekend. Recognizing "burn-out" for what it is helps one cope with the stress of relative failure in competition.
Remember, we don't shoot, at our skill level, in order to win, but to compete--to "play the game" as it were. I haven't won a rifle match in the last 5 years. It's doubtful weather I'll ever win another rifle match, so for me the competition is just to shoot at least above my average. If you think about it, this actually becomes easier and easier, as if we don't shoot well, our average goes down and then it's easier to shoot our average. So, eventually we win (shoot our average), and all is well.
I think there is no doubt that you shoot too much. I come to practice on Tuesday, and Thurs, and you are there before me, shooting away, and then when I leave, you are still there banging away. I shoot about 40 rds at practice and you shoot about 140. Now, you have added long range to your goal, and shoot a Palma match. I couldn't handle that much shooting, besides the fact that long range is very hard to score at. Too much shooting and too much loading ! Too much time spent on the sport for it to be fun. I becomes a chore, ---work. Work with no pay off.
So, think about what it is about the matches that is fun--- being at the match with the guys, -- having the opportunity to stretch your limits a little, --- Try new things out, -- a little friendly competition --- A person needs these things to stay young.
So, instead of quitting, just ease off a little, shoot less, enjoy it more. You will actually shoot better because of it. Go back to what you found to be fun when you started --- over the course, service rifle---well maybe not that far back. You now see why I don't shoot as much Long range prone. Prone shooters are so serious. The sport is boiled down too far to perfection. You have to shoot almost perfect scores or you are a failure. Like, Why did I drop those two pts yesterday---Why?
It's lots easier to have some fun in OTC matches-- No one shoots perfect scores there, and rapid fire is always fun --- and sometimes you get lucky.
So, take a little break from practice and loading, mix up your matches -- a little Prone, a few OTC matches, shoot scope in SB, set reasonable goals! Look at how far you have come in the last two years and be satisfied. Remember you shot a good score just last Sat in SB. Get back to the fun part of shooting.
I'll be at the OTC Sat with the service rifle, then a week so off.
Hawkeye"-
I also had to send this msg to myself last Sat night. I had just shot my personal record LOW score at a 500yd mid range match. I couldn't see the target, (old eyes) the new expensive sight I had bought didn't help, I couldn't read the wind (nothing new here), My trigger control was bad, and 2 x-fires didn't help much at all. Difficult wind (gusting to 25mph) and bad visibility didn't seem to hurt the better shooters (German Salazar shot a 598/600), so any excuses were I made were worthless. I was just not competitive --- period! Oh poor me. What a loser!
Well, Sunday morn.the sun still came up as expected, the weather was a little warmer, the wind was down, and I could shoot scope in a gentlemanly 160 shot SB prone match. I didn't have to worry about sight-alignment, and the scope substituted for old eyes. What a difference a day makes! Shooting was fun again. I shot the first 20x clean of my whole career, dropped only 2 pts for the day, and settled with a personal record high score of 1598/105x. What a difference a day makes. Two days of shooting, two personal records. I am rejuvenated. I can shoot well sometimes, and that makes it all worthwhile --- all the work, all the expense, all the mental anguish is worth it, for just one brief, shining moment when it all comes together (there is a Camelot).
Did I win that match ?--- nope. I was just 2nd loser. Rick Curtis shot 1599/136x and Allen Elliot shot 1598/112x. Oh, Well, I had fun and that's all that really counts. Think about it after a bad shooting day. The sun will come up tomorrow.
Hawkeye
Matches coming up:
Saturday Jan 2nd -- Mpls Rifle club -- Winter HP league
Sunday Jan 10th -- Mpls Rifle club --- 300m match
Saturday Jan 23 -- Highpower Clinic -- Gander Mt, Lakeville, MN
Sat & Sun -- Feb 13th &14th-- Mpls Rifle club -- Bob Sandager Offand Matches (Big prizes)
Minnesota Rifle Shooting Blog: http://minnesotarifleshooting.blogspot.com/
"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
"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
If the temperature was in the 70’s is might have been a better day than what we had on Nov. 8. Calm to begin with and a little breeze from now and then by 11AM or so. Basically, a really nice day to shoot .Lance was on his game, particularly in kneeling. Look at his score (and all the rest) at