The Week Ahead for MN area shooters -- Sept 28

The Week Ahead - MN Area Shooters News - Sept 28

Last Weekend pretty much signaled the end of the Rifle Match season here in the Mn area.  However, there is a rumor out that the matches scheduled last weekend at Eau Rifle club were postponed due to range flooding and will now be held this coming weekend.  I can't confirm this is true, but, if this is the case, Saturday will be a Mid Range  prone match to be shot at 600 yds, and then on Sunday an 80 OTC will be held. I got this "word of mouth", so ck with someone in the know before driving over to Eau Claire.  Click Here for the match program and contact information for the Match Director. The forecast is for great weather and this would be your last chance to fire a Highpower rifle match this season.   

Last Weekend

The Golden Nuggets of life may come few and far between but when they do come, they make life really worth living.

  

 Friday,Sept 24 -- GRRC put on a shooting clinic for more than two dozen MN National Guard troops, facing future deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq.  Chief Warrant Officer (CW4) Roger Sorben, and S.Sgt Al Schneider brought their men in to hone their marksman ship skills prior to the upcoming deployment.  I had the pleasure, along with Kurt Borlaug (clinic director), Tom Torberg, Bill Lathi, Don Mastro, Mark Havlik, Erik Rhode, Dave Dexter (10 X Dex), and MSgt Matt Griffin (USAF shooting team), of coaching these young energetic Guards men.  They were all attentive to what was being taught. They seemed eager to learn, and were all very respectful of us older guys who were telling them what to do all day.  We are all lucky to have such fine young men and women serving in our armed forces.  It was a great day and I think a good time was had by all.  They would all come back the next day to compete in the Excellence in Competition match at GRRC - The Leg Match.
     Click Here -- for Slide show of Clinic Pictures.

Kurt Borlaug explains Sight Picture

 

Saturday Sept 25th

GRRC hosted a Excellence in Competition - Leg Match for service rifle shooters and and 42 non-distinguished shooters showed up to contest for Leg Points.  Thanks to the MN Nat Guard contingent, this proved to be the best turnout for a leg match MN has seen since sometime in the early '90s.  This many shooters meant that there would be four "Legs" up for grabs plus the 3 medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place overall.  There were also some already "Distinguished" shooters who showed up as they are eligible to win the medals.  I was one of those hoping to win a medal and, of course, I would be trying to best my friend and long time competitor, Larry Weidell whom who has been beating me fairly regularly lately, although I got him by 1 pt for a medal in the Elk River Leg match earlier this summer. I would have to be on my game if I was to have a chance in this match as I had not practiced Offhand or Rapid fire much this whole summer. 

 The day was going to be warm, sunny, with little wind and so there would be no excuses for bad shooting to fall back on.  I was up 1st relay for the standing match and proceeded to fire a couple 9s then a 7 on the third shot-- not going well right off the bat.  More 9s, an 8 and only one 10 followed and I scored only an 87 in that match -- 7 pts below my average. I came back with a 98 in the Sitting Rapid fire match, but was down 15 pts already off the 200 yd line, and I knew it was going to be tough to beat Larry or win a medal today as I headed for my turn in the pits.   Checking with the other guys on my relay, it sounded like Phil Klanderud was having a good day and might be among the leaders at the end.  Chief Sorben was also on my target and fired fairly good scores at the 200, and 300 , so he also was still in the running as we headed back to the 300yd line for our turn at that rapid fire match.   On the way back I passed Larry who said he had shot a 98 standing, then 95 sitting and so he was up 8 on me already.  My 300 rapid group went out at 5:00 and 9 more pts went down the drain.  The Varget powder I was using today was definitely shooting lower by about a min of angle than the RL-15 I had been using earlier in the year.  I had to go back to the pits at each yd line as there were only 2 on our target so again I passed Larry W.  on the road after he had shot his 600 slow fire.  He said he had left the door wide open for me as he had had a very bad 600 dropping 20 some pts there.  Like the old saying---- he had won it at the 200 yd line but then lost it at the 600yd line  -- maybe, I still had to shoot back there myself and 5pm shadows were now obscuring the #4 and #5 targets where I was shooting.  I really could not see the targets well and hardly could see the bullseye at all.  Day over? Well I would try a few shots but I had little confidence at that point.  I put 2 extra clicks of elevation on the gun for the Varget and tried to get a sight picture. The bullseye looked oblong from 8 to 2 o'clock so I waited till a big shadow to move a little and realized it wasn't going to get any better and fired for record.  To my amazement it came up an X -- I don't know how that happened, as those folks that were on the little end of the line will attest to: the bullseyes were barely visible against the dark background. I came off with a 187 - only a few pts below average and was very happy to have scored that well considering the really poor visibility. Over all I was down about 10 pts for the day from my usual average, but I had had a fun day, and that is what really counts.  Did I beat Larry Weidel and win a Medal  --  Nope.  That one seven I shot at the 600 put me 3 down from Larry and he won the bronze medal (Dang, beat me again!).  Some consolation-- I had beat 3 of the leg winners and most of the younger guys, coming in 5th over all of the 40 some shooters.  See -- 67 yrs old isn't too old to shoot service rifle and have fun at a leg match. 

   Phil Klanderud was the big winner.  He won the Gold Medal and the 10 Leg points he needed to finally earn his Distinguished Rifleman's Badge.  I was very happy for Phil as he shot well and deserved to finally win that Badge.  He had just missed, scoring 1st loser, in 5 other Leg matches.  He had hung in there, with a great attitude, and finally this was his day.  

Congratulations to Phil Klanderud -- Distinguished Rifleman

I don't have complete results as a score board was not kept and results were not forwarded to me yet.

(L to R)   Larry Widel (Bronze Medal), Phil Klanderud (Gold Medal + Gold Leg), SSgt Al Schneider (First Leather),Tim Boyle (Bronze Leg), CWO4 Roger Sorbin (Silver Medal), Dean Gillette (Silver Leg), Tim Thole (Bronze Leg) 

Other winners-- all the other shooters that took part in this match. 

Upcoming matches
300 meter matches continue at the Mpls Rifle Club once a month -- the next being Oct 10 th.
Olymbic small Bore continue at the Mpls Rifle Club once a month -- the next being Oct 16 -  Program click here

Slide shows of last weekends matches are posted on the Blog below

That's All folks 

Hawkeye