It's time to think about range improvements !

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 --

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 - Feb 7-12, 2011, Ben 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

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

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

 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 !