Service Rifle Weekend in Minn -- Shooters News for June 26

The Week Ahead
Highpower 
Service Rifle Shooters in the upper Midwest will be heading North this weekend to participate in the State Service Rifle Championship and the all important CMP Leg Match that goes with it.  On Saturday, June 30th, Northwestern Gun Club will hold the individual 80 shot OTC match that decides who is the State Champ Service Rifle shooter. The beautiful Hunter's Lake range suffered minor damage in the Duluth floods last week, but after repairs, the facility is ready to go for this important rifle match. 

 As important as the State Championship is to Service Rifle shooters, for most, this match is really just the tune-up for Sunday's CMP Leg Match.  The all important Leg Match --- The only place where you can earn a few points toward the life time achievement award of a Distinguished Rifleman's Badge.  Earning these 'leg points' can almost become a "vision quest" for many service rifle shooters, who train and practice for years to gain the skill needed to become a "Distinguished Rifleman".   In reality, shooters have a real chance to earn points by the time they can shoot a Master Class score.  Ten percent of the shooters that participate will earn some points --- Someone will have a great day and win some leg points. It might be you !
               Click Here for Match bulletin and entry info
                              Click Here for NWGC Weather rpt.

July 4th -  If you make the short trip to Eau Claire you will find a good reason to reach back into the gun cabinet, and pull out the M-1 and M1A service rifles.    Eau Claire Rifle Club has an M-1 Garand match starting at 0900 and then there will be an M1A match about 1300 hrs.  The M-1 match is CMP course B at 200 yds, and the M1A match will be the same course of fire, but shot at 300 yds.  All competitors will fire ball ammo to be issued at the match (incl. in entry).
     Click Here for M1 match bulletin.     Click Here for M1A match bulletin

Small Bore
Small Bore positions shooters will also have their chance to shine at the  4P Small Bore Regional to be shot at the Mpls. Rifle Club - June 30 and July 1. This is a 3200 point match with all matches on Saturday being shot with Iron sights, and then Any sights allowed on Sunday.  All matches to be fired at 50 yds.
    Click Here for match bulletin and entry info.

Last Weekend
  Many Minn. area prone and long range shooters attended the week long MidWest Palma matches, in Lodi, Wisconsin. I understand that they battled, wind, rain, and generally tough conditions all week. No Match report is available at this time.

MRC OTC matches 

Those of us stay-behinds were still able to exercise our trigger fingers, as Mark Rohmer put on a great weekend of OTC matches at the Mpls Rifle club's highpower range.  I thought I would go and participate at least one day of the two.  It would be my first OTC match since the few really disappointing times it shot last year. I figured that sooner or later I'd give it another try.  Since I always liked shooting on MRC,s Highpower range, back in the '90s when we had lots of great matches there, this would be a good weekend to see how if goes. If I could get through the Standing match, I knew that the rest of the day would be fun.  I would go on Sunday --(best weather forecast).    
 Saturday ended up being a perfect day for shooting a match.  Kevin Bangen took full advantage of the good weather to fire a great 984-33x score in this 1000pt match to take the lead in the weekends shooting competition. Erik Rhode fired what must be a personal record for him, as he dropped only 5 points in the two Rapid Fire, and two Prone Slow Fire matches that followed the Standing match.  Along the way Erik fired a 200-8x in the Prone Rapid match, just shy of the match win by Capt. Bob Peasley who held hard for a 200-10x.  
  Sunday was another beautiful day here in Minn. Temp about 75 deg, and a light NE breeze that added, maybe a click or to the windage knobs at 300 yds. Fifteen shooters showed up have some fun and Omer Hamer (GS) got a pt up on the competition with his steady 189 score in the Standing Match.  I was shooting the AR-15 service rifle as I think it is easier to shoot in Standing and Sitting Rapid fire than the match rifle. It didn't help, I started off good, but the 2nd 10 shots were mostly 8s and nines.  Kevin fired a 100-5x on his first Sitting Rapid string, and then followed that up with an awesome 100-9x on the 2nd string. When it was my turn, I got a good position, but a had a wobbly hold.

The good trigger control I have learned, while Sm Bore shooting, kicked in and I got the all shots off while the front sight blade meandered by the bulls eye within the 60 sec. allowed.  Well !!-- a 100-5x-- that's a good start.  I always liked shooting sitting Rapid fire.  The second string seemed ragged, but the target came up with all the spotters inside the 10 ring again, but only 3 in the Xs.  Kevin would win the match.  That was fun!  Tim Thole also shot a clean 200-4x.
   My front sight faded from view in the 300 yd rapid fire match.(like my score), but Steve Erickson drilled 11 Xs and nine 10s to win that match with a 200-11x. Dale Wickstrom and Kevin posted scores just a couple pts back.  Strangely enough for the great conditions, no one cleaned the Prone Slow fire targets today.  We were shooting from 300 yds on those deceptively hard MR-63 Targets.  Everyone let one or more drift out into the nine ring, but 3 of the High Masters, Steve E, Capt. Bob, and Kevin fired 199s.  Steve's 10 x score takes the win.  Kevin Bangen came out on top of the scores for the day, with Omer H. just behind. Yours truly sneaks in for a class win in the master class
  The weekends tournament win goes to Kevin who posted a 1964-59x.  Denney Bertrand wins the Master Class, and H. Haagersen (sp?) gets the win in the EX and below.

  

  I think I'll come back and shoot a few more of these OTC matches.  Bad scores or not in the Standing match, the rest of the day will be fun, and I think I can get a few class wins in the Master class. I'll definately be back for the Fall matches here at MRC. It's a good place to shoot an OTC match.  

Notes:  
1 .Pictures:   Flood damage at NorthStar Rifle Club --  click here

2. Practice at GRRC:   From Kurt Borlaug  "Boys, Since July 4th lands on a practice day this year and a lot of us have it off, I plan to  be at GRRC range by 9am for a practice session including a NMC and Infantry run-through. I'll need to collect $5 from anyone who has not paid for seasonal practice fees. Please let me know if you can make it.   Kurt Borlaug"

3.  Elk river Sportsman's Club:  From Scott Olson  "Hi Jim,  Here are a couple of match programs that you can pass along.  First, ERSC is having three nights of NRA Approved Mid-Range/F-class for those wishing to get a classification beofre the state championship.  Second, here is the match program for the MRP/F-class state championship." - Scott
      Click Here  for ERSC F-class league bulletin 
       Mid range prone champ match bulletin July 28 -- click here

Two Weeks out
July 7-8             NRA Championship at NorthStar-- Match program Click Here
July 7                4 P Sm bore state champ at Hibbing  - Match program click Here  
July 8                3 P Sm bore state champ at Hibbing  - Match program click Here
July 8                300 meter International at MRC
July 15              Small Bore prone 1600 at MRC  -  Match program click here   

That's all Folks !
Hawkeye

Shooters News for the Minn Area - June 20, 2012

The Week Ahead    
All this week, and next weekend, long range shooters are competing in the Mid West Palma matches, and the Wisconsin Long Range championship at Lodi, Wisconsin. This  This important long range tournament draws the best Palma shooters from all over the nation, and a  good number of Minn. local shooters are there to go head to head with the top dogs in this sport. I am assured that there that there will be a few pictures and a match report coming that will be posted here when available.

 For "Over the Course" shooters, there is a Great weekend coming up at the Mpls Rifle Club.  On both Sat., June 23,and Sunday June 24th, competitors can shoot a standard 80 shot National Match Course with an extra bonus of a 2nd prone slow fire match at the 300 yd line.  I love shooting those tough MR-63, 600yd reduced targets from 300 yds.  They are easy to see, but the little 10 ring means that if your position, trigger control, and all the other basics are not good, that shot will not be a 10. These will be two great matches to practice that prone position.
           MRC two day OTC matches - Click Here for match program
                                                           Get directions -  Click Here

Last Weekend  
Highpower
High Master cards coming!
The annual 3 day Hunters Lake 2400 OTC matches at NorthWestern Gun Club featured great weather, great shooting, and great fun.  All that together meant some really great scores were fired along the way by most all the shooters.  However, two of the up and coming shooters in this area, took full advantage of the good conditions and really put it all together over the whole three days of competition.  Both, Msgt, Matt Griffin, and Dick VanValkenburg, shot personal record scores each day, up in the High Master level, and I am sure that there will be new High Master classification cards coming in the mail for these guys very soon. Congratulations to Matt Griffin and Dick VanValkenburg.

Complete Results

  While most of the top scores in Fridays match came from the Master class, Kevin Bangen, took the tournament lead by 7 pts over Matt G. after firing a close to perfect 790-31x, including a 200-12z in the Sitting Rapid match.  Kevin won 3 of the day's matches, but Dale Wickstrom denied him a clean sweep by out Xing Kevin in the Prone Rapid fire 300 yd match (198-7) and taking that win.
  Saturday's match again saw Kevin take the days honors with a 785-37x, and taking a match win in the Prone Rapid match with a 200-10x.  It was Grand senior, Omer Hamer that that won the Standing match, with a steady 193-4x. Matt G. edged out James Pennington for the Sitting Rapid match with his 200-10x. Larry Miller, shooting a 200-8x to win the 500 yd prone match.
   Sunday dawned bright and clear over the Hunter lake range, and Matt G. started out by winning the standing match from the Master class, again just edging out James P. by one point.  In the 200 Rapid fire match, Erik Rhode shot his best score of the weekend, posting a 200-8x, but it just wasn't enough to hold off Kevin Bangen who also fired a 200 score, but had 14 Xs to break a tie and take the win.  In the Prone Rapid match,  Dick V. and Matt G. fired the highest scores of 198-8x. Dick lost this match to Matt on Creedmore rules for tie-breakers.  Kevin Bangen wins the final 500 yd match of the weekend, but his day's score of 779 is not good enough to beat Matt G. or Dick VanValkenburg, who take first and second.
  Other notable scores -- Larry Weidell, gets a 2nd in Fridays Sitting Rapid match with a 197-9x, and Lorne Smith topped the group of 6 expert class shooters for the weekend.

Gopher Rifle and Revolver Club held a CMP games, and a CMP vintage sniper rifle match on Sat, June 16.  I understand about 15 shooters attended this match.   No match report is available at this time.

High Power Notes: 
 From Larry Weidell
"Hey guys,

   Just spent the weekend up at Northwestern Gun Club. It was fantastic.  The match was well run.  Camped right on the range.  Great socializing after the matches.  Camp fire in the evening.  Some grilling.   Rounds were down range at 0900 and we were completed by 1430.  Leaving lots of time to do other things in the area.  The only down side was there weren't as many competitors there as in the past. That and the mosquitoes were kinda hungry.

   The State Service Rifle Championship is now less than two weeks away.  If you haven't seen the program it is a Regional Course of Fire (80 shot) w/o sighters on Saturday.  Stand up before you sit or lay down to shoot rapids.  On Sunday it is a Hearst Doubles followed immediately by a leg match. I am willing to bet if you brought a match rifle you could shoot it for the bragging rights.

    Make plans to be there.  There are camper hookups for power or you can tent. There are even a couple of building that are there that you can bring a cot and set it up in.

    If you haven't heard the Northstar Range (Redwing) had some serious flooding and may postpone the State Championship that was to be held there in July to September.  Stand by for more information from Capt Bob. 

Hold hard.   Larry"  

Small Bore

The 3rd in the summer series of outdoor, Prone Small bore 1600 matches took place at Mpls. Rifle Club on Sunday, June 17th. While the participation was down a little due to many of the area prone shooters being at the MidWest Palma matches, a few shooters we haven't seen for a while came out to fill up the firing line. 
  Ross and Sam Ewert  finally made it out to a match this year, and though they have not been competing much in this early part of the season, both showed that they haven't lost a bit of skill over the winter.  Distinguished Pistol shooter, Tom O'Donnel, came out for his first SB rifle match and shot well enough to show that basic shooting skills will transfer from pistol to rifle.  Tom says he enjoyed the match and will be coming back for for more in the future.  He will have to come back if he wants to get the sweat shirt he left right where I could mistake it for my own and take it with me.  I always wanted one of those good "Bostrom Sheet Metal" sweatshirts from way back when Tom and I worked together at 3M.

  The first match of the day, shot in perfect conditions, went to Emily Quiner.  Emily's 400-32x, in the 50 yd match, topped my best effort for the day, but I was happy just to shoot a 400, even if it was 10 Xs short of Emily's winning effort. Now let's think about this -- 400-32x.  This is not a score to just note and move on.  This is a score that separates the Master shooters from all us others. Top prone shooter,  Rick Curtis, says that his goal, in prone matches, is to shoot 200 with 14 Xs.  He expects to shoot a 200 (or at least 198-9), but gauges his performance on the X count.  Any time he shoots more than 14xs (20 shots) even with a 9 or two, it means that the majority of the shots are centered up.  So this puts Emily's score of 16 xs per 20 shots up there in the area of being nationally competitive. Ross and Sam Ewert fire 398, and 397 for 3rd and 4th place.   

  Not content to win the first match, Emily fired another two clean targets of 200, and this time 28 Xs total to win the Dewar Match where one target is fired at 50 yds., and one at 100 yds. Ross Ewert dropped a few pts in the first two matches, but with an X count of 28 in each, showed that a little tightening up on the wind calls and the rest of us would have to hold hard to beat him.    The next two targets were fired in the 100 yd match (any sights), and yours truly was a little more patient with the wind shifts than the others and won that match with a 395-21, by a couple pts over Junior Eric Hazleton.  This puts me a few points up for the day, going into the last match, on Jim Biles, my friendly rival from Duluth. Last year, Jim Beat me in every match.

George Minerich - MRRA pres.

Results

   As usual, the last match is the most difficult.  The 50 Meter match has the hardest targets, and success in this match is quite often hard to come by.

  After nipping at the heels of the leaders all day, Ross Ewert, almost cleaned his two "meter" targets, dropping only one pt. for a 399 and 32 Xs.  This awesome score will give Ross a 1585-104x for the day, and 2nd place over all.  Taking a break from a few matches didn't slow down Ross much at all.  A 390-24x earned me a not so brilliant 5th in this match, but was good enough to hang on for 3rd in the day's aggregate with 1578.  Jim Biles almost snatched that 3rd place by firing an amazing 398-23x in this last match, and tieing my 1578 for a 4th overall for the day.
  Congratulations to Emily Quinar who dropped only 11 pts for the 160 shots.  Her 1589-102x earns her a well deserved tournament win.

  It was good to see George Minerich, MRRA pres, finally have the time to shoot one of these matches. 

Small Bore Notes -- this in from My good friend, Haven Williams, who also runs the fantastic Western Wildcat matches in Phoenix each year, March. 
   From: Haven Williams
"I have been asked by Lones Wigger to pass along the word about his Firecracker 4800 at Raton, NM around July 4 and the program is attached. Even though Raton can be a windy range, the first week in July is almost always the calmest part of the year. Lones works all year getting sponsors for the Firecracker 4800 and the Western Wildcat 6400 for a very rich prize table. On most years, the winning score is down less than five points and there is plenty of excellent competitors. Everyone I have talked to about this match has enjoyed it immensely. Aside from the usually low wind, the higher elevations means that it is a very temperate climate. I recommend this well-run match to all. Just call Wig and tell him you are coming. There will be f-class if more than two shooters attend.

Also, a number of you are going to the National Metric matches at Bristol, IN. For the prone shooters who are waiting for the prone matches to start at Camp Perry, I am holding the Third Road to Perry match. I was very busy this year and did not get it published in USA Shooting, but the match will run Thursday and Friday after the prone phase of the National Metric Matches. It will be a two-day 2400 with more that 50% of entry fees being returned as prizes. Juniors will shoot for a greatly reduced entry fee. All who have attended this match regard it as excellent practice for CP and it is always lots of fun. You can contact me to enter, or just show up. There is plenty of camping spots and we have indoor plumbing and showers. My cell # is: 623-640-4157."
                Click Here for Firecracker 4800 program and Entry info

I know that two of our local SB shooters, Morgan Dietrich, and JR. Eric Hazleton, will be attending the Firecracker 4800.  Good Luck to them!

 Two Weeks Out
June 30-July 1  Sm bore 4 postition Championship at MRC - Click Here for match program
June 30-July 1  Minnesota Service Rifle champ at NWGC - Click Here for match program
July 4th             M1 & M1A match at Eau Claire Rifle club  
July 7-8             NRA Championship at NorthStar --  Tenative due to flood damage 
July 7                4 P Sm bore state champ at Hibbing  - Match program click Here  
July 8                3 P Sm bore state champ at Hibbing  - Match program click Here
July 8                300 meter International at MRC

That's All Folks !
Hawkeye

Shooters News for the Minn Area - June 13, 2012

The Week Ahead for Minn area shooters
  Highpower

Marking targets at NWGC

   This coming weekend, Northwestern Gun Club will host the 2nd in their summer series of rifle matches at their top notch shooting range on the shores of Hunter lake. Three days of OTC (over the course) matches are on tap in the Hunter Lake 2400.  This popular tournament has been drawing competitive shooters from all over the Midwest for many years and is one of the highlights of the summer shooting season in Minn.  NWGC matches always feature a "little" socializing after the match, its a great time to catch up with folks you may not have see for a while.  Indoor and outdoor camping facilities are available for those who wish to stay right at the range for the weekend. 
       Click here for Weather forecast for NWGC this weekend.
       Click here for Match Program and entry

Prone shooting
Eight 20 shot prone matches are on the schedule at Mpls. Rifle Club for Sunday, June 17th.  Prone shooters not heading off to the MidWest Palma matches at Lodi,Wisc., should head over the the MRC Small Bore range for a full day of tough Prone competition with the Sm Bore match rifle.  You don't even have to load the ammo or pull targets! These outdoor prone SB matches are the absolute best practice for Mid Range and long range highpower matches. See you there?
         Click Here for MRC SB 1600 match program, map and entry info.

Long Range
Good Luck to all those area Long Range shooters that are heading off to next week's Mid West Palma Matches at Lodi, Wisconsin.  Bring back a couple pictures for those of us who won't make it.
                                                     Click for slide show of this match
Last Weekend    


The Minn. Regional Long Range Championship took place at the Gopher Rifle & Revolver Club's 1000 yd shooting facility June 9-10. . This match, being scheduled each year just before the Midwest Palma matches, is not only the Regional Champ for upper Midwest shooters but also a good tune-up for those upcoming Palma Championships.  35 competitors faced warm and windy conditions while trying to post 10s and X on those targets 5/8s of a mile away.  60 % of the competitors were traditional Sling shooters, while 40% were contesting those minuscule targets on the F-Class side of the firing line.  12 High Masters made up the bulk of the Sling shooters that meant no one was going to have an easy time of winning any of the 5 twenty shot matches. Of the 15 F-class shooters, 8 were unclassified competitors, new to long range competition.  Of these "Unc's", several showed that while they were new to Long Range, they were not "newbie" shooters and would place in more than one match.
 Saturday was Iron sight day for the sling shooters, with three 20 shot matches to be contested.  In the first match of the day, the competitors had just a taste of wind conditions that would test them the rest of the weekend.  The "average" wind was not high, just 8 to 10 from the SSW, but it was not the average wind that plagued the shooters.  It was the gusts that would eventually rise to 24 mph. while fishtailing from SE to SW. This would cause 8s to appear on almost every target, frustrating the shooters who could not find a "shooting window" where the flags would be lined up and the shot might go somewhere close to where it was called.

  Video of Sling Class shooters -  Click Here 
             Special note: Look at the wind (go full screen) across the range at the very end of this video. It took a confident shooter to make an accurate shot at 1000 yds in this wind. Most matches in this wind were won with high 190 scores. Who out there thinks they could fire a 200 in such conditions?


  It was Stacey Tamulinas, who's patience at reading the wind, and X-ring hold, who won the first match and posted a remarkable 197-7x.  Morgan Dietrich, Distinguished Sm Bore shooter, also fired a 197 but lost on X count.  Brian Mrnak rounded out the top three, just one pt back.  In Match two, as conditions worsened, It was Morgan D. who came out on top with a 194. Again the match was decided by X count, as Jay Johnson, also put up a 194 on the board, but was 1 X  short of Morgan.  Steve Erickson fires a 193 for third place.  In the Master Class (and below) Erik Rhode wins the first two matches with very competitive scores of 192,193, and goes into the last match of the day, just 6 pts down from the leader at this point.  It should also be noted that Jr. shooter, Eric Hazelton, fired a 187 in this 2nd match and stayed competitive with the adults all day. 

Results - click To enlarge

  Bill Lair, who had been shut out of the winnings in the first two matches, showed everyone that "it isn't over till it's over', and dominated the last match of the day, putting up an amazing 197-11x, for the really tough conditions.  Matt Griffin, USAF shooter, fired his best score for the day (195-6x), and takes 3rd. 
 The final scores for 'Iron Sight' day, shows Morgan Dietrich in 1st place with Bill Lair, 2nd, 4 pts back, and Brian Mrnak 3rd down only, 6pts.

   In the F-class, it was Bob Mead who won the first two matches, dropping a total of only 8 pts in the 40 shots for record.  His skill as a wind reader and wind coach with the US Palma team is evident here.  In the third match, Bob fell victim to the dreaded cross fire disease, and put himself out of the running. Ben Winget's scores in the top three of each of the day's matches, leaves him 10 pts ahead of the pack and the leader of the F-class.   It was Tyson Brabec, though, who was the talk of the day among the F-ers (and everyone else). Tyson is a 12 year old Jr. shooter, who is as competitive as anyone, on the line.  Tyson's 3 scores for the day (193, 188, 187) did not win any of the matches outright, but they were consistently high and Tyson takes 3rd overall in F-class for the day.

    Video of F-class shooter Bruce B. -- Click Here
 
  If anyone thought that the tough wind conditions were rough on Saturday, they knew they were in for even tougher condition's, when they arrived on Sunday morning and saw the flags standing out straight, and all pointing different directions at the same time.  The wind was now about 14mph average, with peak gusts during the match blowing though at 29 mph, (recorded by the anemometer on my roof, a few miles south).
   The key to winning today would be have patience with the wind, and find that 'shooting window'.  Firing on the wrong side of a wind shift today would easily be a miss on that 6 ft target, 1000 yds away.
   Sunday was 'Any Sight' day, and about half of the sling shooters would use scopes, and half thought that their Iron Sights would work just fine for the two 20 matches to be contested today.  Morgan jumped out to an early lead for the day, dropping only 3 pts in the first match (197-9). As usual, Morgan was the last shooter done firing. This patience, learned from many years of Sm Bore prone shooting, was the key to the wind gusts. Brian Mrnak takes 2nd and 3rd goes to Bill Lair.  The Last match was won by Brian M., tying his best score of the weekend of 196.  Bill Lair again fired a solid score of 193 for 2nd, and Capt. Bob Peasley finally got a handle on the wind and shot his best of the weekend for 3rd place. 
  In the end, It came down to the last shot to decide the winner of the weekend's championship.  Brian Mrnak wins the Minn. Regional Long Range Championship--Gold Medal. Just one point back after a hard weekends competition, and 2nd place is Morgan Dietrich--Silver medal, and just two pts back is Bill Lair--Bronze Medal.
Erik Rhode wins the Master Class just 18 pts back with an excellent score of 938-17x
 Sunday,  F-class
  Bob Mead would look back to Saturday's one bad shot and know that was where he lost the Championship.  Shooting a 192 in the first match for 3rd, and 193 in the 2nd match for the Match win, Bob would end up only 5 points back, over all, from the Championship, and earned the F-class Silver medal.  Pat Scully clawed  back on day two, posting Class firsts in both matches, and earning himself the Bronze Medal.  

Bill L., Brian M., Phil K., Erik R., Morgan D., Ben W., Matt. G

   Ben Winget's 196 in the first match, was the high Fclass score for the day, and Ben's aggregate scores for the weekend give him the Regional F-class Championship.
 Congratulations to our two champions.
    Sling Class Champion -- Brian Mrnak
    F-class champion    --  Ben Winget   





Notes:
The caliber of the competition--
From Kurt Borlaug:
Last weekend's LR Regional was a learning experience for a lot of reasons. Firstly, the conditions were challenging and secondly, big matches and new reloading practices don't mix.  Lastly and most importantly I learned that generosity abounds in our sport. After my first sighter on Sunday my trigger would not reset.....due to above mentioned reloading experiment in softseating bullets resulting in 44.5 grains of Benchmark migrating into my action and trigger. After a failed attempt to clear the issue, with tools borrowed from Phil Klanderud, Jim Soderstrom graciously offered the use of his rifle to me. I missed the first relay I was to fire on and mark Rohmann allowed me to fire both matches in the time allowed during the second. I spoke with my target puller, Dick Van Valkenburg about my plan and if he'd be okay pulling some extra shots for me. He was on board and a plan was in motion. All sighters and 40 record shots were delivered, mostly on my target, some in the middle and all witnessed with good humor by Brian Mrnak as scorekeeper.
  Thanks to all who allowed me to complete the match. Kurt Borlaug


Two Weeks out  
June 23-24 --  OTC, 1800 pt. ea. day at MRC -- Match Program Click Here
June 30, July 1st  --  Sm Bore 4P Regional --  Match program Click Here

That's All Folks
Hawkeye

Minnesota 1000 yd Regional

Just In !  -------

35 shooters fired 3 matches each, from the 1000 yd line today, in the MInn Long Range Regional Championships.  Weather at the Gopher Rifle & Revolver club long range shooting facility, was beautiful with a SSW wind of 10mph average, and gusts up to 20 mph. Quickly shifting winds kept the scores down and everyone fought for every point they could get.

 Todays matches were shot with Iron sights for the Sling shooters, and tomorrow they will fire the Any Sight matches.  More Pictures and match Rpt. coming sooner or later.
Hawkeye

Shooters News for the Minn Area - June 6, 2012

D-day June 6 1944  Lest we forget!

The Week Ahead for Minn area shooters 
It's Long Range time!  Dig out your long range match rifle and head north a few miles to Gopher Rifle and Revolver Club for the Long Range High Power Regional Championship.   This weekend, June 9th and 10th, both Sling Class and F-Class shooters, will be vieing for honors at GRRC. Each day, Sat and Sun, they will be firing 3 matches of 20 shots with unlimited sighters from the 1000yd line in the individual matches, and then split up into teams for the final 20 shot match of the day.  Coaching is allowed in the Team matches and this is a great opportunity for newer shooters to learn from the top shooters that will be there.
  Saturday's match for the Sling shooters, will be all "Iron sights", but on Sunday all matches will be fired with "Any sights" allowed.  F-class shooters are allowed to use scopes and rests in all matches. 
                            Click Here for Match program and entry info
Note:    Remember  f-class is part of this match.

This coming Sunday, June 10, it is also time for the Mpls. Rifle Club to hold their monthly 300 Meter match.
  From Brian Shiffman: 

"Pre-registration is now open for the MRC 300 meter match to be held next Sunday, June 10.  First relay starts at 10am and a second relay at noon.

    Send email to me with your desired relay.  I will confirm receipt of your email with your assignment as I receive them. 

    Standard rules for 300 meter shooting apply: match bullets, only.  Entry fee is $15 which includes state tax."

Brian D. Shiffman    shiff004@umn.edu

Last Weekend  
    It was encouraging to hear that Post 435 had more than 20 beginning shooters sign up for their Service Rifle Clinic last Saturday.  Clinic director, Mark Havlik, was scrambling around on Fri., trying to line up a few more coaches to help out with this large number.   I'm sure that Mark put on a good event for the new folks in our sport.  These clinics are important, as we all know that most Highpower shooters start as Service Rifle shooters.

NWGC 200 yd line

   Fair weather greeted those who shot the two days of OTC Matches at NWGC. The 'Atkinson-Leubke" memorial matches were dominated by Kevin Bangen, who fired a 779-32x on Saturday, and followed it up with a 784-29x on Sunday to win both days contests.   Kevin didn't have it all his own way, however.  He may have started out the weekend by wining the first match of the day, but then Omer Hamar, Grand Senior, came right back and fired two clean targets to take the Sitting Rapid match with a 200-12x, and  Dale Wickstrom won the Prone Rapid fire match, dropping only 1pt, for a 199-8x. And though Larry Miller was top shooter at the 500 yd line with a 198-10x, Kevin did post close scores in all those matches and ended up Saturday's winner. In the Master Class, Erik Rhode fought it out all day with Dick VanValkenburg, but though his solid 766-25x had the high X count, Dick wins that class with a 768-16x.  Experts, Tim Thole, and Garold Jones both fired good Master scores, with Tim's 765-23x wining the class.

Results -- Both days at NWGC

  Sunday's shooters again enjoyed the beautiful spring weather at NWGC"s Hunter Lake rifle range. Omer Hamer started out posting the best Standing Score, beating Kevin by a point.  Kevin came back in the Sitting Rapid match to win by a couple Xs over Omer, but no one could top Erick Hartley's clean 200-10x in the Prone Rapid match. Going into the last match of the day-- the 500 yd prone match, Omer is just one pt down from Kevin for the day. Eirk R. trails Dick V. by three points in the Master class. The day would be won or lost at the 500 yd line.  Kevin and Erik both fired clean scores of 200, and win their class, while Omer and Dick each drop 4 points and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  
   Congratulations to Kevin Bangin -- Winner  1563-61x

Notes:
A worthy cause: 
From Kurt Borlaug:
" Boys, As you may have heard (or not) GRRC is hosting an M1 For Vets Match on 14 July, 2012.....that's THIS JULY 14th. This is becoming HUGE and we are calling in favors from the Mn. State SR Team. Our club Fathers have been extolling this match and the attendance could be seriously LARGE. So I am asking any team members to show your support by attending this match as helpers. We are having two 30 shot matches as well as a Sniper Match. I cannot guarantee any of us will be able to participate in these matches but come prepared. If you know any other HP shooter who could lend a hand, let them know too.
  As you know the M1 For Vets program helps returning soldiers who are disabled compete at CMP events, as well as fund their program. With that said we are expecting a big turnout of new shooters so that means pit help, line help and lots of extra scorecards!
  GRRC will be furnishing food and a great time will be had by all.
Please reply and adjust your schedules accordingly......after all, the people this is for have much more adjusting to do than any of us will ever have to do!
 Thanks, Kurt Borlaug"

From George Minerich, MRRA Pres.

"Hi Jim:

 Please find attached the result bulletin from the May 20 Prone Smallbore match.  I’ll be sending it to the rest of the shooters tonight.  I figured that you may need some filler for your next email blast.

Thanks for all the support!

George"

                             Click Here for George's match report and complete results

Two Weeks out  
June 15,16 and 17th  --  3 day OTC at NWGC  --  match program click here
June 16th (Sun) -- CMP games service rifle match and Sniper match --
                     CMP match program  Click Here  
                     Sniper match program  Click Here 

That's All Folks !
Hawkeye