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