Minnesota Sm Bore shooters are competing in the National championships at Camp Perry, Ohio this week. We wish them all success and good shooting.The same goes for those who are heading out that way soon for the Highpower, and the Long Range championships.
The Week Ahead
Prone Highpower shooters will again have a chance to test their skills this coming weekend. After the heat and difficulty of the 1000yd matches at GRRC last weekend, they will find the competition just a
little easier this weekend. The green grass of the 600 yd line at the
Elk River Sportsmen's club, will be gathering point for the
State Championship Mid Range matches for both Sling class and F-class shooters. The competition starts on
Saturday morning, July 28th, with a 4 person team match. Each shooter will fire 3 matches of 15 shots for record with 2 sighters allowed. The team match is an "Any Sight" match, so you may use Iron sights if you want. If your club has not organized a team yet for this match, show up and pickup teams will be organized on site.
Click Here for Match program and entry info.
From
Scott Olson:
"Club vs. Club teams are encouraged, please no “All Star” teams. MRRA teams will be allowed, no shooters will be turned away. A Five Star BBQ Dinner will follow the team match event!"
The
Individual Mid Range Champ matches follow on
Sunday, July 29th, at 0900 hrs. This is a 80 shot match, and shooters will go to the line for 4 twenty shot matches with 2 sighters allowed for each match. The first two matches are to be shot with Iron sights, and the last two may be shot with "Any" sights.
Next up for
prone shooters is the
Sm Bore Metric Regional at the
Mpls Rifle Club, on Aug 4-5. This is a 3200 with 8 targets of 20 shots to be fired each day.
Click Here for match bulletin.
Last Weekend
Pig Roast matches at Eau Claire Rifle Club -- no match report is available, but we know from past experience that they all had a good time.
Minnesota State Long Range Championship
Warm weather and humidity plagued the
Minn St. Long Range Championships, this past weekend, but 20 Sling shooters and 11 F-class competitors shrugged off the conditions and fired mostly 10s and xs at
GRRC's long range shooting facility near Harris MN. Saturday's competition was all about the
1000 yd line. Shooters would fire from almost 5/8th of a mile onto targets 6 ft square. They would fire from prone, off their elbows, with iron sights! While a 6ft square target may seem a generous size to shoot at, even from that amazing distance, is really isn't. The black dot on the target is only 44 inches in diameter, and if you only hit near the edge of it, you only score 8 pts. In order to score a 10, you have to hit the 10 ring only 22 inch wide or even the 10 in wide X ring. That's right --- in order to win this 1000 yd State Championship, you must be able to shoot, unsupported, with iron sights almost every shot into a 20 in circle at 5/8th of a mile--all the while knowing that a un-noticed change in the wind of even 1mph, can change the strike of the bullet by 10 inches on the target. In this match skill is worth a lot more than luck.
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| All Xs !!! Scope Cam from 1000yds |
The 31 shooters gathered at GRRC were the best in the upper Midwest and they would prove it today.
On the F-class side of the line it was
Adam Shidla that dominated through-out the day by winning each of the three 20 shot contests with scores of 198, 197, and 195 on F-class targets, where the 10 ring shrinks to only 10 inches or 1 moa., and the X ring is only half of that. That was amazing shooting, and it should be noted that Adam put 27 of the 60 shots in the 5 inch X ring!
E. Johnson, and
Rick Sievers took 2nd and 3rd,
only 4 pts back with 586 scores.
On the
Iron Sight end of the line, it was also a tight battle right from the start. In the first match
Steve McGee,
Bill Lair, and
Brian Mrnak each dropped only one pt. for 199 scores, and Brian's 14 Xs breaking the tie for the win. In the 2nd match only Steve McGee was able to shoot a clean target for the win.
Shirley McGee gets a 2nd on a creedmore tie breaker over Bill Lair. Master Class shooter,
Erik Rhode is just back one point, after shooting a 197. Steve M. fired another clean 200 score in the last match, and posted the highest score for the day after dropping only one pt in the 60 shots for record -- 599-35x. Highest scoring Minnesota resident and
1000 yd Champ is Capt. Bob Peasley - 591-23x.
On Sunday, the shooters switched to their
.308 caliber match rifles to contest the
State Palma Championship. Three matches of 15 shots, were on tap today. The shooters would fire one match at each of the 3 yard lines starting at 800 yds, then moving to the 900 yd line and finally shooting the last match back at the now familiar 1000 yd line.
I was going to shoot today--give it a try. I haven't shot any long range for about 8 years, but the Palma match starts at the
800yd line and I figured that I could get a good score there at least. I also didn't have the .308 cal rifle required, so I would be shooting "out of competition" (score doesn't count). I had good 600yd zeros, so I just added 8 min of angle to the sights and was pretty sure that I would hit the target. I was 2nd relay, so I studied the wind while Chuck D. shot, and when It was my turn, I added a 1/2 min right on the sight and fired the first sighter. the target went down and came up a scratch 8 at 7'oclock -- so far so good. Since I had called a good shot, I put on a full correction for the 2nd sighter and it went out the top. Two more sighters close together in the top of the 10 ring so dropped the sights a 1/2 min and went for record. The first 3 record shots stayed high in 10 ring and then 2 more clicks down brought 9 Xs and 3 more 10s for a 150 score. Well, well, well, that was fun ! My day was a success already.
Five other shooters also cleaned their targets that first match, with
Brian Mrnak getting the win with 13 tie breaking Xs. Back at the
900 yd line, I would shoot first before going to the pits to pull targets for a while. I dropped the front sight one notch to make up the 6 moa I would have to add to the sights a the longer distance. At my sight radius, of 35 inches, it takes about 5 clicks per moa. This time we got only two sighters, and my first was a high nine so I came down 4 clicks and got another high nine so I dropped another 4 clicks for the 1st record shot.
Arrrrg, a nine out the top, then one just out at 10. So two shots and two pts down. At the end of the 15 shots I had lost another pt. to a slight breeze and had shot a bad shot into the 8 ring. So 145 was the score and I was glad to get that. It was hot and I felt roasted.
W. Davis,
S. McGee, and
Stacey Tamulinas all fired clean 150s at the 900 yd line, with Stacey getting the with with the highest X count. Back at the
1000 yd line, I decided I was a little too over heated and so I would just watch. I had had a good day, so why push it.
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| Minn State Long Range Champs |
Stacey T. and Steve M. fought it out for the day's win in this last match but neither was able clinch the victory with a clean target. Steve only shot one nine (all day long) and finished with the days high score - 449-26x.
Phil Klanderud, who shot clean at the 800 yd line and lost only 2pts at the 900 yd. line is the Minnesota State Palma Champ, after shooting an awesome 444-20x for the day.
The Over all
Minnesota Long Range champ is Capt. Bob Peasley whose top score was 1031-36x.
Note: From
Capt Bob:
Steve Mcgee's 200-14x with irons at 1000 was an Any Rifle,non Res. record -- As was his 449-26x Palma Score. I will be sending him a non resident certificates.
On the F-class side of the firing line, the competition was just as fierce.
E. Johnson won the Palma match with an awesome score of 444- 22x, and that score added to his Saturday 1000 yd score also earned him the over all
F-class Long Range Championship. 2nd in the Palma match with the same score of 444, but a few less Xs, was J. Rykhus. 2nd in the Overall championship was A. Shidla, with a combined total score of 1015-37x.
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| F-class results |
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| Sling Class Results |
Notes:
1. Our shooting friend, Larry Miller, has been recently been hospitalized twice, and I believe, is now recuperating at home. We all hope there is a speedy recovery.
2. From
Robert Beluzzo:
"The Minnesota State Outdoor Smallbore 4-p and 3-P matches
were held in Hibbing on July 7 and 8.
The 4-P match was shot with a gusty north wind that was potentially
troublesome. Nick Learn, an intermediate
junior from South Range Wisconsin displayed focus and poise as he outscored the
competition to win the match with a score of 1544-64X. Amy Belluzzo from Chisholm was the high
scoring resident and will receive the State Association plaque. Matt Bozicevich, a junior from Virginia, was
third and will receive the Junior State plaque.
Amy shot a 1528-51X and Matt was close behind with a 1527-53X.
The
3-P match belonged to Emily Quiner from Brooklyn Park,
MN. Emily out shot the competition with a
high score of 1126-33X and will receive the State Championship plaque. Nick Learn came in second and Matt Bozicevich
was the high resident junior. Shooters
are looking forward to the Minnesota State Smallbore Prone Championships that
will be held in Hibbing on August 25-26, 2012."
3. At the awards ceremony of the CMP Games last week, Tom Torburg asked me, "how many Rifle Matches I had shot over the years. I couldn't answer -- there's been a lot of matches and a lot of rds down range ever since that first match. However,
as you all can imagine, I did take some pictures (9) of my first actual Rifle Match -- April 1967, Chappo Flats range, USMC base Camp Pendleton, CA
Click here for Picts
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| USMC Rifle Expert badge |
Rifle matches haven't changed much as you can see.
Two Weeks Out
If you are not going to Camp Perry, I'd be at:
Aug 4-5 Poor Man's Camp Perry OTC and Mid Range at Duluth - Program
Click Here
Aug 4-5 Prone Regional Sm Bore Championships at MRC -- Program
Click Here
That's All Folks!
Hawkeye
