Shooters News for the Minn Area - July 18, 2012

The Week Ahead
 Prone shooters will be in a quandary this weekend with 2 good prone matches going head to head on the same days, due to an accidental scheduling error. We all know the difficulty and hard work it takes to put together area match schedules with 5 different Rifle clubs competing for different dates. So, I think that we are lucky that this doesn't happen more often, and with more and more matches being scheduled, it becomes more difficult.  I also see one of the problems as being that less shooters these days are willing travel very far to competitions, and want the local club to schedule more matches close to home.
  Are you ready? Oink, Oink!   Yes this is the weekend of the Pig Roast Matches at the Eau Claire Rifle Club.  Saturday, July 21st, the competition will center on the 600 yd line, and shooters will fire 4 matches of twenty rds for record, with 2 sighters allowed in each match.  Then after the shootin' is over - the Pig Roast begins!!!  "BBQ MENU: Pig Roast!!! Baked Beans!!! Cole Slaw!!! Potato Salad!!! Rolls!!! (Refreshments will be provided also)."
After a comfortable night's rest in the ERC's nice camp ground-- on Sunday, July 22, there will be an 80 shot OTC match commencing at 0900hrs. Don't be late.  RSVP
       Click Here for Match info and Entry

Long Range shooters will be heading to Gopher Rifle and Revolver Club this weekend for the Minnesota Long Range, and the Minnesota State Palma Championship.   The top notch GRRC long range shooting facility, will host the 1000 yd Championship matches on Saturday, July 21st.  Shooters will go to the line and fire 3 strings of 20 shots for record
 with unlimited sighters allowed for each match in a 30 min time period..  Shooters must have reasonable Zeros to get on paper.

   On Sunday, July 22nd, the action starts on the 800 yd line with the beginning of the Palma Championship.  All competitors again get unlimited sighters before firing their 15 record shots, but must finish in a time limit of 22 minutes.  Next up, the shooters will move back to the 900 yd line, add some elevation to their rifle sights and fire another 15 shot match for record.   The last match of the day is on the 1000yd line and is again 15 shots for record with unlimited sighters.
  If you haven't ever shot a Palma match, this is a great way to get into long range shooting.  With good 600 yd  zeros from Mid Range matches, it's not difficult to get on paper at 800 yd, then 900, and finally 1000 yds.  The 800 yd target is not a difficult target score on because it is the same target you use back at the 1000 yd line and the 10 ring is very generous at the shorter distance.   Click Here for Match program and entry.  

Last Weekend

CMP Games at Gopher         
I just knew it would be a "fun" match - and it was. Last Saturday, I headed up to GRRC bright and early, to participate in the CMP Games, that Tom Torborg, and Kurt Borglaug, were putting on. I had heard that they aimed more at having fun than serious competition.  This match was also billed as a fund raiser for the "M1 for Vets" program and proceeds were donated to that program.  The day started out at the 'Red Shed' with Dave Anderson cooking a hearty breakfast for all, and then a short program and Flag raising by the VFW color guard.
  After open festivities, the shooters moved down to the 200 yd line where most of the matches were shot.  This was a Service Rifle match, mostly for obsolete service rifles, but you could shoot in the 'modern military' class if you brought a AR-15.  Only a couple of us shot 'modern' guns, and most of the guys had brought out the M-1s, Enfields, Springfield '03s, and there was even a Swiss K31 on the line.

Lunch by Dave A. and GRRC

  There was enough Gopher volunteers (thank you, thank you) to man the pits, so the shooters just had to shoot and have fun.  The 'Course of fire' was pretty much the same as a Presidents Match course. We first had time for 5 sighters from the prone position, to get every one on target with the older guns. Then each shooter fired 10 shots Prone slow fire for record, followed that with a 10 string of Prone Rapid fire, and then 10 shots Slow Fire Standing to complete the 30 shots for Record.  There were 2 relays, and both were done after about 2 hours and it was time for lunch.  That's right--- lunch break!  Once again Dave had the barbeque going and there was Hamburgers, and dogs for everyone!  Well, now this is my kind of match.    After lunch Tom T. re-squaded everyone and we did it again --- we shot another 30 shot match in about an hour and a half to finish out that part of the days events.  Next up, for those who needed more trigger time, was a two man team match for vintage sniper rifles. About 6 teams of 2 participated in this match which was shot from the 600 yd line with scoped Springfields and other similar rifles.  Targets were presented for 20 seconds at a time, with spotters calling the wind and the shooter having get the shot off while the target was in the air.  I was amazed at how well some of these older rifles put shots in the middle from that distance.


   While it wasn't serious competition, I did have more fun at this match than I have had in a long time.  I'll be back for the next CMP games at Gopher. Besides having some fun, we did raise some money for the M1 for Vets program.  Double the pleasure.  More pictures of this match to be posted here asap.

Small Bore prone at MRC

Ross Ewert is the Man!  Ross shot only 3 nines in 160 shots in the Mpls. Rifle Club's monthly 1600 match, to finish with an awesome score of 1597 out of a possible 1600 pts.  130 of Ross's shots were Xs !   That's 81% Xs !    

Erhard's 100 yd clean

Only Ross and Stacey Tamulinas cleaned the two targets of the 50 yd Match, and Stacey got the win by holding for 33 Xs to Ross's 31xs. Ross took the days lead in the Dewar match shooting a 399, but didn't win that match because Matt Griffin also fired a 399 and with 31 Xs to break the tie.  Theirs were not the only good scores in the first two matches. Steve Knutson  was holding down 3rd place with only 3 pts lost so far.  Matt Griffin won his 2nd match of the day at the 100 yd line with a next to perfect 399-26x.  Erhardt Bruderer, Steve K., and Ross were just a couple pts. short. In the last match, the 50 meter match, Matt Griffin won his 3rd straight match of the day, by shooting both of those difficult targets clean and with most of them (35) in the X ring- whew!  Ross Ewert also had a clean target but with just a fewer Xs.  It's unfortunate that Matt had a DNF in the first match, but I'm sure that he was happy with his 3 match wins for the day, to add to his well earned State Service Rifle championship he earned just a couple weeks ago.  John Andres showed us all how to fire tiny groups at all 3 distances shooting F-class on those microscopic international targets.


   Ross's 1597 score is top for the day, with Steve K. -1594, 2nd, and Stacey gets the Ex class win with a 1587.
   Adults outnumbered the Juniors this match and a good time was had by all.  
   Next up for Prone SB shooters is the Metric Regional on Aug 4-5 at MRC.      Click here for entry info


Notes:
1.  Good shooting to all those headed to Camp Perry for the Nationals
2.  Correction:  Kevin Bangen won the Sitting Rapid Fire St. Champ not Jim Biles as I erroneously reported last week. I know Jim won something, as he is holding a trophy in the winning photo.   Congrats to both.

Two Weeks Out:
July 28-29     Minn State Mid Range Prone Champ at Elk River -- Program Click Here
Aug  4-5        Poor Man's Camp Perry OTC and Mid Range at Duluth - Program Click Here  

That's All Folks!
Hawkeye