Shooters News for the Minn Area - July 31, 2013

It's Camp Perry Time!    

The National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio are now in full swing.  CMP matches are being fired this week, Highpower matches next week, and Long Range matches will follow that.  Competitive Minn shooters will be out in Ohio participating in some or all of these matches.  Good shooting to all our local competitors who are participating in this historic competition.

Next Week
  No local matches scheduled

Last Week
  State F-class Championships at Elk River Sportsman's Club -- No news
 
Small Bore
              "On the Firing Line Report"
  National Prone Championships at Camp Perry, Ohio 

  From Morgan Dietrich: 
 Jim

Well Camp Perry smallbore 2013 is complete.   Individually, MN shooters did not have a great week, but we had fun.  Day one the cover was damaged in areas, so it was taken down for the whole week.  Luckily, the weather was much more mild than normal, although we had to walk through water and mud the first two days.  Tricky winds on day one, but five 1200's were fired.  Stacey Tamulinas, Matt Griffin, Steve Knutson and myself were the MN shooters.  Day two was a little less tricky, but still not easy.  Reya Kempley shot great the first two days and fired the only 2400- the second time she has done that at Nationals.  No MN shooters earned spots on the Pershing team or Dewar team- but we did show at the matches to support the teams- the USA beat the British team in the shoulder-shoulder Pershing match.  We shot a very good Dewar score, I would be surprised if we do not win that match too. 

The highlight of the week was the fired 4-man team match.  I fired on a Blackhawk team- the sparrow hawks.  Firing members were Michael O'Connor of MI, Olympic medalist Mike Anti, Katie Bridges of TX who recently won the Firecracker match and metric prone title in Bristol, IN and myself.  Bill Beard was the team coach. 

The match consists of a Dewar course, once with iron sights and again with any sights.  Winds were extremely calm, we had to be careful to shoot good shots.  In the iron sight category we shot a perfect 1600, however the AMU also were clean but they out X'ed us.  Second place was a great accomplishment against professional marksmen.  The next match we again fired a perfect score (the only team to shoot back-back cleans) and won the match.  There were four teams that shot a 1600 with any sights, but our 136x's were high.  We are national champions and won the aggregate of the two matches.  This was one of my greatest highlights from all the years of shooting at Camp Perry.

Back to individual shooting, we all put our scopes on and shot the final two days.  Conditions were not high winds, but day one of scope the wind was working both sides of zero.  So if you got unlucky, a nine was coming your way.  You had to be patient and determined.  The final day was even more calm, but the let off would easily take you out.  Very normal for Camp Perry smallbore, the let off has way more value than a pickup.  I cleaned the first two matches on the final day, but the final match at 100, I was too weak mentally to wait out all the let off's and lost a few nines on the up wind side, a huge amount of 1200's were fired.  

Mike Mcphail originally of Darlington, WI now with the AMU was the winner with a huge 4798 score, Matt Chezum was second and Eric Uptagraft of the AMU was 3rd.  

Smallbore will be held at Bristol, IN the next two years- we will see if it returns to Camp Perry after that or not.  As always, it was a great week seeing old friends and shooting shoulder-shoulder with the best in the country!  Scores can be checked at  
 http://competitions.nra.org/championship-results/nra-national-outdoor-rifle-pistol-championships-results.aspx

Morgen Dietrich

     Thanks for that Report, Morgan, and congratulations on your success at the Nationals.

Notes:
 Why do we shoot?   For some it's the thrill of the competition.  For some its just a hobby -- an offshoot of our love of firearms.  For some, maybe it's just in our Genes.
When I grew up, my hero's were the WW2 and Korea guys. Later on the Marine Corp lured me in and taught me the love of rifle shooting that continues today.  What I didn't know was that my father had been a rifle team shooter in the Army till I recently found a few old pictures.
Maybe it is in our genes.  

 

 Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Carbine team 1940

Orville Evenson:
  Minn Nat.Guard -about 1934 to 1938,  
  US Army 1938-1941, 
  US Navy Sea Bees - WW2

Two Weeks Out
August 10,11 - F-class Mid Range Regional at Elk River Sportsman's Club -- Click Here for Match bulletin and Entry info
August 11      - 300 Meter International at MRC
August 17,18 -  OTC matches at MRC      Click here for match bulletin
August 17,18 -  Sm Bore matches at MRC

That's All Folks'
Hawkeye