While the long Range shooters count their winnings, or lick their wounds after last week's tough match, this coming weekend belongs to the Highpower or Small Bore shooter that wants to pull some triggers and have a little fun.
I just might dig out my older Service rifle and head up to Gopher Rifle and Revolver Club Saturday, June 14th, for the 30 shot morning CMP games match. I like these matches (I only have to shoot 10 standing). The match consists of 10 shots prone slowfire, 10 rds prone rapid fire, and 10 rds standing -- all from the 200 yd line. I could do that. The afternoon match is a sniper style match where two shooter teams are made up and Rds are fired at both 300 yds and 600 yds while the shooter team alternates coaching and firing. Click Here for Match program
Traveling Highpower shooters can find a great Mid Range Prone/F match just down Hwy 61 at the LaCrosse Rifle Club both Sat, June 14, and Sun June 15th. Shooters will fire from the 600 yd line in four 20 shot matches each day for a 1600 pt two day aggregate score. Click Here for match program E-mail entries to deadeyepagel@yahoo.com.
Small Bore shooters, both prone and position, will also be slinging up for matches Saturday and Sunday. Mpls. Rifle Club will host the matches both days. The Position shooters are first up Saturday morning to compete in a 3x20 three position match all to be shot at 50 m on the A-50 target. In the afternoon the prone shooters take over the competition with 3 more matches at 50m also on the A-50 target. Click Here for match program. On Sunday June 15 the hard core prone shooter will heading to MRC for the monthly 1600 pt prone match. Where else do you get to fire 160 shots in a day for record on tough targets in usually great conditions, with instant feedback, and no pit pulling? Eight targets of 20 shots will test the skill of the shooter at distances of 50 to 100 yds.
Click Here for Match program
If my new rifle sling comes from Creedmoor this week (been on order since April), I'll be there trying out a more modern rifle than I had a the last match. (anybody want to buy a pristine Unertl 2 in. 15x target scope in a presentation box?) Hopefully we can get 2 nice weather days in a row for the weekend so everybody can have a little fun out at the range. I'm ready for that.
Last Weekend
**On the Firing Line - the Minnesota Long Range Regional Championship**
From: Erik Rhode
Here's how things went down up in Harris over the weekend:
Saturday
morning brought a steady rain that had started well before match time.
Both radar and hourly forecasts seemed to agree that things would let
up around high noon, so the decision was made to postpone start time
until then. Since the match program had 60 shots of Any/Iron matches on
the schedule for Saturday, and only 40 shots of Any/Any matches for
Sunday, it was decided to swap the schedule and shoot the any/any
matches first to better fit in the shortened Saturday timeline. Fine
with me - I just wanted to be able to try out my newly-restocked Palma
rifle at it's first match!
Just as predicted,
the rain stopped around noon and we were able to get the show on the
road by 12:30. Conditions stayed dark and dreary throughout the day
with target faces being sometimes difficult to find for those of us
without optics.
Up on the high side of the
range, things were tight with the F-Class gang, with only 5 points
separating the top 5 spots. One of only 2 men present to achieve the
elusive F-Class Long Range High Master classification, Big Bad Ben Winget
finished the day at the top of the board with a 392-10x. His Saturday
agg included what would prove to be the highest match score of the
entire weekend with his 199-8x in the first match of the day. A single
point behind and tied for X's was Rick Sievers. Rounding out the top 5 after day one were John Rykus, Wade Brown, and Pat "Square Head" Scully.
Down
on the sling side, the competition was no less fierce. 12 of the 15
shooters were High Masters, and nobody felt like giving up easily. Brian "Short Pants" Mrnak set the tone early with a matching pair of 198-8x's to give himself a 4-point cushion over 2nd place Philip Klanderud's 392-16x.
Brian's 396-16x was enough to take the first day agg, and get his name
on the "Any Rifle/Any Sight" trophy one more time. Jay Johnson and I were both 5 off the lead with 391's and still in the hunt, with Us National Team Coach Bob Mead hot on our heels with his 390.
On
Sunday morning, we were treated to bluebird skies. 70ยบ temps, and a
nice breeze coming out of the north. As is often the case at GRRC, the
north wind was fishtailing fast throughout the day. Luckily, mirage was
much easier to spot than on Saturday, but it didn't always match the
wind flags and could be difficult to pin down. There were some pretty
long holds while shooters waited and hoped for their preferred wind to
return, and anyone not paying close attention to the rapidly-changing
conditions was likely to be punished with surprise 8's or even worse.
On the F-Class side, Square Head Scully kicked things off in Match 1 with a 197-7x to top the field and gain a bit of ground on the leaders. Winget's 195 and Siever's 196 tied them up for points, with Siever
having the edge on X's with 2 matches to go. It was starting to look
like Saturday's leaders might be able to hang on until the end.
As fate would have it, both Ben and Rick tapered off after that first match, leaving the door open. Adam Shidla
posted solid scores to finish with Sunday's top F-Class agg of 588-16x,
but after a disappointing Saturday, it wouldn't be enough. Down in the
Expert class, dark horse John Rykus saw that open door and heard
opportunity knocking. His 193 in the first match was good enough to
keep him in the race, and with 197's in matches 2 and 3, John finished
just 1 point behind Adam for Sunday's agg. More importantly, his
587-21x combined with his 390-12x from Saturday put him at the top of
the leader board for the grand aggregate!
John Rykus takes home the Gold Medal and is your 2014 Long Range F-Class Regional Champion! Great shooting John, hopefully you dropped that Expert card in the trash can on your way out. Ben Winget took home the Silver, and Pat Scully finished in 3rd for Bronze.
Back over by the sling shooters, Short Pants Mrnak was determined to be more than just a one-day wonder. He negotiated a respectable 196 in tricky conditions in match #1, but Jim Soderstrom, Stacy Tamulinas and myself all shot 197's to inch our way a little closer to the front. In match #2, Brian
took off his long pants to let everyone know that he meant business,
but 8 shooters gained ground - this was going to be a close match
indeed. Going into match #3, Brian's lead was razor-thin, and several shooters were charging hard. Jay Johnson, Bill Lair and Stacy Tamulinas all put up 198's to keep the pressure on, and I was not far behind with my 197. Stacy's
remarkable Sunday scores of 197-5x, 197-12x and 198-6x gave him the
Sunday victory and the "Any Rifle/Iron Sight" trophy for his
already-crowded mantle. But like Shidla, his Saturday scores just
weren't high enough for him to take the whole shebang.
So
I suppose you're asking who won this thing?!? Well, as it turns out,
it was me. Consistent scores both days allowed me to stay in
contention, and finish with the top score of 980-35x. The new rifle
handled even better than expected, and after making a few minor
adjustments after Saturday's first match, I couldn't have been happier
with how it performed. I didn't have time to do any load development
before the match, and I guess I'm not going to do any now.
Medal winners on the sling side:
Erik Rhode, 980-35x - Gold Medal - 2014 Long Range Prone Regional Champion
Jay Johnson, 977-38x - Silver Medal
Stacy Tamulinas, 976-39x - Bronze Medal
Thanks to Wade, Jeremy and the GRRC gang for running a great match!
Best regards, Erik Rhode
Thanks, Erik for that match report, I know we all enjoy reading them. So -you are the double winner this week. Not only do you write up a good match rpt for us, but you also win the Regional Long Range Championship. Great shooting, Erik ! I'm sure we'll see you out at the Berger Long Range matches again this winter showing those westerners how to shoot the X-ring.
All right, there's some good matches coming up this weekend, so lets get out there and do some shooting.
Two Weeks Out
June 16 to 22 - Mid West Palma and Long Range at Lodi -- click here for program
June 21, 22 - Mid Range Prone/F Regional at Elk River - Click Here for program
That's All Folks !
Hawkeye
For Sale: Unertl 2 inch, 15x rifle scope - pristine condition - $800 651-653-2206
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