Highpower
With the prone mid-range Regional Championships out of the way, The action turns to the Over the Course shooter this next Sat and Sunday. On both days the OTC competitor can find some stiff competition at the Mpls Rifle Club. Whether they are Service Rifle shooters or Match Rifle aficionados, they can test their skill in the State OTC Championships. The 80 shot competitions start off on Saturday, June 28 with the matches for the Individual championship honors in both divisions. Shooters will fire Offhand, sitting rapid fire, prone rapid fire, and prone slow fire matches on their way to the State Titles. Top competitors such as Kevin Bangen, and the veteran winner, Omer Hamer will be there so bring your best game. After this match MRC will be feeding the folks a pork chop barbeque and there will be time to talk shooting and swap "I shot a" stories with your friends.
Click Here for Individual championship match Program
On Sunday, June 29 shooters will choose up teams, and fire for the State Team OTC Championship. Shooters will have the benefit of team coaching during these matches and this makes for a good fun match. I have always thought that the team matches were the most fun. Once again the course of fire is 20 shots in each of the four positions -- standing, sitting, prone, and prone. Click Here for the Team championship match program
Now's the time to start planing your outing to Eau Claire Rifle Club for the annual "Pig Roast" match weekend July 19-20. Remember Saturday is prone mid range matches and Sunday is OTC matches. Click here for Match program
Bad News dept.
There will be no Pig at the Pig roast! That's right, shooters will not be feasting on Pork barbeque at the annual Eau Claire Rifle Club pig roast match this year. The world as we know it is over !
From: James Melville match director
Due to the National Matches held in Camp Perry this year being moved up, we have decided not to offer the meal for your Pig Roast Match. We have lowered the match fees to normal price and any one who has already sent in match fees will be given a refund.
I have attached an updated match bulletin." "
James Melville Click Here for revised match bulletin
Small Bore
State Championship matches are also on tap for Small Bore shooters this coming weekend. Small Bore position shooters will be heading to the Elk River Sportsman's Club to contest for the 3 Position St. Championship on Saturday, June 28. Targets will be shot at 50 meters from the Kneeling, Prone, and Standing positions. Two targets of 20 shots in each of these positions will decide the winner.
Click Here for 3P match program and entry info
Those wishing to give it another try to win a State Championship will be back to ERSC on Sunday, June 29 for the 4 Position NRA Championship. This day's shooting will include a match shot from the Sitting Position in addition to three positions shot yesterday. All four matches will be shot on A-23 targets from 50 yds. Click Here for 4P match program and entry info
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| ERSC SB Range |
I wish I was a 'position' shooter because I like shooting Sm Bore at ERSC. It's a nice range and you shoot off Grass under the shade of some trees. I'll be there in Sept. for their prone match. FYI -- This Sm bore range at ERSC is named after deceased member Ed Hassig, a Marine gunner who survived Wake Island, the Alamo of the Pacific in WW2. Semper Fi Ed.
Last Weekend
The Regional Mid-Range Championships Matches at Elk River Sportman's Club are in the Book. All that's left is to clean the gear and remember a weekend well spent at ERSC shooting bullets 600 yds into the bullseyes and enjoying the day and the competition with our friends. As I wrote earlier the weather Saturday for the Team Championship was as perfect as weather could get for a 600 yd rifle match. Just imagine it -- Bluebird sky's, light puffy clouds, 75 deg, and only a light zephyr of air movement, just enough to produce a visible mirage and show that no sight change was needed -- just load it, shoot it, repeat.
I went to the match to take a few pictures because I was just going to shoot Sunday in the individual match. I had my gear as it was running through my head that if someone needed a forth team shooter, I might be better off shooting Sat than Sun as the forecast was for Rain on Sunday and the Team match Sat was only 60 shots per shooter and that's enough for me. Sure enough Team Rohmann was short a trigger puller and maybe I could help them stay in the competition against the annual power house team from the Mpls. Rifle Club. MRC always comes to prone Championships with only "Win" in mind. This year would be no exception as they were bringing nationally competitively shooters to the firing line such as multiple past Champion and Long Range Palma team wind coach, Steve Knutson, also on their team is National Long Range Team shooter and many time State and Regional Champion, Stacey Tamulinas. Erik Rhode, Mn St Long Range Champion would fill out their #3 spot and anchoring this formidable team was long time competitor, Leo Huta.
Team Rohmann didn't seem to have a chance. MRC had the big names but our team had hope. Team Capt. and sometimes brilliant shooter, Mark Rohmann would be the boss and call the team strategy. Second shooter and wind coach would be Phil Klanderud - a strong prone long range shooter, 3rd spot and anchor of this team would be the always competitive, and experienced Steve Erickson (championships too many to list), and who is also the son of the legendary National Champion, 'Doc' Erickson. The #4 shooter on
Team Rohmann would be me, yours truly, no championships. I do have a good gun though. I would be shooting a 6mm BR, through a Kreiger barreled Rem 700 action, pillar bedded by Randy Gregory in a 32 layer/in. laminated wood stock from Richards MicroFit. 29.7 gn Russian Varget would push a Sierra 107 MK at 2850 fps. Bring it on !
Congratualtions to Team Champions
Mark Rohmer -593-25x
Steve Erickson -584-26x
Phil Klanderude -592-24x
Jim Evenson. - 595-36x
The highest individual score of the day (prone class) was fired by Stacey Tamulinas -- 596-31x
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| 2014 Minn Mid Range Regional at ERSC |
*On the Firing Line* -- Mid Range Regional
Last
weekend, the Elk River Sportsman's Club played host to the 2014 F-Class/Mid
Range Prone Regional Championship. 2 days of shooting at 600 yards were
on the docket, and a healthy number of shooters made their way to the club to
test their skills.
Anyone
who had been paying attention to the weather forecast for this match knew to
expect a beauty. I'd been checking WeatherBug all week, and could hardly
believe the predictions for 2-4 mph winds for Saturday, and 3-6 mph for Sunday.
If this forecast held up, we were sure to see some SERIOUS scores at this
match.
I
packed up my wife and dog in the camper and headed up on Friday afternoon to
make a full weekend of it. Full electrical and water hookups for the
camper made for a very comfortable stay. This was my first time shooting
at ERSC since 2011, so we decided to take a walk after dinner to get the lay of
the land. Some renovations had been done to the clubhouse, including full
bathrooms, and there was also a new storage building near the shotgun range.
We wandered over to the 600-yard line and found it in beautiful
condition. The grass was trimmed short and more importantly; the whole
line was flat from end to end. No holes or humps to have to shoot in or
on. Canopies were set up behind the line for shade and rain cover, should
the forecast get ugly.
Saturday
was the scheduled team match day. I woke up early and shuffled my way
over to the clubhouse to find my teammates, and get our squadding assignment.
In total, 7 F-Class and 2 sling teams were on hand for the match.
There was a wide range of skill levels among the F-class gang from folks
shooting in their first matches, to seasoned vets. All of the sling
shooters on hand save one were salty old High Masters, so competition was sure
to be hot on our side.
The
weather forecast did indeed hold up, and there was nary a puff of wind to speak
of when shooting commenced at 9am sharp. If a shooter could just hold
center, there wasn't enough wind to even divert a bullet out of the 10-ring.
An absolute perfect condition to really lock down a solid no-wind zero.
Conditions didn't get much worse throughout the day, and I would be
surprised if there were any gusts over 5 mph.
In the
F-Class division, the Turret Twisters were head and shoulders above the
rest, led by Lisa "X-Ring" Olson with her 595-28x topping
the scoreboard for the day. Her teammates Jon Clauson, Adam Shidla,
and Joel Danielson weren't far behind with all 3 putting up good scores to
give their team the win with a total score of 2363-117x. Team Adamski
was next down the board finishing with a team score of 2316-79x for 2nd place.
With
only 2 sling teams present, second place wasn't going to be anything to brag
about. As it turned out, Mark "Rottweiller" Rohmann's Team
Rohmann made the Minneapolis Rifle
Club team look like a bunch of Chihuahuas with a decisive 22-point victory
margin. Firing members were the Rottweiller himself, Philly
Dawg Klanderud, Stevie Wonder Erickson, and your own Jim "Even
Money" Evenson. All 4 put up
good scores for a team total of 2364-111x. While I didn't shoot as well as I
would have liked on the "other" team, I did get to spend a lot of
time coaching the other shooters on my team all day, which was a valuable
experience for me.
A BBQ
dinner was served after the match, and was reported to be top-notch by all who
attended. The wife and I had a graduation party to get to in Bloomington,
so I had to skip it this time around in the spirit of keeping family harmony.
One of these days, my relatives are going to have to learn not to
schedule this kind of thing on my match days!
On to
Sunday, and the individual matches. The wind was no more severe than the
day before, but a glance at the weather radar showed it wasn’t a question of if
it would rain, only when. As it turned
out, relays 1 and 2 got to fire the first match of the day before it
arrived. Heavy rain with enough thunder
and lightning to keep things interesting chased all of the shooters to the
cover of the canopies. After getting
drenched in La Crosse last weekend, I was pretty happy to have something to
stand under and keep my rifle and gear dry.
The rain kept on and caused a delay of about 90 minutes, causing Match
Director Scott Olson to make the
executive decision to shorten the day’s program from 80 shots to 60. This seemed like a good idea to all, and
eventually we were able to carry on.
When the rain finally blew through, the wind surprisingly dropped right
back off to next to nothing, giving the rest of the shooters a chance at some
epic scores.
Many
stepped up to the challenge, with personal bests being set all over the place,
and even some national records among the F-Class gang. Young Jager
Brabec carried on a family tradition by setting a new Intermediate Junior
National Record shooting an excellent 197-9x with his F-TR rifle in his first
match of the day. I don’t know the exact
age of this young man, but he is very young.
He and his older brother have some real skills and I expect we will be
hearing their names in MN shooting circles for many years to come. In the second match, Lisa Olson tied the women’s National record with her 200-16x, and Jon Clauson tied the men’s record with
his 200-19x. These types of scores
require some serious shooting by serious shooters. Congrats to all 3, hopefully they have some
empty space on their walls for the NRA certificates they earned.
With 37
total F-Class shooters, there were too many highlights to cover, so I’ll leave
the details to the scoreboards. F-Class
medal winners were:
F-Open:
Gold: Jon
Clauson 600-47x (Thats right--47 out of 60 shots into a 3in Xring at 600 yds)
Silver:
Mike Jones 599-42x
Bronze:
Greg Wahlstrom 599-31x
F-T/R:
Gold: Ed
Higgins 594-30x
Silver:
Mike Lehmeir 588-18x
Bronze:
Jager Brabec 586-24x
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| Medal winners |
On the
sling side, it was no surprise to anyone to see Stacy “The Surgeon” Tamulinas come out on top, only dropping 1
point all day. Stacy’s 599-38x
performance showed the rest of us what a top shooter can do when presented with
perfect conditions. Right behind him was
Mark Rohmann, shooting 2 199’s and a
200 to finish in second place with 598-35x.
Mark has really developed as a shooter in the last couple of years, and
is proving that he can hang with anyone on the line. With only 8 shooters in the class, new NRA
rules allow only a Gold medal to be awarded, so Dr. Tamulinas was the only
shooter to go home with hardware. I
asked Stacy after the awards ceremony just how many regional medals he has, and
he answered that he has lost track. I
don’t doubt it – I picture something like Blackbeard’s treasure chest with gold
medals spilling out all over the floor somewhere in Stacy’s den…
Thanks to
Scott and the gang at ERSC for putting on a great match. Everything ran smoothly, and everyone was
treated very well all weekend. Scores
were ready quickly, and the awards ceremony ran very smoothly. The BBQ and pit shuttle were nice touches,
and added to the “big match” atmosphere.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s been a long time since I’ve shot a match at
ERSC, but I won’t hesitate to go back next time there’s one there for us sling
shooters.
Complete results:
Best
regards, Erik
Thanks again Erik for sending in the match report, I appreciate your help in producing this news letter and blog.
Note: we do need an willing F-class contributor to write something about what goes on in F-class
Two Weeks Out
July 4th - M1 Garand & M1A match at Eau Claire -- Click here for program
July 5th - CMP Games Service rifle match at GRRC -- Click here for program
July 6th - Service Rifle "Leg" match at GRRC -- Click Here for program
*July 19 - MR prone and OTC at Eau Claire* Click here for match program
That's All Folks!
Hawkeye
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