Shooters News for the Minn Area - July 23, 2014

Next Weekend
This coming weekend the action shifts back to the Elk River Sportsman Club's 600 yd rifle range just a few miles Northwest of the Twin Cities in Elk River MN. This nicely appointed shooting facility will host the Midwest Mid Range F-Class Championship. Competitors will be coming from all over the 5 state area to test their skills against other top area shooters in both the F-Tactical Rifle class and in F- Open Class.  Each day shooters will fire 4 matches of 20 shots each from ERSC's well groomed grass firing line. Shooters must have good 600 yd zeros as only 2 sighters are allowed per match and shooters not able to hit the target on the first shot will be disqualified.  This match is a good opportunity to win some Bullet money as there will be 'up to' $1500 in prizes if shooters fill the whole line.
       Contact match director Rick Sievers for Info -- f-classer@hotmail.com
       Click Here for Match bulletin      Weather forecast--click here
I hope someone at this match takes a picture and sends us in a match report 

Last Weekend    

It's a nice day to be shooting at Eau Claire

  I finally made it over to Eau Claire National Rifle Club last Saturday to shoot a match after not having shot at that range for at least 10 years. It was well worth the trip.  Besides being able to say hi to a few old friends like Ron Berg, and Larry Milbow, Eau Claire is just a great place to shoot. The Saturday event that I went over for, was a Mid Range match shot from Eau Claire's 600 yd line. The turnout was smaller than usual for an Eau Claire match because so many competitors were off to Camp Perry for competition at the National Championships.

Larry Milbow  at the 600 yd line

   While the numbers were small many of the heavy hitters were there getting in one more local match before heading to Perry for the Long Range and Full Bore Championships.
   I was pretty shakey in the first match but managed a 198-11x.  My 6mm BR was drilling holes in the target right where I pointed it. The conditions were good all day and plenty of good scores were shot.  Randy Gegory, Steve Knutson, Larry Milbow, and Elliot Zunich all were in contention for top spot, but Stacey Tamulinas led the way at the end after dropping only 3 pts all day and getting the most X's---(I think 797- 44x).  I put one 10 on someone else's target, but had a competitive score otherwise and maybe 2nd most X's with 36 posted.
   Sorry,  I do not have the results to post.

Elliot Zunich shooting 10 and Xs

Note:  One of the shooters I was scoring for at this match was having some difficulties hitting the 10 ring.  He was shooting a nice round group all around the 10 ring in the 8's and 9's but few tens.  This looked to me like the classic example of someone using too large a rear aperture and having Sight Alignment problems. When I asked him what size he was using, he replied "2.4mm".    No wonder he was having trouble.  This is way too large for the conditions we had, and I believe causing his problems with sight alignment. Other shooters confirmed that they (and myself) were using about a 1.0mm apperature that day, which is generally normal for most folks. 

Excerpt From my post on:

"Old Eyes and Iron sights Series" --  Part 3  Click Here

....... As I posted last spring, I had been having a lot of trouble getting a good sight picture, and good sight alignment now for some years as my eyes have gotten older (71 in Dec).  Discussions on this problem with German Salazar, and Mike Toliver convinced me that opening the rear sight aperture, for more light was exactly the wrong thing to do. I had been using a rear aperture setting of 1.6mm to 1.9mm in order (I thought) to see better.  The guys convinced me to snuggle up to and "turn down" the rear aperture till I could just barely see through it and then pretty much forget about the rear app, while concentrating on the Front aperture, and getting the shot off as quickly as possible.  German S. says that if the Rear Aperture is small enough it will be almost impossible to misalign the sights, as your eye must be on the proper axis to even see through the sight. Well, I'm here to tell you that this works for me and my scores have gone up about 10 pts (Sm bore) since changing my method........." 

Using a smaller rear aperture also works like a using smaller F-stop on a camera lens to increase your "Depth of Field". This helps you get that front sight more in focus while being able to see a sharper bullseye.  
So --- Go Small and see if it helps.

News From Camp Perry     
Rumors have it that:
Larry Weidel made the President's 100.  Congratulations Larry!!! 
Morgan Dietrich is burning up the Small Bore Prone Championships at Bristol, TN.         

Morgan's 3rd day 100 yd match win !

Two Weeks Out   
Aug 9         - Small Bore 3P and prone match at MRC  -Click Here for match bulletin
Aug 10       - Small Bore Outdoor Prone 1600 at Mpls, Rifle Club - Click here for match program  
Aug 9,10    - Atkinson/Leubke OTC at Duluth -- Click Here for match bulletin   
Aug 16,17  - OTC and Barbeque at MRC    --  Click Here for match bulletin 

That's all folk's
Hawkeye