Shooters News for the Minn Area - Aug 26, 2014

This Weekend 
Traditionally, the Highpower schedule over the Labor Day weekend has been reserved for rifle matches at the Eau Claire Rifle Club. It will be no different this coming Labor day weekend.  The guys at Eau Claire are offering up a full three days of rifle matches featuring a  Mid Range prone match on Sat, Aug 30.  Both Sling and F-class shooters will fire four matches of 20 rds for record from the 600 yd line in this days competition. The first two matches will allow "Any" sights to be used and then in the Sling class the shooters will be using "Iron" sights in last two matches.  Click here for a match bulletin
 On Sunday Aug 31, the competitors will be uncasing their 'Over the course' guns for some Position shooting and some rapid fire matches.  This match will use the 80 shot Regional Match course of fire.  This means one 20 shot match from standing position at the 200 yd line, then a Sitting rapid fire match again from 200 yds.  Next up is a rapid fire prone match from 300 yds, and the last match of the day is shot from the prone position at the 600 yd line.   Click here for a match bulletin

Eau Claire Rifle Club 600 yd line

  On Monday Sept 1, it'll be time for some service rifle shooting so bring along your M-1 Garand, and the M-1A that might be gathering dust in your gun safe. The days shooting is split into a morning "M1Garand" match which will be a 50 shot OTC match (CMP course B) all shot from the 200 yd line.  30.06 ball ammo will be issued for use.
         M1 Garand match Bulletin-- Click here    



After a short lunch break the competitors can break out the M1A rifles or continue to use the older service rifle.  The course of fire for the afternoon match is CMP course B again but this time all firing is from the 300 yd line. 
         M1A match Bulletin -- Click here
         Jim  Melville - Match director    ecnrcmatch@gmail.com

Last Weekend      
 The 2014 Prone Sm Bore St. Championship results are in the book. The last Sm Bore prone match of the year on the Mpls Rifle Club's schedule was held last weekend at the Bob VanJean Small Bore facility at MRC.  It turned out to be a great event with a full line on Saturday for the Iron Sight matches. The range was in great shape as usual thanks to the hard work of George Minerich and others.  The weather was threatening and the sky's overcast but the wind was light and fairly steady.  This made for good shooting conditions. Shooters of all ages were on hand to contest the outcome and vie for championship awards. There were Sub juniors, Intermediate Juniors, Juniors, Adults, Seniors, and Grand Seniors. It would be a day when the Juniors would give the adults a run for the money on every target in every match.
First up - Two targets at 50 yds.  The wind flags were swaying just a little right to left. it was not good visibility on this foggy misty morning so I adjusted everything to see the best I could, -- 1.1mm Rear Aperture, yellow filter, 5.5 front aperture for the 40" sight radius and fired a few sighters then the 20 shots for record and cleaned the target for a 200-13x.  Things were going well. Another clean on the 2nd 50yd target gave me a 400-24x. I was happy to get it as I haven't shot a 400 in that match for a while, but it was not close to a winning score.  Kurt Kisch, Juniors, Abby West, Erik Hazelton, and Grand Senior Elmer Miller from S. Dak all shot 400s with higher X counts.    

Carmen F.

The Dewar match with one 50 yd target and one 100 yd target were next. I kept the streak going and cleaned the first target but dropped two (only two?) on the 100 yd target for a 398 while Abby West showed us all the high level of Minn Junior shooting by posting the top score of 400-20x and Emily Quinar just behind at 399-29x. Juniors Carmen Fry, and Norman Lilyerd also fired 398s in this tough match.  The 100 yd match went to Kurt Kisch with a solid 400-24x.  At this time Kurt and A. West were tied for the lead, both down 3 pts for the day.  The last match saw Stacey Tamulinas, 3 pts down on Kurt and Abby, refuse to give up and cleaned both 50 meter targets posting an awesome 400-29x on the toughest targets of the day.   Abby lost 4 pts falling behind the leaders, but Kurt posted a  399-26 and held on for the top score and the Iron Sight prone championship. 
  Erik Hazleton was high scoring Junior with 1593-108x, and Abby West was high Intermediate Junior just one pt and a few Xs back of Erik.   Young Ryan Hudson was top Sub Junior champion.  
Once again I was happy with my new(er) rifle. I didn't win or place but I got a new personal record score for iron sights -- 1590-87x.  I believe that Grand Senior Elmer Miller also shot a PR score with his 1589-85x. Elmer is marksman class shooter but this 1589 score would be competitive in the Expert class even at the Western WildCat matches.
The match was followed by a great barbeque put on by the MRC guys, with Chris Hazleton doing all the cooking and laying out the spread. What a feast!! -----Baked beans with bacon, barbequed pulled pork, pasta salad, taco salad, potato salad, salad salad, and cold Lemonade, etc.   A little socializing was a good way to end the match.  

Saturday's iron sight Scores

  Sunday the day dawned bright and clear for the "any" sight Matches.  The field was diminished somewhat with many juniors finding other things to do with their familys. It wasn't going to be an easy day however. The wind was forecast to be about 14mph from the NE and this would mean swirling gusts to contend with at the MRC range where it is believed that only two 1600 scores have ever been shot.  It would be wind readers match. Patience would be the key to winning scores.  The two top wind readers for the day were Emily Quinar and Stacey Tamulinas.  I don't have individual match scores but neither shooter let the wind bother them one bit.  Stacy won the match posting an incredible 1595-102x to Emily's 1590-105x, but remember Emily shoots iron sights only. The rest of the shooters were about two wind shifts behind all day and my match was over after stitching the 9 ring full of holes on the 100 yd targets. 

The overall high shooter for the weekend was TX resident Stacey Tamulinas (3189-208x), The top Minn shooter and State Champion for 2014 is Kurt Kisch (3180-199x). High Junior goes to Champion Erik Hazleton, and the high sub-junior Chamion is Ryan Hudson. Another up and coming junior shooter is Kurt Kisch's daughter Kamilla Kisch who posted competitive scores all weekend. 
   It was fun shooting with all the juniors Sat.  Watch out shooting world, Minn has some great Junior rifle shooters who are already shooting good scores.  Click Here for slide show of match

Note: For those of you who missed this prone match at MRC, there will be one more prone SB match this Sept 21 at the Ed Hassig Small Bore range at the Elk River Sportsman's Club. 

Note: If you go through the pictures on the slide show below (to 1:56min), you will see the picture of a visitor to the SB Champ match this weekend.  This veteran shooter was heavily involved in shooting sports and gun rights for 20 years here in MN.  How many of you recognize an old friend and competitor? Email me if you do.  I'll say who it is next week. 

Slide Show of Mn Sm Bore Prone Championships
   

 F-Class State Mid Range Championship at Elk River Sportsman's Club last weekend -- no news forwarded.  
 
Two Weeks Out
Sept 6,7 - Mid Range Highpower State Championship at NWGC - Click here for match bulletin   
Sept 6 -    Service Rifle Leg match at GRRC -  Click here for match bulletin  

That's All Folks
Hawkeye              ARman772@aol.com

Shooters News for the Minn Area - Aug 19, 2014

Next Weekend
Minnesota area shooting sports has two great rifle matches on the calendar this coming weekend.  Prone shooting enthusiasts can choose between competing in the MN State Sm Bore Outdoor Prone Championship or the Minnesota Mid Range F-Class State Championship.  Let's hope for a great weather weekend as lots of folks will be bellying up to the firing line and pulling some triggers this coming Sat and Sunday. Both of these matches are just to the NW of the Twin Cities and easy to get to.

The Minn F-Class Mid Range championships will be drawing shootrers from all over the Midwest to the Elk River Sportsman's Club both Aug 23 and 24th. Competition begins Saturday at 0900 hrs with the Team matches. Shooters will be getting their final rifle zeros, and working the wind conditions of the Elk River shooting range.  Teams of 4 shooters will be made up and each shooter will fire three 20 shot matches from the 600 yd line with coaching  Shooters can enjoy a barbeque and some socializing after this match    The individual matches will start Sunday morning with 1st relay on the line again at 0900 hrs.  Competitors will fire four 20 shot matches for record. The FTR and F-Open State Champions will be crowned following the match.

                           Click Here for Match Program and entry info

Traditional Iron Sight, and Rifle Sling prone shooters will be heading to Minneapolis Rifle Club for a full weekend of outdoor prone position shooting on tough Sm Bore targets.

Each day the course of fire is a 1600 pt competition with shooters firing 8 targets of 20 shots for record.  That means 160 shots with instant feed back so you can perfect that prone shooting position. Two targets at 50 yds start the day. You don't want to lose any points on these targets because three 100 yd targets are coming up and there's plenty of chance to lose points here.  Shooters finish up by firing on 50 meter targets and this tough match is where the winners usually pull away by holding hard on the last two toughest targets of the day.  Saturday is all 'Iron Sight' matches and on Sunday shooters may use 'Any sights'.            
  Click Here for Match Program and entry info

From George Minerich:

Hi Bob (Peasley):

August 23 & 24 is the MN Smallbore Prone State Championship at Minneapolis Rifle Club smallbore range.    It promises to be 2 days of challenging shooting and a good way for all the high power shooters to hone their prone skills.   After the match Saturday, Chris Hazelton is cooking up a feast for all competitors.  He is planning and BBQ pork with lots of fixings. 

George                         
Note: It is rumored that we might actually see Dave Gross this weekend at the small bore match. 

Last Weekend
OTC Matches at Mpls Rifle Club -- No news forwarded

Note: For your pleasure -- Click Here for a video of the Texas OTC St Champ match in 1989. Doing it the old way -- with an M14.  Loading with the rifle butt on the stool and the muzzle near your face was legal at that time. 

Two Weeks Out  
Aug 30 - Mid RangeProne and F-Class at Eau Claire --  Click here for match bulletin
Aug 31 -  OTC matches at Eau Claire   --  Click here for match bulletin
Sept 6, 7 -  Mid Range High Power St. Champ at Duluth - Click here for match bulletin
Sept 20,21 - 2 day Mid Range Prone at NorthStar Gun Club - Click here for match bulletin

Shooters News for the Minn Area - Aug 12, 2014

Next Weekend    
High Power 'Over the Course' shooters that didn't make it up to to NWGC for the Atkinson/'Leubke matches this past weekend will get another chance to show off their skills at either of two different tournaments this upcoming weekend. Southern Minn shooters may wish to head south over the border a few miles to Clear Lake, Iowa and the River City Rifle and Pistol Club for the "Iowa State 300yd Highpower Championship". Saturday Aug 16th shooters will be firing a 1200 pt two man/woman team match. On Sunday Aug 17th the competition will be for individual honors and the State Championship. 
     Click here for Iowa OTC St. Champ match bulletin    

 Just up the road in NW Anoka County,the Mpls Rifle Club is offering another opportunity for a great weekend of shooting. Two days of OTC matches are on the schedule and Saturdays match includes a chicken barbeque with a little socializing after the match. Saturday Aug 16th the shooters are firing a 1000 point aggregate with two prone slow fire stages.  On Sunday Aug 17th, the match is a normal 80 shot format and 800pt agg. 
     Contact Mark Rohmann, match Director at  mrc.highpower@yahoo.com 
     Click here for MRC match bulletin 
     Click here for a few Pictures from last year's MRC match
   Practice up before you go as I know that Omer Hamer is going to be there to show all you younger guys how to shoot. 

Last Weekend  
Highpower
This year the Schedule of the National Matches at Camp Perry and Bristol Tenn. seemed to take up the whole summer.  Shooters have just now returned from the "Full Bore" Championships matches. Shooters are burned out, and last weekend's OTC matches at NorthWestern Gun Club, and the Sm Bore matches at MRC suffered in attendance because of it.   

From: Elliot Zunich  
"Ten "REAL" shooters competed in an OTC match at the Northwestern Gun Club.   They shot off hand on their hind legs, rapid fire strings both sitting at 200 yards and prone at 300 yards in horrible conditions.  Blazing heat with not a whisper of wind was their enemy.  Back at 500 yards there were more obstacles to overcome.  High humidity!  After the first day, "Little Dickey" Van Vaulkenburg led the pack only to succumb to defeat on the second day to Kevin "Gotcha" Bangen for match winner.  Mark "Rottweiler" Rohmann put on a good performance at 500 yards and Larry "Dog Town" Weidell demonstrated the fine art of blowing up bullets.
Judging by the smiles on all the competitors faces, fun was had by all.
Elliot"

More news from Camp Perry Full Bore Matches:
Stacey Tamulinas won a 1000yd match and took home 5 medals -- 1 gold, 2 silver, and 2  Bronze    Congratulations Stacey -- great shooting!

Small Bore 
Competitors were treated to two great days of shooting this past Sat and Sun at Mpls. Rifle Club. The weather was perfect with abundant sunshine, and light breezes that gave few excuses for "wind shots".

Saturdays scores

Saturday's matches were split into the morning 3P matches, and a 60 shot prone match in the afternoon.   The Kneeling match was first, and former NCAA shooter Emily Quinar took  4 pt lead in the day's agg by scoring a awesome 191-7x over Carmen Fry's 189-4x.  Note: when shooting kneeling or standing on these hard A-50 metric targets--- these are awesome scores!  Next up was the 40 shot prone match, and it was Eric Hazleton, just back from the Long Range National Matches, who led the field to a match win.  Eric's 196-7x score was one pt higher than Abby West, and Kurt Kisch who nailed down 2nd and 3rd with 195-8x scores.  In the Standing match, it was Emily Quiner again taking the win with a 189-5x and Abby West just back 4 pts for 2nd place.  The aggregate top score for the day was Emily Qunier's 574-20x.  Abby West was second  and high Junior.  In third place was Eric Hazleton
 Saturday Afternoon's competiton was a 60 shot prone match -- again on those tough 50m metric targets.  Emily Quiner started right off hammering the competition and shooting a 198-13x. Only Tom Carroll came close with his 197-11x score.  Tom came in from the Wash DC area, where he is a Firefighter, to visit freinds and shoot this match.  Other out of town shooters were Jon Speck from Wisc. and Elmer Miller from Souix Falls, SD.  On the 2nd target it was the Father/daughter team of Kurt, and Kamilla Kisch who tied for 1st place with 192-6x scores.  Emily posted top score on the last target, and with her 580-22x aggregate for the day, she is the match winner. 
Sunday's course of fire was all prone shooting -- four 40 shot matches -- 160 shots for record with a possible 1600 pts on the line. The 50 yd match was first. Emily Q. and Erick H. both fired 400 scores and took a 2 point lead on Tom Carroll, 3pts over Omer Hamer and Jim Biles.  The Dewar Match (one 50 yd target and one 100 yd target) was next.   Eric H, and Emily Q. cleaned both targets lengthening their lead over Tom Carroll to 6pts.

MRC Small bore prone Scores - Aug 10,2014

  The 100 yd match was the 3rd match of the day, and it was an "Any Sight" match.

100yds 199-16x   I like my new rifle

I put the scope on the new(er) rifle that I bought last month from Morgan D. This would be a good test of what I had bought.  My first sighters were off the paper for some reason but after a while I found a hole in the sighter bull that I could adjust off of and finally got in the middle after about 20 sighters.  It didn't look good but I fired the first shot and watched it go into the X-ring -- yes!  Nine shots later I had 9xs and one just out in the 10 ring.  Obviously Morgan hadn't shot all the Xs out of this gun.  Eric shot the only clean targets, but my 199-16x competitive and my 397-25x was 2nd to Eric's 3rd 400 score of the day.  Tom Carroll and Jim Biles were right behind with 397s.
    Emily Q. won the last match -- the 50 meter match with an excellent 399-28x,  yours truly got another 2nd with a 398, and Jim Biles and Eric H. were next with 397s. The 3 pts Erick lost in the 50 m match were the only pts he dropped all day and his awesome 1597-105x makes him the overall match winner, and High Junior.   Emily Q, came in a few pts back for 2nd overall and our visitor from DC, Tom Carroll took a well deserved 3rd place.

Click here for a few more pictures from this match

    It was a great weekend to shoot matches.  My new(er) gun shot really well even with $5/box SK ammo (happy, happy!). I met some new shooters and enjoyed shooting with old friends.  George Minerich had the range looking great. George and others spend a great amount of time keeping the MRC facility in tip-top condition.  Thanks !
Thanks also to Ross Ewert who is taking over for George running some matches.  He did a great job Sunday, and now maybe George can shoot a few matches himself. 

300 meter International  
From: Brian Shiffman

Many thanks to Russ Siakel for running the match, again.  From his report it appears that the weather was somewhat cooperative but the “supermoon” may have had an influence on the scores.  Top score in F-TR was Greg  Meller with a 594 followed one point back by Terry Stern.  Chuck Van Heel took the top spot in F-Open.

      We had two new to us shooters, Ev Mattison and Mike Cooley.  Ev has been out to see us shoot a few times while he had an AR built for him.  This was the first time he had the rifle out.

Full results can be found at http://edfpages.com/mgfc/results.php?match=8

Two Weeks Out   

August 23,24  Minn F-class St Championship at Elk River -  Click here for match Bulletin
August 23,24 - Sm Bore Outdoor Prone St Championship at MRC - Click Here for match Bulletin

That's All Folks! 

Hawkeye

Shooters News for the Minn Area - Aug 5, 2014

Next Weekend    
Highpower

Now that the Highpower 'Over the Course' shooter has had at least a week to rest up after returning from the Camp Perry National Championships, it's time for them to load up again and head North to the Northwestern Gun Club for what is usually one of the year's best rifle matches. Yup, it's the weekend of the Atkinson/Leubke OTC matches.  Just two hrs from the Twin Cties, NWGC lies on the North shore of Hunter Lake.

This well kept rifle range draws shooters from all over the upper Midwest who like to spend the day competing in a beautiful setting among the North woods and lakes. Each day will offer the shooters an 80 shot OTC match. Following these matches at NWGC there is always a chance to sit around, with a cold beverage and talk shooting with other folks. Many traveling shooters will be camping at the range.
 There are at least 3 nice buildings to roll out your sleeping bag or place a cot.

It will be good shooting and a good social occasion -- what more could you ask. 
            Click Here for match bulletin

Small Bore
 Position shooters and Prone specialists can each pick a day at the Minneapolis Rifle Club this weekend to satisfy their need for competition and practice.  Saturday, Aug 9th the Position shooters will be firing a 60 shot 3P (position) match in the morning and after a break for lunch Prone shooters can fire a 3x20 - 60 shot prone match  at 50 meters.
    Click here for match bulletin
 Three matches on those tough meter targets will get everyone sharpened up for Sunday's match.

On Sunday, Aug 10 it will be prone shooting only at MRC. Shooters will be contesting for honors in 4 matches (4x40) at the 50yd line, 50 m line, and at the 100 yd line.  I'll be at this match trying out my new(er) rifle that I bought from Morgan D.  I hope he didn't shoot all the Xs out of this barrel. I hope to try it out on in the Sat match and be ready to go for the Sunday Outdoor prone 1600 match.
    Thanks to Kurt Borlaug for helping me get sight bases mounted on the sight tube. After the State Champ match later this month, I'll probably send it (new gun) out to the Lapua test facility, in Mesa Az, and have Darrel Stetmeier match up some good Lapua ammo for it in their test tunnel.
   I finally had to part with the Winchester M-52.  It was just too heavy a gun for me -- especially when it had the Unertl 2" scope on it.
         Click here for Sunday match Bulletin.

Rumors from Camp Perry:
Brian Mrnak's team won the Palma team match 

300 Meter International 
   From Brian Shiffman:

The August 2014 Minneapolis Rifle Club 300 meter match will be held Sunday, August 10^th.  There will be two relays scheduled; the first starts at 10 AM and the second at noon.   Registration is now open.

Register yourself at http://edfpages.com/mgfc/match.php.  Read the instructions.  Pay attention as you fill in the boxes and make selections from the drop down lists.  There is room for only 14 shooters per relay so advance registration is important.  The box at the top of the list shows the number of shooters for each relay. 

No expanding or fragmenting bullets.  Only match or full metal jacket bullets; no muzzle brakes but flash hiders are OK.  A-Max bullets are NOT allowed. They are fine for paper but have a jacket that will fragment and shred our targets when it hits.  Bullets will be checked.  

Pick your shooting class: 3-Position, Prone (sling and iron sights), Offhand (iron sights), F-Open or F-TR.  If you use optical sights then you are in one of the two F classes, depending upon caliber and type of support used.  You can shoot F-TR class with a service rifle with a scope and a sling if you choose.  F-TR is limited to .223 (5.56) or .308 caliber and may use a bipod attached to the rifle (but not a front bag or rest).  F-Open is any other caliber or rifle support.  Shooting is governed by ISSF rules except we allow NRA shooting jackets.  As a club match, we have some liberty. 

Fee is $20 for the 60 shot match; Electronic targets, so, NO PIT DUTY and the match runs quickly, 3 strings of 20 rounds in succession.  Once the command is given to start the match, each shooter is on their own to finish within the 1:35 minutes.  

SCHEDULE NOTE for the SEPTEMBER match:  The September match will be held on the 21^st, not our usual second Sunday of the month.  If you look at the MRRA web site calendar you can see our match on the 21^st of September.

 Brian Shiffman  shiff004@umn.edu

Last Weekend
Jim Melville sent in the results from the Eau Claire (Piggy) match weekend
   Click here for Saturday's Mid Range results
   Click here   for Sunday's OTC match results
From: Jim Melville
Hello everyone,

We have a big Labor day weekend coming up at ECNRC with four matches scheduled. 

Advanced registration is strongly recommended. Just shot me an email letting me know if you are coming. If I need any more information from you I will let you know.

James Melville     ECNRC Match Director

Note: I'll have the Match bulletins for these matches posted on the Blog in a day or two

Two Weeks Out   

August 16,17  OTC Matches and Barbeque at MRC - Click Here for match Bulletin

August 23,24  Minn F-class St Championship at Elk River -  Click here for match Bulletin  

That's All Folks! 

Hawkeye