Service Rifle qualification this weekend!
Next weekend
Those of you who have served in the military (where many of us shooters got our first marksmanship training) will remember having to qualify each year with your service rifle. Since 1903 civilians have been able to do the same thing through the civilian marksmanship program. If you want to qualify with your service rifle this year, your last chance will be this coming weekend at NorthStar Rifle Club.
If you are looking to earn some points toward a Distinguished Rifleman's badge or just want to get a qualification score this year, then head down Hwy 61 to NorthStar, just north of Red Wing, and you'll have a chance to do so both Sat. and Sunday, Sept. 19-20. Each day will feature a complete 50 shot National Match course "Leg Match". If you have a M1 Garand, an M1A, or an AR-15 rifle, you are 'good to go'. Competitors will be firing 10 shots Offhand, then a 10 rd string of 'rapid' fire from the Sitting, and the Prone position, and finishing off the match with 20 rds Prone slow fire. There is no 'minimum' qual. score and the top 10 % will receive points toward a 'Distinguished' award. Give it a try. Don't be a "non-qual". Click here for Match bulletin - Weather forecast for this match - click here
"MRRA has free loaner AR15 rifles if you need one to try a leg match. Contact MRRA rifle keeper Tom Torborg for further information tjtorborg@aol.com"
If you are not sure why Leg Matches are important-- click here and read under "Last Weekend".
Last Weekend
From: Capt. Bob Jim:
Here are the scores for Labor Day weekend at Eau Claire if you want them for next weeks blog.
Click here for Mid range results, Click here for OTC results, Click here for M1 Garand results
I only shot Sat. so can't report on the others
except to say at least 1 relay got rained on at 600 yds Sun.
Saturday saw bluebird conditions all day. I had my Palma rifle shooting
12" high at 100 yds with scope which should be in the black at least at
600 yds. First scope match I though my score keeper said it went left
between the targets and elevation looked good. So I came 6 minutes right
and he said it went further right. Say what?? I thought he said left
on the first shot. NOPE says the scorekeeper, it went right. So being a
pretty smart guy I determined I now needed to go 12 minutes left and
hope for at least a 9 for the first record shot. Nope. I barely caught
the right edge of the target for a miss. I called a time out and
huddled with myself to try and figure out my next move and why the
impact was only moving half as much as I thought it should. Well let's
see what could cause that moving only half as much. Right off the top of
my head the only thing that came to mind was clicks on the scope. Oh
yeah, I'm shooting my new 24X Weaver with 1/8 min clicks. That could be
the problem! DUH!! So left we go another 5 minutes and record shot 2
is a solid 9 on the right. From there on it went kind of OK with a
199X5 in the 2nd scope match..
Changing to irons after the pit change I fiddled with the front and rear iris about every shot and kept shooting an 8 ring group. Finally after 17 shots I closed the rear iris down another 2 points and finished with a 10 and 2 X's. The last iron sight match I had a 198X10 with properly adjusted iris. Meantime the really good HIGH MASTERS are all shooting 199's and 200's. So it seems like after 42 years of shooting high power I still need to get my head out of my butt!
Changing to irons after the pit change I fiddled with the front and rear iris about every shot and kept shooting an 8 ring group. Finally after 17 shots I closed the rear iris down another 2 points and finished with a 10 and 2 X's. The last iron sight match I had a 198X10 with properly adjusted iris. Meantime the really good HIGH MASTERS are all shooting 199's and 200's. So it seems like after 42 years of shooting high power I still need to get my head out of my butt!
CB
Mid Range prone Championship at NWGC
From: Erik Rhode - 9/15/15
NorthwesternGun Club on the shores of Hunter Lake near Duluth MN played host to the annual
Mid Range Prone Regional Championship this past weekend. As usual, Jim Fernandez and his crew had the
range in beautiful shape and were ready to give shooters their money’s worth.
The
NWGC guys had an interesting pit rotation in place that had each relay pulling
4 strings in a row before rotating. This worked out great, and saved a
ton of time. Using this system meant
that after getting started at 9 am sharp, there were only 2 more pit changes
the rest of the day! With Dale
“Weatherman” Wickstrom barking out orders on the firing line, and Bob Woods cracking skulls in the
pits, this rotation moved 3 relays through 4 strings by 2:30 pm both days. Now
that’s a good pace, and I’d like to see this rotation used more often!
The air was a little crisp on Saturday morning when I reported to the 200-yard shack for squadding, and a thick fog was hanging over the range. This was a good day to be squadded on relay 3! The 3rd relay assignment meant that I was first in the pits for 4 strings, while relays 1 & 2 shot their first 2 matches from the 300-yard line. The 300-yard matches usually see some big scores, and this year was no exception. 14 clean 200’s were shot on Saturday, along with a whole lot of 199’s and 198’s thrown in for good measure. I was happy to shoot 3 of the 200’s myself, but some misfortune in match #3 effectively put me out of the running. I was squadded with Elliot Zunich all day, and was lucky enough to be pulling his target when the Surly Serbian put up the top score of the weekend with his 200-15x in Match #2. This old goat can still shoot! Too bad his other gig as an Eastern European pop idol was going to keep him from coming back on Sunday, or who knows how things might have turned out.
The air was a little crisp on Saturday morning when I reported to the 200-yard shack for squadding, and a thick fog was hanging over the range. This was a good day to be squadded on relay 3! The 3rd relay assignment meant that I was first in the pits for 4 strings, while relays 1 & 2 shot their first 2 matches from the 300-yard line. The 300-yard matches usually see some big scores, and this year was no exception. 14 clean 200’s were shot on Saturday, along with a whole lot of 199’s and 198’s thrown in for good measure. I was happy to shoot 3 of the 200’s myself, but some misfortune in match #3 effectively put me out of the running. I was squadded with Elliot Zunich all day, and was lucky enough to be pulling his target when the Surly Serbian put up the top score of the weekend with his 200-15x in Match #2. This old goat can still shoot! Too bad his other gig as an Eastern European pop idol was going to keep him from coming back on Sunday, or who knows how things might have turned out.
At the
end of the day, it was a tight race with only a few points and X’s separating
the top few spots. Ginormous Jay
Johnson dropped only 1 point all day, and his 799-39x secured the top spot
in the Saturday agg. Perennial favorite Steve “Classic” Knutson was hot on his heels only back by 1, but
with a big advantage on X-count. His 798-50x kept him well within
striking distance. 1 more point back was Craig “The Menace” Bennis with a rock-solid 797-45x. The pack was
crowded at the top, so keeping composure at 500 on Sunday was going to prove to
be key to securing a medal this weekend.
On
Sunday morning, it was a little warmer, and a LOT windier than the previous
day. Not big winds mind you, but the kind of twitchy stuff that can cause
fits for the less wind-wary on the range. Only 2 200’s would be fired all
day, and both would come from seasoned vets named Larry in the day’s 2nd match.
Larry's Milbow and Miller duked it out, trading 10’s and
X’s to the bitter end in that match, with Milbow’s
13 X’s just sneaking past Miller’s
11.
The rest of the day was filled with 198’s and 199’s from the top
shooters on the board, and the finish for the Sunday Agg was even closer than
the day before. Jay Johnson
had some misfortune similar to mine in the second match on Sunday, and lost
ground in the grand agg. Only X’s separated the top 3 shooters for the
day 2 agg, and my 794 with 47 of them was just barely enough to get past
hard-charging Larry Milbow with his
35. Classic Steve Knutson was
3rd with his own 794, but with only 34 tie-breaking X’s.
 |
| Mid Range prone results - Click to enlarge |
Steve’s 2 days of hard-holding put him
squarely in the lead for the grand agg with a score of 1592-84x, which would
earn him another Regional gold medal for his collection. Brian “Short Pants” Mrnak didn’t win a
single match all weekend, but shot consistent, solid scores all the way through
to earn his first non-gold medal - a silver. New OTC phenom Brad “Yipsy” Yliniemi rose up from the
Master Class to steal the bronze away from all of the High Masters. I’m
sure it won’t be too long before we need to watch out for him in prone matches
too.
As
always, a good time was had by all, and shooters couldn’t have asked for a
better match, or a better weekend. Since I haven’t been shooting any OTC
in the last year, this was my first time up here since last September.
Hopefully next year I’ll be able to get up a little more often, but it
was good to see all of my old Duluth buddies again. Well, almost all of
them. Lil’ Dickie Van Valkenburg
was once again nowhere to be found. Rumor has it that he’s been living in
an abandoned bat cave in the middle of the great north woods, prepping for the
impending apocalypse. They say that he
only rides his mule into town once a week to pick up his check from the carpet
shop. I heard that his beard is over a foot long now, and he has been
making his own clothes out of the carcasses of the animals he’s killed.
If you’re out there little buddy and read this message, GET TO A MATCH,
THE BATS CAN WAIT!
Thanks to Jim and the gang for another great match, can’t wait to do it again next year!
Best regards,
Thanks to Jim and the gang for another great match, can’t wait to do it again next year!
Best regards,
Erik
Rhode
Thanks Erik for that match report. I have got to get to that match next year - no excuses ! Two Weeks Out
From: James Melville - Eau Claire Nat. Rifle Club
Hello Everyone,
That's All folks!
Our last match of the year is fast approaching. As always we are having
our Mid-Range on Saturday the 26th and OTC on Sunday the 27th. I have attached the match bulletin, so let me know if you are coming so I can squad you ahead of time. Thanks, Click here for match bulletin
James ECNRC High Power Match Director
James ECNRC High Power Match Director
That's All folks!
Hawkeye
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