Shooters News for the Minn Area - Sept. 22nd, 2015

Head East to Eau Claire!

Next weekend 
Highpower
The forecast for this weekend's weather is 'clear and sunny'.  What more could you want than to spend such a fine weekend pulling some triggers with your friends at a Mid Range or OTC rifle match in the beautiful outdoors near Eau Claire, Wisc.   The Eau Claire Nat. Rifle Club will be hosting their seasons last weekend of shooting events this coming Sat. and Sun., Sept 26-27.  As usual, the Saturday event will be all Mid range prone shooting for both Sling and F-class shooters. There will be four 20 shot matches with 2 sighters allowed. All matches to be shot from the 600 yd line.  Highpower sling shooters will have two matches with Iron sights and two Any sights, while F-class shooters may use scopes for all 4 matches. 
   Sunday's match is an 80 shot OTC match starting at the 200 yd line and finishing at the 600 yd line.
                 Click Here for match bulletin  

Small bore 3 and 4 position State Championships will be held at Mpls. Rifle Club  this weekend, Sept 26-27
      Click here for match bulletin

Last Weekend  
 It was a beautiful day for a rifle match.  I joined a goodly number of shooters at Northstar Rifle Club on Sat. for the Service Rifle Leg Match.  I actually love shooting the service rifle -- It's easier to shoot, and less complicated than a match rife.  There's no adjustments. You just pick it up and shoot it the way it is. 
 The day was scheduled to start with a 30 rd practice match to get everyone warmed up for the " all-important" Leg Match to follow.  There would be 10 rds Offhand and a 10 rd string of Sitting Rapid Fire from the 200 yd line and then a 10 rd string of Prone rapid fire from the 300 yd line. After that the Leg Match would start. 
   My relay was first up. So I assumed the Offhand position and even after couple years of not firing a shot offhand, I got a 10 on the first shot--Yes!  I could see the target and sights well, and finished with about a 91 score.  That was fun! I have to do this more often!
  Next up was 10 shots rapid fire in 60 sec, incl. a magazine change, and starting from the standing position. Prep. period did not go well,  I could not bend my hip enough to get my right knee splayed out to cross my ankles. I stood up, waiting for the targets to come out of the pits and when they did I about fell over backwards getting down to a sitting position that didn't pain too much. Not having a good NPA and not having practiced, my group was left - two 8s, five 9s, and three 10s, for another 91.  The 300yd prone rapid went fine, my prone shooting position is good, the group still off to the left - bunch of nines.  
   About noon the Leg Match started without me.  I could see that I just could not get into the sitting position safely from standing and then shoot a decent score over the hip pain.  I might be done shooting Sitting position matches. Getting old is a pain.

Leg Matches at NorthStar
 From: Capt. Bob
Jim:

Sorry you had a sore back (hip joint) and could not shoot this weekend.  I had to start getting up about half way thru the prep period for rapid fire due to the same problem. Beautiful weather both days with 18 shooters Saturday & 23 on Sunday.  EXCEL sheets attached ( see below) for both days so your readers can see for them selves the results.  Between the 2 days we had about 7 first time shooters at North Star and 3 or 4 first time ever leg shooters. For other clubs thinking about 2 days of back to back leg shooting I can say this one was really well received. We even discussed about 2 in one day with one starting at 0830 and a 2nd at 1230. But in mid summer with good light on on the low end late it could be a long hot miserable day.  With the cooler weather of Sept the targets on the little end are in full shade by 330.  However a club not in a valley like North Star might have better light. The shooters also really liked the idea of the 30 shot practice Sat morning before the leg. (Yes we did!)  We further considered something like a 4 man Rattle Battle team just shooting the 600 yard stage for a fun closer after the leg. Then of course there is always the cold beer option after the match is over.

Click to enlarge

   I'll close with an interesting story. When I was in the pit pulling for 200 RF I borrowed an electric stop watch.  I punched it when the last target went "CLANG" on the stops. I looked to confirm it was running, which it was, then looked at the target to count bullet holes. When my shooter fired # 6 or 7 I looked at the watch and noted it showed 55 seconds gone. It seemed like I was still hearing shots but when it hit 60 seconds I called for targets down.  At that point I heard several "late" rounds come in as the targets were moving.  I had no idea why EVERYBODY was shooting so slow. Meantime a guy a couple targets down was also timing and said he showed 47 seconds gone when I called targets down. We ran a pit alibi using his watch.  During change over to the next relay we compared watches starting at the same time. He stopped his watch at 20 seconds and the borrowed watch I was using showed 27 seconds gone! NO WONDER they were shooting slow.  I don't know how this could be with an electric watch but it's just another example of the weird stuff that happens at shootin' contests.  Maybe he had a 12 volt battery in his watch!

CAP-N-BOB 
   Tks, Capt. Bob for running a good match.  Yup, It was a beautiful weekend - reminded me of all the many great matches I've shot at Northstar over the years.
 

 From: Mark Havlik     

   Hi Jim, Here’s a report on last weekend’s EIC Spectacular at North Star Rifle Club.

Click to enlarge

    Saturday Sept. 19th found myself with some of the area’s other top Service Rifle shooters at North Star Rifle Club for the first of 2 EIC “Leg” matches. Our day started out with a 30 shot practice match with 10 shots fired from the standing, sitting and rapid prone positions. 

   The EIC Match started around 11:30 and we had 18 shooters with 16 being non-distinguished. That meant we had a total of 2 Legs up for grabs. 

    When the smoke cleared, Wisconsin’s Brian Melville took the top spot with the match win and the Silver Leg, giving him his first leg points. South Dakota’s George Cwach took Second, and your’s truly took 3rd and the Bronze Leg. Tom (camera shy) Torborg was First Leather. 
    Sunday’s match started at 9:00 and promised to be another beautiful day for shooting. Although we lost a couple shooters who couldn’t return for the second day, we picked up a few more for a total of 21, with 18 being non-distinguished. As the day went on the wind picked up and reminded us how North Star earned it’s reputation for rapidly changing winds. 
     At the end of the day it was Tim Thole with the match win and Silver Leg. Dave Holtegaard was Second. Brian Melville took 3rd along with the Bronze Leg, and Mark Shoess taking First Leather. 
    On a personal note, Saturday’s finish gives me my fifth Bronze Leg and a total of 30 points. Unfortunately for me, CMP changed the rules several years ago requiring one to win a “heavy Leg” (Silver or Gold) in order to win your Distinguished Rifleman’s badge, so my hunt continues. See attached picts and results bulletin. Mark
   Thanks Mark for the match report.  Congratulations to all those who added some leg points to their quest for the Distinguished Rifleman's Badge 

Two Weeks Out   
Oct 3 - Palma at GRRC - Click here for match bulletin
Oct 4 - 1000 yd Long Range at GRRC -
Click here for match bulletin

That's All Folks!
Hawkeye