2020 has been a bummer of a year for a variety of reasons, but our string of good luck for High Power shooting continued for the Leonard Johnson Match on Saturday, September 26th. Again, we could have not asked for a better day; bright, cool but not nose dripping –finger numbing cold and just enough wind to challenge but not frustrate.
Holding Hard at 200-yards with a .22 rim fire
Three-and-a-half teams participated
The teams and results were:
The Buckeye Brothers
– Bakies and Baker:
Rim fire: 375 –
6X Center Fire: 365-7X Aggregate: 740-13X
Theyrrre Back –
Ron Dague and Doc Habel (First Match for
both of these guys this year!!!)
Rim fire: 370 –
0X Center Fire: 366-7X Aggregate: 736-13X
Johnson and Johnson
– Jerry and Doug Johnson
Rim fire: 371 –
3X Center Fire: 270-3X Aggregate: 641-7X
(New rifle, serious issues and finally just plain ole broken
and had to withdraw)
Our half-team was John Halter:
The Last Mohican –
John Halter
Rim fire: 173 –
1X Center Fire: 101-2X Aggregate: 274-3X
In case you might wonder about the low center fire scores, we shot the 300-yard stage on the MR-52 target, which is a 600 yard target reduced to 200 yards – but we shot it at 300 yards. The SR-42 target is a hard target, but the MR-52 is even more of a challenge.
A Classic Anschutz just about as old as the shooter
Doug Johnson took high .22 rim fire individual with a 190-3X. Joe Bakies took center fire individual with a
191-6X. Ron Dague shot an outstanding
186-4X center fire considering this was his first match of the year after some
health problems.
I want to thank Joe Bakies and Jim Baker for turning their
awards back to the club for our electronic target fund and for Joe’s very nice comments
about the match on his Facebook page.
On Saturday September 26th, during the Leonard Johnson Match, Eicher Concrete called and asked if we were ready to move dirt for the new 100-yard firing point. It was short notice, but as you know, when you get a construction guy ready to go – you don’t put things off!
Eicher concrete moving a lot of dirt in a short time!
Eicher Construction was going to move excess dirt from the south end of the 200-yard practice berm and FWRR member Ted Smeltzer, who lives nearby, was going to use his Bobcat loader to level and feather dirt at the edges of the pile. Well, that plan went awry when Ted blew a track on his Bobcat.
This is a blowout on a Bobcat – dern the luck!
We put two truckloads of dirt on the firing point and put another load of loose dirt aside to do edges of the firing point and to fill some potholes and wet places on the range. The operator for Eicher did some leveling and packing with his excavator and we got the dirt pile roughly profiled.
Packing the pile and leveling it off
This is about what it is going to look like – we hope to get it all leveled and seeded before frost this year.
It’s a start – the new 100-yard firing point
This firing point will give us a 100-yard point for the electronic targets. Now, how are we going to use it?
We will shoot an NRA Approved Hundred Yard National Match Course next summer on one Thursday evening practice session every month, we will see if the Hoosier Home Range Hundred carries on into the new year and we are investigating the possibility of hosting the ISRPA Reduced Range State Championship in 2021.
I shouldn’t have to say this – but guys – please don’t drive across the fresh pile of dirt – it isn’t an off-road obstacle
PING! There is no better image for a Garand Match. Randy is shooting and Jim captured a frame from a video.
The good times just keep rollin’!
Saturday, 12 September was the annual John C. Garand/CMP
Games match – and our string of beautiful days for shooting continued. The weather started out at about 60-degrees
and cloudy bright but by the time that Relay 3 went to the line, it was mostly
clear. The targets looked like black dots on white dominoes!
Winds were negligible, 3-7 MPH from the ENE, a 5 o’clock
breeze that had no value. We had 20
shooters sign up to shoot a total of 31 individual matches – almost four full
relays! The course of fire was the
5-sighter, 30 shot for record Garand Match Course A and we were able to shoot a
relay in about 40 minutes on our Silver Mountain electronic targets. Our first shot went downrange at 8:05 and we
finished up Relay 4 at 11:28. Thanks to
all of the shooters for making it a very smooth match for the Range Officers to
run.
The rifles were a classic Garand Match mix; twelve M1 and three Unlimited Garands, seven 1903 and 1903A3 Springfields, four M1917 Enfields , a Schmidt-Reubin Swiss straight pull and three AR-15 based modern military rifles. Eleven of the 20 shooters chose to shoot two or more rifles with one shooter shooting four different rifles and taking medals with every one of the four.
Thirteen medals were earned for the day – I’m listing them
in no special order:
Mark Walters M1 Garand Gold 286-2X
Mark Walters M1
Carbine at 200-yards Gold 277-6X
Aaron Kohler Modern
Military Gold 287-7X
Mark Walters 1903A3
Springfield Silver 276-4X
Mike King Unlimited Modern Military Silver 292-12X
Jeff Beierke M1 Garand Silver 275-2X
Jeff Beierke M1917 Enfield Silver 275-3X
Mark Walters Unlimited M1 Garand Bronze 277-6X
Jerry Johnson M1
Garand Bronze 264-1X
Doug Johnson M1
Garand Bronze 262-4X
Carl Johnson Unlimited
Garand Bronze 273-5X
Josh Bonebrake 1903A3
Springfield Bronze 272-3X
Gary Mabis Modern
Military Bronze 274-6X
Medals are on order from CMP – I will present them to winners
when I see you, so come out to matches!
A statistical note; the CMP award scores are set to allow about 30% of shooters to earn medals. Over 50% of the FWRR Garand Match/CMP Games shooters earned medals – so it shows that our shooters are well above the national average. But, as the High Power Director it shows me that we need to bring new shooters into our group – we’re top heavy with really good shooters.
Our next club activity is Work Day on Saturday September 19th and then the Leonard Johnson Match on Saturday 26 September.
Talk about living the dream!
We had scheduled the FWRR Hoosier Home Range Hundred Match for Saturday
morning with an 8 o’clock first shot. I
got to the range about 6:55 and I noticed that the gate was open. I hung the FWRR Rifle Match Today sign on the
gate and headed a bit further down the road.
As I topped the little rise, I saw five trucks parked at the pits. Most of the target frames were already in the
holders by the time I got there.
I wandered over to the edge of the pits and I told the guys;
“Hey –this isn’t Camp Perry, we don’t start at 7 o’clock.” The response from at least three people was;
“Well, we do – you’re late!”
I unloaded the electronics that I had taken home for an update and we finished setting up. Sunrise was at 7:12 this morning; and by 7:19 – we were ready to go. We went back up to the “new” 100-yard firing line and sat around a bit to let the sun get a bit higher. Everyone on the first relay was there (all eight targets were in use – no spare set aside for “oops”), so we went to the line and at 7:55 the first shot went downrange.
Getting Things Set Up; “Is the Server up yet?” The line is full – 8 shooters – and the Range Officer is already sitting down!
No sooner had the offhand stage gotten under way but the clouds parted and the targets were bathed in brilliant sunlight. One shooter commented; “The clouds parted, the sun came out and all that was missing was music… .” Did I mention that it was about 60-degrees and absolutely no wind? It was like shooting offhand in an air-conditioned field house with stage lighting! Not even the grouchiest high power shooter could have asked for netter conditions.
Our new 100-yard firing line
Things went along very smoothly and we used block time to
move along promptly. The first 80-round
match was finished by 9:30. I had
scheduled the second relay for 10:00, but by the time the first relay finished,
all of the second relay shooters had arrived, so we went right back to the
line. Several shooters had signed up to
shoot two relays, and after the first relay a couple more wanted in for two, so
we ended up with one shooter sitting out the second relay – we ran out of slots
for him to shoot in. (We could have pair fired on one target – but we decided
not to do that.)
The second relay went along pretty well – one target went
red and we managed to fat finger our system – but we put the spare server on
line and had only a short interruption.
We finished the second 80-round match at 11 o’clock (before the very
brisk winds came up) and everyone was done in plenty of time to spend the
afternoon at home.
Let’s see – a great set of shooters who can’t wait to help, beautiful weather, two smooth matches … what more could a High Power Director ask for? Now you see what I meant by “Living the dream” at the start.
Life is hard on target faces at a Hoosier Home Range Hundred Match
FWRR Match Results
First Mark Walters 781-19X
Second Mike King 780-26X
Third Mark
Richard 779-27X
Fourth Geoff Branson 766-27X
Statewide Match Standings
Here are the Hoosier Home Range Hundred individual shooter standings
as of September 5, 2020 – but there are more matches to follow and things can
change rapidly with these standings! (Remember,
these are Service Rifle matches, so some Match Rifle scores have not counted
for the standings.)
State Champion Mike King FWRR 782-28X
First High Master Mark Richard FWRR 779-27X
First Master Mark Walters FWRR 781-19X
First Expert Robert MacWilliams St. Joseph 775-14X
First Sharpshooter Madelyn Schnelle Wildcat Valley 740-14X
