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.
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.
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.
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
First Marksman Joe Freiburger FWRR 718-8X