Winter Offhand Match
January 9, 2021
The shooters were ready for the 2021 season to get underway this morning. By the time I arrived at the range at 7:55, folks were already there getting ready to go. The gate was open, the lights were on and the 25 and 50 yard target stands were taken down. It was a good morning, a bit chilly – it’s January in Indiana after all – but the lack of wind made it a lot nicer than it could have been. There were cold fingers and couple of drippy noses, but not too bad.
We had to do some target patching, but things went quickly and by 8:30 we had twelve shooters ready for the first relay. We had our safety briefing and by 8:35 the first relay was under way. There were four shooters who had to wait for the second relay and we had one Junior shooter. Marshall, who only wanted to shoot 20-rounds for his inaugural match, so five shooters made up the second relay.
We repeated the process, and on the second string of the second relay, we had another Junior who wanted to try his hand as well, so Zion was the fifth shooter on Relay 2, String 2.
It’s always good to get the group together. I’ve learned that High Power shooters make their excuses early so that if something doesn’t go well – they have a reason to explain it. One of the Masters of this Mark Richard – I poke fun at him with all the respect in the world.
He had his list ready; it was cold. His joints hurt, he had a crick in his neck and in his back. He was unsteady and rocking around like he was on the deck of a ship, and that was why he was going to shoot such an awful score for the day. Of course he took the top spot with a 194-13X. I wonder what he would shoot on a day when he felt good?
Mike King took second place for the day with a 369-6X and Robert Davis closed out the top three with a 364-4X, good shooting guys! For the winter season so far, Mark Richard leads the group with a two match aggregate of 773-24X. Mike King follows with 755-10X and Mark Walters is third with 736-6X.
After the match I had a class session with our Junior shooter where we went over the basics of shooting from the sitting position. It was a good session with an apt student.
Several other really good things happened on Saturday that I need to mention. We had a donation of old shooting gear; leather coats, canvas coats, lightweight jackets and the like. I had put them out for folks to take for a donation to the Junior Program. At the end of Saturday, everything was gone and the Junior program was $106 better off.
We needed brass for Junior ammunition and several people brought me bags of brass. Thank you to everyone who donated to the cause. I have sorted through the donations and I have about 1500 LC, WCC and TW cases I am sending to a commercial brass processor to get them cleaned, deprimed, decrimped, sized and trimmed.
One more Thank You; Mark Richard donated a can of M193 LC ammunition (about 500-rounds) to be used for Junior practice. This will be a great help and will ease the burden on our limited supply of components for match ammunition.
Upcoming events:
The FWRR Club February meeting will be on February 2. It will be held at the New Haven Community Center, behind McDonalds on Highway 930 (30) just west of New Haven. This will be an election of officers meeting, so try to attend. Just a social note; no guns, beer or smoking is allowed in the Community Center, so we need to be on our best behavior.
Our next match will be the second Saturday in February, February 13. I will not be running the match that day. My wife has decided we need to make our annual trip to Florida, so I regret having to be in all of that warm weather while you guys enjoy February in Indiana. I’ll think about you.
Be safe, stay well.