October 2022 Newsletter

Web Note: The web version of the Newsletter has pictures that the mailed version does not because we try to minimize the page count of paper mailings.

October 2022 FWRRC NEWSLETTER

FWRR Club Meeting

The next meeting of the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club will be held on Monday, October 3, 2022.  Meeting Place: VFW Post 857, located at 2202 West Main Street in Fort Wayne.  Meeting Time: 7:00 p.m.  Food and drink will be available at very reasonable prices before and after the meeting.

Meeting Agenda: Standard meeting format.  In addition, nominations for Club offices will be addressed.  Please make an effort to attend meetings, as a quorum is required to conduct club business.

A Message from the President

“We have an election coming up in December.  If anyone is interested in running, nominations can be made in October.”

“I would like to thank the grass mowers.  This year, the grass could have been cut every week… [due to] rain.

Overall, the range looks good.”

Mowing Crew

The following individuals were members of the 2022 mowing crew:  Bob Bausser, Marty Didion, John Halter, Joe Harbor, Matt Hice, Jim Johnston, Russ McCurdy, Dennie McNabb, Ozzie Ostheimer, Shannon Parks, David Rinaldi, Rick Schwaiger, Ted Smeltzer, Jim Sweeney and Gary Walker.

Mowing Schedule

The 2022 Mowing Schedule is available on the club’s website.  The mowing dates that are scheduled to occur before the December meeting are: 10/5, 10/19 and 11/2.  Dates are tentative, depending on weather and ground conditions.   Mowing times vary according to volunteer availability.  Efforts will be made to provide mowing date and time updates on the website.  The Main Range is closed during mowing and other range maintenance activities.   Pistol Bays 4 and 5 remain open during mowing.  It is recommended that members check the website for updates before traveling to the range.

Newsletter Delivery

Approximately 80% of the membership receives the newsletter via email.  Those members who have email accounts and who currently opt for postal delivery are asked to consider receiving the newsletter via email next year.  Doing so will save printing and postage costs and significant manual labor.  Changes in delivery method will go into effect in February, 2023.

To add or remove your Email address just send an Email to billmac099@yahoo.com with the subject FWRRC-Add  or FWRRC-Delete.

Maintenance Activities

Nothing new to report.

New Members

Please welcome new member Derek Hatman.  Derek was accepted as a member at the August meeting.  

Discipline Reports

ACPDL & USPSA

Tim Wunderlich, reports that ACPDL & USPSA, “…had some great turnouts in the last few months. Tim also notes that “…USPSA practice is getting very busy.”

High-power (HP)

Match Results

August 13th  50/80 Match. 1st Place: Jim Jackson, 770-22X;  2nd Place: Mark Walters, 758-24X;  High Junior: Marshall Rohrbach, 702-5X.

August 18th  Junior 100-yard Fun  Match. 1st Place: Marshall Rohrbach, 479-13X;  2nd Place: Kileen Shaffer, 463-8X;  3rd Place: Mia King, 451-10X.

September 10 th 50/80 Match. 1st Place: Carl Johnson, 773-24X;  2nd Place: Mark Walters, 763-9X;  High Junior: Mia King, 728-10X.

Wildcat Valley 300-yard Championship.  State Champion: Madelyn Schnelle (Junior Girl), 791-31X; First Master: Mark Richard, 779-29X;  First Expert:  Mike Habel, 757-12X, High Junior: Marshall Rohrbach.

Dave Schnelle (CMP Silver), Madelyn Schnelle (State Champion, CMP Gold), Mark Richard – FWRR (High Master, CMP Bronze), Doc Habel -FWRR (High Expert) and Marshall Rohrbach – FWRR
(High Junior)

Indiana Juniors and a Grand Senior

Fall Creek 100-yard Championship. State Champion:  Mike King, 786-20X. Other Participants: Mark Richard, 772-17X; Mike Habel, 736-11X; Kileen Shaffer, 678-4X; Addisyn Shull, 517-0X.

ISPRA Full-Course State Championship.  State Champion:  Madelyn Schnelle, 1589-52X; 2nd Place (Silver): Mark Richard, 1581-49X;  3rd Place (Bronze) Mike King, 160-46X; Other Participants: Geoff Branson, 1543-57X: Emma Branson (Junior Girl), 1501-28X.

Leonard Johnson Memorial Match. First – Jerry and Doug Johnson; 764-10X. Second – Jay Werhle and Mark Walters; 761-15X. Third; Tom Easley and Norb Norbert; 742-7X.

Camp Perry, Small Arms Firing School (SAFS)

Four of our five Juniors attended the SAFS at Camp Perry.  (Colton Eads had to travel to Texas A&M for the start of the school year.)  Marshall Rohrbach finished 17th out of 267 competitors in the Excellence in Competition Match to win four points toward his Distinguished Rifleman Badge.  Kileen Shaffer, Addisyn Shull and Mia King placed 79th, 176th and 220th, respectively.

Marshall Rohrbach and his EIC Medal

LtCol. Eric Andreasen, former CO of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU), served as FWRRC’s Junior team coach.  Col.  Andreasen stated that they (USAMU) see a lot of Junior teams when the they run matches.  He went on to say that it has been a long time since the AMU staff has seen a group as polite, respectful, courteous, and attentive as our Juniors. Congratulation to our Juniors, their parents and their shooting mentors.

SAFS Juniors with LtCol Eric Andreasen

Girls will be girls – even at a Rifle Match

Notes and Reminders:

DO NOT HANDLE FIREARMS WHEN PERSONNEL ARE DOWN RANGE! Proper range etiquette involves opening actions, removing all ammunition from firearms, and stepping away from the firing line.  

MEMBERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BEHAVIOR AND ACTIONS OF THEIR GUESTS.  Members may take a maximum of two guests to the range per visit, not counting family members.  Do not take more guests and/or family members than you are able to directly supervise.  If your guests or family members are new to the shooting sports, it is strongly recommended that the member refrain from shooting so that all of his/her attention can be devoted to supervision.

Please make certain to close the outhouse doors and to lower the toilet seat covers.

For Sale

1) .224 diameter, 90 gr., Sierra, Matchking, BTHP bullets, Qty 250.  Per Larry Beardsley, ‘[will] swap for something”. Contact Larry at FWRRHPDirector@aol.com.

2)   Jewel single-stage trigger for a Remington 700 or 40X. Incorporates safety and bolt release, $180.00.  6.5 mm, 142 gr., Sierra, Matchking, BTHP bullets, Qty 4 boxes.  $50.00/box.  1 lb of Reloader 16, $60.00.  1 lb of  Vihtavuori N550, $65.00.  Contact Mark Strahan at (260) 927-5515 or  ms9568@gmail.com

3) 98 Mauser Sporter in Cal. 270 Win.: Forged bolt handle; Buehler-style safety; Leopold, one-piece base and 1-inch rings; Walnut Monte Carlo stock that accommodates a receiver sight.  $525.00.   Contact Dave Dolezal at (260) 433-1505.

Members who wish to sell shooting-related items may send ad information to Marty Didion at martindidion4@gmail.com

Ads must be received three weeks before meetings in order to appear in the next newsletter.

Saturday – 10 September 50/80 Match

Labor Day has come and gone – so even though the calendar hasn’t said “end of Summer” yet – unofficially summer has drawn to a close. Saturday September 10th was our last 50/80 XTC High Power Match of the summer and we could not have asked for a more beautiful day for a rifle match.  And, as is usual at the end of shooting season, we had some match conflicts with other Clubs and our attendance was down because we had five shooters from FWRR go to the Fall Creek Conservation Club for the Indiana 100-yard State Championship Match.  Nonetheless, we had nine shooters at the line for Saturday’s match.

A beautiful day for a match; 63-degrees and no wind

We had a couple of special guests for the Match. Carl Johnson, an FWRR Distinguished Rifleman (Badge 2160) currently living in southern Indiana showed us that he still has the chops as he was the overall match winner with a score of 773-24X. Carl also had a personal best in Prone Rapid with a 200-11X and was the high Prone Slowfire shooter with a 196-8X.  Jim Schieltz made the trip over from the Lima Sabers – he had a rough day as he had ‘scope issues but before things went sour, he managed to shoot the top Offhand score with a 194-4X.  200-yard Rapid Sitting honors went to Mark Walters with a 197-3X. 

Carl Johnson; Match Winner 773-24X
Jim Schieltz; Offhand High Score – 190-4X

And, congratulations to Miss Mia King – one of our Junior girl person shooters.  This is Mia’s first season shooting high power and on Saturday she put together a score of 725-10X (90.6%), putting her solidly into NRA Expert territory and just into CMP Expert classification.

But, to match the high points of the day, there were several examples of how quickly things can change in high power shooting.  When we started the rapid fire strings, Gary Mabis found that his rifle would not strip rounds from the magazine – making it a straight pull AR-15 (a condition not conducive to shooting in a time limit).  After putting up great Offhand and Sitting Rapid scores, Jim Schiletz’s scope developed issues – shots that were called in the 10/X rings wandered out to the 7 or 8 ring.  Normally, we would blame this on the shooter – but not this time – it was an equipment issue.  The most baffling issue of the day was the disappearing bullets that Mark Walters was shooting. Mark was beating up the 10/X rings. He would fire a shot and it would not plot.  This might happen again on the next shot. We did some experimenting and the only explanation we could logically figure was that the bullets were blowing up as they went downrange – strange indeed.

We are going to shoot a fun match on Thursday afternoon, September 22nd after a quick practice session to get zeroes for .22 rimfire rifles.  The Juniors have wanted to shoot a Rattle Battle Match ever since they learned about it during their SAFS trip to Camp Perry.  We will shoot a mini-Rattle Battle that afternoon.  The Juniors have gotten fairly well organized (they’re doing it all themselves) and Captain King is assigning shooters, figuring out strategies and deciding how she is going to divvy up the 200-rounds of ammo allowed for the four person team for this match.  We are looking for an Old Coot Team to shoot against them, so if you guys want to shoot this match – I have a set of rules and you just need to figure out a Team.

On September 24th, we will shoot the Leonard Johnson Memorial Match.  This has sometimes been called “The World’s Toughest Team Match”.  Each shooter on two person teams will shoot 20 rounds with .22 rimfire rifles at 200-yards on the NRA SR-42 target, a reduction of the SR-3 target to simulate the 300-yard stage of the National Match Course at 200 yards.  Now, as if this was not already a hard enough target – shooters will move back to 300-yards and fire another 20-rounds each at that same target! It is a challenging match and it draws a number of shooters with unique rifles!

We close the high power season on October 9 with a 60-round Mid-Range match.  That match will start at 11:00, so if folks want to come from afar – they won’t have to start out at oh-dark-thirty. We resume Winter Offhand Matches on Saturday, November 12 with a 40-round offhand match.