As of 7:00 AM, the official Fort Wayne weather outlook was a slight chance of snow after 4PM. Well, that should have given us plenty of time to get our first Winter Offhand match over and done with and entered into the books.
We started setup about 8:00 – these guys show up early and get started. We had to do some work to replace nails to hold target faces, but there were plenty of folks to help and by about 8:45 we had a full relay, we held our safety briefing and the line went hot. It was dark – not the best day to shoot. We had a light wind out of the northwest – but not punishingly brutal. Things changed quickly, by the time the first string was finished, it was snowing. It started out as a few scattered flakes, but it quickly developed into one of those lake-effect snow storms we know so well.
Visibility was rotten – but we are High Power Shooters and we don’t let a stinkin’ snow storm run us off the line. (Or maybe we just don’t have much better sense…).
We finished up about 9:45; cleaned up, put things away and headed home. It was not a good day to hang around and practice, zero a rifle or chronograph loads – those tasks will need to wait for another day!
But – in spite of the weather the scores looked pretty good. We have an alliterative list of the top five shooters this month; Mike, Mark, Mark, Marshall and Mia:
Mike King 385-9X
Mark Richard 367-2X
Mark Walters 363-3X
Marshall Rohrbach 354-3X
Mia King 346-4X
Congratulations to Mark Walters on wining the Garand Match at Anderson last weekend – even after firing a miss on his first Offhand shot! Mark has been known to comment that the Garand is useful only as a tomato stick, but it appears that he can do more than just garden with it.
And, late breaking news; a reliable source reports that Mike King took second place in the Garand Match and Mark Richard took at least a share of third place. Another great showing for FWRR. Thanks Guys!
And, Yes, it seemed like everyone had a good time. Now we all have a High Power story to tell; “There was this one time it snowed so hard ….”. Thanks to the parents and grandparents who showed up to watch the Juniors.
Our next Winter Offhand is December 10th – same time, same place – same format. Hopefully – less snow, but I can’t guarantee that!
Don’t forget the FWRR Meeting on Monday, December 5th at 7:00 at the VFW/Legion/Marine Corps League Building at the end of Main Street in Ft. Wayne. This is the meeting where we elect officers, so please plan to be there.
