Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club

We had a blow down at the range in the storms in the last couple of days. The Cottonwood tree at the south end of the 100-yard shelter blew down and did some damage to the corner of the roof and the rain gutters. Everything is functional, just a mess to cleanup.

It’s official now – the Indiana Junior High Championship Trophy has been updated to show that Madelyn Schnelle repeated, for the fourth time, as Indiana Junior High Power Champion. As the nameplates show, 2024 was her best score yet – dropping only 10 points across an 80-shot match.

The range signaling system is complete – the work at center line on the north pavilion was completed on Thursday, 27 June. All six switch stations are active and all four horns and strobes are working. Instructions for use of the system are posted on the door to the 100-yard building – please use the system to call a CEASE FIRE and to show when people are downrange. Revisions to the Range Rules will be forthcoming with instructions on when and how the system is to be used.

Thanks to Mike Grannis and Greg McClure for their help in putting the system together.

Well, it took two years, but it was worth it.

Geoff started his Distinguished Rifleman journey in June of 2022, earning 6 Distinguished points in the infamous boat match (the day the boat ran up on the rocks at Viale range).  He earned 10 points at the Camp Perry NTI matches in 2022 and 2023.  But, pursuit of Distinguished can be frustrating.  Geoff took First Leather several times at other matches – and at Camp Atterbury last weekend he missed the cut by several points while his daughter Miss Emma took home her first eight points.  But Camp Perry has been his happy place for leg points. 

Geoff started the match Sunday with 26 leg points and he already had his hard points – it was still just a matter of cranking out those last four points – but still not an easy task.  As Geoff and Emma started the walk down Viale Range on Sunday morning, it was raining lightly.  But, by the time they reached the 200 yard line, the rain had stopped completely.  In Geoff’s own words; “Right then I knew God was on my side today.  It wasn’t an easy day – wind conditions were right at our backs all day making Offhand a real challenge for most everyone.”

For the day, Geoff shot a 475-14X, good for second place of Non-Distinguished shooters and eleventh overall in the match and 8 leg points – giving him a total of 34 points; four more than he needed to close out Distinguished Rifleman!  In an impromptu ceremony after the match, Mike King presented Geoff with a Distinguished Rifleman hat pin to commemorate the occasion.  Depending on how quickly scores are processed, Geoff will probably be formally recognized at a Distinguished Rifleman Ceremony at the 2024 National Matches.

Geoff acknowledges that without the encouragement and support of his father-in-law, long time FWRR member John Halter, he would have never grown to love and appreciate this sport! 

Now Miss Emma – it’s your turn to take up the Distinguished Rifleman challenge!

On Saturday, June 15, Emma Branson  won the ISRPA EIC Match at Camp Atterbury with a score of 479-12x beating 30 other competitors. She was awarded 8 distinguished points, her first, and she will receive a Bronze EIC Medal as well as a gold CMP regional medal for her win. This win counts as her “hard” leg (a win of 8 or 10 points).  A shooter must achieve 30 points to become distinguished – one of which must be a hard leg.

Emma shot strings of 91-1X Offhand; 99-4X Rapid Sitting, 97-3X Rapid Prone and 192-4X Slow Prone.  Interestingly – none of these scores was a stage winner, but her consistency across the course took top honors for the day. Emma was two points ahead of fellow FWRR member Mike King who shot a 479-14X.

Congratulations Emma on an outstanding job, great way to begin your journey to becoming Distinguished!

As the Indiana Junior State Championship match opened, the question was; “Will Madelyn repeat as State Champion for a fourth time, or will someone upset her?”  Competition is intense for the top spot.  Madelyn has been working and hasn’t shot for a month. Emma is shooting Master scores and Marshall is always there at the top; Logan is consistently a strong contender. Will this be the year when the Madelyn’s winning series is broken?

Nope – not this year!

Saturday, June 8 was a beautiful day for a State Championship – nine Junior shooters from across Indiana gathered at the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club for the Fourth Annual State Championship. The day had comfortable temperatures, beautiful light and although there was a pretty good breeze at times – it was not a factor in most of the match.

Once the match got underway, it was apparent that Madelyn was the champion to beat.  One of the sayings of high power shooters is that you can’t win a match in the Offhand stage, you can lose it there – but Madelyn dominated Offhand with a 193-5X, 10 points ahead of Logan Becker.  In Sitting Rapid, Logan gained one point against Madelyn, but as the match moved back to 300-yards – Logan trailed by 9 points.

In the Prone Rapid fire string, Logan and Madelyn went head to head with both posting 198 scores; Logan with a 198-8X to Madelyn’s 198-4X. But at the Slow Prone stage, Madelyn took command again posting a 200-14X clean score for a match aggregate of 790-33X; dropping only 10 points across the whole match.

Awards:

Madelyn Schnelle                   State Champion; Gold Medal          790 – 33X

Logan Becker                          Silver Medal                                        776 – 20X

Emma Branson                       Bronze Medal                                      764 – 11X

First High Master                   Madelyn Schnelle                              790 – 33X

First Expert                             Emma Branson                                   764 – 11X

First Sharpshooter                 Mia King                                              752 –   7X

First Marksman                      Tayt Shaffer                                         613 –   5X

First Offhand                          Madelyn Schnelle                               193 –   5X

First Sitting Rapid                   Madelyn Schnelle                             199 – 10X

First Prone Rapid                   Logan Becker                                      198 –   8X

First Slow Prone                     Madelyn Schnelle                              200 – 14X

Incidentally, there was an “Old Guy” match being shot along with the Junior State Championship.  Mike King, a consistent ISRPA State Champion contender, was shooting on the same firing point as Madelyn and as the day went on, they were head to head for high match aggregate.  The contest went down to the last shot in the Slow Prone Stage.  Madelyn had finished with 790-33X, but Mike was at 780-34X.  If Mike shot another 10, he would have bragging rights for the day– but he missed a slight wind shift and his last shot was a 9! 

WIN, MADELYN!

In the afternoon, there was a Garand Match where many of the Juniors shot the Classic rifles.  It was a great close to a great day of shooting.

As many members have been aware, we have had a contest for the last several months to count the number of bullets in a jar as a fund raiser for our Juniors.

A beautifully refinished Winchester Model 94 (refinished by FWRR member Mike Toscos) in caliber .30-30 was donated as the prize for the individual who made the best count of the bullets in the jar.

The jar was opened at the Junior High Power Championship Match on June 8th and a counting committee determined that there were 337 bullets in the jar. When the entry slips were reviewed, Mike King had counted 338 – closest count and only off by one bullet.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest; we will use these funds to buy Creedmoor 1-inch PoleCat scope mounts for our Juniors.

WOW!  What a match!  One of the things I heard as feedback from shooters was that we should have more  3 x 20 300-yard prone matches, so I slipped in a 3 x 20 on the weekend before Mid-Summer Madness.  And, to paraphrase from the movie; “Schedule It and They WiIl Come”.

We had twenty-one (that’s right, 21) shooters for the day and they came to shoot.  Of the 21 shooters, four were Juniors and we were graced by one Great-Grand Senior shooter; Jack Baker from Lima, Ohio.

For most of the week we had been threatened with a rainy morning, but the rain held off until well into the afternoon and we shot the match under excellent conditions.  We shot in two classes, iron sight and scope classes.

Iron Sight Match

“Target seven, another X .. target seven, another X …” and so on for a total of  “Target seven, another X …” 47 times.  Joe Bakies dominated in the iron sight tournament with a triple clean 600-47X.  What a shooting lesson.  The folks watching on their displays were shaking their heads in amazement.  Great match Joe.  Tom Bonner took second with a 587-19X and Norbert Norton was third with a 572-17X.

Scope Match

The scope match was an 18-shooter match and the shooters put up some impressive scores.  Mark Walters took the top place with a 593-20X followed closely by Ron Dague with 592-31X; both shooting Match Rifles.  Ashley Stevens from Maumee, Ohio was third with a Service Rifle and a 590-30X score. Two Match Rifle shooters closed out the top five – Mark Richard with 585-23X and Aaron Kohler with 582-15X.

Thanks to all of the shooters who came out for the day.  We had a hiccup with one of the targets that made us shuffle shooters and target assignments – I appreciate everyone’s patience.

Our next Matches are the Mid-Summer Madness Weekend matches; a 50-round NMC on Friday afternoon June 7 at 4:30, an 80-round CMP Match on Saturday at 9:00 that will include the Indiana Junior High Power Championship – followed in the afternoon by a Garand/Service/Military Match. On Sunday we will shoot a 50-round NMC in the morning and another 50-round 100-yard match to close out the afternoon.