Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club

At the October meeting of the FWRR, it was voted to purchase three Silver Mountain Target systems.  This has been done.  Two of these systems are the server based systems we use for formal matches and one system is a “Stand Alone” system of the type often used by individual shooters for practice sessions.

The Stand Alone system was purchased because a number of members who do not regularly shoot in formal high power matches indicated their desire to have access to an electronic target system to make practice sessions more productive; knowing exactly where shots impact on a shot by shot basis without having to walk down 100, 200 or 300 yards (then back) in a shooting session.

This system does require some instruction in its use.  Like the match system, it can be used with a smart phone, iPad, most tablets or just about any device you can use to access the internet.  It is not a hard system to learn how to use, but even with our match system – having five years of experience with it – we are still finding “oh-by-the-ways”.

I am proposing to have at least one training session for folks who are interested in using this system (I will do more if the interest is there). It would be a Saturday morning session and as a guess it would last about three hours with classroom instruction and a shooting session to practice what we cover in class.

Only members who have attended the training session would have access to the system and only members who show that their shooting skills would not endanger the target system would be qualified as users (like the CMP does at the Talladega range).  Even with this, there will is a chance of damage to the system (every year we lose about one sensor in high power matches and practice) and replacement costs for a damaged sensor run about $150.00.  I anticipate that there will be a modest user fee (think $20.00 per member) to be a user of this system, but those arrangements will have to be finalized as we get the details ironed out.

If you would be interested in using such a system and attending a training session, send me an email at FWRRHPDirector@aol.com so I can see how much interest there is in this plan.

Thank you,

Larry Beardsley

High Power Range Officer

What a way to close out a High Power season!

We had everything that a High Power Match could ask for.  The weather was outstanding.  The day dawned bright and just a bit frosty, but as the sun warmed the range, the frost vanished and the morning light on the targets contrasted with the fall colors to make a picture that looked like a fall postcard.

Then, there the helpers.  We weren’t going to shoot until 9:00, but when I got to the range at 7:30 (yes, almost in the dark) there were people already setting up targets.  Who could ask for a better crew to support a match? 

Next, if you are going to have a match, you need shooters.  How about the biggest crowd of the year; 25 shooters?  We had Grand Seniors, we had Juniors, we had Service Rifles, Match Rifles and a contingent of Palma and F-Class Rifles in the match – just about every ingredient you could ask for a match.The match was a 3 x 20 300-yard prone match. 

We set it up to be a casual fun match – shooters were assigned firing points and each group of shooters decided how they would fire the match.  One group of shooters shot all 60 rounds at once and another shot the match 20 rounds at a time.  If someone was waiting for a shooting position and one came open, we just swapped firing points and kept the match moving.

How well did it work?  We started a little after 9:00 (there were some last minute oh-pooh’s in getting set up) and finished a three relay 3 x 20 match by 11:58!  This was a great bunch of shooters who moved the match right along.

And, even after five seasons with the Silver Mountain Targets, we still manage to discover new things.  The guys on target 5 made a new and mystifying discovery.  If you made a sight correction, the point of impact moved the wrong way.  Upward elevation corrections moved the point of impact down and right windage corrections moved it to the left. When we cleaned up targets at the end of the match, we discovered the exact combination of swapped cables on target 5 that made for backwards corrections!  Maybe we need to send some folks back to kindergarten to learn their color words when they install targets. (We’re poking fun at ourselves – not fussing!)

We had three categories of shooting yesterday; Service Rifle, Match Rifle and Palma/F-Class rifles.

In the Palma/F-Class group, standings were:

First                      Joe Bakies           598-41X

Second                 Tom Bonner        596-34X

Third                     Lewis Levin         553-12X

Match Rifle settled out like this:

First                      Mark Walters     591-26X

Second                 Ron Dague          578-13X

Third                     Jim Jackson         575-12X

And the Service Rifle shooters:

First                      Ashley Stevens                  596-26X

Second                 Gary Mabis                         591-14X

Third                     Mike King                           590-20X

Fourth                  Marshall Rohrbach           571-16X  (High Junior)

These were great scores and there were a lot of good scores for the day. One great story of the day is Miss Aria, our newest Junior shooter in her first match (another left-handed 12-year old girl).  She swapped rifles this week and is shooting a full sized rifle that weighs as much as she does – well, almost – maybe.  She started with a 153-2 for her first string.  After a bit of a rest, her second string was a 173-0X and then she finished up with a third string of 189-4X.  That was really good shooting Miss Aria!

It was a great day – we had fun and everyone enjoyed a great match; a most excellent way to close out a high power season. The only problem – what do we do to make high power shooting even better next year?

We start Winter Offhand on Saturday, November 9 at 9:00 AM, and follow up with a Junior Class and the Winter 40 shooters.  Come out and join us!

What do college basketball coaches and Junior High Power coaches have in common? 

Both of them have to recruit to keep top performers in their program, and FWRR is no exception.  Our best source of new Junior shooters is the DeKalb County 4-H shooting sports program.  4-H shooters go through BB gun, air rifle, air pistol, archery and .22 rimfire shooting classes and after they complete these classes, many of them want to continue shooting in a more advanced formal program.

FWRR member Patrick Jessup heads up the DeKalb 4-H .22 rimfire program and last summer he invited FWRR representatives to come out to a 4-H shooting session and make a presentation about the FWRR Junior program.  Larry Beardsley and Mia King made a pitch to the group and Mr. Jessup gave us a list of prospective shooters.  We followed up with the prospects and decided that we had enough interest to hold a class for prospective 4-H shooting sports graduates.

We set October 12 as a date that worked for everyone and we worked on a class curriculum.  We decided that the CMP GSM class met our needs and we did some modifications to focus on the AR rifles we shoot in our Junior program.  We have a diverse and capable set of Juniors and we decided that the Juniors would have a major role in presenting this class to give back to the Junior program.  Mia King is a 4-H Instructor and a Certified NRA Pistol Instructor and Tayt Shaffer, our youngest Junior, is willing to try anything (well, at least once) and they agreed to help with the class.

We divided up the CMP curriculum and Mia took the parts dealing with Preparing the shot, Breathing, Trigger Control and getting into the actual positions.  Since I am way too stiff to bend into the positions, Tayt was our model – demonstrating different aspects of the Offhand, Sitting and Prone positions.

We had a very good turnout for the class; six students and three parents were present.  We welcomed parents because we want them to know just what we are doing with our program.  The classroom session went very well and after lunch, we had a shooting session.  While the students ate lunch, we zeroed three rifles at 100-yards and we had the students shoot from sandbags to work on operation of the AR rifles, practice trigger control and get used to using a scoped rifle instead of open sights.

Each student shot 20-rounds in their practice session and the emphasis was in shooting a good group – not necessarily putting everything in the X-ring. In summary – every student shot good groups and several beat up the black on the target pretty badly.

After the shooting session we did a class survey and we good high marks for how the class went.  Every student said that they would like to continue shooting over the winter, so we have a plan to go forward with this new group of shooters. 

We start Winter Offhand on November 9th.  After the “old guys” finish Winter Offhand, about 10 o’clock, we will meet with the prospective shooters (we’ll call them The Class of ’25).  We will have a class session and then a shooting session to follow up with the start we have made with this group of new shooters.

And, as college basketball coaches often do – we’ll declare that we had a great recruiting season.

FWRR Club Meeting

The next meeting of the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club will be held on Monday, October 7, 2024.  Meeting Place: VFW Post 857, located at 2202 West Main Street in Fort Wayne.  Meeting Time: 7:30 p.m.  Meeting Agenda:  Standard meeting format.

Please make an effort to attend meetings, as a quorum is required to conduct club business. 

Club Election

Club Officers will be elected during the December meeting.  Positions include: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Director, Program Manager, and Range Safety Officer.

The term of the Director is six years; the term of all other elected officials is two years.

Persons who have been members in good standing for two full years are eligible to run for office and to vote in elections.   Eligible members who wish to have their names placed on the ballot should contact Mark Walters at the October meeting or via email (mwalt1@comcast.net).

Maintenance Activities, Facility Improvements, etc.

Thanks go to Jim Johnston and Rick Schwaiger for their work in cleaning up debris from the tree which fell at the south end of the 100-yard firing line.

Mowing Schedule

The 2024 Mowing Schedule is available on the club’s website. https://fwrrclub.org/

Mowing dates that are scheduled to occur are 10/16, and 10/30.  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 https://fwrrclub.org/  for updates before traveling to the range.

Sad News

Two members have passed away since the publication of the last newsletter: Bill Simon (April, 1988) and Nick Norris (February, 2006).  

Bill was an avid sportsman and high-power competitor.   Nick was interested in all facets of firearms, especially precision shooting.

Discipline Reports

ACPDL (Allen County Practical Defense League)

An ACPDL match will be held on  11/2.   The last match of the calendar year will be held on 12/7. 

Only ACPDL members are permitted to shoot.  The pre-match meeting begins at 9:00 a.m. and shooting commences at 9:30 a.m.  Matches are typically finished by 12:00 noon.   Observers and those persons interested in becoming ACPDL members are welcome.

USPSA (United States Practical Shooting Association)

The last match of the calendar year will be held at 9:00 a.m. on 10/20.

High-power (HP) — Upcoming High Power Events

Junior Class 

On Saturday October 12, I am holding a High Power Clinic focusing on prospective Junior shooters from the DeKalb County 4-H shooting program – but if you have a Junior that would be interested in High Power, please invite them to this class.

The class starts at 8:00, participants will need to bring lunch.  After a morning classroom session, we will shoot to practice the things we covered in classroom instruction.  The class is free to Juniors and parents are welcome to sit in and see what we are doing with the program.   Let me know of any interested Juniors – contact Larry Beardsley at FWRRHPDirector@aol.com

3 x 20 Prone Match

Our last High Power match of the season will be on Saturday, October 19 – a 3 x 20, 300-yard Prone Match.  These matches are some of the most popular and well attended matches we have and I would like to close out the season with a BANG with this match.  The last match we had to run three relays -so make me run four relays this time!  Start time is 9:00 – we’ve lost the early morning sun as we get deeper into Fall.

Winter Offhand

Winter Offhand starts on Saturday, November 9th (note the return to second Saturday activities).  We register at 8:30 or so and start when we get a full relay on the line.  We will shoot as many relays as we need to accommodate everyone.  Course of fire is 22 shots first stage (the low two shots are considered to be sighters and 20-shots for record) and 20-shots for record second stage.

Depending on demand, there may be a Junior practice following the match as well as the winter Half Match crew resuming their matches.  Keep an eye open for how this works out.

The Main Range closes at 3:00 p.m. prior to HP practice sessions.   The pistol bays remain open during HP practice sessions and matches.   As is always the case, informal practice in the Pistol Pit is limited to Bays 4 and 5.

People and Accomplishments

FWRR Shooters at Camp Perry National Matches; Tayt Shaffer, Coach Beardsley, Geoff Branson and Emma Branson

Cowboy Action

The last Cowboy Action match of the calendar year will be held on 10/12.  Registration opens at 8:30 a.m. for regular matches and at 9:00 a.m. for voluntary side matches.  Regular match start time is 10:00 a.m.  The matches begin with a mandatory shooter meeting. The ammunition requirements for the regular match are 60 rounds for pistols, 60 rounds rifles, and 30 rounds for shotguns.  Only lead bullets and shot are permitted.  Shot may be no larger than #4 (shot sizes 4 – 9). 

PCSL (Practical Competition Shooting League)

The last PCSL match of the calendar year will be held on 10/27. Match time is 10:00 a.m. Registration starts at 9:30 a.m. 

New shooter orientation begins at 9:50 a.m.  Rifles in caliber .223 and pistols in calibers 9 mm, .40 and .45 are used in this competition.  Rounds counts are 120/match for rifles and 60/match for pistols.

New Members

Please welcome new members Denis Cook (yes, one ‘N’), Melvin Craft, Eric Melton, and Paul Till. These gentlemen were inducted as full members at the August, 2024 meeting.

Distinguished Shooter Listing

The Club would like to have a listing of members who have been awarded Distinguished Rifleman Badges.  If you are a Distinguished Shooter, or if you know a club member not now living who is or was a Distinguished Rifleman, please notify Larry Beardsley; (FWRRHPDirector@aol.com).

For Sale

77 gr. Sierra Match King bullets, boxes of 500, $160.00 each.

Federal 205M Primers, $80.00/1000. 

Federal 210M Primers, $65.00/1000.

Jaggi Shooting Glasses Frame with extra nose piece, lenses, blinders and case: $125.00.

8 round M1 clips:  $2.00 each.

Contact Marty Didion at  martindidion4@gmail.com.

300+ Win; .30 cal. 150 gr. FMJ bullets, $50.00.

Two 250-count; .30 cal. FMJ BT (weight not specified in ad), $80.00 each.

Thirteen 5-count boxes of Rem. 12 ga. Managed-Recoil 1 oz. slugs, $7.00/box. 

2200 Win. large pistol primers, $6.00/100.

M1 Garand Clips in excellent condition, $4.00/each.

TC .54 cal. Renegade muzzleloading rifle with kit and supplies, $175.00.

Call Tom at (260) 740-6000.

Japanese Arisaka Type 99 Rifle, 7.7 mm with Lee die set.  Nice overall condition, chrome lined barrel is very good, wood is good.

I have shot this rifle with resized .30-06 brass and I survived, no particular excitement. This rifle has the wing anti-aircrafts sights, no sliding breech cover and the chrysanthemum is ground off.  Asking $99.00, but let’s negotiate, I need the space in the gun locker.  

Contact Larry Beardsley; FWRRHPDirector@aol.com

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.