The Leonard Johnson Memorial Match, as its name implies, honors Leonard Johnson – a long time member of the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club and collegiate small-bore champion shooter. The Match is an acknowledgement of our FWRR family and this year‘s match was unique in the family aspect.
For those who do not know the course of fire of the match, we claim it to be the Toughest Team Match in the Country. Just what makes it so tough? Well to start the match we shoot on the MR-42 target which is the 300-yard SR3 target reduced to a 200-yard size. So what makes that so hard? We shoot at that reduced target with .22 rimfire rifles.
Then, we move back to 300-yards, switch from rimfire .22’s over to center fire rifles and do it again – shoot the same 200-yard reduced target at 300-yards. Those scoring rings get really close together at 300-yards! It makes for a challenging and fun match.
We had a good turn-out; eight teams – sixteen shooters. Of those eight teams, four were father and son teams and one team was a Leonard Johnson Match first – a husband and wife team. Another first was that a team of our Junior shooters shot in the match. And, one more aspect of family history – at least three shooters came out and shot rifles that represented two to four generations of family history.
Fathers and Sons – left to right:
Jess and Patrick Jessup, Brian and Killian Grimm, T.J. and Ashton Hovey and Jerry and Doug Johnson
Jerry and Doug Johnson; son and grandson of Leonard Johnson
A father and son team took top honors in the match. Jerry and Doug Johnson (Johnson and Johnson) took first place with a team aggregate of 750-19X. Doug Johnson also took top honors in both the .22 rimfire stage (a double clean 200-8X) and the center fire stage (196-8X). Jerry Johnson shot a Ballard .22 rimfire rifle that traces its history back to his grandfather around 1920.
Second and third places went to our Buckeye visitors. Bob Schwiebert and Tom Nagel took second place with a team aggregate of 746-10X followed by Tom Easley and Norb Norbert with a 738- 6X aggregate.
The high Junior team was Killian Grimm and Ashton Hovey with a 483-2X aggregate. Ashton and Killian shot a generational rifle – using Killian’s mother’s Ruger 10-22 with fixed iron sights. Using the iron sights with Kentucky elevation and windage made for a really challenging match – but Killian said it was fun as well.
Killian with his mother’s Ruger 10-22
Ashton at 300-yards with his AR
Ashton’s dad (TJ) , shooting with Killian’s dad (Brian) as a team, gave another generational rifle a try. He gave his great-uncle’s Stevens Model 26 “Crackshot” rifle (estimated age about 1920(?)) a try at 200-yards, but the very rudimentary sights were overwhelmed by the distance and the senior Hovey/Grimm team reverted to the Ruger 10-22 for their match as well. (Sorry about the poor picture quality – the camera did something foolish).
TJ Hovey with his great-uncle’s Stevens Model 26 “Crackshot”, circa 1920.
Another family team, husband and wife Joe and Teri Bakies, marked the first time that Teri had participated in a high power match. Joe had just returned from the Bisley Shooting Ground matches in Brookwood, England and somehow he persuaded Teri to give high power shooting a try.
Joe and Teri Bakies
Teri ‘s first high power match
Teri shot a respectable 168-1X at 200-yards with the .22, but at 300-yards the heat got to her and she faded a bit. Your correspondent would not want to make a definite judgment, but from Teri’s comment as she left the line at 300-yards – hot, tired and drenched in sweat from the heavy shooting coat – I don’t think she sees the great attraction we have for this particular sport. (But, in cooler weather it might grow on her).
The match was a fun day. The format of the match challenged shooters, but everyone had a good time (even if it was hot and muggy) and most folks indicated that they would try it again next year. We’re looking forward to it!