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.
A beautiful start to a great match!
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?
And yes, the sky really was that blue on Saturday!
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.
A great bunch of shooters and a beautiful morning.Looking from the high end to low end of the line
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.
Ashley Stevens works with Addysin while Tayt tries to figure out why everything goes backwards when he turns the knobs!
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.
Mia King and Tayt Shaffer demonstrate the prone shooting position during the October 12 High Power Class
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.
We had a very good turnout with six students and three parent observers
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.
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 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
Emma Branson with the Peter Faatz Junior Trophy and Mike King with the Governor’s Cup and ISRPA Full Course Award
Marshall Rohrbach with the Fall Creek 100-Yard State Championship Trophy. Mike King took second place, Creedmoored by Marshall.
Mike King took the Indiana 300-yard championship at Wildcat Valley. Marshall Rohrbach was First Expert and Emma Branson took First Junior and High Woman awards.
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 PaulTill. 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.
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.
Team N-Squared (Norb Norbert and Tom Nagle) were the top
team in the Leonard Johnson Memorial Match shot on Saturday September 21st. Team
Johnson and Johnson (Jerry and Doug) were the runner-ups with a close second
place finish.
The Leonard Johnson Memorial Match is shot in honor of Leonard Johnson (Jerry’s father and Doug’s grandfather), a long time FWRR member and a collegiate small-bore champion. Leonard was active in small bore and high power shooting, so the Leonard Johnson Memorial Match is a combination of the two disciplines. It is a team match. It is shot with .22-rimfire rifles at 200-yards (yes, 200 yards with a .22-rimfire) and center fire rifles at 300-yards. Then to make the game more interesting, it is shot on the SR-42 target, a 200-yard reduction of the SR-3 300-yard target. Then, atop that – when the shooters move back to 300-yards, they still shoot on that 200-yard reduced target. The match has been called “The Toughest 2-Man Team Match in the Country”.
This year’s match ran afoul of two other state level competitions, so only two teams competed – but there was still some outstanding shooting. In the 200-yard stage, for Team Johnson and Johnson – Jerry Johnson shot a 194-6X with a 99-4X second string, but youth and sharper eyes overcame old age and experience as Doug Johnson shot a 196-5X.
Jerry Johnson with Leonard Johnson’s (his father’s) rifle. Jerry’s grandfather built this rifle on a Ballard action – the gun was stocked by an unknown craftsman. The scope is a scope built by J. W. Fecker, who taught his young helper John Unertl how to build rifle scopes
Team N-Squared were close with Tom Nagle posting a 193-5X and Norb’s 191 – 1X. The match went to 300-yards with Johnson and Johnson in the lead by 6-points. But, at 300-yards heat and eyesight began to take their toll on both teams and N-Squared crept up on Johnson and Johnson. N-Squared captured a 334-6X aggregate to Johnson and Johnson’s 325-4X. For the day, Team N-Squared came away with a 718-12X aggregate to Johnson and Johnson with a 715-15X.
Somewhere under that hat, muffs, glove and coat – Norb Norbert lines up for a 300-yard shot.
Just wait until next year though. We will shoot this match in August, after the NRA and CMP National Matches and before the Indiana State matches to enable more shooters to participate.
And, thanks to all of the shooters for donating their award winnings to the FWRR Juniors!
The FWRR High Power season will close On October 19th
with a 3 x 20 300-yard Prone Match. Make
plans to come out for this last match – make me schedule four relays!
Marshall Rohrbach won the Indiana State 100-Yard
Championship on Saturday, September 14th at the Fall Creek Valley Conservation
Club. Marshall is the first Fort Wayne
Rifle and Revolver Club Junior shooter to win a state match, taking the top
slot in a field of 13 shooters representing the best shooters in Indiana high
power. This match is the second of four matches whose scores make up the ISRPA
Aggregate State Championship.
Marshall’s victory was a bit sweeter because he outscored one of Indiana’s perennial top shooters (and one of Marshall’s mentors, FWRR member Mike King) – with a Creedmoor victory – a tied score with the winner being decided by X-count. Both Marshall and Mike shot scores of 780, but Marshall took the win with a 24X count to Mike’s 19X tally.
Marshall Rohrbach (with the trophy) flanked by Mike King and Andrew Beaver
FWRR shooters took four of the five top places. Mike King was second with his 780-19X; Geoff Branson was third with 776-27X (high X-count for the day) and Mark Richard followed in fourth, just one point behind with 775-21X.
Gary Mabis finished just out of the top five with 768-21X,
Emma Branson, another FWRR Junior tallied 758-11X and Doc Habel shot
749-11X.
Congratulations to all of the FWRR shooters – now on to Atterbury for the season finale.
On Thursday afternoon we shot a 100-yard match as a warm-up
for the Fall Creek 100-Yard State Championship on Saturday 14 September. It was a warm afternoon, and not a weekend
match, but 12 shooters showed up and we had to expand the match to a two relay
match. Thanks to all who came out – it just
goes to show that if we offer a match; people will come.
Now, before you think that shooting a match at 100-yards
should be simple, as we simulate longer and longer distances – the black of the
target stays the same size, but more and more scoring rings get crammed into that
6-inch black center. At a simulated
600-yards, the whole black is only about 1 ½ minutes wide!
Not surprisingly, Mike King took the top spot with a 490-20X
score. But, his 198-8X at simulated 600
wasn’t the top score in that stage. Gary
Mabis took second with a 488-11X – but with a 199-8X at simulated 600. Jim Jackson took third with a 485, with a
199-10X at the simulated 600 yard stage.
Marshall Rohrbach took fourth place and High Junior with a 484-14X –
solidifying his NRA Master Classification and just one stinkin’ point out of an
NRA High Master score. (That’s why it’s
so hard).
Welcome to two new shooters; Aria Noel and Chris who shot
their first sorta’ formal match with us.
And, good luck to the shooters who go to the Fall Creek match this
weekend. Knock ‘em down and make FWRR
proud of you!
The ISRPA State Aggregate Championship series kicked off
Saturday, September 7th with the 300-Yard State Championship match
at Wildcat Rifle and Pistol Club. Twenty
seven shooters came to the match on a very good day for shooting. The weather was brisk in the morning with intermittent
overcast periods through the day, and one very short period when it spit a few
raindrops. By the close of the match the
sun was out and it was a pleasant day overall.
The match winner was Liam McKenna, an imported shooter from
Wisconsin – so he could not be the Indiana 300-Yard Champion, but he did put on
an impressive show of shooting. After
Liam dropped 3 points at the Offhand stage, he proceeded to clean the next
three stages – posting a 797-51X overall score and taking the CMP Gold Medal.
Mike King of FWRR was the Indiana 300-Yard State Champion
taking the CMP Silver Medal with a 789-30X score. Andrew Beaver rounded out the medal category
with a 783-33X for the Bronze medal.
Emma Branson, a FWRR Junior took overall fourth place in the match with a 782-20X, High Junior and High Woman in the match. That score put her one place above her Dad, FWRR member Geoff Branson with a 778-32X for fifth overall.
FWRR shooters took the next two places; Gary Mabis was sixth with a 774-22X and Marshall Rohrbach (Junior) took seventh with 773-24X (High Expert). Mark Richard took First High Master, Match rifle with a 768-12X. Addiysn Shull shot a 712-4X in the Sharpshooter class and Taytin Shaffer posted a 665-7X in Marksman.
Marshall Rohrbach, High Expert; Mike King, State Champion, Andrew Beaver, CMP Bronze Medal; Liam McKenna, CMP Gold Medal; Emma Branson, High Junior, High Woman
Congratulations to all of the FWRR shooters who made the
trip to Wildcat and helped make a successful 300-Yard State Championship match.
Well guys (and girls), about once a year I have to fuss about things. As Safety Officer, range housekeeping does contribute to range safety. We do not have trash service at the range. We do not have a janitor to come around and clean up behind us. We have to clean up after ourselves.
I did a trash haul at the range yesterday. Both trash cans
were full to overflowing. We keep trash cans
at the range for casual trash that wanders onto the range, not as community
garbage cans. The can over by the
concrete benches looked like it had been used to dispose of trash from a
picnic; food wrappers, plastic drink bottles, yogurt containers and – I’m not
making this up – a dirty baby diaper.
Over at the 100-yard line the can was full of shot up
targets, more drink bottles, potato chip bags and food wrappers.
If you come to the range, bring a Wal-Mart bag of something
like that to throw away your trash. If
you bring targets or cardboard backers, take them back home with you. Don’t leave them “in case someone else might
need them”.
As an example, someone had built a nice target holder with a wooden frame to hold targets. But – the frame was shot up and instead of taking the backer and frame back home, the person just laid it down beside the trash can for someone else to dispose of it.
Shot-up target backers and frame
Let’s talk about sandbag etiquette for a minute.
We try to keep
sandbags on the range for people who want to use them for sighting in or
supported shooting. Building sandbags isn’t fun. We get them from the county highway
department and we have to fill them ourselves.
Each one weighs close to 35-pounds and loading them and unloading them
gets to be work quickly.
Sandbags are a thin plastic material that can be damaged and easily destroyed. One way to destroy a sandbag is to rest the muzzle of your rifle on the bag when you are firing. The muzzle blast blows away that plastic and lets all of the filling of the bag spill out. Don’t rest the muzzle of a firearm on a sandbag; rest the fore-end instead.
Muzzle blast destroys sandbags
Another way to destroy a sandbag is to rest a Picatinnny rail on it. The serrations tear up the bag with the same result – the innards become outarrds. If you have a rail, lay a towel or a carpet square on the bag to protect the bag.
And, in case the string on the bag breaks, don’t just throw the bag on the table or lay it down on the floor for the sand to spill out everywhere. Sit it up out of the weather and we’ll get a new string on it or we’ll slip it in another bag. If a bag does spill, there is a broom and dustpan out on the apron to sweep up the spilled sand.
Open bags spill sand all over the tables
And, just one last comment – if a sandbag does spill its guts – throw it away, that is a valid use of the range trashcans.
The Bad News – The
weekend matches at Camp Atterbury have been cancelled … .
The Good News –
We’re going to shoot anyway!
Since the Camp Atterbury matches were cancelled and we lost a FWRR Shooting Legend this week, we have decided to have a Wild Bill Simon Memorial Pop-Up Match this weekend.
On Saturday, August 24 there will be a 3 x 20 Prone Match at the FWRR Range. We will shoot a prone match, three stages of 20 shots each from the 300-yard line. This is an any-sight match, so iron sights or scopes are OK. Unlimited sighters are allowed in a 28-minute block time (three minute prep, five minutes for sighters and 20-minutes for 20 shots for record).
Registration opens at 8:00 and first shot is 8:30. Since this not a CMP or NRA Match, just a
club match, Match fees are $10.00 (a real bargain).
The 100-yard range will be open during this match if other shooters
want to come out and use that range – just co-ordinate Cease Fires between the two
activities,
Saturday 17 August dawned as a clear, sunny day that turned out to be neither too hot, too cold, nor too windy – another perfect day for a High Power match after an iffy forecast for the earlier part of the week.
Kileen and Marshall on a beautiful shooting day
Fifteen shooters came to the
line and the first shot went downrange at 7:58 – two minutes early. Thanks to all shooters for being prompt and
letting the match get started on time. Everything
went very smoothly and we finished up a two relay, 80-round Regional Match by
11:15. Everything was put away and
cleaned up by noon – about the time that the dark rain clouds rolled in.
The match saw some really
great scores posted; of the fifteen shooters, seven shot NRA and CMP Master or
higher scores.
Mike King took the top place
with a 786-25X score, dropping only one point in the rapid fire stages. Mark Walters followed up with a 769-15X and
third place was taken by a visitor, Shawn Agne with 767-21X. Tom Collins and Gary Mabis battled for the fourth
and fifth spots, both posting 766 scores – but Tom Creedmoored Gary with a 21X
count to Gary’s 17X score.
Marshall Rohrbach took top Junior
with a 762-22X score, well into Master score range for both CMP and NRA . Marshall cleaned the 300-yard Slow Prone
stage with a 200-7X score. Marshall did this the hard way; shooting a 9
crossfire in Offhand and getting only 9 shots off during Sitting Rapid.
A brief Thank You note: Jim Jackson enabled FWRR obtaining a number
of iPads that we used in Saturday’s match.
Thank you, Jim.
Upcoming events for High Power
shooters include:
September 7 300 Yard Indiana Championship – Wildcat
September 12 (Thursday) yard NMC 4:30
September 21-22 Atterbury Governor’s Cup – State Championship