Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club

What can be as lovely as a day in June?  200-yard rapid scores coming up.

Your three-minute Prep Period begins when your targets appear …

 The Wailing Wall

Saturday could not have been a better day to hold a High Power Match, and in spite of things like the Fort Wayne Air Show, roofs that had to be laid, lawn work that was long overdue and coaching kids’ softball games – eighteen shooters showed up to enjoy the day.

Unlike our usual High Power days, the weather co-operated marvelously.  A high, thin overcast kept things from getting too warm and the wind consistently stayed at our backs; from 6- o’clock to 7-o’clock all day.  The first round went downrange at 8:55 – we actually started early.

As the Range Officer, I want to commend all the shooters for doing a fantastic job all day long.  Everything went smoothly on the line – if we had been making a movie about how to run a match, you guys would have been perfect as examples.  The pits ran just like someone had written a script.  Targets came up and went down at exactly the right times, excesses and insufficients were called promptly and resolved immediately.  Scorers kept track of exactly how many rounds the shooters fired.  People moved from pits to line and back quickly and I called the last “Cease Fire – The Line Has Finished Early” at 1:55.  That’s an 80-round Match in five hours!

Our Stat Office, Mike and Glenna Grannis kept all of the scores tallied as the match went on and the Wailing Wall was posted and money given out promptly.

And, we had a visitor of note shoot with us Saturday- we welcomed Pete Yarbro who came down from around the South Bend area to shoot with us.  He is not a stranger to us – but it’s been a while since he made it down here.  Pete has a number of national awards and it is always good to see him back at Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver.

Here is how things turned out:

Match 1:  Offhand                 Jim Schieltz      194-3X             (Lima Sabers)

Match 2:  Sitting Rapid          Mark Walters    200-5X             (Double Clean – way to go Mark!)

Match 3:  Prone Rapid           Mike King        198-7X

The Prone Rapid fire stage turned out to be a bit of a scoring challenge.  Two shooters, Mike King (our newest unofficial Distinguished Shooter) and John Halter (our newest Grand Senior) tied with 198-7X scores.  We had to go back to the highest last string to break the tie, and Mike’s 100 clean topped John’s 98.  But, John cleaned the first string and Mike had a 98 ….

Match 4: Prone Slow              Mike King        198-7X

For the day – the Aggregate:

First:                Jim Schieltz                 784-18X

Second:           Mike King                    782-28X

Third:              Mark Richard               769-18X           (Welcome back Mark)

Watch for an announcement of a fun match on June 22. Our next High Power Match will be July 13, another 50/80 Match.  Put it on your calendar and I hope to see you there.

Offhand at 200 Yards

300-Yards Looking Downrange. Look at all of the targets!

Mark Saturday, May 11^th, as a day when the High Power shooters finally got a break from the weatherman!  At 8:30 when we called shooters to the line for the safety briefing, it was clear and sunny!  The temperature was a bit brisk, but what little wind there was came from the east and stayed at our backs for the entire match.  If anyone had to put on more than minute or so of wind from their no-wind zero, I would be surprised.  We had bright sun and some clouds during the day, but overall it was a good day to shoot.

Twenty one (21) shooters showed up for the match, the largest group since at least the 2017 season.  Thanks to everyone who came out for the day.  The first shot went downrange at 8:57 and the final “Cease Fire” was at 2:12.  Again, congratulations to the shooters for a well disciplined and smooth running match.

At the end of the day, results were as follows:

Match Winner             Mark Walters    778-25X

Match Second            Joe Bakies       774-21X

Match Third                Mike King        773-30X

Match 1 Winner, Offhand                 Mark Walters             188-  4X

Match 2 Winner, Sitting                    William Collins          199-  7X

Match 3 Winner, Prone Rapid           Joe Bakies               199-10X

Match 4 Winner, Prone Slow            Mike King                  199-12X

Weather permitting, we will start Thursday High Power practice on Thursday, May 15^th.  Our next High Power match will be Saturday,  June 8^th.  Maybe we’ll get another good weather day!

Well, this year’s Work Day was pretty well a wash out, so a group of us gathered today, Tuesday May 7th, to have a High Power Work morning.  We started about 9:00 and managed to get a pretty good list of things accomplished:

Pasted up new full face MR-63 and SR targets on fresh backers.  This gives us a good stock of targets to start                       off High Power season

Emptied all of the trash out of the ammo boxes and restocked them with fresh supplies

Hauled the three boxes of scrap cardboard down to the burn pile – and burned them

Borrowed a plastic pipe from target 1 in the high power pits to replace the broken pipe on target 6

Mowed the 200 and 300 yard firing points to their putting green like condition for Saturday’s Match

Put two plastic target backers up on the 200-yard practice range

Gave all of the weeds on the place a really good dose of weed killer; “Die weeds, die!”

The wet weather has really slowed everyone down in getting the range ready for the 2019 season, but we’re getting there a day at a time.  Thanks to Mike Habel, Mark Richards, Jess Jessup, Mike and Glenna Grannis and Gary (Weed Killer) Walker for their help today.

Work Day was scheduled for Saturday, April 20th ‘way back in December – long before we could have had a weather forecast.  It was a dark, cloudy, cold day and the High Power Director was accused of scheduling the event since it looked like the kind of day for a lot of the High Power matches last year.  Let it be clear to everyone …  it was not his fault (this time).

But, in spite of a steady drizzle and an occasional downpour, about 12 or 15 folks showed up to try to do what could be done under shelter.

Jim Sweeney and a crew worked in the Wiedeman building to get tractors and mowers ready for the summer.

Denny McNabb and the carpentry crew readied some new target supports.  Denny also cut a lot of fresh 24 x 24 target backers out of the scrap cardboard that had accumulated.

A group including Gary Walker and Bruce Bunting spent time working in the pistol bays.

John Halter put on his rain gear and trimmed up brush and downed trees along the north property line.

Several folks helped Larry Beardsley hold a good cleanup in the Clubhouse.  The pile of cardboard and trash in the corner had started to look like a paper recycling warehouse and had turned into a mouse condo. The windows and sills had become well speckled with spider poop.  The rainy day gave us an opportunity to get a good Spring cleaning done in there.

Snuffling out the dead spiders, sawdust and gunk

No, we didn’t get any real outdoor work done, but we have stuff ready to be put in place when the weather breaks.

Denny cut a lot of 24 x 24 target backers and put them in the box by the door

Thanks to everyone who came out – I know I didn’t mention everyone by name – it’s just old age and failing memory, not any intent to ignore anyone.

Housekeeping Notes

These three boxes are the scrap cardboard and trash we cleaned out of the corner. We’ll burn them some dry day. We no longer have a dumpster, so take your trash home if you would, please.  If not, put it in the cans on the covered firing lines.  If the cans are full, take out the liner and put in a fresh one. We try to keep a new liner tied to the lid of the can.  If not – there is a box of liners under the light switch in the Clubhouse. (Carry the old bag home with you, don’t leave it sitting for someone else).

Since we have plenty of cardboard to make new backers, if your backer is shot up – take it back home.  Don’t stick it in the box “Just in case somebody else wants it”.  That’s how we end up with a box of trash.