Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club

Saturday, September 13 was the last High Power Match of this High Power season.  It was also the weekend of the ISRPA Camp Atterbury State Championships, so we were a bit down in attendance – but it was a really fun day anyway.

We had thirteen shooters ready to shoot by 8:45 A.M. and after the safety brief, conducted by newly certified Range Officer Mia King, shooters self squadded and the match got under way.  The match went as smoothly as just about any match has gone (even with a couple of target uh-oh’s) and we finished up at 12:10 P.M.

Ready on the right …?

Ready on the left …?

We had shooters firing 50, 80 and 100-round matches,  In the 50-round matches, Mia King (one of our Junior girls) took top honors with a personal best 477-12X Master Class score.  She was followed by another Junior girl with another personal best, Aria Hobbs, firing an Expert Class 464-7X.  Aria beat her GrandPa, Jess Jessup who was third in the 50-round match with 459-10X.

Mia and Aria Celebrating Personal Best Scores

In the 80-round matches, Marshall Rohrbach (just recently moving up from the Junior ranks) was top shooter with 787-23X.  This Master Class score cements Marshall’s CMP Master Classification – making him a Master Class shooter for both CMP and NRA matches.  Jeff Beierke was second with 757-22X and Ron Dague, returning for only his third match this year, took third with 733-13X.

Mark Walters shot the 1000 point aggregate 100-round course of fire.  He took this match as an opportunity to test some loads for this trip to the Vermont CMP Games later this month and found out that his service rifle really didn’t like heavy VLD bullets.  In spite of that, he shot an impressive 960-29X in the long course match.

Ashton (419-3X) showing very good prone technique

Our next match will be on October 18th, a 3 x 20 300-yard prone match.  This has historically been a well-attended, fun match so make plans to join us to close out the High Power season.

Range Safety Flags (red pennants) have been installed for the rifle ranges and pistol bay areas of the range.  The safety flag for the rifle ranges is located just to the left of the access road as you enter the driveway for the rifle ranges. 

Safety Pennant for the Rifle Ranges

The safety pennant for the pistol bays is located to the right as you drive into the pistol bay area.

Safety Pennant for the Pistol Bays

These red pennants are to be flown any time firing is being conducted on the range involved.  The rifle pennant need not be raised for pistol bay activity nor does the pistol bay pennant need to be flown for rifle range activities.

They do not need to be flown if activities not involving firing (e.g setup for a match, grass mowing, target maintenance), but if such activities are undertaken and then firing follows, the pennants must be raised before firing begins.

When the pennants are lowered, just wrap the provided bungee cord around the pennant to secure it to the flagpole – it’s not very elegant, but it works.

Stowing the Pennant When Firing is Complete

Please make use of this added safety feature whenever you are conducting firing activities at the ranges.

Thank you; FWRR Officers and Directors

Ok Guys, Girls and Juniors:

Here is the Thursday practice plan for the rest of September:

As of now, the Cub Cadet tractor is unsafe to use.  It’s about to have a major engine failure and I don’t want to be on it when it throws a scrap iron fit and scatters pieces everywhere – the firing points won’t be trimmed as neatly as Carlos usually trims them and finding brass will be harder.

We’re getting toward the end of the High Power season, the Atterbury matches this weekend will close out the Indiana Triple Crown series – so we will have a full practice on Thursday, 11 September.  The sun is getting low in the sky and shooting back at 300 is getting harder with sun glare, so we may want to modify what we shoot that day.

On Saturday September 13th, we will have our normal 50/80 match.  This is on the same day as the Atterbury State matches, so I understand if someone wants to go shoot there instead – just too many chances to have fun.

On Thursday, September 18th – I will try for the third time to give the class on using the stand-alone Silver Mountain electronic target.  There will be no formal High Power Practice that day.

On the next Thursday, September 25th we will have a normal practice, but I will have a “special event” for the Juniors;  no Junior shooting that day.  We will have a brass sorting party because we need to get started on loading for next year – we’re just about out of Junior ammo! 

I believe by then we will only shoot at one distance because of the low sun in the sky – we’ll decide on that when we get there that day.

We’re coming to the end of a good High Power season – thanks to everyone who has made that possible.

The first match of the Indiana State Championship series was held at Fall Creek Conservation Club on Saturday, 30 August when the 100-Yard Reduced Course Match was fired.  Of the thirteen shooters participating, six were FWRR members and FWRR was once again very well represented in the results.

FWRR’s Mike King took this year’s 100-Yard State Championship with a score of 790-35X.  He was followed by FWRR member Geoff Branson taking second overall with a 775-21X. 

Mike King with Andrew Beaver (First Master) and Geoff Branson (Second Overall)

Other FWRR shooters included:

Mark Walters                     755-10X

Gary Mabis                        747-17X

Mike Habel                        733-12X (First Grand Senior)

Mark Richard                     584-19X

The next event in the Championship Series is the 300-Yard State Championship at Wildcat Valley on Saturday, September 6th.         

We don’t often shoot a match at 100-yards on the really small reduced target faces, but the State 100-yard reduced range State Match is on Saturday, so we did shoot a 100-yard match as a warm-up for that match.  Impressively, for a Thursday afternoon session, we had 14 shooters show up – so we had to run a nearly full two-relay match.

It was almost like we shot two separate matches.  The first relay started out and pretty soon we had clouds and some rumbles of thunder, but no lighting.  Then the rain started – just a mist at first and after a bit it settled into a steady drizzle.  Several of us noted that during the week at Camp Perry we never got rained on during range time (even though we were drenched and drowned several other times) and once we got home we got our match in the rain. 

During the first relay one of the resident groundhogs wandered out onto the range, so I called a cease fire to take care of the problem.  Before my designated marksman was able to take care of the critter, another shooter took the shot and missed – but the beast knows he should look for another range to undermine.

Then, while we were doing the relay change, the sky cleared and shooters in the second relay had to deal with humidity from the rain and the sun in their eyes as it settled in the west.

The scoring rings on the 100-yard reduced targets are really close together, but we had some impressive scores posted.  The top eight shooters were separated by only seven points.  The top score was posted by Mike King with 489-18X followed by Mark Richard with 485-15X.  Gary Mabis took third place with 484-13X just edging fourth place 13-year old Junior girl Aria Hobbs with a 484-11X.  Great Shooting Aria!

We are starting the State Match season.  The 100-yard State Match is at Fall Creek on Saturday, August 31st, the 300-yard State Match is at Wildcat Valley on September 6th and the two-day full course Championship Matches are at Camp Atterbury on September 13 and 14th.  I encourage FWRR shooters to go and shoot at any of these matches.  You will meet a group of people who share our interest in high power shooting and you will discover that the great majority of these folks really want to help new shooters improve their skills.

Our next FWRR match is on September 13th – I will give an excused absence to anyone who wants to go shoot at Camp Atterbury that day.

The rifle ranges will close at approximately 10:00 AM on Thursday for mowing.

Mowing should be complete by 2:00 PM.

Please schedule range your range usage with these activities in mind.

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!

We had a really good turn-out for the match on Saturday August 9th, especially considering that the Camp Perry matches had just completed and it promised to be a hot, humid day.  We had two full relays with a single shooter on a stand-along overflow target.

For the first time we also had three shooters shoot a 100-shot, a 1000-point aggregate match.  It was hot – it was muggy.  We didn’t have much wind to speak of and everyone sweated a lot – but nobody seemed to have any heat issues.  

It’s nice to have a full line!

In the 100 round match, Gary Mabis took the top place with a 962-25X, followed by Mike King with 957-32X.  In the 80-round match, Marshall Rohrbach took first place with 785-23X (which should complete his 240-round string to make him a CMP Master).  Mark Richard was second with 774-24X and Dan Wigel took third with 745-17X.  Kileen Shafer was the top Junior in the 80-round group with a722-12X.

Charlie Novak scores while Tayt and Kileen shoot

We had five 50-round shooters; Jack Bushong (a new Junior shooter) took top 50-round honors with 482-14X and the high 50-round Junior was Aria Hobbs with 469-4X.

Brian Grimm and the Range Officer confer while Killian shoots

Our next match is Saturday August 16th, the Leonard Johnson memorial Match.  This is “The Toughest Two-man Team Match in the Country”; .22 rimfire rifles at 200-yards and center fire rifles at 300 yards fired on the MR-42 target.

The main range will be closed between 8:00 A. M. and 11:00 A. M. next Wednesday (8/13) for mowing.

Times and dates may change due to weather and volunteer availability.