Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club

The Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club has been around for more that 100 years. We have evidence that hints that as far back as 1914 there was an organized group of shooters who later became the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club, but there is a surprising lack of recorded history. 

Reflecting that long history, on occasion artifacts occasionally show up that give us some insight into our ancestors.  Recently an old award plaque wandered into the Bruggeman Building (the mower house) that made us do some looking.  The trophy is “The Major John C. Houck Memorial Trophy”, presented by Lt. Colonel Sam L. A. Bowlin.

The trophy is a walnut plaque with a prone rifleman and a brass plate with names of individuals to whom the award was given. The trophy is in pretty good shape, but the shooter has lost the barrel of his rifle over the years.  It appears to have been intermittently awarded – there is not an award noted for every year.  It was first awarded in 1963 to J. H. Miller who scored 134 x 150.  This was probably a 30-shot match fired on the old 5V target.  By 1967 the match format had changed when Lynn Richter won the award with a 287 x 300 score, a 30 round match on the new 10X target.

By 1973 the match format had changed again when Lowell Black won with a 339 x 400 score.  The award stood vacant until 1987 when Mike Grannis won it with a 294 x 300 score (another format change, back to a 30 round match).  Mike recalls that the match was “ … kind of like a President’s 100 Match”.  The plaque was awarded to Mike Gingher in 1990 and last awarded to John Hoham in 1991.  Its whereabouts since then is a mystery until it showed up in the Bruggeman Building.

Now, who are the two individuals involved in the name and donation of the award?  As of now, we don’t know a lot.  We find First Lieutenant John C. Houck listed in the early 1920’s as a member of the Fort Wayne contingent of the Indiana National Guard and in 1925 there are records of him shooting in Indiana rifle and pistol matches with the Indiana Guard teams.  There is evidence that by 1945 he had been promoted to Major where he served the Philippines as a company commander.  The fact that the trophy is the “Major John Houck Memorial Trophy” infers that Major Houck had passed away some time prior to 1963, the date the trophy was first awarded.

Lieutenant Colonel Sam L. A. Bowlin is also a bit of a mystery.  Old records show him as the Post Intelligence Officer at Fort McClellan, Alabama in late 1942.  In 1965 he shows up in the Army Reserve Magazine as being on the Fifth United States Army Team that shot the first year that the Army Reserve was represented at the National Matches at Camp Perry.  We know from club memories that he lived down around Decatur – but not a lot more than that. 

The trophy will be mounted in the new clubhouse as a reminder of the FWRR’s heritage.

The Juniors finally got their chance to “Go Downtown” – try their hand at shooting 600-yards. 

It took us most of two High Power Shooting seasons, but we arranged a session at the Hillside 600-yard range.  They have shot a lot of matches at 200 and 300-yards, but I was curious to see how they would respond to their first try at shooting at a target over a third-of-a-mile away from them.  I was not too concerned about actual scores – we were not going to do a lot of knob turning on scopes – I wanted them to see that shooting at 600-yards wasn’t all that different from 300-yards – it just takes the bullet longer to get there!   

I should have known what was going to happen; I should not doubt this group of young women. I had them put their 300-yard zeroes on their rifles and then come up an additional thirteen minutes of elevation.  Most of them were on paper the first shot and after some sighting shots, they started a 20-shot string at 600-yards. 

When the smoke cleared and the brass was picked up, I was impressed by how well they did. Miss Mia shot the high score of the evening with a 176-3X.  It was a well centered group and it did not show the two-group tendency she has shown on 300-yard prone targets.  (She really did shoot 20-shots, I didn’t do a sighter conversion for her). Good job young lady! 

Miss Addiysn was close on her heels with a 175-1X.  Her group was well centered as well.  I kidded Addiysn that only six weeks ago she was killing antennas and sensors and now she is solidly holding the black at 600-yards, a lot of improvement. 

Miss Kileen shot a group about a minute and a half high with a 162-1X, but it was well centered and had it been down a bit it would have clustered in the black.  As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t into a lot of knob turning for this session or we would have tried to move the group a bit.   Kileen noted that at 600-yards, it just takes a little wiggle to move things a lot. 

Mr. McKee, the Hillside Range Officer and an FWRR member, closed the day with a comment; “Beard, you have a bunch of good shooters there”. 

Way to go Ladies; you make us proud!

Saturday. August 13th continued our string of good luck days for high power matches.  It was overcast most of the morning, about 55-degrees at 8:02 when we sent the first shot downrange.  When we finished at 11:04, it was only 64-degrees, a very comfortable day for shooting.  Our ranks of shooters were thinned out a bit; we had five of our regular shooters call in sick (either with WooHooFloo or recovering from it) and two shooters decided that they wanted to  uphold the FWRR reputation at the 600-yard match at Atterbury .  Even so we had eleven shooters on the line and we had a good match.

It was Jim Jackson’s day; he took first place for the match aggregate with a 770-22X and he dominated both prone stages, with a 399-16X across both prone stages.  He dropped one point in the first prone rapid stage, cleaned the second prone rapid and then continued to clean prone slow with a 200-9X.  Congratulations to Jim for a great match.

Second place went to Mark Walters with a 758-24X – third going to a guest from South Bend, Pete Yarbro with a 751-13X.  (Pete is a guest, but not a stranger to us).   Mia King took advantage of a massive two-magazine  cross-fire to take top Junior with a 711-4X count to take the Top Junior place.

 Marshall Rohrbach, one of our Juniors, won the Offhand Match with a 188-1X.  Mark Walters took first for Sitting Rapid with 199-8X .  And, Jim Jackson dominated Prone Rapid (199-7X) and Prone Slow (200-9X) to take first in both matches.

We had an issue with slow target response in all of the rapid fire stages and after I got home and looked at some of the information stored in our line servers, I was able to figure out why.  I’ll try to be brief.  I can look at valid and invalid shots in each target log.  In the rapid fire stages there were many invalid shots logged in each string.  Our targets operate on sound – and yesterday morning was a cool, humid morning.  Sound carried well yesterday. Shots from adjoining targets were being logged, and the system had to decide if they were valid on-target shots or invalid shots. The system got overloaded and it took it some time for it to figure things out.  No shots were lost, but the slow response caused confusion with some shooters.

To prevent this from happening in the future, I will not simultaneously shoot adjacent targets on rapid fire strings.  We will shoot odd targets then even targets to prevent this from happening again.  I apologize for any confusion that was caused – we’re still learning even after operating this long with the system.  (Please, remind me of this in case I forget…).

Our next match will be on Thursday, August 18th – a regular practice night.  This will be an NRA National Match Course (50-rounds) fired from the 100-yard firing line on the electronic targets.  Just a caution, there may be a waterhole in front of the line, so bring bug spray for ‘skeeters.  This is a “No Match Fee” free match, but if you want scores sent to the NRA, please bring $5 for NRA processing fees.

ONE MORE THING … Saturday, August 27th will be the Indiana State 300-Yard Championship at Wildcat Valley.  It looks like we have a group of Juniors going down to shoot and it would be great to have a FWRR contingent there to take back 300-Yard Bragging Rights for 2022.

WOW!  While I was out playing around with the Juniors, I missed a heck of a match back here at home.

We had thirteen shooters come to the line for the July 30 Mid-Range Tournament.  It was a combined any-sight/iron-sight tournament and there were five shooters who chose to shoot iron sights in one or more matches.  SO – since I had promised to recognize iron sight shooters, I chose to make Iron Sight and Overall Match awards.

The Iron Sight Match was designated as Match 3 and five shooters shot irons in that match.  Iron Sight match standings were:

First:                     Mark Walters     192-7X

Second:                Dean Drews       181-9X (CREEDMOOR!)

Third:                    Mike Habel         181-2X 

Overall  Tournament Standings were:

First: Ron Dague          596-36X(CREEDMOOR! – again)    (Scope, scope, scope)

Second:     Jim Jackson         596-29X        (Scope, scope, scope)

Third:      Mark Walters     589-30X                       (Scope, scope, irons)

There were several  198’s and 199’s shot in individual matches. Ron Dague shot a 200-14X clean in Match 2 and and Jim Jackson cleaned his target in Match 1 with a 200-11X score.  It speaks very well to the quality of our shooters when both the iron sight and overall results had standings decided by X-counts!

Thanks again to Mike Grannis for doing the Stat Office and Admin duties and to Mark Walters for running the line and  shooting  at the same time.  It’s hard to do both things at once.  And, thanks to all of the shooters who made things run smoothly.           

The Junior High Power Shooters of Indiana were well represented at the USMC Advanced Firing School and the USAMU Small Arms Firing School.

FWRR Juniors, in purple and green T-shirts attended the Small Arms Firing School and other Indiana Juniors, in the red sweatshirts, attended the advanced USMC class.

FWRR Junior Marshall Rohrbach, second from right, shooting in his first match at Camp Perry finished 17th of 267 competitors with a score of 376-6X. By finishing in the top 10% of the competitors in this special EIC Match, Marshall earned 4 Distinguished Rifleman Leg Points. Way to go Marshall!!

The next FWRR competitor was Kileen Shaffer, 79th of 267 with a 357-3X. Addisyn Shull and Mia King rounded out the FWRR group with 176th and 220th places, respectively.

Probably more importantly, Col. Eric Andreasen – USAMU Coach for the FWRR Team (who just completed his tour of duty as CO of the USAMU) commented that they see a lot of Junior Teams when they run matches with the USAMU, but it has been a long time since the USAMU staff has seen a group as polite, respectful, courteous and attentive as our FWRR Juniors.

Congratulations to our FWRR Juniors and to all of the Indiana Junior High Power shooters!

FWRR Club Meeting
The next meeting of the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club will be held on Monday, August 1, 2022. Meeting Place: VFW Post 857, located at 2202 West Main Street in Fort Wayne. Meeting Time: 7:00 p.m. Agenda: Standard meeting format. In addition, Mike Grannis will be presenting some very interesting membership statistics. Food and drink are available at very reasonable prices before and after the meeting. Please make an effort to attend meetings, as a quorum is required to conduct club business. In June, poor meeting attendance prevented club business from being conducted. So, please make a special effort to attend the August meeting.

Omission
A list of members who participated in Cleanup Day activities was presented in the June newsletter. Three members were not able to attend in the morning. As a result, their names were inadvertently omitted from the listing. Those individuals’ names are: Stefan Ashtary, Mark Wager, and John Wassell. John’s grandson, Jackson, a non-member, also participated.

New Members
Please welcome the following new members who were accepted at the June, 2022 meeting; Scott Berning, a law enforcement officer who was sponsored by Tim Wunderlich, and Robert Klinkenberg, who works in the transportation industry and was sponsored by Doug Clark.

Newsletter Delivery
Approximately 80% of the membership receives the newsletter via email. Those members who have email accounts and who currently opt for postal delivery are asked to consider receiving the newsletter via email next year. Doing so will save printing expenses (newsletter and mailing labels), postage, envelope cost, the time and fuel spent traveling to/from the
printer, and the manual labor associated with stuffing, labeling, stamping, and mailing envelopes.

Maintenance Activities
Thanks go to Ted Smeltzer for mowing the ditch, to John Wassell et al for installing target frames in Pistol Bays 4 and 5, to John Halter for making improvements at the 300 yard benches, and to Gary Walker for weed killer application.

Reminders
DO NOT HANDLE FIREARMS WHEN PERSONNEL ARE DOWN RANGE! Proper range etiquette involves opening actions, removing all ammunition from firearms, and stepping away from the firing line. MEMBERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BEHAVIOR AND ACTIONS OF THEIR GUESTS. Members may take a maximum of two guests to the range per visit, not counting family members. Do not take more guests and/or family
members than you are able to directly supervise. If your guests or family members are new to the shooting sports, it is strongly recommended that the member refrain from shooting so that all of his/her attention can be devoted to supervision.

Water obtained from the hand pump and the cistern are not potable.
Please make certain to close the outhouse doors and to lower the toilet seat covers.

Mowing Schedule
The 2022 Mowing Schedule is available on the club’s website. The mowing dates that are scheduled to occur before the October meeting are: 7/27, 8/10, 8/24, 9/7 and 9/21. 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 for updates before traveling to the range.

Range Officer (RO) Reports
ACPDL
Tim Wunderlich, reports that he has received many favorable comments regarding the recently-installed, covered firing points in the Pistol Bays.

High-power (HP)
FWRRC ran its second-annual, three-day, Mid-summer Madness Tournament over the period June 17th-June 19th (late Spring?). The tournament included a 50-round National Match, an 80-round Regional Match, a 3 x20 Midrange Match, and the Mike Gingher Memorial M1A Match. The 50-round National Match was won by Mark Richard with a score of 490-19x. The Regional Match was won by Mike King with a score of 785-27x. The Midrange match was won by Geoff Branson who shot a 599-36x. (Geoff only dropped one point.) Geoff’s daughter, Emma, who happens to also be John Halter’s granddaughter, shot an outstanding 594-26x in the Mid-range Match. Emma is a junior girl. Three generations of the Branson-Halter family were represented at the matches this year.

The Mike Gingher Memorial M1A Match was won by Mark Walters with a 363-1X. The first aggregate winner was Mark Walters (2216-35x). The second and third aggregate winners were Mark Richard ( 2201-72x) and Ron Dague (2119-47x), respectively.

The High Junior aggregate went to Kileen Shaffer (1703-32x). The High-Junior Midrange Match high aggregate went to Emma Branson (594-26x).

The Indiana Junior State HP Rifle Championship Match was held at the FWRRC Range on July 16th. Last year was the first time that the championship match was held at the FWRRC Range. Match results are as follows.

Junior State HP Rifle Champion: Madelyn Schenelle with a score of 489-16x. This is the second consecutive year that Madelyn has held the title.
Second Place: Emma Branson. Score: 475-11x.

Class Awards
High Master: Colton Eads. Score: 473-10x.
Expert: Marshall Rohrbach. Score: 467-4x.
Sharpshooter: Kileen Shaffer. Score: 440-3X
Marksman: Emma (Sandbagger) Branson. Score 475-11x

Stage Awards
Standing Slow-fire: Marshall Rohrbach. Score: 92-0x.
Sitting Rapid-fire: Madelyn Schenelle. Score: 100-4x.
Prone Rapid-fire: Emma Branson. Score: 99-2x.
Prone Slow-fire: Madelyn Schenelle. Score: 196-8x.

The details of this report were provided by Larry Beardsley. Larry and several others are responsible for wonderful Junior participation. Thanks go to Mark Walters who provided a hot lunch and to Mike and Glenna Grannis who served as Statistical Officers.

USPSA
No report.

For Sale
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.

There will be a meeting of the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club at the VFW/American Legion/Marine Corps League facility at the end of West Main Street in Ft. Wayne at 7:00 on Monday, August 1.

Our last meeting was a dud because we did not have enough members to form a quorum and we could not conduct business or receive discipline and officer reports because of that.

Make time in your busy schedules to attend this meeting.

Our June match was remarkable for its beautiful weather, but the July match started out like a typical Camp Perry day.  There was a steady downpour at the appointed start time, so we waited a bit to start setup. The rain slacked up, we went downrange to set up targets and the downpour came back with a vengeance – drenching us as we set up targets.  But, by the time we finished, came back up and had our safety briefing – the rain had stopped.  By the time the second relay came to the line the sun was shining and it turned out to be a very nice day after all.

The second relay is just finishing their Offhand stage as the sun breaks out.

We had seven shooters turn out for the match – there were a number of schedule conflicts that kept the entries lower than expected and high gas prices also kept some shooters away from the match. We had an impressive showing of parents and grand-parents for the match; the ability to watch shooters in real-time on the Silver Mountain target system makes high power shooting a more viewer friendly activity as spectators can watch a shooter’s progress shoot-by-shot.

Madelyn Schnelle, who recently went Distinguished, took the Indiana Junior State Championship for the second consecutive year with a 489-16X score for the 50-round National Match Course.  Emma Branson took second place with a 475-11X closely followed by Colton Eads with 473-10X.

Class awards were:

High Master    Colton Eads                 473-10X

Expert             Marshall Rohrbach      467-  4X

Sharpshooter Kileen Shaffer              440-  3X            

Marksman      Emma Branson            475-11X

Stage awards were:

Offhand          Marshall Rohrbach        92-0X

Sitting Rapid   Madelyn Schnelle       100-4X

Prone Rapid    Emma Branson            99-2X

Slow Prone     Madelyn Schnelle       196-8X

In the afternoon fun match, Juniors were teamed up with “old coot” shooters to form two-person teams. The team of Madelyn Schnelle and John Halter took the top spot with a team score of 197-5X. It should be noted that the high score in that match was shot by Colton Eads as his last match with us before he leaves for Texas A&M this fall – a 100-3X clean at 300-yards on the miserable MR-63 target.

While the attention was on the shooters, the match was made a success by the folks who helped in the background.  Mike and Glenna Grannis acted as our Stat Office – doing their usual fantastic job of keeping all the numbers and dollars straight.  Mark Walters (assisted by Marty Didion) did a great job putting together a memorable lunch and our range crew had the place looking like one of the better golf courses – not a hayfield with a bunch of targets set up in it.  Thank you to everyone who stepped up and made it a great day.

Our next match is a 3 x 20 round Mid-Range tournament on July 30, so keep that on your calendar.

After last year’s Midsummer Madness Tournament, I made the following comment:

 If I ever again suggest that we shoot four matches on three consecutive days – somebody call the head doctor and have me checked for mental stability.  Well, maybe not – by next summer I may decide to try it again.  Shooting Mid-Summer Madness on three consecutive days gives me a whole new appreciation of what it takes to shoot every day for a month at Camp Perry or Camp Atterbury.

Well, I decided to try again this summer and I believe we had a very successful weekend of shooting.

Friday Afternoon – June 17 —  50-Round NRA National Match Course

We started out of Friday afternoon with a 50-round match.  I had two fairly full relays with 15 shooters coming to the line – two more than last year.

As a contrast to last year, the weather was absolutely a delight Friday afternoon and continued that way throughout the weekend.  My Stat Office weather observer called it 82-degrees at 4:29 when the first shot went downrange, with a wind of 12 – 17 MPH from about 1 or 2 o’clock.  By the time we finished at 6:30, the wind had pretty much died down and it wasn’t much of a factor during the match.

The top three shooters in this match were:

Mark Richard             490-19X

Geoff Branson            488-22X

Mark Walters             486-11X

And, as a note – the fourth place finisher in the match was one of the Junior Girls we claim as our own, Miss Emma Branson with a 477-14X.  Emma is John Halter’s grand-daughter, a third generation  FWRR shooter.

Saturday, June 18 – CMP/NRA 50-80 Match

The Saturday match was sanctioned by both the CMP and NRA.  The NRA match could be shot as either a 50 or 80-round match, the CMP match was an 80-round match.

We started at 8:08; it was an unbelievable 59-degrees at first shot with a very light north wind – again the wind had no effect on the match.  We shuffled folks into three relays which moved the match along quickly – shooting an 80-round, three relay match in just a little over 3-and- a half hours  The morning did warm up a bit, but when I left the range the truck reported only 76-degrees.   Jim Schieltz, a visitor from the Lima Sabers commented; “You need to cancel this match on account of weather – we can’t have a match on a day this nice – it has to be raining or boiling to hold a high power match”!

The top three shooters in this match were:

Mike King                    785-27X

Mark Richard              784-24X

Mark Walters             771-28X

Sunday Morning, June 19 —  Mid-Range Tournament

Sunday dawned clear and even cooler than Saturday; cooler, 55-degrees and no wind or breeze to speak of.  The Sunday morning session was, technically, a Tournament within a tournament since it consisted of three, 60-round matches.  17 shooters came to shoot and we worked them into a three relay format.  Once we came close to the end of the first relay and firing points came open, we moved into infiltration firing which made the match go very smoothly.  We shot all three matches as “any-sight” matches and several competitors shot at least one match with iron sights

This match saw some fantastic shooting with the top five competitors separated by only 5-points:

Geoff Branson            599-36X           (Yes, he actually only dropped ONE point)

Ron Dague                  596-29X           (Ron Creedmoored Mark Walters who finished third)

Mark Walters             596-23X

Mike King                    595-29X

Emma Branson           594-26X           (Junior Girl)

Sunday Afternoon; Mike Gingher M1A Memorial Match

This was the final match of the weekend and five shooters stayed to see just who was going to take the bragging rights for the Aggregate Score for the weekend tournament.

This is a match we have named for Mike Gingher, a long time FWRR member and a very prominent figure in the High Power shooting sport.  He was a long time armorer for the USMC Reserve National Team and a fixture at Camp Perry National Matches as a Coach and armorer.

The Mike Gingher M1A Memorial Match results were:

Mark Walters             363-1X

Mark Richard              340-4X

Ron Dague                  330-3X

The Mid-Summer Madness Tournament scores turned out as follows:

Four Match Aggregate First:              Mark Walters             2216-35X

Four Match Aggregate Second:         Mark Richard             2201-72X

Four Match Aggregate Third:            Ron Dague                  2119-47X

Match Fourth:                                      Mike Habel                2050-41X        

Match Fifth:                                        Geoff Branson              1851-82X

Match Sixth:                                       Mike King                      1806-69X

Match Seventh:                                  John Halter                  1740-34X

High Junior Match Score        Emma Branson, Mid-Range   594-26X

High Junior Aggregate                        Kileen Shaffer              1703-32X

Again – I must thank Mike and Glenna Grannis for their help as my Statistical Office and Finance Office.   There is absolutely NO WAY I could run a match this size without their help to keep scores and money straight.  XXX and OOO to Mike and Glenna!!!

Our volunteer mowing crew has conferred and they have set up a proposed schedule for dates that the rifle ranges will be closed for mowing. 

Note – these are proposed dates and the actual dates may change if the weather interferes, if it is too wet to mow on a planned date or if volunteers available to mow have to change their schedule.

All dates are on Wednesdays:

June 1 …. June 8 …. June 15 …. June 22 …. June 29

July 13 …. July 27

August 10 ….. August 24

September 7 …. September 21

October 5 …. October 19

November 2 … (Then snow next week?)

If there any questions, please contact Marty Didion at:  Martindidion4@gmail.com

REGISTRATION FORM

2022 Indiana State Junior High Power Championship

July 16, 2022 at the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club

15715 Rupert Road; Harlan, IN

(See the Match Program for details)

Name: ________________________________  Age (As of 31 Dec 2022):  _______

Address:________________________________

 City: ____________________        State: IN           ZIP: __________

Club Affiliation: __________________  NRA Classification_____________________

Email:  __________________________

For Junior Participants; Lunch is free. I want a free lunch:  ___ YES          ___NO

Additional lunches for parents, sponsors and spectators @ $10.00/each;   # ______

For Junior Participants; an event T-shirt is free.    Size (S, M, L, XL, XXL)  _________

Additional T-shirts for parents, sponsors and spectators @ $11.00/each:

Small _____   Medium _____   Large _____   X-Large _____   XX-Large _____

For additional information, contact Larry Beardsley at FWRRHPDirector@aol.com

Date:  Saturday, July 16, 2022                            

Sponsor: Indiana State Rifle and Pistol Association

Location: Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club Range, 15715 Rupert Road, Harlan, IN  46743   Google: “15715 Rupert Road, Harlan IN” for detailed directions.

Contact Information:  For additional information, contact the FWRR High Power Match Director, Larry Beardsley, at FWRRHPdirector@aol.com.

Open To: NRA or ISRPA membership not required.  All competitors must have a Release of Liability Agreement on file with FWRR, or must complete the Release at registration. Competitors must sign the Liability Release and a Parent, Guardian or an Authorized Adult must witness the signature.  An Authorized Adult must have signed Parental or Guardian consent to sign the Release of Liability.

Entry Fee: $30.00, payable at Statistics Office on Match day.  Cash or checks only please; no credit cards can be processed. 

                        (Match fees may be reduced by grants or sponsorships)

Ammunition:  Any safe ammunition permitted – No tracers or incendiary rounds.             

Time:  Registration opens at 7:30 and closes at 8:30.  First shot – promptly at 9:00 A.M.  Lunch will be available – free to competitors and may be purchased for $10.00 by non-competitors.

Pre-Registration:  Pre-registrations are encouraged.  Register at FWRRHPDirector@aol.com.  Walk-in registrations will be accepted up to a range capacity of 28 competitors.  Adults may fire as “Out of Competition” shooters if range capacity allows.  Parents and sponsors of Competitors will be given preference for “Out of Competition” slots.

Course of Fire:  NRA 50-Round National Match Course.  The 600-yard stage will be fired at 300-yards on the MR-63 reduced target.

Rules:   2022 NRA High Power Rules will apply.  Match and Service rifles will be permitted. NRA Classifications will be used.  A Match Jury will be empaneled. 

Per NRA Rule 19.4.1, Coaching will be allowed for Junior shooters who have not established an NRA or CMP classification, or who are classified as NRA or CMP Marksman.

Targets:  The matches will be shot on Silver Mountain Electronic Targets.  Competitors are required to provide their own display device (Tablet, IPhone, IPad) or similar device.  Competitors are responsible for having enough battery capacity in their devices to support the operating time required for a match.

                        If, in the judgment of the Range Officer, a competitor is shooting in a manner that endangers the range equipment, that competitor will be withdrawn from the match and their match fees refunded.

Match Structure:  NRA Registered Match

Match 1– 200yds, slow fire, standing, 2 convertible sighters and 10 shots for record

Match 2 – 200yds, rapid fire, sitting, 2 sighters and 10 shots for record, 63 seconds

Match 3 – 300yds, rapid fire, prone, 2 sighters and 10 shots for record, 73 seconds

Match 4 – Simulated 600yds, slow fire, prone, 2 convertible sighters and 20 shots for record

Match 5– Course Aggregate: Matches 1-4.  Match 5 winner will be the Indiana Junior State Champion, subject to residency requirement.

Awards:   Match Winners:  An award will be presented to the winner of each Match.

Classification Winner:  The high scoring competitor in each Classification will be presented an award.  Classifications will be combined until a minimum of three Competitors are represented in each Classification.

Residency:  Indiana Junior State Champion must be an Indiana resident.

June 2022 FWRRC NEWSLETTER

FWRR Club Meeting

The next meeting of the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club will be held on Monday, June 6, 2022. Meeting Place: VFW Post 857, located at 2202 West Main Street in Fort Wayne. Meeting Time: 7:00 p.m. Agenda: Standard meeting format. Food and drink are available at very reasonable prices before and after the meeting.

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

Cleanup Day Report

Cleanup Day was held on April 23, 2022. Attendance was extremely poor, despite the fact that it was a sunny and warm day. Only twelve members participated. Nine members participated before and after Cleanup Day, to stage material, to perform preliminary work, and to accomplish tasks not completed or not started on Cleanup Day.

The tasks that were completed included the following:

1.	Graveling and grading the Pistol Pit parking area and range roads. 4 triaxle loads of gravel were put down. Thanks go to Lynn Rosswurn. Lynn spent two full days on his tractor to accomplish this major undertaking.

2.	Installing a gutter, pipe, a base, and a tank for a cistern system that will provide water for lawn chemical mixing and watering. Most of the work was performed before and after Cleanup Day. Jim Sweeney led this project, supported by Marty Didion, Tom Fortman, and John Halter.

3.	Repairing the 300-yard number board frame and installing the new number boards that were painted by Dave Fritz.

4.	Trimming overhanging branches along the north road.

5.	Repairing and adding improvements to the outhouse. This effort included replacing a door, rehanging doors, installing fencing, and graveling the entry area. This project was led by Jim Johnston who was supported by Craig Ross and Clyde Ford.

Two planned projects were not started: Removal of the porta-jon in the 300-yard Pit and installation of a drain at the 100-yard firing line on the 300-yard portion of the Main Range. Installation of the drain may require the range to be shut down on a weekend because most member volunteers are available only on weekends.

The following individuals participated in Cleanup Day activities: Craig Bartsch, Larry Beardsley, Bruce Bunting, Aaron Kohler, Dennie Mc Nabb, Gene Pelter, Terry Thoma, Rick Schwaiger, Ted Smeltzer and Ted’s son, David. Ted’s son, David, is a non-member. This list does not include the individuals whose names are listed elsewhere above. Please forgive any unintentional omissions.

It is worthy of note that the members who participated in Cleanup Day projects ranged in age from 53 to 77. Fourteen of the member participants were retired persons. It is understood that younger members may have family obligations that must take precedence; nevertheless, the burden of maintaining the facility is a responsibility that should be taken seriously if the club is to continue to exist and facilities are to be maintained and improved. More participation by younger members in meetings, maintenance activities, committees, etc. will provide those members with the historical background and experience that are key to assuming future leadership roles. For that reason, willingness to be an active club member and to work as a team member should be among the major factors considered when referring a person for membership.

Membership Status

As of May 20th, the number of members in good standing is 366.

Junior Program

The Club’s Junior Program is alive and well, thanks to the efforts of Larry Beardsley, Mike and Glenna Grannis, and Mark Walters. A number of High Power shooters are also very involved in developing our Juniors. It’s exciting to see the young people’s enthusiasm. Some really fine scores are being turned in. Please check the Club’s website for more information concerning the Junior Program.

Newsletter Delivery

Approximately 80% of the membership receives the newsletter via e-mail. Those members who have e-mail accounts and who currently opt for postal delivery are asked to consider receiving the newsletter via e-mail next year. Doing so will save printing expenses (newsletter and mailing labels), postage, envelope cost, the time and fuel spent traveling to/from the printer, and the manual labor associated with stuffing, labeling, stamping, and mailing envelopes. Just send an Email to martindidion4@gmail.com and CC: billmac099@yahoo.com with “Newsletter Delivery” in the subject line.

Maintenance Activities

Thanks go to Ted Smeltzer and John Halter for servicing and thoroughly cleaning the John Deere lawn mowers.

A Note to the Mowing Crew

Darrel Fish procured a gasoline blower for use in dusting off the mowers and concrete areas. The blower will be stored with the string trimmer. Both machines require a 50:1 fuel/oil mixture.

Reminders

Clay targets are only to be shot from the hut at the south end of the 25/50/100-yard portion of the Main Range. Take care to ensure that clay targets, wads, and shot land on club property.

Water obtained from the hand pump and the cistern are not potable.

Please make certain to close the outhouse doors (it keeps them from blowing open and getting damaged) and to lower the toilet seat covers (that makes things a bit more pleasant if you need the facility).

Sad News

It has come to the Club’s attention that two members have recently passed away: Jim Crawford and Dave Gessner Sr. Both men were historically strong club supporters.

Jim participated in both small-bore and high-power rifle competitions. He held several small-bore records and was always among the top competitors at high-power matches. In years past, one could always count on seeing Jim trimming the branches along the north road on Cleanup Days.

Dave enjoyed high-power, service-rifle competition and was a regular attendee at Camp Perry. Dave has traditionally been an extremely generous supporter of the club and the Club’s Junior Program.

Mowing Schedule

The 2022 Mowing Schedule will be made available on the Club’s website https://fwrrclub.org/ . 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. It is recommended that members check the website for updates.

For Sale

Members who wish to sell shooting-related items may send add information to Marty Didion at martindidion4@gmail.com. Ads must be received three weeks before meetings in order to appear in the next newsletter.

After a rain-out of the match scheduled for April (or was it a snow-out?) we caught a great day for the CMP Games Match.  No wind, lots of sun but not so much as to burn us up or melt us down.  17 shooters turned out and shot 25 matches (several folks shot two or more rifles).

In a CMP Games Match, we have a category for just about any rifle you want to shoot and yesterday was no exception.  We had five shooters with As-issued M1 Garands and four of those shooters fired Silver Medal scores:

Mark Walters     276-3X

Ron Dague          273-4X

John Halter         273-4X

Jeff Beierke         271-3X

Three shooters fired Unlimited Garands, three shooters brought 1903 or 1903A3 Springfields, and there were three entries with M1917 “Enfield pattern” bolt rifles.  And, rounding out the old rifle entries – Mark Walters brought out an M1 Carbine and fired one of the top three Offhand scores of the day (91-0X) with it! 

Mark Walters also shot a Silver medal score with a borrowed 1903A3 Springfield and Jeff Beierke shot a 269-2X with the M1917 for a Bronze medal.

Three shooters entered in the Modern Military category and all three qualified with medal scores:

Aaron Kohler      280-6X (Silver) … with a 100-4X clean in the prone rapid stage

Jess Jessup          275-7X (Bronze)

Gary Mabis          274-3X (Bronze)

The unlimited Modern Military class had the most shooters, and with the scoped rifles at 200-yards, the competition was intense!

When the smoke cleared and the Cease Fire was called, results were:

Marshall Rohrbach (Junior)           291- 7X  (Silver)  (High score of any category for the day!)

Jim Jackson                                       289-11X (Silver)

Gary Mabis                                        286- 7X  (Silver)

Kileen Shaffer                                   279-10X (Bronze)

But – the competition for bragging rights in Unlimited Modern Military was most intense in the Slow Prone stage.  There was just no room for a mistake in that bunch:

Kileen Shaffer (Junior)                    100-7X (Creedmored them!)

Jim Jackson                                       100-6X

Gary Mabis                                        100-5X

Colton Eads (Junior)                        100-5X

Marshall Rohrbach (Junior)            99-3X (Drop one point and come in fifth, a tough crowd indeed!)

It looks like young eyes help a lot!

Our next match will be the Midsummer Madness weekend in June; a 50-round match on Friday afternoon – June 17th, a 50/80 Match on Saturday,  June 18th  and a Mid-Range and M1A Match on Sunday, June 19th. It will be a full weekend of shooting to celebrate the start of summer.   Mark your calendars and shoot as many sessions as you can!

It was noted that several projects would be ongoing even though Work Day was formally over. One of the jobs that did not get dome was the repair of the doors on the uhhh, facility – OK, the outhouse.

The high winds in early March ripped the doors off of both sides of the outhouse, leaving the facility open to the weather and full view of anyone who happened by. After Work Day a crew was able to complete the repairs and to make improvements to the facility.

Our Improved Facilities

Not only were the doors repaired, a fence was added in front. This is not just a privacy fence, it will help protect the doors from the winds that sweep across the open area at the range. A gravel pad was also added at the doorways, hopefully helping to keep mud and grass out of the offices.

AND, a bit of country etiquette; as a courtesy to the next user, pick up and throw away any loose paper that might be littering the area before you leave and – just like at home – close the lid. BUT, none of this will, work if the doors are not securely latched after you finish your business. Please make sure the doors close and that the latch ‘clicks’ in place as you depart.