Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club

The construction of the new 100-yard firing point has gone as far as it can this Fall.  Ted Smeltzer got a new (at least a replacement) track for his Bobcat and he finished up the remaining dirt moving work.  The top is smoothed off nicely and there is a gentle slope front-to-back at the firing positions.   He also did a very nice job of feathering in the ends and edges.

THANK YOU TED!

Today I fertilized and seeded the bare dirt with a tough football field grade turf seed that Ag-Plus said would grow on chipped concrete (at least that was the claim).  With rain the rest of the week it should get a chance to water in and sprout a bit before we get any really hard freezes that would freeze the dirt.  We’ll see what happens; we may need to hit it with some Ryegrass overseed next spring.

It appears that our local deer herd likes the new firing position – there were a lot of deer tracks in the moist dirt this afternoon – it looks like all of the four-footed neighborhood kids were playing King of the dirt pile on the mound.

Saturday, October 24th was our Deer Rifle Sight-In event at the range.  Indiana deer season starts November 14th, so we wanted to give members and guests a chance to set zeroes and to have plenty of time to practice with a rifle they knew was zeroed where they wanted it to be.  This was a free event to allow club members who are not High Power shooters an opportunity to get a benefit from the electronic targets the club has procured.

Our High Power luck held for another Saturday – it was cool but beautiful.  We set up electronic targets at 100, 200 and 300-yards so hunters could set a zero at one distance and then see just how high or low they shot at the other distances. We had seven or eight hunters take advantage of the event. 

One gentleman brought out his new rifle with a freshly mounted scope – with no idea just where it might be shooting.  We did a crude bore sight off the bench and then took the first two shots.  The Silver Mountain Targets told us that he was about 24-minutes off to the left.  He was not sure which way his scope adjusted, so we put about 6-minutes of what we thought would be “right” on the knobs and shot again.  The third shot was about 30-minutes left; obviously we guessed wrong.

So – we put about 30 minutes of the “other right” on – and his fourth shot was solidly in the black.  His fifth and sixth shots were solid 10-X shots and he was well sighted in at 100-yards with just a couple of more shots.  He went over to the 200-yard bench and shot three more shots to verify his drop at 200-yards; as far as he intended to shoot at anything.

The point of the story; within 30-minutes and about half a box of ammunition, a hunter was able to go from a new unfired rifle to a rifle with a solid set of zeroes that more than meet his needs.  That would have been hard to do with a paper target, shoot and walk setup.

Several other people shot at various ranges, mainly putting touch-up adjustments on their rigs and we had some casual shooters try out the electronic targets for the first time.  They agreed that electronic targets would spoil people very quickly.

It was a successful day – thanks to everyone who came out and helped with target set-up, helped work with hunters and to tear down and put things away.

2020 has been a bummer of a year for a variety of reasons, but our string of good luck for High Power shooting continued for the Leonard Johnson Match on Saturday, September 26th.  Again, we could have not asked for a better day; bright, cool but not nose dripping –finger numbing cold and just enough wind to challenge but not frustrate.

Three-and-a-half teams participated

The teams and results were:

The Buckeye Brothers – Bakies and Baker:

Rim fire:          375 – 6X          Center Fire:     365-7X             Aggregate:  740-13X

Theyrrre Back – Ron Dague and Doc Habel  (First Match for both of these guys this year!!!)

Rim fire:          370 – 0X          Center Fire:     366-7X             Aggregate:  736-13X

Johnson and Johnson – Jerry and Doug Johnson

Rim fire:          371 – 3X          Center Fire:     270-3X             Aggregate:  641-7X

(New rifle, serious issues and finally just plain ole broken and had to withdraw)

Our half-team was John Halter:

The Last Mohican – John Halter

Rim fire:          173 – 1X          Center Fire:     101-2X             Aggregate:  274-3X

In case you might wonder about the low center fire scores, we shot the 300-yard stage on the MR-52 target, which is a 600 yard target reduced to 200 yards – but we shot it at 300 yards.  The SR-42 target is a hard target, but the MR-52 is even more of a challenge.

Doug Johnson took high .22 rim fire individual with a 190-3X.  Joe Bakies took center fire individual with a 191-6X.  Ron Dague shot an outstanding 186-4X center fire considering this was his first match of the year after some health problems.

I want to thank Joe Bakies and Jim Baker for turning their awards back to the club for our electronic target fund and for Joe’s very nice comments about the match on his Facebook page.

On Saturday September 26th, during the Leonard Johnson Match, Eicher Concrete called and asked if we were ready to move dirt for the new 100-yard firing point. It was short notice, but as you know, when you get a construction guy ready to go – you don’t put things off!

Eicher Construction was going to move excess dirt from the south end of the 200-yard practice berm and FWRR member Ted Smeltzer, who lives nearby, was going to use his Bobcat loader to level and feather dirt at the edges of the pile. Well, that plan went awry when Ted blew a track on his Bobcat.

We put two truckloads of dirt on the firing point and put another load of loose dirt aside to do edges of the firing point and to fill some potholes and wet places on the range. The operator for Eicher did some leveling and packing with his excavator and we got the dirt pile roughly profiled.

This is about what it is going to look like – we hope to get it all leveled and seeded before frost this year.

This firing point will give us a 100-yard point for the electronic targets. Now, how are we going to use it?

We will shoot an NRA Approved Hundred Yard National Match Course next summer on one Thursday evening practice session every month, we will see if the Hoosier Home Range Hundred carries on into the new year and we are investigating the possibility of hosting the ISRPA Reduced Range State Championship in 2021.

I shouldn’t have to say this – but guys – please don’t drive across the fresh pile of dirt – it isn’t an off-road obstacle

Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club

Leonard Johnson Match

Saturday; September 26

Start Time:  9:00 – not 8:00; we’ve run out of early daylight!

Remember to bring spotting scopes for the 200-yard Stage, and;

Bring electronic target displays for the 300-yard stage.

The good times just keep rollin’!

Saturday, 12 September was the annual John C. Garand/CMP Games match – and our string of beautiful days for shooting continued.  The weather started out at about 60-degrees and cloudy bright but by the time that Relay 3 went to the line, it was mostly clear. The targets looked like black dots on white dominoes!

Winds were negligible, 3-7 MPH from the ENE, a 5 o’clock breeze that had no value.  We had 20 shooters sign up to shoot a total of 31 individual matches – almost four full relays!  The course of fire was the 5-sighter, 30 shot for record Garand Match Course A and we were able to shoot a relay in about 40 minutes on our Silver Mountain electronic targets.  Our first shot went downrange at 8:05 and we finished up Relay 4 at 11:28.  Thanks to all of the shooters for making it a very smooth match for the Range Officers to run.

The rifles were a classic Garand Match mix; twelve M1 and three Unlimited Garands, seven 1903 and 1903A3 Springfields, four M1917 Enfields , a Schmidt-Reubin Swiss straight pull and three AR-15 based modern military rifles.  Eleven of the 20 shooters chose to shoot two or more rifles with one shooter shooting four different rifles and taking medals with every one of the four.

Thirteen medals were earned for the day – I’m listing them in no special order:

Mark Walters             M1 Garand                             Gold                 286-2X

Mark Walters             M1 Carbine at 200-yards       Gold                277-6X

Aaron Kohler              Modern Military                     Gold                287-7X

Mark Walters             1903A3 Springfield                 Silver               276-4X

Mike King                   Unlimited Modern Military   Silver             292-12X

Jeff Beierke                 M1 Garand                             Silver                275-2X

Jeff Beierke                 M1917 Enfield                        Silver               275-3X

Mark Walters             Unlimited M1 Garand          Bronze            277-6X

Jerry Johnson             M1 Garand                             Bronze            264-1X

Doug Johnson             M1 Garand                             Bronze            262-4X

Carl Johnson               Unlimited Garand                  Bronze            273-5X

Josh Bonebrake          1903A3 Springfield                 Bronze            272-3X

Gary Mabis                 Modern Military                     Bronze            274-6X

Medals are on order from CMP – I will present them to winners when I see you, so come out to matches!

A statistical note; the CMP award scores are set to allow about 30% of shooters to earn medals.  Over 50% of the FWRR Garand Match/CMP Games shooters earned medals – so it shows that our shooters are well above the national average.  But, as the High Power Director it shows me that we need to bring new shooters into our group – we’re top heavy with really good shooters.

Our next club activity is Work Day on Saturday September 19th and then the Leonard Johnson Match on Saturday 26 September.    

See you then – and be careful.                                                       

Talk about living the dream!  We had scheduled the FWRR Hoosier Home Range Hundred Match for Saturday morning with an 8 o’clock first shot.  I got to the range about 6:55 and I noticed that the gate was open.  I hung the FWRR Rifle Match Today sign on the gate and headed a bit further down the road.  As I topped the little rise, I saw five trucks parked at the pits.  Most of the target frames were already in the holders by the time I got there.

I wandered over to the edge of the pits and I told the guys; “Hey –this isn’t Camp Perry, we don’t start at 7 o’clock.”  The response from at least three people was; “Well, we do – you’re late!”

I unloaded the electronics that I had taken home for an update and we finished setting up.  Sunrise was at 7:12 this morning;  and by 7:19 – we were ready to go.  We went back up to the “new” 100-yard firing line and sat around a bit to let the sun get a bit higher.  Everyone on the first relay was there (all eight targets were in use – no spare set aside for “oops”), so we went to the line and at 7:55 the first shot went downrange. 

No sooner had the offhand stage gotten under way but the clouds parted and the targets were bathed in brilliant sunlight.  One shooter commented; “The clouds parted, the sun came out and all that was missing was music… .”  Did I mention that it was about 60-degrees and absolutely no wind?  It was like shooting offhand in an air-conditioned field house with stage lighting!  Not even the grouchiest high power shooter could have asked for netter conditions.

Things went along very smoothly and we used block time to move along promptly.  The first 80-round match was finished by 9:30.  I had scheduled the second relay for 10:00, but by the time the first relay finished, all of the second relay shooters had arrived, so we went right back to the line.  Several shooters had signed up to shoot two relays, and after the first relay a couple more wanted in for two, so we ended up with one shooter sitting out the second relay – we ran out of slots for him to shoot in. (We could have pair fired on one target – but we decided not to do that.)

The second relay went along pretty well – one target went red and we managed to fat finger our system – but we put the spare server on line and had only a short interruption.  We finished the second 80-round match at 11 o’clock (before the very brisk winds came up) and everyone was done in plenty of time to spend the afternoon at home.

Let’s see – a great set of shooters who can’t wait to help, beautiful weather, two smooth matches … what more could a High Power Director ask for?  Now you see what I meant by “Living the dream” at the start.

FWRR Match Results

First                 Mark Walters             781-19X

Second            Mike King                    780-26X

Third               Mark Richard              779-27X

Fourth             Geoff Branson             766-27X

Statewide Match Standings

Here are the Hoosier Home Range Hundred individual shooter standings as of September 5, 2020 – but there are more matches to follow and things can change rapidly with these standings! (Remember, these are Service Rifle matches, so some Match Rifle scores have not counted for the standings.)

State Champion         Mike King                     FWRR                          782-28X

First High Master       Mark Richard            FWRR                          779-27X

First Master                Mark Walters             FWRR                          781-19X

First Expert                 Robert MacWilliams  St. Joseph                     775-14X

First Sharpshooter     Madelyn Schnelle       Wildcat Valley             740-14X

First Marksman          Joe Freiburger            FWRR                         718-8X          

The High Power Range (100, 200-300 yard) ranges will be closed on Saturday, September 5th (Saturday of Labor Day Weekend) for the Hoosier Home Range Hundred Match. This match should be over by 12:30 at which time the High Power ranges will reopen.

The Pistol Bays will remain open.

For information about this match, contact Larry Beardsley at FWRRHPDirector@aol.com. Come out and join us!

I wrote in the Newsletter that we had managed to have a good High Power season, but when you think things can’t get much better – they surprise you by getting even better! 

Saturday 8 August was a High Power shooter’s dream day.  The Director had confused everyone – including himself – by putting the wrong start time in all of the notices, but we managed to bring the first relay to the line by 8:20 and the day just improved from there.  It was very pleasant; low humidity, not too hot (warm – yes, but by no means broiling) and no wind.  If ever a shooter needed a day to get no-wind zeroes, Saturday was indeed that day.  The morning session finished up about 11:00 and we got the PM session started about 11:30, finishing around 2:30.

One of the unexpected benefits of our electronic targets has been the number of shooters who have chosen to shoot a re-entry match in the afternoon.  As one re-entry shooter commented; “If I don’t have to pull targets, I can just shoot all day”.

We had three guests show up from around Maumee, Ohio.  They had heard good things about us from a Lima Sabers shooter and they just took a road trip to check us out.  They were pleased with the appearance of the range and they gave us good marks on the targets.  There are a lot of places to go shoot on most Saturdays, and FWRR is getting noticed as one of the better places to be.  Thanks to all of you guys for making it that kind of place.

The quality of shooting matched the quality of the day.  Almost half of the shooters for the day posted Master scores, 752 or higher.

Results for the day were:

First:                Mark Richards                        775-29X

Second:           Carl Johnson               774-21X

Third:              Geoff Branson                        771-18X

On interesting note for the day, none of the top three shooters were the top shooter in any of the individual stages. Stage winners for the day were:

Offhand          Jeff Beierke                                         189-  4X

Sitting Rapid   Tim Plowman (Maumee, OH)       200-11X

Prone Rapid    Mike King                                          198-  6X

Prone Slow     Mike King                                            198-11X

The upset of the day was in Sitting Rapid.  Geoff Branson left the line in the morning with a Double Clean 200-9X, certainly an impressive accomplishment.  BUT, in the afternoon session, Tim Plowman – a visiting Distinguished Shooter from Maumee, Ohio Creedmored Geoff with another Double Clean – 200-11X.  Just what does a guy need to do to come out on top on a day like that?

Our Silver Mountain Targets worked well.  There was only one short outage and our Pit Sitters were right on top of it.  They did a quick power-on reset of the target and we went along with only about a 90-second interruption.  Dave Schnelle, the US Silver Mountain Representative had spent Thursday afternoon at our practice monitoring the targets for the “target went red” issue.  We are a very convenient test site for him since we are his closest mid-size user of this particular configuration.  We sat for a long time, and finally one target went red for us and Dave sent about 15-minutes of data back to the software developer up in Canada.  Hopefully we are a contributor to solving this problem that has pestered folks this summer.

Unless something unexpected happens, the next match will be the Hoosier Home Range Hundred Match on September 5^th.  Yeah, it’s Saturday of Labor Day weekend, but this will be a quick match that will get you off the range by about 12:00-noon and give you all the time you need to eat hot dogs with the family.  Details will be coming up soon.

For the rest of September, we will have the CMP Games Match on September 12^th.  I am planning this match as a chance for folks to shoot multiple re-entry matches; bring two or three guns and shoot all of them.  I have had questions about a Sniper Match.  If I can generate enough interest (about 10 shooters) I will put together a match that will be fun and challenging.

On the last Saturday of September, we hold the Leonard Johnson Memorial Team Match.  We shoot .22 rimfires at 200 yards on the SR-42 target and then move back to 300-yards and shoot center fire on the same target.  Watch for more details on this match as well.

 One last bit of information.

The FWRR Meeting on Tuesday August 18^th will be held at the FWRR Range at 7:00 P.M.

It WILL NOT be at the Trion Tavern at 7:30

Be well and be safe.

FWRR COVID-19 POLICY
24 July 2020

The recent announcement from Indiana Governor Holcomb requiring the wearing of face masks has resulted in several questions concerning masks and our next match on August 8th.

The applicable portion of the Governor’s announcement is:

“Face masks will be required in indoor public spaces, including commercial entities and transportation services, as well as outdoor public spaces where social distancing is not possible.”

The italics are mine.  Our rifle match is in an outdoor space where we are able to maintain a six-foot social distance at just about all times.  We have been observant of social distancing issues during all of our matches this year.  There some exceptions, such as during check-in when we need to be closer but as we have found at Thursday practices and previous matches, keeping six feet apart is not a difficult task.

I do not see this announcement as a requirement to wear a mask at all times.  But there are times when we need to be masked.  When we are setting up and putting away targets, we need masks.  We get closer than 6-feet working on the catwalk under the pit roof.

During check-in, Stat Office workers and shooters need to be masked while interacting.  Our shooting positions are more than 6-feet apart. With our eight target setup we are able to spread out a bit more on the line to gain a little more space.  A scorer is more than 6-feet from the shooter’s head; (I really don’t think a shooter’s feet are an infectious area.)

Other parts of the Governor’s announcement are:

Masks are not required to be worn:

• While participating in strenuous physical activity
• If you have a medical condition preventing you from wearing a mask

High Power shooting is a strenuous activity.  Fogging of safety eyewear from a mask makes wearing a mask while shooting impractical.  If you have a medical condition that makes you unable to wear a mask – make sure that you are extra vigilant in keeping an extended social distance from other shooters.  A personal attitude that; “The Governor can’t tell me to wear a mask” is mental condition, not a qualifying medical condition.

I am not going to make wearing a mask at all times a requirement to participate in the August 8th match, but I am going to ask that participants do wear a mask at times and under conditions when it is appropriate. 

If you want to wear a mask most of the time, fine.

And, our usual precautions:

If, within the previous two weeks, you know you have been exposed to anyone with COVID-19 or if you have tested positive for COVID-19 – STAY HOME!

If you have a fever, feel achy or just don’t feel well –STAY HOME!

If you have a cough, sore throat, if things just don’t taste right or if you are a little short of breath –STAY HOME!

And, of course, any and all of this could be changed by the next announcement from the Governor

Larry Beardsley

FWRR High Power Range Officer