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 5th. 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 12th. 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 18th 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:
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
CMP 800-Point Aggregate High Power Match
Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club
WHEN/ WHERE: August 8th, 2020. Matches are held at the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club range located at 15715 Rupert Road; Harlan, IN 46743. GOOGLE Maps and GOOGLE earth show the range and local roads.
Competition Open to: Any person not prohibited by law from owning or using a firearm. Competitors need not be a member of the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club. All competitors must execute a notarized “Eligibility Affidavit and Liability Agreement” for the CMP.
COST: FWRR Non-members; $25.00; FWRR Members, $20.00. The match will be shot on Silver Mountain electronic targets. Shooters will need a Smart Phone, IPad or similar tablet to use as a display.
Schedule: Registration opens at 6:30. Registration closes at 7:30. Pits seal at 7:45. First shot at 8:00
Rules: Match will be conducted in accordance with the 2020 High Power Competition Rules, CMP Cup Match Events using either Service or Match rifles. See Rule 5.5 and Table 5 for details. Competitors are expected to be familiar with these rules.
Awards: Cash awards based on 33% of entry fees
Miscellaneous: No food or drinks available at range. No tracer or incendiary ammunition allowed.
For Additional Match Information: Contact FWRR High Power Director at fwrrhpdirector@aol.com
Governor’s Cup Match 18 July 2020; Camp Atterbury, IN
Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club shooters did very well for themselves and gave the Club reason to be proud of them in the Governor’s Cup Match at Camp Atterbury on Saturday.
Mike King, the reigning State High Power Champion, won the Gold Award with a score of 778-36X.
But, hot on his heels in second place, capturing the Silver Award only one point behind, was FWRR’s Mark Walters with a 777-24X.
Then, only slightly off the pace in 4th Place overall with a 768-13X was Mark Richard who took First High Master.
And, to finish out the FWRR domination of the match, Jeff Branson was ninth overall and took First Master award.
Congratulations to all of the guys and “Attaboys” for making us proud!
The week following the Independence Day weekend was brutally hot, just the kind of weather where High Power shooters put on heavy coats and go out and lay in the sun with their rifles. As the week went on, I had the feeling that even though there weren’t going to be National Matches at Camp Perry this year, the CMP had just sent us some Camp Perry weather to use at our local matches.
BUT – on Friday the oppressing heat and humidity broke and on Saturday morning for our CMP Home Range Appreciation Match we had a 69-degree morning. For the morning match we had several cancellations and no-shows and we were able to shoot the morning session as a single relay match. We had everyone there by 7:51 so we got started and were done by 9:40 – not bad for an 80-round match.
The afternoon (really late morning) match started at 11:38 when the last two shooters came over from their earlier pistol match and we finished that session at 2:32. The weather had warmed up a bit, but we had a nice breeze from the west that kept shooting conditions comfortable. Thanks to everyone who came out and participated.
Mike King took high shooter of the day honors with a 781-20X in his afternoon session (he shot the morning match with a 780-26X, but he only gets to be the high shooter for the day one time).
Jim Jackson had an excellent day as well, taking second place with a 770-27X including a clean 200-9X in Sitting Rapid at 200-yards. Congratulations Jim!
Geoff Branson closed out the top three this month with a 756-22X.
The match went very smoothly – in a large part because of the people working in places shooters never see. Marty Didion and Chip Seidel gave some of the best Pit Management (aka Pit Sitting) that anyone could ask for. As we went from the 200-yard line to the 300-yard line, those two guys had the target faces changed well before we ever got back to the 300-yard line. We had a couple of uh-oh’s with the targets, but they resolved them in literally a couple of minutes and we never had a match interruption all day.
Mike and Glenna Grannis worked at the National Matches for many years and they are giving us NM class Stat Office support. Glenna does registration and keeps me straight in regards to money. The money is always right!
Mike has discovered that if he sits on the porch of the new building, in the shade, his smart-phone will connect to the SMT Server, even when we are at the 200-yard line. He can see what every shooter is doing, call up data from the server’s archives and he can enter scores into the scoring spreadsheet in almost real time.
Thank You to all of you folks who help with the “busy work” and let me pay attention to running the matches!
Our next match will be on the second Saturday of August; August 8th. I will register it with the CMP as our second Home Range Appreciation Match – it is already an NRA Approved match.
Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club
Rifle and Pistol Range Mowing Schedule
Summer – 2020
Wednesday, July 8 Morning
Wednesday, July 22 Afternoon
Wednesday, August 5 Afternoon
Wednesday, August 19 Morning
Wednesday, September 2 Morning
Wednesday, September 16 Afternoon
Wednesday, September 30 Morning
Wednesday, October 14 Afternoon
Wednesday, October 28 Morning
Exact times are not known, depending on weather conditions and other considerations. If you would like to help with mowing (you get to learn how to run a BIG mower) contact Marty Didion, the mowing coordinator, at martindidion4@gmail.com
About a year ago when we were brainstorming ideas about the Silver Mountain Target electronic targets, one of the questions someone asked was; “Just how will these targets benefit members who are not High Power competitive shooters?
It was a valid question, so in the proposal I included electronic target Range Days that would be open to members and guests as well as a Deer Rifle Sight-In day. Our first Range Day in May was cancelled because of the WooHooFloo, so Saturday June 20th was our first opportunity to have open shooting on the electronic targets for members and guests.
Our High Power luck held out again and we had a nice day to shoot. It was hot, but not “pass out in your coat” hot. Ten shooters took advantage of the opportunity, about half High Power shooters and half members and guests.
The electronic target system worked flawlessly as we continue to work out issues and make fewer human errors. Everyone’s phone, tablet or iPad logged in with no issues and we had no target dropouts or interruptions. One guest shooter made the comment that the range at Roanoke needs to get one of these systems!
Thanks again to the people who help these events happen; Glenna, Mike, Marty and Aaron and Gary who stayed and helped us put things away.
Our next Range Day will be a Deer Rifle Sight-In on October 24th at 10:00. We will offer sight-in targets at 100, 200 and 300 yards. As an example, if you sight in at 200-yards, you can then shoot at 100 and 300-yards to get exact hold under/over for the other two distances.
Now – just a couple of stories:
About 9:30, Marty and I were going downrange to start setup. I was coming up on the ditch when a critter ran across the road in front of me – right to left. Rabbits, groundhogs, dogs and the occasional cat are pretty common visitors to the range, but this was a solid black, low slung, slinky critter that looked like it had a leash on its neck. It was gone in a flash, but after a second or so, I realized that I had seen a mink! Minks hang out along ditches where they find frogs, crayfish and other delicacies and they are really not uncommon – just reclusive.
But, what about the leash? It took another second or so and I realized that, of course, a mink would not have a leash. This mink had caught a small snake and was dragging it out of the woods. It just looked like it was trailing a leash. After he crossed the road, he dashed into the weeds and went back down into the ditch to enjoy his breakfast.
There is another critter story too.
Marty called my attention to a very strong, musky odor around the dirt pile down by the pits. Now we know that is a ground hog hotel, but this was a lot stronger odor than ground hog. After a bit, we both agreed it was definitely the smell of fox urine – the scent we use to cover our scent when we go deer hunting. We’ve seen foxes at the range several times, so we have a resident fox; maybe even a litter of fox kits; just something to keep an eye out for. Maybe the foxes will discourage the ground hogs!
50/80 Match
June 13, 2020
When I woke up about 2:30 on Saturday morning, I thought I was hearing a mouse gnawing on something in the ceiling. Then, as I got my wits about me, I realized it was worse than a mouse – that was rain pecking on the window.
Aw Poooh – why does it have to rain on High Power Match day?
I tossed and fretted until 5:30 and I got up and got my day started. I looked at the radar from several places and even though it was still raining, it looked like there was a good chance it would break up even if we had to delay an hour.
But, by the time I got to the donut shop at Harlan, the rain had stopped to the point it just needed an occasional swipe of the wipers to keep the windshield clear. By the time I got to the range –the rain had stopped and it looked like we would not get rained on. Mike and Glenna had already gotten the Stat Office set up started. We waited a bit to be sure the rain was gone and we went downhill to start setup.
As we get more familiar with electronic target setup, we are finding that four or five guys can set up an 8-target line in just about the time it would take for 8 pit-pigs to go down and setup cardboard backers, smear paste and put on paper centers.
When we started at 8:10, it was cool and cloudy. Jackets felt comfortable and that wind straight from 6:00 was cold on the back of your neck. One target decided to act up, but we quickly figured out a work-around and life just went on. The clouds broke up quickly and by the time Relays 1 and 2 went back to 300-yards, we had just about as beautiful a day to shoot as could be asked for. The light was absolutely fantastic, wind was light and almost constant and the temperature was “just right”. Relays 1 and 2 finished up at 10:49 – an 80 round match shot in less than three hours. Good work guys!
The afternoon went just as smoothly; the rookie Range Officer ended up setting up a pair of shooters to shoot on an MR-63 F-Class target because of his fat fingers on the master control display. But, at least the shooter doesn’t have the shot-out barrel he thought he had! Relays 3 and 4 shot their 80-round match in just under three-hours as well!
We had 23 shooters for the day out of 27 registered, with 4 shooters cancelling for last minute issues. We had some fantastic shooting, with many scores above 190 for the 20 shot stages. Joe Bakies took top spot for the day with a 790-26X, but his 199-12X at 300-prone took second place to Robert winding’s 199-15X. It was that kind of a day
Results are:
First Aggregate: Joe Bakies (Lima Sabers) 790-26X $ 71
Second Aggregate: Robert Winding 776-31X $ 51
Third Aggregate: Mike King (FWRR) 773-15X $ 28
High Offhand Joe Bakies 195-5X
High Sitting Mike King 198-5X
High Prone Rapid Geoff Branson 199-9X (Correction)
High Slow Prone Robert Winding 199-15X
Creedmore Joe Bakies 199-12X
One of the visiting shooters commented, “I haven’t been here for a couple of years. I forgot just how pretty this range is.”
Our next High Power activity is a Range Day for just fun shooting on the electronic targets on June 20th starting at 10:00.
The next 50/80 Match is July 11 – it starts at 8:00. Although I have not heard from the NRA, this may be the first NRA Approved Match of the season.
Steve Vinson has been elected as the 2020 President of the Allen County Practical Defense League (ACPDL).
His email address is: mail@vinsons.com