On Saturday 28 September we held the Leonard Johnson Memorial Match. Eight shooters in four teams participated on a day that threatened, but never delivered, rain. More importantly, there was no wind for most of the day – an important fact when you consider that shooting .22 rimfire at 200 yards can be like shooting .30 caliber at 1000 yards if there is any wind to speak of.
The Match Winners were the team of Larry Howell and Jim
Jackson with a team aggregate of 772-20X.
The .22 caliber rimfire winners were the team of Jerry and Doug Johnson
with a 386-10X. They also won the
Service Rifle 300 yard stage with a 381-8X.
Mark Walters and Jim Schieltz were the Match Rifle 300 yard winners with
a blistering 392-15X.
The electronic target project is moving forward fairly well.
Our target hardware has been ordered and we had planned to
pick up the equipment at the State Championship at Atterbury last weekend, but Silver
Mountain – the target vendor – found an issue with an upgrade. The issue did cause some delay in the State
Tournament and Dave Schnelle, the US representative for Silver Mountain decided
that the upgrade that he had incorporated in our equipment was not quite ready
for prime time. There is testing going
on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and we will go pick up our equipment when
the upgrade has been thoroughly checked out.
Meanwhile, we have been developing the frame that will hold
the target face and the electronics. The
frame has to be rigid for accuracy, it has to fit into our existing target
carriers and it has to be of a size that we can store in the target shed. Oh yes, it has to be as light as possible, make
the best use of material and be easy to duplicate. A typical engineering problem.
The first version didn’t make the cut for rigidity – it was taken apart and reused to make the second version. Version Two looked pretty good, so I took it out to the range and did fit checks with the target carrier and the target shed. It fits both places – no problems.
We have a set of sensor mounts coming to let us move forward with locating them on the frame, and we are ordering the Coroplast plastic sheeting for the actual target base and the target face material. (Of course it takes one thickness for the target base and another for the locating matrix and the actual target face.) If all goes well, we will have everything come together about the same time and we can start checking out how to run the system. I plan to have several evening sessions at the range to teach folks how to run the shooter and scorer interfaces on their SmartPhones, Tablets, IPads or whatever so we don’t have to learn the system at the same time we’re trying to shoot a match.
Update; 28 October
I’ve built the third version of a frame that solves a couple of issues with the second version. It is lighter, and it has more open space for target face indexing mounts. This one looks pretty good.
Target Frame with positioning brackets
And, with a target face holder in place
Then, to top things off, Mark Richard delivered the Silver Mountain Target hardware. Everything was in the boxes like we had ordered and now I’m trying to figure out how to run the software as a User, Admin and Ranger Officer.
Christmas in October!
I’m trying to get out to the range to check out how to mount the SOLO target unit, the antenna and how to run the cables around the frame to keep them as far from harm’s way as I can. Then, we calibrate the target face in the frame and we see how it works!
Sue Mogle Presents Mike King With State Champion Award
Topping off a summer in which he achieved Distinguished Rifleman status, Mike King closed out the competition season in Indiana by winning the Dan Ireland Trophy at the ISRPA State Championship 600-Yard Match at Camp Atterbury last Saturday with a 781-30X score. Since he won the match, he was also recognized as 1st High Master. A good friend of the club, Mark Richard, took 2nd High Master with a 767-24X and Mark Walters claimed 3rd Master with 773-14X. Geoff Branson scored 745-21X in the Master class as well.
Mark Richard with State Champion Aggregate Trophy
For 2019, Mark Richard won the State Aggregate Championship with a 2323-70 (2400 possible) aggregate across the three matches. Again, congratulations to Mark on perseverance and good shooting! Two good friends of the club also made impressive showings in the three match aggregate; Dave Schnelle posted a close 2313-63X and Bob Working claimed 2290 -61X.
The ISRPA High Power championship series consists of three State Championship Matches; 100 yard reduced, 200/300/600 reduced and the 600 yard across the course match. The competitor with the high aggregate across those three championship matches is declared the State Aggregate Champion.
Once again the weather man gave us an absolutely gorgeous day for a rifle match on Saturday, September 14th for the CMP Games/John Garand Match. The temperature was about 65 degrees when we started at 8:57 and at 11:47 when the last Cease Fire was called; it was about 75-degrees. The light was fantastic and there were no shadows on any target face during the match. What wind there was came in from the west at 12 o’clock and probably had zero value for most of the match.
Eighteen shooters came to the line, a good crowd considering the other shooting events happening across the state.
Medalists were:
Gold
Jeff Beierke M1 Garand 282-6X
Silver
Mike King 1903A3 Springfield 270-5X
Aaron Kohler Modern Military 282-1X
Bronze
Randy Jahn M1 Garand 261-1X
Jess Jessup M1 Garand 266-4X
Doug Johnson M1 Garand 262-1X
Jerry Johnson M1Garand 268-5X
High Slow Prone Aaron
Kohler 100-0X (Just try shooting a clean with zero X!)
High Rapid Prone Aaron
Kohler 97-1X
High Offhand Mike
King 93-3X
Out next match is the Leonard Johnson Memorial Team Match,
Saturday September 28th.
WHEN/ WHERE: September 14th, 2019. 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.
Schedule: Registration opens at 7:30. Registration closes at 8:30. Pits seal at 8:45. First shot at 9:00
Rules: Match will be conducted in accordance with
the 2019 CMP Games Rules
Courses of Fire: Garand, Springfield, Vintage
Military/Military Bolt, Modern Military and M1 Carbine will fire the John C.
Garand Course A; (30-rounds for record, up to 5 sighters).
Awards: CMP awards will be mailed to qualifying
shooters.
Miscellaneous: No food or drinks available at range. No tracer or incendiary ammunition
allowed. 5.56 and .30-06 Ammunition is available for
purchase at the match.
AR-15, M-1 Garand and Springfield 1903A3
rifles are available for shooters desiring to borrow a rifle for this match.
At the August meeting of the Club, it was decided that we
would buy a set of electronic targets for use on the High Power 200 and 300
yard range for our High Power matches.
These targets will also be used on the 100 yard range for informal open
shooting sessions.
The targets will be ready for use in the 2020 High Power
season and prior to that time we will have several “Beta Test” shooting
sessions to help us work out the bugs and to help us learn how to operate the
system.
Evaluations of different vendors are being made and a
decision will be brought to the Executive Board once the selection Committee
has finished their evaluation.
The Mike Gingher Memorial M-1A Match was shot on Saturday, 17 August. Six shooters came to the line , and we did something new and different for us, we scored this match in the pits, making it a two relay, one pit change match. The first shot went down range at 9:00 and we called the last Cease Fire at 11:16, a record for a short, sweet match. We were able to get off the line before the heat and humidity from the couple of light sprinkles set in for the afternoon.
In the wooden gun class, the top three were:
Mark Walters 444 – 6X
Jeff Beierke 412 – 2X (With a six-digit Springfield Garand!)
Mike Toscos 346-3X
Jess Jessup took the plastic gun class with a ‘scoped AR:
Jess Jessup 443 – 4X
I would like to thank the winners who donated their prize money to the electronic target fund and again to Glenna and Mike Grannis for their help in running the numbers and figuring out how to hand out prize money. The next match will be September 14th, the CMP Games Match. We will shoot this match from 200-yards in the CMP Games format and we have a category for just about any rifle you care to bring – Antique Military to Modern Sporter.
The Range at Harlan will be closed on Thursday, August 1st from 12:00 Noon until 5:00 P.M. The youth shooters from the X-Count organization will be using the range to see what it is like to shoot outdoors where wind, light, bugs and weather conditions effect their small-bore shooting.
X-Count is an Olympic Class training center for air-rifle competitors located near Speice on the north side of Ft. Wayne. For more information about them:
There were a lot of things going on last Staurday that
competed with folks coming to the Match.
I know that several of our fairly regular competitors had a match at
their home club, the State Cowboy Action Match was under way, the Three Rivers
Festival was an attraction, Doc had to go judge a horse show and Gary had
shoulder surgery. But – we still had an
even dozen folks show for the match.
We had just about as nice a day as you could ask in
mid-July. It was warm, but not punishing
(at least not until we were finished) and we had a wind from the west just
about all day. I want to thank everyone
for coming out. The match went very
smoothly with no issues or hiccups at either the firing line or in the pits..
We made awards on a different basis for this match, using
NRA classifications. Aggregate Class winners were:
High Master/Master: Mike
King 775 – 26X
Expert/Sharpshooter: Randy Jahn 749 – 14X
Marksman: Bruce
Bunting 665 – 4X
In the stage matches, results were:
Match 1 Offhand Jim Jackson 189 – 2X
Match 2 Sitting Jim Schieltz 199 – 12X
Match 3 Prone
Rapid Mike King 198 – 7X
Match 4 Prone Mike King 198 – 10X
Our next match will be August 17th – the THIRD
weekend – to miss conflict with the NRA High Power matches at Camp
Atterbury. This will be the Mike Gingher
M1A Memorial Match, shot from 300-yards in the M1A Match format. We will shoot in M1A and “Other rifle” classes,
so everyone is welcome with whatever rifle you choose to shoot.
What can be as lovely as a day in June? 200-yard rapid scores coming up.
Your three-minute Prep Period begins when your targets appear …
The Wailing Wall
Saturday could not have been a better day to hold a High Power Match, and in spite of things like the Fort Wayne Air Show, roofs that had to be laid, lawn work that was long overdue and coaching kids’ softball games – eighteen shooters showed up to enjoy the day.
Unlike our usual High Power days, the weather co-operated marvelously. A high, thin overcast kept things from getting too warm and the wind consistently stayed at our backs; from 6- o’clock to 7-o’clock all day. The first round went downrange at 8:55 – we actually started early.
As the Range Officer, I want to commend all the shooters for doing a fantastic job all day long. Everything went smoothly on the line – if we had been making a movie about how to run a match, you guys would have been perfect as examples. The pits ran just like someone had written a script. Targets came up and went down at exactly the right times, excesses and insufficients were called promptly and resolved immediately. Scorers kept track of exactly how many rounds the shooters fired. People moved from pits to line and back quickly and I called the last “Cease Fire – The Line Has Finished Early” at 1:55. That’s an 80-round Match in five hours!
Our Stat Office, Mike and Glenna Grannis kept all of the scores tallied as the match went on and the Wailing Wall was posted and money given out promptly.
And, we had a visitor of note shoot with us Saturday- we welcomed Pete Yarbro who came down from around the South Bend area to shoot with us. He is not a stranger to us – but it’s been a while since he made it down here. Pete has a number of national awards and it is always good to see him back at Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver.
Here is how things turned out:
Match 1: Offhand Jim Schieltz 194-3X (Lima Sabers)
Match 2: Sitting Rapid Mark Walters 200-5X (Double Clean – way to go Mark!)
Match 3: Prone Rapid Mike King 198-7X
The Prone Rapid fire stage turned out to be a bit of a scoring challenge. Two shooters, Mike King (our newest unofficial Distinguished Shooter) and John Halter (our newest Grand Senior) tied with 198-7X scores. We had to go back to the highest last string to break the tie, and Mike’s 100 clean topped John’s 98. But, John cleaned the first string and Mike had a 98 ….
Match 4: Prone Slow Mike King 198-7X
For the day – the Aggregate:
First: Jim Schieltz 784-18X
Second: Mike King 782-28X
Third: Mark Richard 769-18X (Welcome back Mark)
Watch for an announcement of a fun match on June 22. Our next High Power Match will be July 13, another 50/80 Match. Put it on your calendar and I hope to see you there.
300-Yards Looking Downrange. Look at all of the targets!
Mark Saturday, May 11th, as a day when the High Power shooters finally got a break from the weatherman! At 8:30 when we called shooters to the line for the safety briefing, it was clear and sunny! The temperature was a bit brisk, but what little wind there was came from the east and stayed at our backs for the entire match. If anyone had to put on more than minute or so of wind from their no-wind zero, I would be surprised. We had bright sun and some clouds during the day, but overall it was a good day to shoot.
Twenty one (21) shooters showed up for the match, the largest group since at least the 2017 season. Thanks to everyone who came out for the day. The first shot went downrange at 8:57 and the final “Cease Fire” was at 2:12. Again, congratulations to the shooters for a well disciplined and smooth running match.
At the end of the day, results were as follows:
Match Winner Mark Walters 778-25X
Match Second Joe Bakies 774-21X
Match Third Mike King 773-30X
Match 1 Winner, Offhand Mark Walters 188- 4X
Match 2 Winner, Sitting William Collins 199- 7X
Match 3 Winner, Prone Rapid Joe Bakies 199-10X
Match 4 Winner, Prone Slow Mike King 199-12X
Weather permitting, we will start Thursday High Power practice on Thursday, May 15th. Our next High Power match will be Saturday, June 8th. Maybe we’ll get another good weather day!
Well, this year’s Work Day was pretty well a wash out, so a group of us gathered today, Tuesday May 7th, to have a High Power Work morning. We started about 9:00 and managed to get a pretty good list of things accomplished:
Pasted up new full face MR-63 and SR targets on fresh backers. This gives us a good stock of targets to start off High Power season
Emptied all of the trash out of the ammo boxes and restocked them with fresh supplies
Hauled the three boxes of scrap cardboard down to the burn pile – and burned them
Borrowed a plastic pipe from target 1 in the high power pits to replace the broken pipe on target 6
Mowed the 200 and 300 yard firing points to their putting green like condition for Saturday’s Match
Put two plastic target backers up on the 200-yard practice range
Gave all of the weeds on the place a really good dose of weed killer; “Die weeds, die!”
The wet weather has really slowed everyone down in getting the range ready for the 2019 season, but we’re getting there a day at a time. Thanks to Mike Habel, Mark Richards, Jess Jessup, Mike and Glenna Grannis and Gary (Weed Killer) Walker for their help today.
Work Day was scheduled for Saturday, April 20th ‘way back in December – long before we could have had a weather forecast. It was a dark, cloudy, cold day and the High Power Director was accused of scheduling the event since it looked like the kind of day for a lot of the High Power matches last year. Let it be clear to everyone … it was not his fault (this time).
But, in spite of a steady drizzle and an occasional downpour, about 12 or 15 folks showed up to try to do what could be done under shelter.
Jim Sweeney and a crew worked in the Wiedeman building to get tractors and mowers ready for the summer.
Denny McNabb and the carpentry crew readied some new target supports. Denny also cut a lot of fresh 24 x 24 target backers out of the scrap cardboard that had accumulated.
A group including Gary Walker and Bruce Bunting spent time working in the pistol bays.
John Halter put on his rain gear and trimmed up brush and downed trees along the north property line.
Several folks helped Larry Beardsley hold a good cleanup in the Clubhouse. The pile of cardboard and trash in the corner had started to look like a paper recycling warehouse and had turned into a mouse condo. The windows and sills had become well speckled with spider poop. The rainy day gave us an opportunity to get a good Spring cleaning done in there.
Snuffling out the dead spiders, sawdust and gunk
No, we didn’t get any real outdoor work done, but we have stuff ready to be put in place when the weather breaks.
Denny cut a lot of 24 x 24 target backers and put them in the box by the door
Thanks to everyone who came out – I know I didn’t mention everyone by name – it’s just old age and failing memory, not any intent to ignore anyone.
Housekeeping Notes
These three boxes are the scrap cardboard and trash we cleaned out of the corner. We’ll burn them some dry day. We no longer have a dumpster, so take your trash home if you would, please. If not, put it in the cans on the covered firing lines. If the cans are full, take out the liner and put in a fresh one. We try to keep a new liner tied to the lid of the can. If not – there is a box of liners under the light switch in the Clubhouse. (Carry the old bag home with you, don’t leave it sitting for someone else).
Since we have plenty of cardboard to make new backers, if your backer is shot up – take it back home. Don’t stick it in the box “Just in case somebody else wants it”. That’s how we end up with a box of trash.
At the close of every stage of a high power match, we hold “Brass Call” when shooters pick up their spent cartridge cases. Policing up brass reduces litter on the range and also reduces projectile hazards when we cut grass on the range. Most high power shooters reload their brass and want to salvage as much of it as they can.
Casual shooters are not always as determined as high power shooters in finding their spent cases – especially if those cases are Berdan primed steel cases that cannot be reloaded or disposable aluminum pistol cases. During the High Power Clinic I noticed that we were starting to accumulate a lot of steel cases around the firing lines. I’m lazy, so I went to the hardware store and bought a floor magnet to help me pick up steel cases.
A couple of passes along the firing lines yielded a pretty good pile of cases. The great majority of the cases are 7.62 X 39 cases; probably from AK and SKS rifles.
We are also accumulating a real pile of .22 rimfire cases along the front edge of the concrete. A note to rimfire shooters; policing your brass does not mean kicking it off the front of the concrete into the grass or gravel. We will put a broom and dustpan out on the covered firing points by the clubhouse to assist you in gathering up loose cases rolling around on the deck.
And, since we no longer have a dumpster, please be mindful of your trash. Bring along a garbage bag to take it home. We will also try to keep trash can liners in the new white building to use in the cans on the covered firing points. Let’s take just an extra minute to keep our range clean.
After our episodes with four legged, two legged and four wheeled trespassers, the fence by the high power pits was improved and mended. We wanted to make sure that our easy access point had been secured, so we put a camera in a tree by the groundhog hotel.
We didn’t find any unwelcome trespassers, which is a good thing. But, we did find out that there is a lot of traffic in that corner. We recorded, mostly at night, several different skunks (who probably live in the groundhog hotel), possums, a small deer, numerous raccoons, a scroungy looking groundhog who has already started moving dirt, and a classy dude – maybe a Foxy Lady.
The Wailing Wall
