Spring is struggling to give way to summer it seems with the shooting weather being on the cold and windy side. Should be better next week over at the Quigley Match as it is supposed to be in the high 90s on Friday. The weather here in western Montana has been struggling in the 40s to 50s with occasional 60s but with kind of rainy/windy weather on and off.
The Butte May match was quite cold with a lot of wind. Well below freezing at night. Saturday was worse with Sunday warming and reduced wind. Our numbers shooting has dropped considerably so the scores aren't being broke out by class or scope/iron... I did separate them somewhat but I'm not sure of all the classifications below the three master shooters. It's decayed down to sort of a "fun match" where everybody shoots scratch. Still a great range that will teach you more about shooting in the wind than any other range I have shot on. The Butte matches in the past have been described to me where there would be 50 to 60 shooters on the line with attendees driving in from California and Arizona for monthly matches. Sadly, it's a far cry from that today. It's also interesting that out of the 17 shooters (5 of which shot High Power) that there were only 2 iron sight shooters, me on both days and Austin Carter on Sunday. I always knew that I was in a class by myself but this is getting ridiculous!!
The Missoula May match was a little better weatherwise but you still needed some winter clothes and when the sun came out it sure felt good. Saturday was colder with Sunday being almost nice to start with, but then cooling off late morning again. Wind was fickle like normal for Missoula where it isn't a lot of wind normally but it varies across the range and with changes being just enough to put you off and the changes being almost too quick to follow. Separates the men from the boys sometimes! Also it was the first match this year for quite a few of the shooters so we were just getting our shooting legs stretched out again. We had 20 shooters out from as far away as Glendive, MT on the far eastern border of Montana and as far east as Spokane, WA on the west with shooters coming in from Bozeman, Kalispell, Anaconda, Hamilton, and Sandpoint. A nice turnout for our first match.
The Lonetree Buffler Match was held once again over the Memorial Day weekend. Weather was again kind of cold and windy. Our numbers were down this year somewhat with only 10 shooters making the trip. The price of fuel is nasty as we all know and with kind of nasty weather forecast some people chose to stay home. This match is a great early season match, however, where it gives you a good kick start on getting back into making wind calls at lots of different distances, from 250 yds out to 1060 yds. Wind was gusting to at least 25 mph occasionally making the long shots pretty difficult. It was kind of interesting where Jonathan Currey was shooting next to me, both shooting 45-90s, me shooting a 565 gr Gum bullet and Jonathan shooting a 540 gr BACO Creedmoor bullet. You aren't allowed to share sight information during the match and you have to make your own wind calls with the only feedback being where your shot hit. After we were done shooting Jonathan mentioned that for the 1060 yd target he had 12 minutes of wind on where I had 17 1/2 minutes on. My velocity is about 1290 fps, I'm not sure what Jonathan was getting. But it was interesting the difference in the amount of wind primarily based I think on the difference in bullet. His was probably somewhat faster so shorter time of flight as well as less of a side profile for the wind to push on. But my bullet has more mass which should make it harder to push. A Gum bullet is a design I got from Darrell Smithson that is slightly more streamlined than a government round nose which places the center of force on the Ogive closer to the center of gravity of the bullet which helps reduce the reaction of the bullet to wind pushing on the nose of the bullet. I have seen Darrell shoot this bullet at 1000 yard Creedmoor at Missoula and it was considerably less affected than my bullet (565 gr BACA Creedmoor) on that day anyway. He may have been pushing the bullet approaching 1350 fps or more. A chance to do some more test loads to figure that out!!
We had a good shoot with the newest Tilton shooter (Greg Tilton, Ritchie's son) taking home that traveling trophy. For the last 5 or six years the trophy has been won by either Ed or Ritchie Tilton as wells as other matches in the past (the names are engraved on the trophy) and it appears that Greg is going to keep up the family tradition. Ed wasn't able to shoot this year as his wife just had hip surgery and he stayed home to help her out so it may have been a little different outcome but Greg definitely was shooting in his own class outshooting the rest of us by 20% or more. If you are going to a gong match and the Tilton's show up, you better have your "A" game on if you want to compete! There is a separate one day match held on Monday where Jonathan Currey shot quite well this year and he got to take home that traveling trophy beating both Ritchie and Greg by two hits. Good shooting Jonathan!!!
We had our Saturday evening potluck with Bryan supplying the Lasagna and it was a good time with lots of visiting. A great match for the shooting (lots of sighting-in Saturday and Sunday mornings along with this year getting in 64 shots for score for Saturday and Sunday match as well as 32 shots for score on Monday (no sighters Monday, just a fouler shot)). I generally shoot up about 150 rounds for the weekend. Plenty of shooting, a great place to shoot, fun helping set up targets and takedown. A great match that we will repeat on Labor Day!!!
Butte May Monthly Match Scores:
http://www.mtbpcr.com/2022ButteMay.html
Missoula May Monthly Match Scores:
http://www.mtbpcr.com/2022MissoulaMay.html
Lonetree Memorial Day Match Scores:
http://www.mtbpcr.com/2022MemorialDayLonetree.html
Western Montana Scores
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Western Montana Scores
Fortune Favors the Bold...
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Re: Western Montana Scores
Thanks for posting Del. Great writeup, I enjoyed it. I hope to make it up that way to shoot one day.
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Re: Western Montana Scores
Strap a farm fuel tank in the back of your pickup and make the trip. Shooting the Montana State Match week after next. Quigley this weekend...
Fortune Favors the Bold...
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Re: Western Montana Scores
They let you run farm fuel in Montana?! If I get caught, I'll just tell them I know Del Niemeyer. Everybody knows Del.
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