Smithmoor Jan 22's

[jackrabbit]

Friends and Shooters, 1/20/2024

Wow! What a match! I had a really enjoyable day and I hope everyone else did too. We came out of the deep freeze we had been having and had a relatively nice day for late January in Wyoming. Temps never got above the low 20’s, but the sun shined bright and the wind stayed really calm and steady. The conditions were actually quite good and I always kind of chuckle that scores are not higher than they are. We will have some plum crummy days and scores will be significantly higher than they were today. I don’t have an explanation.

Besides all of our regulars, I was really pleased to have two close friends that are shooters and had not been able to make it down for a while. Kenny Wasserburger and Lee Lane both made the trip from northern Wyoming this match. As usual, lunch was really good. A big boiler full of ham from Michael Rix and beans from the Farmer Brothers , fresh cornbread right out of the oven, and a pan of banana cake with icing from Momma Lorraine rounded out the menu. It was sure good. Dick Hennebry brought a box of delicious donuts for a morning snack. They were much appreciated, thanks Dick.

We had some really amazing shooting on our fifth station this month. Greg Tryon made some dinosaur cut outs for our kids match last month and I thought it would be fun to shoot them further out for our fifth station this month. We have six different dinosaurs that range from about pig sized to about chicken sized. They hang as swingers on a rack from smallest to biggest, left to right. I put them at about 120 yards and we shot them know your limits style. You had start on the right and hit them in order to the left. Each one is smaller than the last. If you miss, you must start back over on the right. The smallest one is teeny tiny at 120 yards! It looks like a spec and can barely be seen with the naked eye. I thought it would be a real trick to hit it, but once again our shooters proved me wrong. We had lots of people get all six. Great shooting everyone! I thought it was fun and hoped everyone else enjoyed it too.

I have to smile that our A and AA classes have gotten so small. We have lots of shooters, but many of them have improved and moved up. The other big reason for smiling is my two boys, Asa and Eli, are wanting to shoot in the matches. Of course they have been plinking and having fun for years, but are now interested in shooting the matches. Having Grandpa, Dad, and sons all shooting in the same match is pretty special. As most of you know, when you first start entering matches, it is a real challenge just trying to get to the line with what you need and get all your record shots off. They are really improving and I am sure we will be seeing their scores go up as they figure it out. Eli shot 6 this match and was our AA/A class winner. Good job Eli!

In AAA, Lee Lane shot really well and scored a 30 to be 1st place. Lee had not shot in a match in quite a while and was quite pleased to shoot so well. Great Shooting Lee! In Master class, the Farmer Brothers were tough competition for each other. Both of them cleaned the prone animals, but JD managed to shoot one more chicken than Dick and earned 1st place. Gooooood Job Fellas! Grand Master was a real horse race with lots of scores in the low 30’s. It came right down to the last animal to see who was going to end up on top. I shot turkeys last and was quite pleased to clean them and be 1st place.

And now the best news to come out of Smithmoor for sometime. For 10 years she has been organizing, cooking, setting up for and cleaning up after matches. She’s won her class here and at several other places several times. She’s even been National Champion Woman at the National 22 BPCRA matches, but until now she has never been the Match Winner at Smithmoor. The wait is over and we are all very proud of Coralee. She smoked out an awesome 34 with 5 chickens to be today’s Match Winner. Fantastic Job Coralee!

We are planning two 22 matches in February. One on the 10th and one on the 24th. The last several years we have held a two day offhand match in the middle of February, but it is not going to happen this year. Just not enough time and energy to properly plan and execute it. We are, however, going to have a muzzleloader shoot/match on the 17th. I threw that idea out there and had a surprising amount of interest. I’m not sure at the moment what all will be entailed, but I know we will have fun. Dig that ol’ muzzleloader out and come shoot it. If you don’t have one, come anyway. I’m sure there will be one to borrow and learn with. Also, Dad and Greg Tryon are planning a bottle cap match next Saturday the 27th. Please RSVP if anyone is interested in shooting it.

Take care everyone,
Cody





Shooter KYL Chicken Pig Turkey Ram Total Place
Grand Master
Steve Anderson 6 5 10 10 6 31
Jack Odor 6 3 10 10 10 33 Clean Prone
Mark Pachares 3 4 10 9 10 33
Michael Rix 6 5 10 8 9 32
Cody Smith (I) 6 6 10 10 8 34 1st
Grizz (I) – 2 106 7 25
Craig Wolf 6 3 10 10 10 33 Clean Prone

Master
Dick Farmer 6 1 10 10 10 31 Clean Prone
JD Farmer 4 2 10 10 10 32 1st Clean Prone
Joe Kapler 6 3 10 10 8 31
Tom Reed 6 3 10 8 8 29
Coralee Smith 6 5 10 9 10 34 MW!
Gary Smith 5 0 10 10 7 27
Kenny Wasserburger 6 2 10 7 9 28
Bryan Youngberg (I) – 0 10 9 4 25

AAA
Emily Anderson 4 1 10 8 8 27
Dick Hennebry (I) 4 1 10 9 6 26
Ed Himelhoch 1 0 9 9 6 24
Keith Kelly 4 1 10 8 7 26
Lee Lane – 1 10 9 10 30 1st
Katy Stephenson (I) – 1 10 8 7 26

AA/A
Asa Smith (I) 3 0 1 1 0 2
Eli Smith (I) 1 1(bench) 2 0 2 6 1st