Smithmoor Spring Championship

[jackrabbit]

Fellow Shooters,

I feel so blessed for everything to have gone so well yesterday! Reflecting on it, I can't think of how it could have possibly been any better. The weather turned out fantastic. Several days of really wet weather broke into a nearly windless, cool day. It was overcast most of the day, but target visibility remained good. We kept the fire going to warm up by, but it was nice enough that we shot off of the concrete pad in front of the building. Originally I had said I would limit the number of shooters to 20, but we had enough interest I went ahead and signed up 24. I was a little worried that 6 relays might be too many, but it turned out fine. Kimber Purdum, Ethan Purdum, and Cole Sauer volunteered to set targets for us and an excellent job they did do! Their fast target setting really kept the match moving along well and made it a lot more enjoyable for the shooters. Everyone generously put money in a can for them and the three of them greatly appreciated the generosity.

Our lunch turned out really good as well. Dad started the pig smoking a couple of days ago, and Coralee turned it into some super pulled pork sandwiches with baked beans. Mom made her super zucchini chocolate cake, Ceph Jones brought some great poppy seed cake, Tom Wengh brought some really good cookies, and Steve Anderson brought some chips to go with it. Judging by the lack of leftovers, I would say everyone thought it was pretty good. We were also surprised with a morning snack of fresh home made donuts Dawna made and brought over. Man, were they good!

Due to some donations by some generous folks, we were able to have some door prizes before our awards ceremony. Robert Garibay donated some really nice cleaning rods, and Marisa Moritz thoughtfully brought some packages of postcards with her art on them. They were very pretty. Along with a couple of cleaning kits I threw in, we had a nice selection of door prizes.

It was nice to see some excellent scores fired yesterday. The big surprise was our A class bunch! I don't know what got into them, but nearly all of them shot AAA scores. Of course, with having fired a score two classes above their own, many of them won't remain in A class. It is always fun to see folks shoot well, and even more fun to see the smiles on their faces from shooting a good score. Good job guys and gals!

As folks know that shoot with me, I love the chicken pool. For whatever reason, it is usually the highlight of the match for me watching the chicken scores and laughing and joking about who is going to win it. For our championship, I took part of the entries and created a super chicken pool with a 100 dollar bill going to the winner. It was looking pretty exciting as we had a multi-way tie with three Chickens. I was looking forward to a great big shoot off to settle it, but Cecil Sauer stepped to the plate with a borrowed rifle and knocked down four chickens to win. Good job Cecil!

Our A class winner ended up being Marisa Moritz after an exciting shoot off on turkeys to settle a tie with Ceph Jones. It came down to the wire with Ceph firing his final shot just as I called cease fire. Had it been a split second sooner, his hit would have created another tie and we would have had to gone to sudden death to have settled it. Good shooting Marisa! I am not sure I have ever heard of a tie in A class with two scores of 30. AA class winner went to a very pleased Jim Nonnemacher with a score of 29 and the AAA class winner was Robert Garibay, also with a score of 29. Our master class was very competitive with just one shot separating the top several shooters. Michael Jackson was able to edge out Bryan Youngberg by one shot for the overall match winner.

Our class winners, Marisa, Jim, Robert, and Bryan, each received a very nice walnut and maple 22 ammo box made by Travis and Dawna Purdum of Cal-Graf. Each was engraved with "Smithmoor Spring Championship" and their prospective class on it. Our overall match winner, super shooter Michael Jackson, received a custom range box also made by Travis and Dawna. It was made of maple and oak and also engraved on top with "Smithmoor Spring Championship Match Winner". The awards were quite beautiful and very much appreciated by the winners. I want to express a big thank you to Travis and Dawna for building our awards as well as all of the support they have expressed over this season.

This past season has truly been a pleasure shooting with so many good folks. The great times and memories that have been made are not replaceable. Thanks again to all that made this year such a success and I look forward to starting our winter season again in November.

Take care and hold center,
Cody L. Smith

291 County Rd 152
Carpenter, WY 82054
307-630-6816
307-649-2493


Shooter Chicken Pig Turkey Ram Total Place
Master
Cody Smith 3 10 8 9 30
Rick Moritz 3 10 10 8 31
Michael Jackson 3 10 10 10 MW
Bryan Youngberg 3 10 9 10 32 1st

AAA
Travis Purdum 0 8 10 6 24
Dick Hennebry 2 7 6 9 24
Robert Garibay 2 10 8 9 29 1st
JD Farmer 3 9 8 6 26
Joe Kepler 0 9 4 3 16

AA
Coralee Smith 0 2 5 9 16
Tom Wengh 0 8 7 6 21
Steve Anderson 2 5 9 8 24
Cecil Sauer 4 10 10 4 28
Hayden Farmer 0 8 8 7 23
Walt Farmer 0 4 3 7 14
Jim Nonnemacher 2 9 9 9 29 1st

A
Don McDowell 1 7 8 7 23
Carol McDowell 1 10 9 7 27
Gary Smith 1 9 9 8 27
Marisa Moritz 1 10 10 9 30 1st
Greg Bybee 3 9 9 7 28
Ceph Jones 0 10 10 10 30
Kevin Finney 0 7 8 5 20

[jackrabbit]

Son of a gun!! Somehow I missed posting Michael Rix's score and now I can't edit the post.

Michael Rix 0 9 7 9 25

Sorry!

[Jim Kidwell]

It sounds like you had a great Championship. Congrats.............
Great scores, too ..........................

[Woody]

Great write-up Cody. Thanks.

Woody