November Smithmoor 22 Match

[jackrabbit]

Fellow Shooters!

What a great match we had yesterday! It is hard to imagine how the weather could have been any better. It was in the mid sixties with only a couple of mph winds all day. Several folks shot turkeys and never made a wind correction! That is pretty unusual around here, especially in November. We had 20 shooters make it out to enjoy a competitive match on such a nice day. We ran four relays on five targets, had two new shooters and one spectator, and two junior shooters. Everyone seemed to have a good time. If there was ever such thing as a successful match, I think this was it!

Our match winner this month was Michael Rix shooting a 34 with 5 chickens! WooHoo! Good shooting Michael! Also of note was Bryan Youngberg shooting one of his first matches with a scope on his beautiful Shiloh 22 and cleaning all the lay down targets and one chicken. Very impressive shooting! Mark Pachares' inaugural match with a liner in his Sharps rifle was a success. He shot a 31 with 4 chickens to win AAA class. Our local elementary school principal, Wes Woodward, came to shoot and see if this was something he was interested in doing. He used Coralee's rifle and scope to win AA class with a 26. He asked for help finding his own rifle after the match was over, so hopefully we have another addict. I can't tell you how much it pleases me the leader of our local education system is a gun owner and 2nd Amendment supporter, as well as being a super principal, leader, and mentor to the kids. Perhaps the most exciting news of the match was Michael Rix's son Weston getting to come and shoot. And shoot he did! He fired a 24 to win the A class. Talk about a fine young man and talented shooter! It will be fun watching Weston's shooting career progress. I am deeply honored that Michael chose our range for Weston's first match.

We had a couple of folks shoot modern class this month. Travis has a Ballard that Jimmie Sommerfield is working over for him in Texas. Until it is done, Travis and Ethan are shooting Travis's Winchester Model 52. It is actually a little tougher than it might sound as there are no marks on the sights to repeat sight settings and each click is tiny. Every animal change is like completely re-sighting in. Travis shot a very respectable 30 to win modern class. Ethan, Travis's son and our other junior shooter, also did well for only having shot a couple of matches. Roger Stearns shot a bolt action 22 with a modern scope just to see if this is something he might like to do. He seemed to enjoy himself, so hopefully he will be back. A lot of folks seem to enjoy shooting a paper target as part of the match. We have a steel gong that folks sight in on and then go for score on a 200 yard Wyoming Schuetzen Union German Ring target. We set the target at 100 yards and fire it after one shoots the pigs. It is interesting and challenging to shoot a good 10 shot 100 yard group in the middle of the target. Bryan Youngberg shot a very impressive 248 out of 250 to be high paper target this month, and Don McDowell shot a respectable 243 to be the 2nd Half Paper target winner. Good shooting both of you!

Coralee made homemade cinnamon roles, cornbread, and chili for the meal yesterday. She had problems with the oven not working correctly, but lunch still turned out pretty well. It looks like we need to go oven shopping...... We thought we had plenty for 20 or 25 people, but nearly everything was gone when the match was over. Hopefully everyone got enough, we will make sure there is more next time. We had several folks show up early to help get the range set up yesterday morning. That is very much appreciated, especially on our first match of the year. There is a lot to remember and get done on the morning of the match and I couldn't have done it without all the help. Also, Mark Pachares brought donuts for a morning snack with our coffee. Thanks a bunch Mark!

I appreciate all the folks that pitch in to help the new and younger shooters with advice, patients, equipment, and encouragement, and I know they appreciate it too. There is no wonder our sport and our range has had so much success.

Smithmoor's monthly big bore match will be next Saturday. Hopefully we have good weather. Show up around 8 and we will start shooting as soon as we have good light. The monthly match at Golden Gun Club in Watkins will be on the third of December, weather providing. We are planning a Peter Bergersen Historic Target Rifle Match on the Saturday after Thanksgiving here at Cody's shooting shed. It will be a fun, relaxed, and competitive match that I think a lot of folks would enjoy. Call or email me for any questions about that.

Until next time, be safe and hold center!
Cody Smith


Shooter Paper Chicken Pig Turkey Ram total place

Master Class
Michael Rix 243 5 10 10 9 34 MW
Cody Smith 244 6 10 8 8 32
Dick Hennebry 246 2 10 9 31

AAA
Coralee Smith 240 3 10 5 9 27
Mark Pachares 238 4 10 9 8 31 1st
JD Farmer 241 2 9 8 8 27
Bryan Youngberg 248 1 10 10 10 31 High Paper Target

AA
Ceph Jones 242 0 5 5 8 18
Don McDowell 243 1 9 8 6 24 High 2nd Half Paper
Steve Anderson 232 1 5 6 5 17
Wes Woodward 227 1 10 8 7 26 1st
Gary Smith 227 2 10 7 4 23
Greg Bybee 233 1 7 5 4 17

A
Jim Rodebaugh 222 1 7 4 3 15
Weston Rix 122 0 8 7 9 24 1st
Bryan Mallin 228 3 7 6 7 23
Mike Venard 244 1 5 6 6 18

Modern Class
Travis Purdum 241 2 10 10 8 30 1st
Ethan Purdum 232 0 6 7 1 14
Roger Stearns 160 1 7 7 3 18

[semtav]

Great turnout. Its nice to see someone doing so much to keep this sport alive !!

[jackrabbit]

Thank you, I appreciate the support and encouragement.

[SSShooter]

Cody - try moving the Scheutzen targets back to the ram line next time. It then becomes a bit of a challenge. We've shot two 200yd matches this year and have four more on the books for next season. Range record is 696/750 (we shoot 15-shots on each of two 25-ring targets). Great fun. Especially when the wind & mirage pick up. We have the red/black targets. Red is great for scope & black for open sights.

[jackrabbit]

We tried that a couple of matches and shooter feedback was poor. The biggest problem was it was near impossible to see the hits. Several decent shooters thought that things had gone well, but when they went down range to get their target, they didn't even have all their hits on paper. The younger or new shooters didn't have a chance. I wish I could find a way to make or affordable buy some shoot-n-see type targets. With those, 200 yard shooting would work well. If we could find that type of target, it would be fun to plan a whole mini-BPTR match.
thanks for the input, Cody

[choken]

Congratulations to Weston Rix on a phenomenal first time score of 24 ! I predict that this young man , with his father's tutelage, will be a force to be reckoned with !!! I know pop is proud and has every right to be !!!

[SSShooter]

We tried that a couple of matches and shooter feedback was poor. The biggest problem was it was near impossible to see the hits.

At our matches, folks with scopes fared better as they shot the red-side of the target and holes showed up better. The black side for irons was definitely more difficult. It is important to have a good spotting scope. At the first match, where the 696 was shot, it was windy/gusty and the mirage was terrible. Bullet holes drifted in and out of view depending the mirage, even with the best of scopes (88mm Kowa Prominar). It was a challenge. My 65mm Celestron Regal ED was the same. Puts heavy demands on your spotter. Good practice for the big-bore matches. We have also given some thought to a full-blown reduced Creedmoor (200, 225 & 250), but the difficulty of seeing hits makes that impractical on anything but days with excellent "seeing" (low mirage). But, that is a rarity at our range.

[Maj. Forrest Smith]

Wow, what a great turn out. Congratulations to everyone! What a fun place to shoot and great bunch of people to shoot with! Some really great scores too! Throw another log on the fire and keep it going, Cody!

If anyone is near there and wants to try .22 BPCRA, get yourself to the Smithmoor range!!!
They hold a great fun match! You will only be a stranger for about 2 minutes, then you will be greeted and be one of the gang before the match is over.