Smithmoor Spring Finale

[jackrabbit]

Fellow Shooters,

It's hard for me to believe that our 3rd winter 22 season here at Smithmoor is already over. Although I feel a tinge of sadness when thinking about the season being over, I feel better when I remember it will all start again in this coming November. We had some great matches this year and I don't think the season could have ended any better than it did with our Spring Championship yesterday. Coralee and I were very pleased with how it went and it appeared the shooters enjoyed themselves very much as well. I thought we had some very nice trophy buckles for the match and class winners, as well as 2nd and 3rd place plaques and a great selection of door prizes. Along with the plaques, a one ounce pure silver coin with an American buffalo on it was awarded to 2nd place, and a U.S. dollar coin was given along with the plaque for 3rd. Coralee kept track of the scores throughout the winter and baked one of her famous pies for the shooter that had the highest 4 scores in each class over the winter.

The day started out a little cool with the temperatures in the mid 30's. Our local head boy scout and brand inspector, Greg Bybee, started a fire for us in the stove and it felt nice. It was only an hour or so before the sun peeked out and the temperatures rose into the mid 70's. Jackets and coats were shed and folks quit hanging out around the fire! It ended up being a beautiful spring day. The weather forecasters had quite a bit of wind planned for us, and I think most of the shooters were on pins and needles just waiting for it to hit. Thankfully it held off until the match was mostly over. We did have to put magnets under the targets to hold them up during some of the shoot offs, but until then, there were just enough changing breezes to really keep your spotter on his toes and make for some challenging but manageable shooting conditions. With all of the severe weather we can have this time of year, I felt truly blessed to have had such a nice day.

We started our pre-shoot meeting at about 8:45, and after a discussion on safety, how the match was going to go, and a short patriotic story about war hero Joe Medicine Crow, we were shooting at a little after nine. Thanks to the excellent help of our two target setters, Ethan and Tucker, as well as our shooters getting on and off the line efficiently, we had the whole show including shoot-offs and awards wrapped up by 4:00. I thought it ran like a well oiled machine, thanks a bunch to everyone that helped make that happen! There were not too many events of note this match, although I had an embarrassing gun malfunction on the turkeys. After I had gotten my sights adjusted on the swinger, I went for score and everything went fine until about turkey #6. When I closed the action on my highwall, it started to just feel kind of funny. When I got to turkey #9, she finally gave it up. The action closed hard and the hammer wouldn't fall. Dangit! As I was wrestling with it, it finally went off and threw the bullet into the berm. My spotter, Jack Odor, said "let me see that." He snatched it from my hands, looked it over, turned it upside down and worked the action a couple of times. A very dirty and smashed up empty casing fell out onto the concrete! I don't know how it got in there or how long it had been there, but I was glad that's all that was wrong. I had enough time left I was able to hit my last turkey. I also managed to turn a chicken, which would have been no big deal except that it kept me from breaking our range record of 6. Jack Odor was spotting and said it spun clear around a couple of times. Arggg... We will get it next year.

I thought lunch was out of this world good! Coralee made pulled pork sandwiches, and Dad, by my request, brought a big roaster of his cowboy beans. They are one of my favorites. Bev Reed whipped up some her "secret berry desert." The ingredients may be a secret, but it was no secret people like it. At the awards, Jack Odor gave Bev one of the pink Smithmoor hats for her championship desert. Thank you to all the great cooks!

We did our door prizes a bit different this year. We had a table with all of the prizes on it, and we called shooters up starting with the lowest scores of the day and working up. Each shooter was able to choose what they wanted from the table. There were some nice things, including two 22 line boxes made and donated by Travis and Dawna of Cal-Graf, 22 bore snakes, hats, t-shirts, a brick of 22 match ammo donated by Robert Garibay, some re-usable score cards and clipboards, among other goodies. Our winter series winners were Gary Smith winning AA class and receiving a peach pie, master class, myself winning a cherry pie (yahooo!), and there was actually a tie in AAA class between Joe Kapler and Mark Pachares. With the exact same score and number of matches shot, we settled it with a coin toss. Mark prevailed and took home the apple pie, much to Joe's dismay.

Turkey Lotto, our fundraising game, was won by JD Farmer this month with turkey #7. JD and the range split the pot of $80. Thanks everyone for playing and raising a little money for range maintenance. We broke the shooters into two classes and gave a high award in each class for the paper target. No surprise two of our dedicated target rifle shooters won! Robert Garibay shot a super 237 to win a certificate and silver buffalo coin in the Master/AAA class, and Don McDowell shot a 230 with iron sights to win his certificate and silver buffalo coin. Good shooting fellas! For the last few years, Frontier Arms of Cheyenne has graciously donated to our match. This year they sponsored the high chicken award with a $100 gift certificate to their store. Frontier Arms is Cheyenne's oldest gun shop, and is the only locally owned, full service gun store. We sincerely appreciate their support! I had a good day shooting 6 chickens and was the recipient of the gift certificate.

Our high A class shooter was Brian Mallin with a 24. He has been steadily improving and this was his second AA score for the season. One more and he will be moving up! Brian won an engraved 22 line box donated by Travis and Dawna of Cal-Graf. 1st place AA class, winning a beautiful engraved belt buckle, was my Dad, Gary Smith. It was hard not to get choked up during the awards when I saw how pleased he was. Good Shooting Dad, I am proud of you! There was actually a tie for 2nd place AA between Greg Bybee and Dick Farmer, which had to be settled in a shoot off on rams. Greg was able to prevail, winning the 2nd place plaque and coin, leaving Dick with the 3rd place plaque and coin. The High AAA class engraved buckle was won by Kevin Finney with a 30. Kevin has worked hard to improve his shooting and we were all pleased to see him win. Yahoo! Good shooting Kevin! We had another tie for 2nd place in AAA class. This time it was three way tie between Travis Purdum, Robert Garibay, and Steve Anderson, all shooting 29's. We settled it with a turkey shoot-off, with Travis ending up with the 2nd place plaque and coin, and Robert edging out Steve for the 3rd place plaque and coin. This was Steve's first match with his new MVA scope and his 29 put him into the AAA class. Even though he lost the shoot-off, he was elated to have shot so well. I love to see the stiff competition and the shoot-offs, Great Shooting guys!

We had another tie for 1st place master class as well! Jack Odor and Michael Rix both shot good scores of 31. They had spotted for each other, so we had to a have volunteer come help them during the shoot-off. They settled it on chickens, and Jack was able to edge out Michael by one chicken to win the engraved High Master Class buckle. Michael then ended up 2nd, receiving a plaque and silver coin, and Dick Hennebry came in 3rd with a 30, receiving a plaque and coin. I had an excellent day shooting, and along with some super spotting from Jack Odor, I was able to shoot a 35 to be the overall match winner. The engraved buckle and memory of the day will always hold a special place in my heart. I could never have shot so well without all of the advice, encouragement, and support from all of our wonderful shooters and friends. Thank you to all that have helped and show up to shoot!
take care, Cody Smith

Please remember to give a big Thank You to our match sponsors Frontier Arms, Cal-Graf Design, and Robert Garibay, and to our 22 range sponsors Cal-Graf Design, Wyoming Sight Drifter, Bryan Youngberg, and Tom and Bev Reed! Thank you for all of your generosity and support!!!

Shooter Paper Chicken Turkey Ram Total Place
Master
Dick Hennebry 227 1 9 10 10 30 3rd
Kenny Wasserburger 233 2 10 9 8 29
Jim Rodebaugh 233 2 9 8 7 26
Michael Rix 229 4 10 10 7 31 2nd
Jack Odor 236 2 10 10 9 31 1st
Cody Smith 236 6 10 9 10 35 MW

AAA
Tom Wengh 232 0 9 10 6 25
Mark Pachares 221 2 10 9 4 25
Travis Purdum 236 0 10 10 9 29 2nd
Robert Garibay 237 1 10 8 10 29 3rd and High Master/AAA paper
Tom Reed 213 3 8 5 9 25
Coralee Smith 226 1 6 7 7 21
JD Farmer 232 1 8 8 9 26
Joe Kapler 218 1 9 6 8 24
Kevin Finney 235 1 10 10 9 30 1st
Steve Anderson 229 2 8 10 9 29

AA
Greg Bybee 212 2 7 8 7 24 2nd
Don McDowell 230 2 4 3 8 17 High A/AA paper
Jerry Zang 221 0 10 4 5 19
Mary Zang -- 2 7 4 8 21
Gary Smith 213 0 9 8 10 27 1st
Weston Rix -- 0 9 6 8 23
Dick Farmer 177 1 10 6 7 24 3rd

A
Carol McDowell 213 2 9 7 5 23
Brian Mallin 213 2 7 7 8 24 1st

[COBPTR]

Thanks Cody, Coralee and family!
You guys do it up right!

Robert G.