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Smithmoor March 22's

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:33 pm
by jackrabbit
Fellow shooters, 3/13/2019
I love it when a plan comes together Hah hah hah hah! (Evil laugh) I want to apologize for the gloating I am about to do, but I was so pleased with our facilities and our shooters this past Saturday for our March Winters Series 22 match, I can't help it. As most of you are aware, we had a bit of a storm come through on Friday night. 0.65" of rain fell in just a couple of hours, and then it turned to snow and it left 3-4" over the range. On top of that bad news, we had 30-40 mph winds most of the day. One would think all of this would make for a bit of a miserable day at the range, but it turned out awesome! Our facilities and ideas on how to make a winter match successful worked very well. The wind was out of the northwest, so between the building facing east and the hay bales I piled on the north side for a wind break, there was very little wind felt on the firing line. The targets tended to blow down, but Dad adjusted the stops up so they all stayed up and we counted full bullet strikes as hits. We had the stove burning hot and Dad had purchased a new diesel fired radiant heater that worked super. You definitely wanted your coat, but we actually stayed quite comfortable. In fact, one kind of forgot how bad it was out until they went to set targets. Nobody messed around out there as they wanted to get back to the shed as quickly as possible!
The next bragging point is our shooters! Wow have we got some good ones! It constantly amazes me how well some of these guys can make a 22 shoot. There were several very good scores for a calm day, let alone a cold, windy, winter day with snow covered splotchy berms! Our Match Winner was Dick Hennebry with 5 chickens and all 30 lay down targets. Besides the match winner pin, Dick earned another clean prone pin. Dick has shot 6 clean prone matches here during the Smithmoor Winter matches, which is more than anyone else by far! I think Dick gets a new nickname, Mr. Clean! Good shooting Dick! I had to laugh as Dick was less than enthusiastic about shooting in the weather, but he had agreed to provide the reduced paper targets for our 5th station paper match. He told me he wouldn't have came if he hadn't have had to bring the targets, but he was sure glad he did! Just to squelch anybody reading this that may be doubting, 2-3 spotters all verified all of Dick's hits, and yes our range uses 22 BPCRA regulation targets purchased from Pam Crossno and they are all within specification for regulation distances. We are also getting a lot of questions regarding the equipment folks are using. We put out some slips for equipment lists and then drew from them to give away a Smithmoor Range hat and a Cats Shooting Sticks certificate. All of our shooters gladly complied and I will have the compiled results below.
I wanted to brag on Dick some this month for several reasons. Besides being a first rate rifleman and my very good friend, few have done more to promote the shooting sports than Dick. He has tirelessly put on matches for years, donated who knows how many prizes, and feely given advice and help to anyone that needed it. Thank you Dick for all of your help to me, being a great example for all of us to follow, and most of all for being a part of our matches.
The food was great as usual. Coralee made a big pot of elk, barley, and vegetable stew. Momma Lorraine made a big pan of peanut butter cake, Bev Reed sent down one her famous sour cream lemon cakes, and there was a big pan of brownies. I suspect the brownies came from Colorado, which makes me a little nervous. I can tell you they were quite popular! Thank you to whoever brought them, I think. Mark Pachares brought a couple of boxes of much appreciated donuts for a morning snack. A big thank you to everyone that helps with the food! It really helps make the match a hit.
As you may have read last month, Dick Hennebry sponsored our 5th station paper target for the last three winter matches, in addition to Cats Shooting Sticks and SPG Sales. It is really quite interesting as it is hopefully a bit of a teaser for matches Dick will be holding this summer at the Cheyenne Rifle and Pistol Club range. Dick is planning 22 BPTR midrange matches. They will be shot at 200 yards using the pits and reduced sized targets. We are using similar targets here at Smithmoor, but without the pits and at 100 yards with targets appropriately reduced. We allow 14 shots on paper with the best 10 counting and the other four serving as sighters. This month we shot the 300 yard reduced target and we again had some super scores. Coralee knocked one out of the park with a 100-4X to win the Cats Shooting Sticks gift certificate. Cole Sauer was hot on her heals with a 100-3X, as well as there were several other scores in the high 90's. Cole received a tin of SPG lube donated by SPG Sales. Caleb Sauer also did super with a 96-1X to win the 1st AA/A class paper award and a Pope Barrel's poster donated by SPG Sales. These were all shot in severe 30 mph winds! I know I have gotten several folks comment that shooting a 22 in the wind would have to be an exercise in futility, but as you can see it can be done very well! We are tracking the paper target scores each month and Dick has donated a nice prize for the high overall score for the three months (200,300, and 600 yard reduced targets), as well as Smithmoor has a few things for the next few places. It is a tight race and will end up coming right down to the wire!
As mentioned above, Dick Hennebry was our match winner with a 35, while Coralee was 1st master this month with a 34. She was really hoping for the big MW, but was edged out at the very end of the match. Greg Bybee was our first AAA with a 32. Greg has been working very hard at improving and it was fun to see him have some success. I bet we see him master class before long. He had been AA class for sometime, but shot a master score this month which immediately bumped him to AAA. We actually held a shoot off for high AAA with JD Farmer and Tom Reed while we were still calculating scores and before we noticed that Greg would be moving up. JD ended up prevailing and I guess we ended up holding the shoot off for 2nd place AAA. Oh well, shoot offs are always fun. Another one to keep an eye on is Bill Acklin. Bill shot his first match with legal equipment this month and shot a smoking 32 to be classified into master! Wow! I am not sure I have seen anyone do that before. He didn't even have sight settings before the match! Watch out everyone! High AA went to Caleb Sauer with a super 26 and 1st A/B class was Chase Sauer with a respectable 21. All three Sauer boys are super shooters and fine young men. Thank you boys for shooting with us and thank you to their folks for sharing.
Plans are coming together for our Winter Series Finale. The buckles are sponsored by a very generous Buckaroo Motors in Torrington Wyoming and the Cecil and Amber Sauer family. They are on order and promise to be very nice. A big Thank You goes to Buckaroo Motors! We have a variety of other nice prizes rounded up, and plans for the food are in the works. We reserve first opportunities to sign up for the match to those that have shot at least one of the winter series matches. We have 28 signed up, and the last 2 spots are open to anyone that may want them. Please contact us ASAP if anyone is interested.
Thank you especially to Buckaroo Motors, Cats Shooting Sticks and SPG Sales, as well as all who support and attend our matches.
take care, Cody


Shooter Paper Chicken Pig Turkey Ram total place
Grand Master
Cody Smith 97-3X 4 10 10 9 33

Master
Steve Anderson 10-2X 4 10 9 9 32
Dick Hennebry 95-1X 5 10 10 10 35 MW Clean Prone!!
Mark Pachares 96 5 10 7 8 30
Jim Rodebaugh 98-2X 3 10 8 10 31
Cecil Sauer 98-3X 2 10 8 6 26
Coralee Smith 100-4X 5 10 10 9 34 1st master and 1st paper
Gary Smith 97-1X 1 10 9 9 29
Bill Acklin 93-1X 5 10 7 10 32

AAA
JD Farmer -- 3 10 10 5 28
Tom Reed 90-1X 2 10 8 8 28
Cole Sauer 100-3X 1 10 6 8 25 2nd Paper
Jeff Woodring 97-2X 1 9 9 6 25
Greg Bybee 93-1X 4 10 9 9 32 1st AAA

AA
Dick Farmer 93 4 5 7 6 22
Caleb Sauer 96-1X 1 9 7 9 26 1st AA, 1st AA/A paper and High Jr.
Steve Ross 84 1 7 9 6 23

A/B
Keith Kelly -- 0 4 7 1 12
Chase Sauer 84 0 10 6 5 21 1st A/B

Equipment List
Cody Smith: Original Winchester high wall single trigger (1 lb) action with 27" Shilen ratchet rifled barrel, built by Michael Lewis. Baldwin front sight and MVA Schuetzen Soule rear. Lapua Midas ammunition

Steve Anderson: C.Sharps single set trigger lowall, 28" Shilen, MVA B5 scope and Lapua Center X ammo

Gary Smith: CPA Stevens 44 1/2 with 28" Shilen Ratchet rifled barrel, DZ Arms scope and Lapua Center X ammo

Greg Bybee: CPA Stevens 44 1/2 action with Crossno insert. DZ Arms scope and Lapua Center X ammo

Tom Reed: Original Stevens 44, MVA B5 scope and Eley ammo

Keith Kelly: DZ Arms Hepburn with 24" Shilen Ratchet Rifled barrel, MVA Scope and Aguila ammo

Bill Acklin: Browning 1885 Lowall with DZ Arms scope, 28" barrel, smithed by Lee Shave and Norma Match ammo

Jim Rodebaugh: CPA Stevens 44 1/2 with 28" Douglas barrel, DZ Arms scope and Eley Match ammo

JD Farmer: CPA Stevens 44 1/2 with 26" Douglas barrel, MVA scope and Lapua ammo

Dick Famer: CPA Stevens 44 1/2 with 26" Badger barrel, Shaver front sight, MVA Soule rear and Lapua ammo

Dick Hennebry: CPA Stevens 44 1/2 with 26" Shilen 6 groove barrel (not ratchet), DZ Arms scope and Lapua Center X ammo

Mark Pachares: Original Stevens 44 original barrel shortened and rechambered to 20" by Jim Rodebaugh, DZ Arms scope and Lapua Polar Biathalon ammo

Jeff Woodring: CPA Stevens 44 1/2 with 26" Shilen barrle, DZ Arms scope and Eley Match ammo

Cecil, Caleb, Cole, and Chase Sauer: Original Stevens 414 with 26" Shilen Ratchet rifled barrel smithed by Eron Ahmer of Sulphur Gulch Gunsmithing. Lapua Midas ammo

Coralee Smith: Original Stevens 414 with 26" Shilen Ratchet rifled barrel. Smithed by Dan Zimmerman of DZ Arms. MVA B5 scope. Lapua Center X ammo

Re: Smithmoor March 22's

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:02 pm
by stevewhr
Great write up Cody. Great elk barley soup Coralee!