2020 Montana NW Regional Championship Results

This is where you can place your scores from the matches. It uses an excel spread sheet! If you send me your sheet of scores I can put it on the forum and provide a link where everyone can view it.

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Del
Posts: 229
Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2015 10:29 am

2020 Montana NW Regional Championship Results

Post by Del »

Our NW Regional is over for the year and it went off without a hitch. We had 32 shooters total (29 Iron and 31 Scope) so our numbers were down about 20 shooters but with the year we are experiencing, I think we had a good turnout! We had two late cancellations due to health issues and three others due to Covid concerns. I was also kind of wishy-washy getting notifications out for the match as I wasn't sure it would actually go on. I would like to say that I appreciate those who attended and hope that they will return next year and bring a friend!

The weather was from a little cold to nice with just a bit of rain over Friday night but more on Saturday. The berms were fairly dark and we took a vote on Thursday and Friday what color of animals would be preferred and on Thursday, the vote was 3 to 1 for white. After shooting white on Thursday, the vote was 2 to 1 for black on Friday even though the berms were a little wet from the rain overnight. I hate shooting white with iron sights and I think lots of shooters decided the same thing on Friday. To me, white targets look about 1 1/2 times bigger than black and kind of blur out on the edges so there is no fine definition and I can't get a good sight picture even though when you look at them normally, they look brighter and clearer.

A small work team came in a couple days early and worked the berms over, filling in the holes behind the swingers. The gravel that was used was very light in color and when we turned the targets to white, the swingers totally disappeared. I made the decision to turn the swingers to black but leave the targets white. This helped a lot but it looked a little unconventional... This was only an issue on Thursday, however, as we shot black targets on Friday and we went back to white targets for Saturday and Sunday with Scopes. I made the decision to shoot white targets for Saturday and Sunday, with Scopes of course, which worked quite well.

Again this year, we had to reset our own targets for Iron Sights on Thursday and Friday due to our young target setters being back at school. They showed up for the weekend end, however, and it was sure nice to sit in the dry while the kids set the targets in the rain. At least for us, it was nice... The rain was gone by about 1:00 so when we had our potluck dinner at 5:00 it was pretty nice again. We didn't have a large amount of door prizes to give away this year but we did have enough for all of us to get at least one gift and most of us got two. The quilt that my wife and I give away each year was won by Jim Burrill. It was a pretty nice quilt worth about $1600 or so and was a nice prize. I wish my wife made rifles and we could give away one of those but we make quilts so that's what we can give... :)

The Missoula range is notoriously nice to shoot on as it sits in a small canyon, looks to the north, and normally has quite calm winds. It can be fickle, however, but if you want to shoot a nice score, the Missoula range is generally a good place to start. Many did struggle, however, with ups and downs and things that made it seem like you were shooting a three foot group rather than a three inch group. With the flags almost hanging straight down for both days over the weekend, things were pretty weird. I had a problem where I would drop 4 to 5 minutes in elevation in the first one or two animals on turkeys and rams. I am suspicious of a scope/gun problem but it was nonexistent on chickens and pigs...? For what should have been a completely calm day with zero wind calls, things sure were squirrely!

For Iron Sights, Thursday, Doug Gazaway shot the only master score the first day with a 31 for 1st overall but we had three shooters with a 30 that shot off for 2nd and 3rd overall. Jim Brannon (makes the moulds for Buffalo Arms), Dave Eichenlaub, and Dave Toavs shot off. Dave Eichenlaub won the shootout by simply hitting five chickens in a row!!! Way to shoot Dave!!! Dave Toavs came in third.

Still for Iron Sights, Friday was a pretty nice but kind of cool day having rained a small amount overnight. We had one master score shot again, which was myself shooting a 32 followed by Doug Gazaway shooting 30 for 2nd overall and John Fuller shooting a 29 and winning in a shootoff with three other shooters, Ed Tilton, Blair Svihra, and Brad Niemeyer.

The overall winners of the NW Regional Championship for Iron Sights were Doug Gazaway for 1st Overall with a two day aggregate of a 61, Ed Tilton was 2nd Overall with a 57 winning the shootout against three other shooters, and my son Brad was 3rd Overall with 57 taking 2nd place in the shootoff. In Master class, Darrell Smithson was 1st, Jim Brannon was 2nd, and I was 3rd. In AAA, Dave Toavs was 1st, John Fuller was 2nd, and Steve Hubbard was 3rd. In AA, Roy Sandord was 1st, Glenn Gipson was 2nd, and John Eder was 3rd. In A, Skip Steinmetz was 1st and in B, Dick Bernier took the honors. High Senior went to Darrell Smithson and high Super Senior went to Doug Gazaway

Saturday was kind of cold and rainy for the first part of the match but got better as the day went on. For Scope, Ed Tilton was 1st overall for the day with a 32 followed by Dave Eichenlaub winning a three way shootoff with John King and Dan Smrdel who each shot 31 for the day. John beat Dan for 3rd overall.

Sunday was the nicest day of the match with partly cloudy skies for most of the day and a lot more sunshine then the previous three days. For Scope again, Darrell Smithson shot a very nice 33 for 1st overall for the day followed by Dave Eichenlaub with 31 winning in a shootoff with Ritchie Tilton also with a 31 and ending up 3rd overall.

For the overall Winners of the NW Regional Championship for Scope, Dave Eichenlaub won 1st Overall with a nice two day aggregate of 62, Darrell Smithson won 2nd Overall with a 61, and Ritchie Tilton took 3rd Overall with a 60. 1st Master went to Dave Toavs with a 57, 2nd went to Doug Gazaway with a 53, and 3rd went to John King with a 51. For AAA, 1st went to Dan Smrdel with a 59, 2nd went to Ed Tilton with a 58, and 3rd went to Don Johnson with a 54. For AA, 1st went to Glenn Gipson with a 48, 2nd went to Skip Steinmetz with a 44, and 3rd went to Cliff Diffendaffer with a 39. For A, 1st went to Chris Steinmetz with a 44 and for B, 1st went to first time shooter Brad Sullivan. High Woman shooter went to Chris Steinmetz, High Senior went to Darrell Smithson, and High Super Senior went to Doug Gazaway.

I want to express my thanks first to my son Brad, who does all the score keeping and helps with setting up and taking down as well as making all the awards. Without him, the match would be considerably less well run. I also want to thank Ivan Dice who takes care of getting the paint and dealing with the targets as well as dealing with our target setters, getting them to the match, giving instructions, and getting them paid. Thanks to our young target setters. I also want to express my thanks to Toby Crisler and Cliff Mantha for doing the cooking for our potluck as well as setting up the barbeques. Also my thanks goes to Darrell Smithson and his crew for working on the berms. Thanks also to everyone who steps up and takes charge over the many small tasks that come up during the match such as calling the relays. And finally, thanks to the Hellgate Shooters Assoc. for allowing us to use the range and for keeping such a nice facility.

The final thanks goes to our friends who donated door prizes with no requests for solicitation. Not being sure if the match would go on, I didn't solicit for prizes but a number of our friends knew the match was actually going to happen and sent prizes in the last few days. Thanks to Schuetzen Powder Energetics, Inc. for 25 lbs of powder, Dave Gullo at Buffalo Arms for two bullet mould certificates, JC Gier at Montana Vintage Arms for a $250 gift certificate for their fine sights, Johnny and Amber Spratling of DGL Lube for a bunch of lube, John King for a bunch of veggie and poly wads, Shiloh Rifle for a Silver Smith Belt Buckle and T-shirt, Dave Swenson for a nice piece of Claro Walnut, and my wife, Judy Niemeyer of Quiltworx for the quilt.

Here's a link to the Scope Match Scores: http://www.mtbpcr.com/2020NWRegionalScopeScores.pdf
Here's a link to the Iron Match Scores: http://www.mtbpcr.com/2020NWRegionalIronScores.pdf
Fortune Favors the Bold...
Dan O
Posts: 737
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 3:05 pm
Location: Great Falls Montana

Re: 2020 Montana NW Regional Championship Results

Post by Dan O »

Thanks go to Del and Brad for working their butt off putting on a great match. Looking forward to next year.
DeadEye
Posts: 1061
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:38 pm
Location: The Flatlands of Canada

Re: 2020 Montana NW Regional Championship Results

Post by DeadEye »

Great write-up Del, almost like being there, almost. Maybe next year.

Paul
"My heroes have always been cowboys and they still are it seems."
Del
Posts: 229
Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2015 10:29 am

Re: 2020 Montana NW Regional Championship Results

Post by Del »

We sure do miss our Canadian friends. :( It will be great when the border opens up and the virus becomes manageable. Hope to see some of you make our match but I know that moving it to September affected most of your schedules. We are still putting on a good match and hope to see you shooting with us here and at the other matches as well!
Fortune Favors the Bold...
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