Great Lakes Regional Ithaca, MI July 7,8,9

[John Bly]

The Great Lakes Regional is history. This is one of my favorite matches and I've been going for about 10 years. Something happened Friday night that put a pall on the match the rest of the weekend. A long time member and competitor, Sam Krawczyk passed away on Friday night. He was staying in the clubhouse and one of the other competitors got up around 3 AM to go to the bathroom and found Sam slouched unresponsive in a chair. Sam was a hard worker for the club and had largely built the covered pavilion himself with a little help. He was always looking for something to do to improve the range. He will be missed greatly by the club.

On to the results: Thursday was the 22 match and was shot in off and on rain showers. The iron sight winner was Jim Dietlein with a 34. 2nd was John Green with a 30, followed by Mark O'Malley with a 29. the Scope winner was John Bly with a 33. 2nd was Brad Ryan with a 31. 3rd was Steve Decker with a 31.

Friday was bright sun all day with killer mirage especially on the rams. It was hard to spot hits and misses with the sever shimmering. Scores were a little low because of this. Big bore results were: Iron 1st Jim Dietlein with a 29. 2nd Willie Pool 26. 3rd K Pearsey with a 26
Scope: 1st Ian Egbert 29, 2nd Brad Ryan 28, 3rd Mike Rouch 27.

Saturday was totally different with off and on showers all day with fog and the smoke did not move making shooting and spotting difficult. Ian Egbert hit a good draw on conditions and shot an amazing 35 in those conditions taking 1st place in scope followed by Dutch Grawmyer with a 32. A new young shooter Mike Rouch shot a 31 for 3rd. He was a AA shooter and was immediately moved up to AA class for the rest of the match.
Iron winners were: 1st Jim Dietlein 30, 2nd Greg Vest 24, 3rd Ed Cooksley 19

Sunday was sunny again with puffy white clouds with very light winds. Irons. 1st Greg Vest 30, 2nd Jim Dietlein 28, 3rd Willie Pool 27
Scope: 1st John Bly 29, 2nd Steve Decker 29, 3rd Brad Ryan 26

The 3 day Agg winners were: Irons 1st Jim Dietlein 87, 2nd Greg Vest 77, 3rd Willie Pool 72
Scope" 1st Ian Egbert 84, 2nd Mike Rouch 83, 3rd Brad Ryan 80

Overall it was a good weekend with good friends and tough competition. I was a good warm up for the NRA Nationals later this month in Friendship, IN.

[bobw]

Condolences on your friend and fellow club member, sounds like he went out where he wanted to be..bobw

[SSShooter]

Was a great match and the firing line cover is large enough that no one (other than the setters) got wet in Thrus & Sat rains.
That mirage on Friday sure made the rams interesting, as did the rain, smoke & fog on Sat and the wind on Sun. In Saturday's rain I could see the splash from the ricochet but could not see the hit on the ram. Wasn't much help to the shooter. Luck of the draw. No gimme's in this match.
Mike Rouch not only moved up from AA to AAA (courtesy of his master score), but was also the high chicken shooter. Think he'll be a factor at the BPCR Nationals at Friendship's NMLRA range later this month.
Four of us shot the "38-caliber challenge" side match, with a different winner each day. Brad Ryan ended up on top with the best agg at the end. Believe Brad won $1.
All ready looking forward to next year's match.

[ian45662]

Michael shot his 3rd master score on Friday so he would have been going up either way. It’s also worth mentioning that he was having some issues with his scope mounts. If they had been working properly I’m sure the outcome of this match would be a little different……. Onto the nationals!!!!

[John Bly]

I forgot to mention a few important scores. The high woman on Friday was Barb Walters with a 27. On Sat and Sunday it was Sandra Poole with a score of 26 each day.
The high Senoir in irons was Jim Dietlein each day with scores of 29, 30 and 28
The High Senior in scope on Friday was Brad Ryan with a 29, Saturday was Glenn Davis with a 27 and I won Sunday with a 29.

The firing line was marked off for 5 banks of animals and we only shot on 4 banks due to the attendance number. We shot next to Sam Krawzcyk on Friday and he complained we were crowding him. We told him we were in the lines and he told us not to use the lines. On Friday after all the shooting was over and before dark Sam laid off and painted new lines for 4 banks of animals. This is just how he was, always looking to make it simpler and easier for all. This was his last act as he had passed away by morning. RIP Sam.