Smithmoor December 22's

[jackrabbit]

Friends and Shooters, 12/11/2023



Our December 22 Winter Series match went off without a hitch on Saturday. We had a near full house and a great time. The weather was a bit tough, but it didn’t seem to bother the scores much. It was fairly cold with temps never really getting above the 30’s and the wind cranked at 20-30 mph most of the day. It did drop off to nothing towards the end of the match, however. Those that drew turkeys or rams last had some nice conditions. We did also have a brief blizzard. For about ten or fifteen minutes, it snowed like crazy and made it nearly impossible to see the targets. It was the horizontal type due to the wind and we all wondered for a bit how bad it was going to get. Then it blew through and cleared up. The poor unlucky group that had to shoot in it really suffered. With the short days and 6 relays, we don’t have time to wait it out so we just have to shoot through it. Luck of the draw I guess. Speaking of the short days, the December match is our shortest match day and we usually have really bad shadows in the morning and are racing to get done before dark. It didn’t get dark on us, but the shadows make shooting a good score a real challenge.



Coralee whipped up a big batch of ham and beans. The Farmer family donated the beans and Michael Rix donated the ham. Coralee’s ham and beans are just really good. There were a pile of goodies to go along with them, too. Bev Reed and Grace did a lot of the prep work and brought the food out, as well as made some apple crisp for desert. Thank you Bev and Grace! Dan Womer and Dick Hennebry brought delicious, fresh donuts for a morning snack. Ed and Beth brought some cherry desert and a bunch of peanut butter cup deserts that were great. About the biggest news of the day was Mark Pachares turned 60! He brought a bunch of cupcakes to share and we sang happy birthday to him. Thank you Mark, and Happy Birthday! Thank you to everyone that brought the great food, it was delicious.



This was my first match back shooting since getting sick and having the wreck. No matches for 4 months! I have not gone that long without shooting a match in many years. I didn’t ever even practice in the period either. To celebrate my getting back to shooting, I was a little selfish and picked the fifth station that I wanted to shoot, even though it is often not popular with the rest of the shooters. I put the Texas Star targets at about 75 yards and we shot them offhand. Shooters had a maximum of 15 shots to hit the 10 possible targets. The scores are reflected on the scoreboard by two numbers separated by a dash. The first is the number of targets they hit and the second is the number of shots it took. In AAA/AA/A class Danny Glick killed 6 in 13 shots to be 1st in his class, while Mark Pachares shot an excellent score of 10 in 12 shots to be the high overall. Good shooting fellas! I enjoyed it and hope everyone else did too.



We had some excitement in our AA/A class with a pure tie between Dick Hennebry with his iron sights and Tighe Moritz. The oldest shooter and the youngest shooter at the match had to go head to head on turkeys for a shootoff! Young Tighe was pretty worked up about the shootoff, but managed to keep his head together and smack all 5 turkeys to win the shootoff. Great Job Tighe!!



Joshua Tangeman came in first with a 29 to win AAA class this month. Good shooting Joshua! We had another tie in Master class this month with both Dad and Dick Farmer shooting solid 31’s. Even though it was late they elected to shoot if off. I suspect the little bit of smack talk may have helped encourage it. Gary Smith kept his concentration and prevailed in the shootoff. Good job!



Everyone in Grand Master class who did not have to shoot during the brief blizzard managed a 33 or 34. Talk about competition! Jack Odor and Steve Anderson both shot 34’s, but Jack had to take off so Steve was the Match Winner by reverse animal count. A 34 with 6 chickens in the tough conditions is something to be proud of. Great shooting Steve!



I was tickled to have three new shooters on Saturday. My friend Shawn Jenkins tried it out for the first time. He really wanted to just watch his first one, but I made him shoot and I thought he did remarkably well for both never having shot a match like this before and not having shot lots in general. He was a good sport and I hope he comes back. Our other new shooter was Jim Frauendiens. Jim shot really well for his first match. As I understand, he has shot a lot of archery in the past and was no stranger to match pressure and time management. He shot an excellent 28 and seemed to enjoy himself. Jim was a great addition to the group and hopefully we have him hooked. My boy Eli turned 10 this fall and has been wanting to shoot in a match. I have a Miroku low wall with MVA iron sights set up for him and he was really excited to shoot his first full match. He did, and his happiness and enthusiasm was contagious. He shot the offhand targets with a rest as he is still working on being able to hold the rifle offhand well enough to shoot in a match. I thought he did really well and I was proud of him. Good job Eli!



Coming up, we have the most exciting match of the year. The Kids Match!!! It is on December 30th and is for kids 15 and under. It was a ton of fun last year and we have even more enthusiasm this year. Let me know if you have someone you would like to shoot, you would like to help, or you would like to donate to it.



The crew has been shooting big bore at Smithmoor West on the normal third Saturday of the month all fall. They have lucked out and had some super weather. This coming Saturday the 16th looks promising for good weather and Michael Rix is planning a big bore match and everyone is welcome. I’m not sure I am up to shooting big bore yet as well as I need to take advantage of the decent weather and pregnancy check a bunch of cows, so I won’t be shooting, but it tickles me pink that the range is getting used and folks are having fun.



In January, Coralee and I have plans for two longer business trips, one of which will be over the 2nd Saturday. We are still working on a plan on when to have the match, but I promise we will get that resolved soon. We are planning on having two matches a month in both February and March, and of course the season finale is in April.



Take care my friends, and thank you all for the support and friendship.

Cody















Shooter Gong Chicken Pig Turkey Ram Total Place

Grand Master

Steve Anderson 10-14 6 10 10 8 34 MW

Jack Odor – 5 10 10 9 34 1st

Mark Pachares 10-12 6 10 9 8 33

Michael Rix – 4 10 7 8 29

Cody Smith (I) 10-13 5 10 8 10 33

Craig Wolf – 4 10 9 8 10 33

Dan Womer 4-15 4 10 9 10 33



Master

Doc Bement 7-15 2 9 10 9 30

Greg Bybee 8 2 10 9 6 27

Dick Farmer 0-11 2 10 9 10 31

JD Farmer 2-15 0 10 10 8 28

Michael Jackson 6-12 3 10 7 6 26

Joe Kapler 8-15 3 10 5 7 25

Tom Reed 1 6 10 4 9 29

Coralee Smith – 2 10 8 9 29

Gary Smith 3-14 3 10 10 8 31 1st

Jacob Wolf – 2 10 8 10 30



AAA

Emily Anderson 2 1 10 4 8 23

Phillip Dobkins 7 2 8 8 7 25

Ed Himelhoch (I) 5 2 10 10 6 28

Danny Glick 6-13 1 9 10 8 28

Joshua Tangeman 6-15 2 10 10 7 29 1st

Jim Frauendiens – 0 10 9 9 28



AA/A

Kindolyn Dobkins 3 1 3 7 4 15

Dick Hennebry – 0 10 9 7 26 move to AAA next match

Tighe Moritz 3-10 0 10 9 7 26 1st

Shawn Jenkins (I) 0 0 6 1 2 9

Eli Smith (I) 9-15 1 4 4 2 11 (offhand shot from the bench)