For not only for your information, but also for your reading pleasure, I should point out some important things about the shooters and the scores.
First, and this is an amazing story: It was as I recall the late spring of 2023 and I was at the Tucson Rifle Club doing ladder loads when this courteous man approached me and asked a few questions about his 45-70 Shiloh sharps. I glanced over at his truck, saw the New Hampshire license plate and connected the license plate and his accent. Over the summer and into the fall I convinced him to try a local silhouette .22 and big bore match. That set the hook. Eventually, and late in the game we discussed him shooting in the Desert International even though he had never fired any sort of paper target match. I loaned him a BACO mould, some 2F Swiss and Federal 150M primers and he went to work after getting a dead wind zero on his rifle. Kirk at Shiloh did some last-minute adjustments on the rifle, he finished load development and finished loading two days before leaving for Phoenix. The rest is history. Jim Fernald shot his first ever Black Powder Target Rifle Match at the Desert International January 2024. Check out his scores. If this "Rough Cut" Yank from New Hampshire can do it anyone reading here can do it also.
Then there is the saga of the dynamic duo from Georgia, Kevin Hurst and Doug Gazaway. As you can tell they both started out doing quite well until the night before the 800 yard event when their vehicle was broken in to and rifles were stolen. As you can see from their scores earlier on they were doing quite well and in spite of bad luck continued on. Hope to see them back in 2025 as they are truly fine gentlemen and competent competitors.
Curtis Stables from North Pole, Alaska, usually ships his ammo components to me and Curtis loads at night in a tent at Ben Avery between events. This year the U.S. Postal Service totally destroyed his shipment of cast bullets. Curtis, last minute, had to cast more bullets and ship them Postal Service proof from Alaska to me in Arizona. Curtis is also one of four volunteers that do target and pit preparations before and during the shooting and since our number one Pit Boss, Skip Burks, had a heart attack and would not be able attend. So Steve Farringer swung by Skip's in Illinois and picked up the target building materials. (Talked to Skip yesterday and he is doing well.) Of note, Steve Farringer had slipped on ice and injured his knee which could have reduced the target crew from four to one because I had partially torn five ligaments in my arm and was incapacitated to the extent I could not pick up a cup of coffee with that arm. Once I received the shipment from Alaska I loaded Curtis' match ammo here at home in Rio Rico because he would not have time to do that at Phoenix. Added to the problem we had to move target operations from the range to the carpenters building and we finished building targets about 5 PM the afternoon before the shooting started the following day. Fortunately, Chip Mate and Kevin Griggs stopped by to lend a hand at the Carpenters building. Even so, some target building/rebuilding still had to be done between shooting events.
And, the Grand Finale with Don Johnson and Blair Svihra starring in, "what to do, what to do when things turn to spit ?" I was spotting for Jon Viebrock for the duration of the Ironman Event. Immediately to our right was the Don and Blair show and since I was only spotting, not shooting, I had a full-time ring side seat. Everything was pretty much going as expected until the last event on the last day for Blair when disaster struck. Important to mention that Blair was pushing the envelope to win
both the Steve Rhoades 1000 yard World Championship AND the Dan Theodore Commemorative IRONMAN. Rifles to the line is called. Here comes Blair, rifle in hand and does his routine in preparation to shoot his last ten record shots from 1000 yards of his last relay on the last day of the Desert International without the aid of a spotter. Don just keeping score. Kaboom, his rifle speaks and the first sighter is on paper. Encouraged, Blair pops open the action on his rifle and only part of the cartridge case comes out. PANIC! Despite Herculean efforts the stuck case was not removed. Blair switched to his silhouette rifle, borrowed a scope from another rifle, had to remove the front sight from his silhouette rifle to see the target then commenced to shoot the overall Event winning score.
Not only did he win, he defeated the weather, mirage and wind, he overcame the fickle finger of fate all in one relay.
Never forget, but for Bill Loughrige, President of AZWINS, this event would not have happened. Remember to thank him when you see him.