If you’ve RSVP’d for tonight’s match, make sure to bring your favorite beverage. We’ll shoot the usual 40 shots at 100 yards, followed by barbeque ribs, chicken, baked beans, cole slaw, corn on the cob, and corn bread.
The 2009 video to get you “primed”…
There is probably no subject that occupies shooters thoughts and conversations more than wind; it is the most common ground connecting all disciplines. While ammunition is of a particular high interest to the smallbore crowd, the wind is a concern in how it effects the bullet. For a pistol shooter the effect of the wind on the bullet is minimal and so the concern in this discipline is how to construct a position that can best withstand the gusts. Highpower people talk of barrel life but they have concerns about wind because off hand shooting at 200 yards combines both the smallbore and pistol concerns.
There have been many words written about the wind. Literary and historical references to the wind are just as common as theories about shooting in a quartering tailwind and just as entertaining. William Butler Yeats writes of the “Assault and battery of the wind” a subject with which all riflemen are familiar. William Blake penned the lines about conditions that all shooters fear, “the gentle wind does move, silently, invisibly…” James Dickey tells us a shooter’s truth, “The wind changes round, and I stir…” Had Dickey been a shooter the last words might have been followed with “ And I go to the sighter” or “And I click.”
The Wright brothers telegraphed home a report of a few lines from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on the 17th of December 1903 to their father, Bishop Milton Wright. It might just as well reflect a tough and well earned prone victory at Camp Perry, “Success…All against twenty-one mile wind.” Of a poor score one might repeat a line borrowed from Ernest Dowson by Margaret Mitchell when she titled her Civil War epoch, “Gone With The Wind.”
If you go into a match with your mind at loose ends and don’t keep track of the changes the Biblical injunction, “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.” shall certainly predict your fate.
But Stanley Kunitz best tells the battle with the wind and our cranking of the sights in his poem, “The Layers” where in he asks us …
“How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
The manic dust of my friends,
Those who fell along the way,
Bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn.”
In the end the final words on the wind and shooting come from a tale, perhaps apocryphal, related by an old gaffer from the hey days of the Springfield ’03 in the middle to late 1930s. The old man, then a young lad approached his firing point at Camp Perry for the first time, his heart as full of apprehension and his hands were with his rifle, ammunition, scope, scorebook, and O’Hare micrometer. An old leathery Marine was just arising from the prone position and gathering up his gear while the youngster was gathering up his courage.
The intensive instruction and practice during the week of Small Arms Firing School had prepared him for everything except the “Buck Fever” that effects all of us at one time or another. The wind flags were standing straight out and the lad was having trouble computing its value. He was fast approaching panic and his mind was going blank except for visions of countless “Maggie’s Drawers” being vigorously waved in front of his target by a highly amused pit crew.
In desperation he looked up into the hard face shaded by a battered campaign hat. “Sarge,” he squeaked, “I am new at this. How much wind should I take?”
The veteran’s blue eyes twinkled. The Marine Team sought blue-eyed shooters, as the Leatherneck coaches believed, as an article of faith, that blue eyes adjusted to light changes more readily than brown. The crows’ feet about his eyes deepened as his mouth slowly curved up into a smile. He cocked his head slightly as he thought for a moment and looked down into the expectant, nay, pleading, face of the youth.
Waving his free hand down range at the flags and the distant butts he kindly said, “Kid, take as much as you want, there’s plenty there.”
by Hap Rocketto
There is an old saying among smallbore shooters that there are two things that are not long for this world, dogs who chase cars and smallbore shooters who can’t get hold of a good lot of ammunition. Such is not the case for the highpower shooter. The fodder that is fed into the chamber of the rifle is the main difference between smallbore and centerfire, a situation that might be best illustrated by having both head to Camp Perry by air and along the way have their shooting kit disappear, without a trace, into the friendly skies, a not unlikely occurrence.
Full of disappointment, but with Commercial Row and unlimited funds at their disposal, each can re-equip themselves with the best of everything from the ground up, shooting mat to rifle to shooting hat. More importantly the high power shooter can buy a reloading press, dies, scale, and components to manufacture a cartridge that will shoot just as good as the ammunition that went missing. Right out of the reloading manual he can pick a number of loads that have been tried and proved true. The old standby .308/7.62mm load of a 168 grain hollow point boat tailed bullet ahead of 41.5 grains of IMR 4895 powder comes immediately to mind.
The smallbore rifleman, on the other hand, can buy the finest, most expensive, rimfire ammunition on the shelf and not be sure of its performance. Such is the fickle nature of the ammunition/barrel relationship for the smallbore community. Smallbore rifles are sensitive to ammunition. One man’s knot lot is barely fit to pot rats at the dump to another. It is not uncommon to hear that some prone shooters budget as much as $1,000 per year for just the test lots that they use in their nearly Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ammunition testing methodology. To a rimfire rifleman ammunition is not a matter of life or death, it is far more important: as illustrated by this little anecdote.
A prone smallbore shooter of independent means and questionable character had led a hedonistic life composed mainly of drinking, gambling, smoking, chasing women, and shooting, not necessarily in that order. At long last his dissolute ways caught up with him and in his last conscious moments he wondered what awaited him in the hereafter, not a pleasant thought when he considered his misspent days.
When he at last arrived at his final destination he was quite surprised to find that his particular corner of eternity contained a billiard table flat, well manicured and lush, greensward of a rifle range. The skies were blue, the breezes gentle, and the firing line covered. There was a match everyday, no entry fees, and a rich prize schedule. He found ample parking behind his assigned firing point next to the club house with its five star restaurant. Shops maintained by several well respected shooting supply houses occupied a street behind the statistical office. Just outside of the gate of the range was a well landscaped shooters’ sub division of very fine homes each with pool, patio, and a two car garage occupied by a sports car and a SUV suitable for the paraphernalia required of the shooting sports.
He took all of this in with a smug satisfaction of entitlement secure in the belief that he had beaten the odds and arrived in Heaven. After a gourmet meal in the club house dining room he sauntered into the first shop, cognac snifter in one hand and a hand rolled Cuban cigar with an inch of ash in the other. He was delighted, as would any parsimonious belly shooter be, to see a posted sign which read, “Help Yourself! All Equipment is Free!”
“I guess my licentious life style managed to slip under the radar” he thought to himself with undue pleasure. He then went about selecting a fine European target rifle with sights and a scope, a new mat, was measured for a shooting coat and custom ear plugs, grabbed an equipment bag and filled it with a sling, glove, hat, shooting sweater, windmill, loading block, scope and stand, timer, some small hand tools, and a few other items of interest.
With his swag in hand he made his way out to the firing line. Spreading out his new mat, he set up the scope, arranged the loading block and timer, slipped on his new sweater, donned his shooting coat, adjusted the sling, snapped it to the fore end block, squiggled into position and dry fired a few shots at the target hung down range. Satisfied with everything he lifted the top of the loading block. His hand recoiled from picking up a round when he noticed an unknown headstamp. Cautiously plucking the cartridge from the block to examine it he found, much to his disgust, that it was a high velocity 22 caliber Long with a 36 grain hollow point copper washed bullet.
With an exasperated sigh, things had been so perfect up to this moment; he undid his gear and got up to head back to the club house for some selected lots of his favorite ammunition. Turning away from the firing line he noticed, for the first time, a smiling man dressed all in red leaning on a pitchfork by the range tower
“Don’t mind me,” called over the man in red, his grin growing both wicked and wider, “And don’t bother going back for different ammunition, all we have is what is in your loading block. We get it in bulk and it is always the same lot. I guess that is the hell of it.”
For the smallbore shooter success is often in the minute details of ammunition selection and we all know that the Devil is in the details. As the man in red said, “That is the Hell of it.”
The results for the Canadian National Matches held in Calgary on August 12-21 can be downloaded here: 2011-canada-nationals_results (PDF, 102KB)
by Dennis Lindenbaum
Summer School 2011
(7/26/11, CAMP PERRY, OH) The Black Hawk Bagel Boys, the first and only team composed solely of Jewish riflemen to compete in the National Smallbore Rifle Prone Championships, poses on the line after their historic appearance. Randy Schwartz, Steve Rocketto, and Don Lerner stand while the kneeling Hap Rocketto, Larry Hoffman, and Dennis Lindenbaum display the logo on the back of the team’s shirts.
Each year for the last three I have given notice where I am dutifully employed that I will be gone for a week in late July. “Going on vacation?” “Yeah…sort of” “Where are you going?” “Ohio.” “Very funny. Where are you really going?” “Well, Lake Erie. It’s in Ohio”. “Oh. Have a good time.” And the person usually walks away feeling sorry for me for wasting a perfectly good week of vacation time. Turning back the person then asks, “You’re flying, right?” “No, driving. We have too much stuff we’re taking” and now they believe I have completely lost all my faculties.
For me the excitement begins to build the beginning of April when the online application for the National Championships makes its first appearance. Last year, I was 4th to register. Although hoping to improve, I had a much poorer showing this year when I was distracted by other activities during the first day of open registration and dropped to 14th. Little did I know that this was just a foreshadowing of events to come.
For those who have attended the National Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry in July-August, no explanation is needed and you can skip the rest of this paragraph. I have yet to meet someone who has attended only once. It is an infectious experience like no other and compels participants to put aside all good sense and return year after year. Individual and team matches each day for nearly a week in the discipline of your preference – pistol, smallbore, highpower, service rifle and more from distances of 25 yards to 1000 yards (10 meters if you shoot air rifle in the new state-of-the-art air gun range). The national matches have occurred almost uninterrupted for over 100 years making Camp Perry the Mecca for NRA shooting sports in this country.
While the shooting always presents an opportunity to compete against those at the highest levels of skill and talent, the competition essentially remains an individual journey to pursue one’s own goals and to push prior limits to new levels. What other sport offers the opportunity to compete side by side with national champions and Olympic medalists? Just imagine bringing your golf clubs to the U.S. Open or your cleats to the Super Bowl. The venue is also unlike any other – the vast open range with several hundred firing points; blustery winds off Lake Erie; ceasefires for lightning strikes, eagles on the course, or wave riders in the lake.
One immediately makes lifelong friends and these relationships are instantly rekindled each year when you see one another again. If you happen to be shooting well that week, alcohol intake needs to be managed effectively at the various social gatherings that occur each day after the matches are completed. If you’re not shooting so well, then the refreshments are a good diversion. Credit cards are tapped out at the oversized shooting supply kiosks that spring up for the month. All the needed and not-so-needed items we see in catalogs throughout the year are displayed by the vendors to entice us into debt. It’s Christmas in July. I decided to complete all my purchases this year right after check-in and just before the lightning strikes blacked out the range and shut down computer systems for several days putting a temporary end to all new purchases.
After check-in and final registration, squadding points and relay assignments are obtained. It’s then over to the range to scope out your firing point and determine where you will be huddled for the week Competitors arrive in various groups and affinities and literally set up base camp operations erecting tents and small dwellings of all shapes, sizes and colors. Many have signage indicating shooting clubs and organizations from home. River Bend Gun Club needs some signs because our club was very well represented during Smallbore Prone week when I attended. The group included Tommy Steadman, Jim Hinkle, Steve Hardin, Mark Skutle, Wayne Forshee, Vince Greiner and me. A few others had to cancel and I expect next year to see more members in attendance.
The following day is scheduled for a brief practice session in the afternoon, an opportunity to feel the ground and shake out your equipment. I find that my settings from home bear little resemblance to what is required at Perry. Spotting scope, rear-sight settings and mat placement all need tuning so it helps to shoot a few targets in practice. My firing point this year had a significant slant forward and to the side and really needed a front-end loader to make it comparable to the concrete slabs I know so well.
Because of poor weather the day before, events on practice day were pushed ahead to late in the afternoon. As I was on Relay Two, this meant that the daily afternoon weather system had a chance to re-deploy and, with more lightning in the area, a cancellation of practice for my relay. With total evacuation of the range, set-up for the match would be limited to the three minute preparation period at the start of individual competition the next morning. Those three minutes would go particularly fast and I learned to never again wait until the practice session to assess my assigned point.
The national smallbore rifle prone championships consist of two days of metallic sights, a day of team matches, and two days of any-sights. Five days that goes by in a blur with lots of bits and pieces in between. It’s hard enough to keep track of your own activities let alone those of others. As a result, I can only describe a few events that stood out for me. Each person has their own story to tell and I would suggest asking others to describe their experiences when you see them.
I had good results in 2010 and arrived with hopes and aspirations. I left the matches this year with many lessons learned and fewer hopes realized. The year of training and countless hours of practice to shoot well are necessary, but not at all sufficient. One has to pay attention to all the processes and details from start to finish. For example, I take some pride in never having crossfired on another target, something that is so surprisingly easy to do that precautions are taken at every match. A blank target paper is hung behind your target to detect such occurrences. Pretty simple unless you hang a backer on the back side of a piece of thin masonite instead of the front. This produces something similar to a large shotgun blast through the paper rendering it useless in doing its intended job. When this happens on the first target of the first match of the first day AND there is a crossfired shot on your target, you may incur a two-point penalty in a sport where much less defines success or next best. I am glad for the opportunity to never make that mistake again.
The scorers this year did a remarkable job marking my targets. That means I had no challenges to make after the scores were posted. To aid data entry, labels are carefully affixed to each target denoting competitor number, firing point, match, etc. This is the method required to match each individual to the shots he fires. Pretty routine and straightforward. So when you fire a clean 20 shot match at 100 yards on team day, you’re a bit confused when you get credit for 0 points instead of 200. Well, apparently dyslexia is not an accepted excuse in the NRA program guide even with a doctor’s note. For example, a competitor number of 5014 is not interchangeable with 5104. Close doesn’t count and I want to thank the NRA for giving me the opportunity to never transpose numbers again.
Going into the final day of competition, I somehow managed to find myself tied for the Intermediate Senior National Championship and had a “lock” for my fourth and final Distinguished Leg. Things were going exceedingly well and after 80 shots and no misses I was having a blast and feeling quite confident with just 40 to go at short range.
Parallax Adjustment and Head Position. This is the title of a seminar I plan to attend next month. Without it, shots can go places you’d wished they hadn’t. A few minutes that seemed like an unreal event happening to someone else yielded 11 nines, as good as a miss in a smallbore prone match, nearly the exact same number collected for the entire week. Although no leg points or pretty trophies were to be had, I am thankful for the science of optics and the opportunity to see things correctly in the future when I adjust my rifle scope.
Port Clinton provides opportunities to learn of new places to eat each year, this being my third. However, there is really only one place for ice cream. Nightly runs to Toft’s were the rule and the adolescent workers behind the counter were almost sad to see us leave after our last night. I am fortunate to have my wife, Barb, with me at most matches I attend and the week at Perry was no exception. She understands the Perry experience as well as anyone. It wouldn’t be the same or as good without her. She’s been right there for all the highs and lows from climbing the steps to the awards stage or picking me up after disappointment. We shared a condo on the lake with Linda and Tommy Steadman as well as Jim Hinkle. This was a great arrangement with first class accommodations providing ample opportunities to commiserate, hash out dinner choices, and plot strategies for each day.
In 2009, my memories were of everything being new and undiscovered. In 2010, I left with great excitement over my shooting accomplishments. This year I bring home a few lessons learned and many great personal experiences thanks to the great cast of characters that populate the Perry campus. With each year the class list expands. I can add my brothers from the Black Hawk Bagle (sic) Boys who shot the team matches for the first and last time and young Joe Nikiforakis from New Hampshire who so kindly asked me to shoot the Mentor Match with him. If you have read this far and have never been to Perry, you’re missing something special and owe it to yourself to go. To everyone else, I’ll see you next summer.
by Dennis Lindenbaum
Dog Days of August – Smallbore Metric State Championship
The Dog Days are the hottest of the year and August at RBGC is where you can find them. The name is derived from Sirius, the “Dog Star”, because it is closest in proximity to the sun and the hottest star in the constellation. The Georgia State Metric Prone championship was held on August 20th as a single day 1600 combining both metallic sights and scopes. The heat and humidity kept the competitor count low, but the 13 participants present managed the elements, the ever shifting mirage, and enjoyed a great match at RBGC.
River Bend’s own hottest and fastest rising star, Don Greene, had no difficulties throughout the match as he made a clean sweep of the conventional and metric state championships for 2011 and he accomplished this by shooting irons only the whole way. The match winner, however, was not determined until the final stage of the last match. The day began with the metallic sight 50 meter match and many-time champion Jim Hinkle led all shooters with a 391-16X followed by Dennis Lindenbaum and Don Greene with a pair of388’s. Although the Judge was leading the way out of the gate, this would prove to be his final shots for the day as he withdrew due to stitches ripping free from a recent surgical procedure to his right arm. There is never a shortage of excuses in a shooting competition. Don Greene won the first 100 yard match which followed with a 386-9X followed by Tommy Steadman and Dennis Lindenbaum with a pair of 379’s.
It was time to play catch up and the next 100 yard match was won by Dennis Lindenbaum with a 389-12X. Don fired a 386 and Tommy Steadman had a 384. By this time in the day, the mirage was running rampant, but in no single direction for very long. This left the final 50 meter match to determine the day’s outcome. With a 195 on the first stage, Dennis Lindenbaum tried to make it interesting, but it was too little too late. Dennis won the final match with a 384-7X followed by Mark Skutle and Don Greene with a pair of 383’s. Don Greene remained the most consistent of anyone throughout the entire match and his fine shooting was rewarded with the championship plaque fashioned by David Dye in the shape of Georgia.
Don Greene, Match Winner, was followed by Dennis Lindenbaum, Mark Skutle and Tommy Steadman. Mark was Senior Champion and Jimmy Holiday was Junior State Champion. First Marksman was Cor Vanderbeek.
Thanks go to Jim Hinkle who remained the CRO for the match and scored targets with David Dye. Tommy who served as Match Director and once again made the match happen. Special thanks to his daughter, Shelley, who ran the stat office brilliantly especially since this was her first solo gig. Thanks to Dave Rabin for range set-up and tear-down even though misalignment of the flags sent a few to the flag graveyard.
The next match at RBGC will be held on the weekend of September 17-18 and will be the Metric Regional 2400 with two-person team matches on Sunday, the final regional of the year. The weather should be perfect with early fall weather anticipated. We usually have participants from out of state and the AMU so the competition level should be keen at all levels. This is a fun weekend and everyone is encouraged to attend.
Complete results can be downloaded here: 2011-ga-metric-prone-champ (PDF, 25KB)
by Bob Loughridge
Venue Build. Progressing well and remains on schedule and in budget. Please see photos for images of R&P ranges;
· Finals Hall: All pilings in, trestles up and cladding of range body complete. Enclosure work to begin this week (photo shows range only, enclosure will double the height of the range roof to ensure sight lines)
· 25m: Roof on, side walls cladding up and walls to be completed in next 2 weeks
· 10/ 50m: Pilings and trestles complete, steel work ongoing for next 2 weeks and then cladding to be placed for walls
· Shotgun: Piling complete, including positions for the Shotnet. Shotnet manufacturer in position, material resolved. Digging of pits and structural work to start this week
· Pop outs: Manufacture on time and in sync with on site build.
Venue Overlay. Venue Operation Planning Cycle 2 is complete and no showstoppers or major concerns. Work remains to consolidate resources with Paralympic Archery for Games family rest areas and Back of House facilities. Transport load zones and security/ dirty versus clean parking balance to be fleshed out. Road closure orders being prepared for Council approval in line with planning permissions. This is ongoing and in liaison with MOD over management of their land inside the shotgun exclusion zone and hospital over ambulance routes. No change to existing plans and resources remain unchanged. Effort being put into arrangements around the spectator experience and central plaza, especially concerning display of information and results. FOP overlay and look and Feel is progressing; core colours purple, green and blue, orange for individual ranges.
Workforce. Recruitment of sport specific paid workforce and have already identified some top quality people; principally team leaders for athlete services, FOP co-ord, sports Info desk, armoury staff, and administration group. Volunteer recruitment ongoing and progressing well.
Sport Equipment. Shooting mat colour is now set at a royal blue, or indigo might be a more accurate description. It fits well with the intended colour of the floor in all ranges (purple). Range furniture colours for shotgun ongoing, looks like Green or Purple for the cartridge trays, gun racks and microphone stands, all will fit in with Look and Feel. You are fully aware of the shotnet colour issue; I confirm it will be plain dark green as originally proposed. Ear defenders for spectators has been signed off, 40,000 soft squidgy disposable ones scoped. The next batch of testing of clay targets now underway.
Technology. Timing and Scoring now going out to Sius Ascor (Omega) to complete signing of detailed contract.
Tickets. We are still looking at increasing capacity in the venue to cater for more. We await the recall of any unused ones from IOC member bodies for re-allocation. Otherwise sold out.
The Wilkes-Barre Prone 3200 will be held September 24-25 at the Wilkes-Barre Rifle and Pistol Club in Muhlenburg, PA. You can download the match program here: 2011_WB_REG_PRONE (PDF, 205KB)
from USA Shooting
USAS Announces 2011 Pan American Team
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (August 10, 2011)
Meet the men and women that will be representing the USA in Guadalajara, Mexico, from October 14 to 23 for the 2011 Pan American Games (also called Pan Am Games). The event features competition between athletes from the nations of the Americas. The Pan Am Games are held once every four years in the year prior to the Summer Olympic Games. They also hold importance because it is the last opportunity for countries to win 2012 Olympic participation quotas. USA Shooting is sending a team of talented rifle, pistol and shotgun athletes to participate on behalf of the red, white and blue. Athletes that finished with a gold medal at the recent USAS National Championships earned a spot on the team. The remaining athletes were chosen by a Pan Am Selection Committee.
The Pistol Team: Nick Mowrer (Butte, Mont.), Sergeant First Class Daryl Szarenski (Seale, Ala.), Will Brown (Twins Falls, Idaho), Emil Milev (Tampa, Fla.), Teresa Meyer (Dearborn, Mich.) and Petty Officer First Class Sandra Uptagrafft (Phenix City, Ala.).
The Rifle Team: Corporal Matt Rawlings (Wharton, Texas), Jonathan Hall (Carrollton, Ga.), Sergeant First Class Jason Parker (Columbus, Ga.), Matt Wallace (Fairbanks, Alaska), Staff Sergeant Michael McPhail (Darlington, Wisc.), Meghann K. Morrill (Boerne, Texas), Emily Caruso (Fairfield, Conn.) and Sarah Beard (Danville, Ind.).
The Shotgun Team: Kim Rhode (El Monte, Calif.), Sergeant Vincent Hancock (Eatonton, Ga.), Frank Thompson (Alliance, Neb.), Matt Gossett (Springville, Ala.), Kayle Browning (Wooster, Ark.), Miranda Wilder (Diana, Texas), Sergeant Jeffrey Holguin (Yorba Linda, Calif.), Sergeant Glenn Eller (Katy, Texas) and Jake Turner (Richland, Wash.).
by Hap Rocketto
When I was a young pup, fresh caught by the Connecticut National Guard Rifle Team, the very first match I shot with them was the Logan Trophy Match. This was a contest between the Connecticut and Massachusetts elements of the 43rd Infantry Brigade of the 26th “Yankee” Division. The prize was bragging rights for a year and a large handsome silver Revere Bowl donated by former Adjutant General of Massachusetts Major General Logan. The bowl featured prominently in the match as it was filled with a spirit rich punch at a banquet held the night before the shoot. It also became a tradition for the Connecticut Guard to spirit away the spirit ladle, while the Massachusetts Guardsmen tried to protect it, and return it to General Logan at the awards ceremony following the match. In all the years I was a participant we never failed in either winning possession of the ladle, or the trophy for that matter. All had a great time as the evening was filled with food, drink, song, and fellowship.
The next morning we dragged our stuffed bellies, sometime aching heads, and sore throats to the line to blast away with M-16A1 and 1911A1 Colt Automatic Pistols for glory and possession of the bowl. The first year we shot for the Logan trophy, 1973, the match was held at the Massachusetts Guard’s ranges at Camp Curtis Guild, pronounced Guile not Gild, which happens to be adjacent to the Reading Rifle and Revolver Club.
The facility dated back to the early part of the century and had boasted picturesque old wooden barracks and out buildings set amid groves of fragrant conifers. The range was unusual as it boasted a single firing line with pits running out to 600 yards. There was a tunnel that ran from behind the firing line to each one of the target butts allowing shooters to fire at various ranges and change pit crews without a cessation of fire. In the years between wars there was even a 1,000-yard range in operation.
It was the hub of service rifle shooting in New England and known through out the nation as the ranges at Wakefield. There were two great jewels in the range’s crown, the first being the annual United Service Matches that brought great shooters from all over to contest for awards prior to heading west to Camp Perry. The second was that the legendary United States Marine Teams of that golden era trained at Wakefield in preparation for the National Matches at Camp Perry. The Marines believed, apparently correctly if one notes their success rate, that the six or eight weeks they spent there in preparation helped them acclimate to Perry like weather while forging a well coordinated shooting machine.
It must have been quit a sight, dozens of olive drab and khaki clad men, campaign hats shading their tanned and leathery faces, bodies contorted into the classic shooting positions in front of coaches with long glasses on tripods, and targets moving up and down to the rhythm of the barking ‘03s. Behind the firing line team captains and coaches such as the likes of Merritt Edson, the only man ever authorized to wear both the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Marksman’s Badge, held court with legendary greats such as Calvin Lloyd, and Bill Whaling. Over volumes of notes they selected teams that would set both individual and team national records as they went about winning possession of the imposing “Dogs of War” Trophy.
At this historic range Creighton Audette once fired and won a match with a Reising Gun sponsored by the famed inventor himself. A young Art Jackson, not yet a world champion or Olympic medal winner and freshly returned from the war, shot center fire with Eleanor Dunn’s rifle at Wakefield. I once won an offhand service rifle match there with a score of 198-10X that was credited to the late Al Maloney in the newspaper write up. It didn’t bother me as I had the score in my book and the prize money in my wallet.
I truly wished that I had been more aware of the history of my sport when I first began shooting there. For all I know I might have slept in the same rack as Edson or Lloyd. I might well have dragged up some more historical sidelights that have been lost. Recently I received a letter from Mike LaRuffa who remembered me from the early 80s when his father was running the high power rifle matches at Reading. My brother Steve gave the then young junior advice about shooting with the military. Mike followed it to a fine shooting and military career that continues to this day.
Enclosed with his letter was a set of recent photos of the now abandoned range. I have not been at Guild in more years than I can remember and it was sad to see the vines climbing over the range tower and the tall grass concealing the entrance to the range tunnel. Yet, despite the distance of time and miles, it was not hard to imagine the shades of Marines, Guardsmen, and civilians of all eras carrying rifles-Winchester Model 70s, Remington 40Xs, Springfield 03s, M-1s, M-14s, and Colt M-16s-while mixing in a ghostly rifle tournament at the historic site. The range may appear to be neglected but its memory is well tended in the minds of those who have fired across the course there.
There was a nice article on thewesterlysun.com about Connecticut shooter Nicole Ladd. You can read the article online here.
Fairfax Rod and Gun Club will hold a Conventional Prone Smallbore Regional on September 3-4. You can download the match program here: 2011 prone virginia regional (PDF, 78KB)
The October Mountain Sharpshooters will host the 3rd Annual Berkshire Hills 3 Position Small Bore Rifle Championship on Sunday, October 23, 2011 at the Lenox Sportsmen Club on East New Lenox Road in Lenox, MA. You can download the match program here: Berkshire Hills Championship (PDF, 344KB)
Karl B. Kenyon, 1918 – 2011
Karl Beau Chene Kenyon, a resident of Ely, Nevada for 91 years, passed away in Sandy, Utah on Friday, July 29, 2011, at the age of 93. Karl was born on June 28, 1918, in Ely, Nevada to Douglas and Isabella Kenyon. On April 29, 1939, he married Zoe Anderson in Ely, Nevada. He served in the Army during WWII in both France and Belgium. Karl was an assayer and chemist for Kennecott in Ruth and McGill. Shortly after WWII, he developed his passion for guns into what would become a life long career in gunsmithing. He designed and built his own trigger for target rifles (known worldwide as the “Kenyon” trigger) and soon became one of the premier gunsmiths in the world.
Karl is survived by his children: Ronald E. (Ardath) Kenyon, Reginald D. (Alicia) Kenyon and Terry K. (Nickie) Kenyon; his brother Arien Wise; 20 grandchildren, 26 great grandchildren and 1 great great grandchild. He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Zoe, daughter Gayle Bronson, and brothers Doug Kenyon and Duke Hermansen.
Funeral services will be held on Friday, August 12, 2011, at 11:00 – 12:00 a.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Ely 1st Ward, 900 Ave. E, East Ely, Nevada. Viewing will take place from 10:00 to 10:45 a.m. at the church. Burial will be held at the Lund City Cemetery in Lund, Nevada at 2:30 p.m. following the services. Condolences can be sent to the family at: www.serenicare.com.
submitted by Joe Graf
The RI conventional prone regional/state championship is being held at Newport Rifle Club in Middletown, RI on Sunday September 11th. We are limited to 18 participants. When registering, please provide the following:
Name
NRA Outdoor Conventional Prone Classification (used to prepare awards schedule)
NRA ID (used to verify classification)
Preference for relay (will be honored if room left on relay)
Contact e-mail
Contact phone number
I will create a waiting list in case someone cancels last minute. If you cancel and I cannot contact someone to replace your reservation, you will be charged for the reservation. I will be squadding based on the order reservations are received.
The program can be downloaded here: ri-conv-prone (PDF, 57KB)
The 2011 Fall Selection/Champion of Champions match will be held at Ft Benning Georgia from September 24th through the 30th. You can download the complete match program here: 2011-fall-selection-program (PDF, 516 KB)
from USA Shooting
Olympic Team Trials for air rifle and air pistol will be held in two stages. The first match will be December 1-4 at the Anniston, Ala., Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) ranges and the second trial will be held February 23-26 at the Camp Perry, Ohio, CMP ranges. The Olympic selection will be the aggregate of the four match courses and two best finals. Competition program and match schedule will be available in early September.
USAS will be hosting a SCATT Clinic and Instruction Camp from September 9 to 11, 2011 in Colorado Springs. You can learn more about the event here.
The 2011 Connecticut 3 Position State Championships to be held on September 10 – 11 at Blue Trail Range. You can download the match program here: ct-state-3p-champ (PDF, 41KB)
submitted by Dennis Lindenbaum
River Bend Gun Club is once again proud to host this year’s Smallbore Metric State championships on August 20. This will be a one-day event with the first stage beginning promptly at 9:00 am on MP2. The course of fire will be a 1600 fired on the A50 and A33 international targets at 50 meters and 100 yards. The format for the day will be as follows:
Match 1 50 Meters Metallic Sight
Match 2 Dewar Metallic Sight
Match 3 100 Yards Any Sight
Match 4 Reverse Dewar Any Sight
Match 5 State Championship Grand Aggregate
This will be a great opportunity to vie for the final smallbore state championship of the year and to get better prepared for the Metric Regional Championships in September. In previous years, the state and regional championships were combined in one match over a single weekend. This year we will be able to hold two distinct championship events. The match is open to club members and the general public. Out-of-state shooters are always welcome, but the state championship trophy will be awarded to the leading Georgia resident. Please take note that the first two matches will be metallic sights and the last two matches will be any sights. No team matches this weekend.
You can download the complete match program here: 2011-ga-state-metric-champ (PDF, 56KB)
by Hap Rocketto
The winter had closed in and I was watching a bit more television than usual. A bowl of popcorn, balanced on my belly, gently rose and fell with my breathing as I peered over it at the screen. Idly flipping through the channels I was surprised to see a black and white movie. Even more intriguing was the sight of a man attaching a long tube to the muzzle of a revolver. I cranked up the volume a bit and began to pay attention.
It was a Hollywood crime story in the film noir genre popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These films’ plots usually revolved around a private detective involved with a lady of questionable virtue. The more notable classic of the type were directed by big names such as John Huston and Alfred Hitchcock and starred actors of the stature of Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Rita Hayworth, and Barbara Stanwyck. The Maltese Falcon, Laura, Key Largo, and Notorious come to mind. However, the one I was watching was an example of the B movies which were poorly imitative of the pulp fiction style of Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlow, Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, or Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.
The character on the screen was talking out of the side of his mouth to his fellow henchman as he screwed the tube onto the revolver. “With this silencer no one will hear this poor sap get it and the dumb flatfoot that comes to investigate won’t have a clue either ‘cause there won’t be no shell casing lying around.”
OK, it was only a B movie and suspension of belief is usually needed to swallow the plot but the gunsel was only speaking a half truth. True, the revolver would not eject any spent cases, as would a semiautomatic pistol, usually a Colt 1911 derivative which seemed to be the firearm of choice of a B movie criminal. However, silencers do not work on wheel guns.
Silencers, heavily regulated in the United States by the 1934 National Firearms Act, are a regular feature in spy and crime movies. The loud report from a firearm takes place in two parts. The first is caused by the rapid expansion of gases as the powder in the cartridge case burns. The second noise is that made by the projectile passing through the sound barrier, a miniature sonic boom if you will. The latter can be eliminated by using a sub sonic cartridge and limits the calibers available, .22 being the most popular, and the former by a silencer or suppressor.
A silencer is little more than an automobile muffler that works by trapping the powder gases at the muzzle of the firearm, allowing them to dissipate over a longer period of time. A tube with internal baffles creates a series of chambers which may be filled with metal mesh or steel wool and it called a “dry” suppressor. If the baffles are filled with a liquid or gel, which is more efficient, it is a “wet can” suppressor. An efficient silencer will almost completely eliminate the gas sound so that only the movement of the action is heard. In a pinch it has even been reported that a potato, the fabled “Irish Silencer,” can be stuck on the end of a firearm for a one shot field expedient. The firearm system must be closed to work and the gap between the cylinder and the barrel of a revolver cannot be sealed, thereby making a silencer on a revolver useless.
A silencer does, however, resemble a bloop tube. Used on target rifles to extend the sight radius, the barrel extension causes the report of the rifle to have a popping or hollow thumping sound. This sound, rather than the normal sharp report, gives the device its moniker.
Some bloop tubes are equipped with a tuner device. Part of the smallbore community believes a barrel can be tuned to give the smallest and roundest possible group by placing a movable weight on the barrel and sliding it back and forth in tiny increments, test firing at each move, until the sweet spot is found. This takes time and ammunition and for that reason tuners, although popular with the bench rest crowd, are not all that accepted with prone and position shooters. In order to determine the sweet spot location, and be able to return to it, most tuners have an index mark in the stationary mounting piece and a series of numbers inscribed on the revolving collar.
This fact reminded me an interesting and amusing situation involving Her Majesty’s Customs and Revenue Service and Lones Wigger. The British have some pretty Draconian firearms laws and tightly control the flow of firearms in and out of the country. Upon arriving for the 2009 Lord Earl Roberts Trophy Match we had registered our rifles with British customs and obtained the necessary permits. As we were leaving the serial numbers were again checked against the entry records.
Oddly enough, in light of the restrictive British firearms laws, silencers are legal and relatively easy to acquire in the realm. As our rifles were being examined for departure one of Her Majesty’s loyal servants was inspecting Wigger’s bloop tube/tuner equipped rifle. Not knowing at what he was looking, and with his curiosity aroused, the agent asked why the suppressor had a fiducial mark and the rotating adjustment bezel had numbers embossed upon it.
At this rather delicate moment in our departure, before Wigger could reply, a bold wag on the team loudly volunteered, “Oh, that is just to adjust the volume.”
We were all allowed to leave the country anyway. Or, maybe, that is why we were allowed to leave the country as quickly as we did.
