Saturday Activites at Dalton Range – All Matches Start at 8AM
| Date | Range | Match |
|---|---|---|
| April 21st | Dalton Range | Beginner’s Any Rifle |
| May 12th | Dalton Range | John C. Garand |
| May 26th | Dalton Range | Carbine |
| June 9th | Dalton Range | RimFire Sporter** |
| July 21st | Dalton Range | M1 Rattle Battle** |
| August 18th | Dalton Range | Bolt Gun |
| September 1st | Dalton Range | Garand Rules |
| October | Dalton Range | John C. Garand |
**These matches are tentative and could be replaced with other types of matches. See also swampworks for updates.
The match Saturday is listed as a “Club League Match”, which means you may shoot any rifle you want. Shooters using rifles conforming to John Garand match rules will be awarded medals based on the CMP’s percentages (see below). All other shooters will be lumped into a “match rifle” category. If there are more than 5 shooters in this category we’ll have prizes.
The Fun Shoot in February was a cold, somewhat snowy match. About 18 hardy souls came out to win the biggest prizes we ever give out. Events included trying to hit a $5 dollar bill, shooting an X for a dollar, and trying to find a $10 bill on the back side of a blank target. In total, we gave $140 in prizes, so there was some good shooting.
The classroom clinic on March 3 saw 25 of us squeeze into the garage area of the Dalton Range. Although the instructor occasionally forgot exactly where he was in the program, a bunch of folks got hands-on experience putting on a sling and reloading the M1 Garand from a clip, so, given that at least 6 new Sharpshooters were there, it was an amazing success. A big thank-you is due Steve Milholland, Steve Kemm, and Les Welch who were used as demonstration models for the correct way to build a position. I hear Speedo Swimsuits is knocking on their doors to offer a contract for further modeling.
The New Shooter match on March 10, a follow-on to the clinic, had 10 people who had never shot in an Osage Orange match before. That is an amazing success. Experienced shooters acted as coaches, and you guys must have done a good job, because most of the new folks joined the club. The top 3 scores were shot by AR-15 shooters (I hope on the right targets), with Nathan Averret taking top honors with a 459-8X. The next two shooters were Juniors from Joplin: Zach Painter with a 448-3X, and Ethan Carder with a 445-5X.
I hope we can continue to make new shooters feel welcome and continue to offer our knowledge and the loan of any equipment necessary to make any them comfortable in our club. I think we all remember what it is like to start out in this sport. It seems like the experienced shooters have an unending supply of equipment. No matter what little glitch happens during a match, a veteran pulls something out of his bag to take care of it. Well, with a new shooter, we must be ready to loan the whole bag. The club members have done a magnificent job, and I’m sure it will continue to be that way. New shooters are the life blood of our sport.
Speaking of score cards, we had some real problems with attention to detail at the New Shooters match. The score cards needed to be turned into the CMP and all information needed to be correctly filled in on the score card. Apparently many shooters didn’t hear the instructions to read the directions on the back and fill out the score cards correctly. My bad. We should have gone over score card procedures in the clinic, and I will be somewhat more forceful in my direction-giving next time we have a CMP-sanctioned match.
I got a phone call from Melissa at the CMP. She was nice, gentle, and accommodating, but some of her questions were most embarrassing. One, in particular, was, “do you run many EIC matches?” And of course, the point was that our scorecards looked like they had been done by 3rd graders. It took her most of an afternoon to record our scores because of the sloppy workmanship on our part. For each shooter she has assigned a CMP competitor number to be used in the future and verified names and addresses. Two shooters, however, will have their score cards returned because of egregious errors. Their scores will not show up on the official match bulletin of the CMP. We will do better next time.
Also, a number of people did not even turn in score cards, and this does nothing but hurt the club. The CMP allocates resources such as ammunition at a reduced cost based on shooter participation. I registered the match with the CMP indicating that 30-35 people would shoot, and that’s about what we had turn out, but only 26 turned in score cards. I am required to account, on paper, for the ammunition we bought at clinic prices and our use of it, and to the CMP it looks like I asked for 30% more ammunition than was needed.
OK folks, I’m starting to sound like a bureaucrat and paper pusher, and the whining is getting too loud even for my own ears. But I really need your help. We’re rather proud of our affiliation with CMP, and they have provided us some pretty good deals on rifles and ammunition. These deals get passed on directly to you. It is in our best interest to be model citizens in all our dealings with the CMP. We will try harder.
The Osage Orange Sharpshooters always have GI .30-06, .30 Carbine, and for the foreseeable future, .223 ammunition for sale at each match. Sales are from the back of my truck to minimize hauling large lots of ammo downrange and back. If you need ammo for a match, please make every effort to purchase it promptly at the beginning of the day while we are all still getting stuff out of our vehicles.
Membership in the Osage Orange Sharpshooters requires the filling out of two forms: a Membership Form and an Affidavit to waive liability. Both of these forms are on-line, and to get membership in the club you need only fill them out, have the affidavit notarized, and send them, along with the annual fee, to our Secretary (who’s name and address is on the membership form): Mike Thorn, 290 Nice Place Rd., Clever Missouri 65631. I highly recommend that you send a stamped, self-addressed envelope along with your check for $30. Mike is a hard-working guy serving in a volunteer position, and anything you can do to make his job easier and expedite processing is a good idea. If you don’t send an envelope, he normally brings your membership card to the next match. Sometimes Mike misses a match, sometimes a member misses a match, and sometimes members really just want membership in a CMP club without shooting matches (fair enough, that’s why we’re here). But if you really want your card mailed to you, enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope with the application for membership. It will get your card to you much faster.
I hope that I am right in saying that this year may see a record turnout of shooters for our matches. Efficient match procedures are important, because we have to be completely off the range by the stroke of noon.
In our matches, we usually run two relays, and membership in first or second relay is simply by self-identification or volunteering. We like to have people pair up so that each firing point has two people on it. The first relay will shoot the complete match from start to finish, and the second relay folks will act as score keepers and target pullers; the second relay will take care of going down range and replacing targets and scoring them while the first relay shoots. Then, once the first relay is finished with all 55 shots, the jobs will reverse. Of course, if you don’t pair up, you get to pull and score your own targets.
You can see how important it is to have all shooters on the line at the start of the match. First of all, each match begins with a safety briefing, and this briefing needs to be given no later than 8:15 if we are to begin and end on time. Shooters should be called to the line by 8:30, and the first sighting rounds should be going down range by 8:35. In the whole match operation there is perhaps 10 minutes of ‘slop time.’ In other words, it might be possible to start the match at 8:45 rather than 8:35 and still have adequate time assuming there are no problems or screw-ups. But please think seriously about this two-relay issue and ‘slop time.’ Usually two-thirds of our shooters shoot on the 1st relay, and the 2nd relay ends up being much smaller. Too, the 2nd relay is always being pressed for time as we are headed towards the noon deadline. Time wasted on the first relay costs the 2nd relay shooters. It’s as simple as that. So let’s try to do two things: first, make sure you are paired up with someone and your point has two shooters, that will make the match go more smoothly; second, let’s try to keep on track both before the match and during the match to ensure wise use of time.
The Conservation Department folks don’t generally get to the range until right before game time, so it doesn’t help to be an hour early, but you need to be there by 8am and get your stuff down to the range, buy any ammunition you need, and then take care of all necessary business, so we can get going by 8:15.
The safety briefing at 8:15 is an activity that I need to watch more closely. I have been using it as a general announcement time, and it should not be that. It should be only about the match and procedures. We have plenty of time after the shooting ends to talk about the future. My attention to detail here, and your attention at the safety briefing will ensure we don’t have another score-card-screw-up.
Each individual target costs the club approximately 50 cents. When a target has only 5 or 10 holes in it, pasters can be applied to the holes and the target re-used. This saves about 40 cents per target. Frankly, I think most of us could get by with 3 targets per match-one target to sight in, which can then be pasted up and used for standing, one target for slow prone, and one target for the two rapid fire stages. With 35 shooters, we could save $25-30 per match by economical use of pasters. There are exceptions, of course. Shooters using the AR-15 may want to sight in on the MR-31 target and then take a fresh one for the slow fire prone. And some people shoot such a tight group that the target is essentially unusable. It is because of these exceptions that we have never formally issued targets or charged fees, but I would ask everyone to please try to economize.
We’re re-doing the philosophy and fact of award giving in this year’s matches. In fact, it will be quite a bit different from the past couple of years. Although it was my intention to use the OOS classification system, it has become clear to me that some additional options exist for us. Specifically, the CMP has published achievement level scores on their web site, and these scores, along with the new medals they have promulgated, should allow us to fall into line with other clubs and the CMP on awards. I have converted the CMP’s scores to a 50 shot basis for our JCG, 03, and Vintage matches this year.
Members are welcome to shoot any firearm in our matches. Anyone firing a rifle that conforms to the typical CMP-sanctioned games matches (Garand, Carbine, Springfield, Vintage Bolt Rifle) will: 1) fire on the SR-1 target; 2) be considered for prizes. Members firing any other rifle (AR-15, match-conditioned M1) will: 1) fire on the correct NRA Highpower targets; 2) be considered for medals in our ‘match rifle’ category (although Lewis class flight-type prizes may be awarded). There must be at least 4 shooters in a given category to give an award. Every additional 4 shooters in a category will allow for an additional award in that category.
based on 30 shot matches for JCG, 03, and Vintage.
| Match | Gold | Sliver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| John C. Garand | 279+ | 272-278 | 261-271 |
| Springfield Rifle | 277+ | 268-276 | 257-267 |
| Vintage Military | 275+ | 266-274 | 250-265 |
| M1 Carbine | 352+ | 341-351 | 325-340 |
| RimFire Sporter T-Class | 578+ | 566-577 | 550-565 |
| RimFire Sporter O-Class | 557+ | 541-556 | 515-540 |
based on 50 shot matches for JCG, 03, and Vintage scores.
| Match | Gold | Sliver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| John C. Garand | 465+ | 453-464 | 435-454 |
| Springfield Rifle | 462+ | 447-461 | 428-446 |
| Vintage Military | 458+ | 443-457 | 417-442 |
| M1 Carbine | 352+ | 341-351 | 325-340 |
| RimFire Sporter T-Class | 578+ | 566-577 | 550-565 |
| RimFire Sporter O-Class | 557+ | 541-556 | 515-540 |
Steve Kemm has about 30 raffle tickets left for the M1 rifle. $5 gets you a 1% chance of winning, and that’s about a million times better than the Missouri Lottery.
Any questions?? Contact… Bill Corcoran (417) 862-861 or send me an email
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For those that shoot a lot of 4895 powder it has recently come to my attention that Jeff Bartlett at gibrass has pulled down milsurp 4895 powder back in stock. This may be the VERY last time this occurs. His price for this latest batch (last batch?) is $100 per 8 pound jug.
For those that are quick enough to jump on the deal, OOS Pres. Bill Corcoran says he has two 8 lb jugs of 4895 that he’ll let go for $90 each. First two customers are happy…..