Saturday Activites at Dalton Range – All Matches Start at 8AM
| Date | Match |
|---|---|
| August 18th | Spfld and Vintage Bolt Gun |
| September 1st | Garand Rules |
| October 13th | John C. Garand |
Our upcoming bolt gun match will be a combined Springfield match and Vintage rifle match. Legal rifles will be turnbolt military rifles from WW II or before. Firing any variant of the Springfield (1903, 1903A3) or other .30-06 turnbolt U.S. military rifle (Model 1917) will get you into the Springfield category and free .30-06 ammunition, while firing a rifle made in a different country will put you in the foreign Vintage category, and you will provide your own ammunition. All ammunition issued for this match must be shot in the match.
We will run this as a 30 round match, plus unlimited sighters, which is what the CMP does at Camp Perry. The course of fire will be sighters, 10 rounds slow prone, 10 rounds rapid prone in 80 seconds, and 10 round standing slow fire. Finally, there will be no entry fee.
This match is registered with the CMP. Medal cutoffs for the 30 shot match are as follows:
| Award | Springfield Vintage | Military |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | 277+ | 275+ |
| Silver | 268-276 | 266-274 |
| Bronze | 257-269/td> | 250-265 |
We should have a bit of time left over after shooting, and that is a good thing because I have a financial proposal to be debated. I propose that the club spend $500 to send USO packages to soldiers overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. While we were at Camp Perry, the Post Office had a special deal running for this purpose. Some of our shooters went out and bought mailing labels on which we wrote our return addresses and email addresses, but I was never able to get back to the Post Office during working hours to purchase the packages. So I have 50 mailing labels ready to go, and I want everyone in the club a chance to voice an opinion as to whether you think this is a good expenditure of our treasury. Bring your ideas to the match.
Of course, if you want to use the extra time to shoot, go for it
The match on September 1 is called an ‘Any Rifle’ match because, well, you can shoot any rifle you want. Any rifle qualifying for CMP John Garand, Springfield, Carbine, or Vintage status will shoot according to John Garand rules, while all other rifles will shoot NRA highpower rules. In other words, we’ll do it the way we normally do it. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winner in each category (CMP or NRA), and we’ll have some Lewis class prizes too-that is, pre-determined places will get prizes.
The Carbine Match was a fair success. Our July meeting usually has the smallest turnout of any, and the 19 shooters we had for the Carbine Match was pretty typical. A gold medal was earned by Mike Thorn with a 358, while and Jerry Patten earned a bronze medal with a 328. That’s the lowest number of medals we’ve ever given and illustrates how hard it is to shoot the carbine well.
The match bulletin was sent out email, but if you didn’t get a copy, let me know and I can provide you one either email or on paper.
Each year about a dozen or so Osage Orange Sharpshooters attend the National Trophy Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio. The matches are open to anyone, and it is an experience that all shooters with any interest in competitive shooting should try at least once in their life. We stay in prisoner of war huts left over from 1942, and for some matches we are on the range for 12 hours, although most matches are much quicker than that. This year’s contingent of 10 people included (in no particular order except by hut allocation): Bill Corcoran, Les Welch, Jerry Patten, Alex Belt, Jim Laatsch, Stan Dulin, Bill Baldwin, Gene Spears, Beth Spears, and Pat Worley. Ed Bowles showed up for two days towards the end, but he and his wife Laura stayed in a motel.
At 7:15 the cannon fires and the PA system announces attention to colors. For a couple of minutes the tune and words from the Star Spangled Banner remind you just how lucky you are to be living in the greatest country on earth. With goose bumps on the back of your neck and pride in your heart you begin the day’s work, attempting to shoot well enough to win a little trinket to take home and show the family. Sometimes you win, and mostly you don’t. A big, important match is usually the most difficult place to shoot well, and Camp Perry makes it even more difficult by placing relatively rigorous physical demands on the shooter. Anyone winning a medal in any of these matches has produced a job well done.
Technically speaking, the first big match of the week is shot on Sunday as the conclusion of the Small Arms Firing School. Registrants fire M-16 rifles in a 40 shot course of fire and may win 4 points towards the Distinguished Rifleman’s Badge. Although various Sharpshooters have in the past won points in this match, none of our members shot it this year.
The real shooting week started with the President’s Match on Monday, a 30 shot match (no sighters) consisting of 10 shots standing at 200 yards, 10 shots rapid prone at 300 yards, and 10 shots slow prone at 600 yards. This year’s match included an additional shootoff for the top 20 shooters consisting of 10 more shots at 600 yards. A total of 1265 competitors fired in this match, and finishing in the top 100 qualifies you to be part of the “Presidents 100.” It is a much-sought-after prize in service rifle shooting. For the first time ever, an Osage Orange Sharpshooter made the Presidents 100. Your not-so-humble-after-I-found-out president, Bill Corcoran, shot a 286-9X and finished 72nd.
On Tuesday, the National Trophy Individual Match is fired; this is a 50 shot (no sighters) match at 200, 300, and 600 yards. It is often referred to as the leg match, since points may be earned towards the Distinguished Rifleman’s Badge in this match. (Only the M-16 match also awards points.) Furthermore, anyone finishing in the medal brackets gets 10 points no matter what color the medal, so Camp Perry’s leg match qualifies as a “hard leg” if you get a medal. This year Les Welch shot a 482-11X to finish 130th in the match, 30th among the 900 non-distinguished competitors, and earn a silver medal. By the way, the 482 Les shot is the highest score ever shot by a Sharpshooter in a leg match (Alex Belt shot a 481 at Bucksnort).
Your president and dictator for life was so busy shaking hands with everyone he could find to tell about the previous day’s accomplishment that he apparently suffered from tight-hat syndrome which affected the ability of his brain to understand written and spoken English. He neglected to take his place on the firing line when called as scorekeeper, was re-squadded on a different relay without knowing it, and had to run to the line at the very end of preparation period to begin firing. That relay ended with the PA announcer giving ‘extra time’ to the one person (out of 150) still firing. I think having only one miss recorded in 10 shots was a small victory and large penance.
On Wednesday, the Whistler Boy Match (for juniors) and the Hearst Doubles Match were shot. Since we didn’t have any juniors with us this year, many of us made up 2-person teams for the Hearst Doubles. This match is quite interesting, as it is a 30 shot Presidents match (no sighters) shot at 200, 300 and 600 yards. A 2-person team pair-fires in slow fire and coaches each other in rapid fire. The match goes quickly and is quite a lot of fun. In addition, there is a handicap system which applies a percentage of each shooter’s score from the Presidents and NTI (leg) matches. I don’t begin to understand how the handicap system works, but it gives shooters something to argue about in the pits, always a good thing. Out of 242 teams, the team of Jerry Patten-Bill Corcoran finished 119th, Alex Belt-Les Welch finished 165th, and Gene and Beth Spears finished 199th.
Thursday saw the firing of the Carbine Match, and the National Trophy Team Match. In the Carbine Match Bill Baldwin shot a 335 which placed him 143rd and got him a bronze medal, Pat Worley fired a 330 for a 184th place and a bronze, and Beth Spears (a member from Joplin) shot a 352, winning a gold medal and finishing 41st out of 583 competitors. Jim Laatsch finished 413th, and Stan Dulin finished 520th out of 583 shooters in their first Camp Perry experience ever.
Alex Belt and Les Welch spent Thursday shooting for the Mill Creek Rifle Club in the National Trophy Team Match, a 6-person team match where each person fires a 50 shot match. Bill Corcoran pulled targets the whole day, largely to get a free meal out of the deal, but also because it was a tough day to shoot, being hot and windy. Still, the team took 40th place out of 58 teams, which is, I think, the highest place a team involving Sharpshooters has ever garnered.
Shooting on Friday involved a dawn-to-dusk exercise for some of us. Our Osage Orange Sharpshooters team had a 7:30am date with the National Trophy Infantry Team Match, also known as the Rattle Battle, and some of us shot in the Springfield/Vintage Bolt Rifle Match in the afternoon, not getting back to the huts until near 6:30 pm.
Our Rattle Battle team had Les Welch and Alex Belt as swing shooters (engaging 2 targets each), while Bill Baldwin, Ed Bowles, Pat Worley, and Jerry Patten filled in the middle. Our score of 530 points was not particularly good, but I feel we won a couple of personal victories. Partly our difficulties were caused by the light conditions. We seem always to get squadded on the earliest relay, and that is only a few minutes after sunrise. Moreover, the target we engage at 600 yards (the E silhouette) is only 3 minutes wide, whereas the normal 600 yard target has an aiming black that is 6 minutes wide. You can imagine how hard it is to see with a little fog and the rising sun in your eyes. Firing begins from the prone position after the command ‘Load and be ready’ is given. The targets appear out of the pits and shooters have 50 seconds to fire as many shots as possible. At 600 yards, each hit on target counts 4 points, and the whole process is repeated after a march to the 500 yard line, where a hit counts 3 points. At 300 yards, shooters start in the sitting position and at 200 yards standing. Points awarded are 2 and 1 respectively for hits at these yard lines. Very few teams have ammunition left after the 300 yard line, since it is much more expedient to expend it at the yard lines where hits count for more points.
We competed in the ‘Out of Competition’ division, meaning that we were not eligible to win the match (horrors!). In order to be in competition, a team must have at least one shooter who has not shot this match at Camp Perry (called a ‘New Shooter’). If a team elects on its own to be out of competition, new shooters do not lose their new shooter status. So Ed Bowles, shooting the rattle battle for the first time this year, was a new shooter and will still be a new shooter next year under these rules.
Our victories were personal but important: we finished 10th out of 15 out of competition teams, and a couple of teams we beat had some good shooters on them, so all in all, I think we did well enough. Then again, none of our targets recorded a score of zero at 600 or 500 yards. This is the first year that has happened, and it is a tribute both to the accuracy of the wind call at 600 yards (3 minutes left) and the excellent zeroes shooters had on their rifles. Good job, guys.
Any questions?? Contact… Bill Corcoran (417) 862-861 or send me an email
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Re the “Planet Matches 2007″,
Bucksnort Range, Marshall MO
For those of you who may not know….. Each year, during the same week that the CMP Matches and Games are held at Camp Perry, OH, there is a week long shooting event held right here in the state of Missouri for those who, for whatever reason, either cannot make it to Camp Perry or choose to stay closer to home. This event is the “Planet Matches”, held at the Bucksnort Rifle Range, just South of Marshall MO and about 25 miles North of Sedalia, just off of US-65 Hwy.
The range, bunkhouse, shower house, pavilion and camping areas are opened up to competitors beginning on Monday, July 30th. Through Wednesday the range is open for practice, sight ins, and morning and afternoon “pick up” practice matches. The Official competitions begin on Thursday with a full 88 round across the course event, shot at 200, 300, and 600 yards. Same thing on Friday. Saturdays event is an 88 round Long Range prone match. Four stages of 22 rounds each, all shot from prone position at 600 yards. Sunday is a two man Long Range Team match. Forty four rounds at 600 yards.
That’s a lot of shooting folks…. but boy what fun…
Note: More info on the Planet Matches and the Bucksnort Range (With scads of photos.) can be found in another report on the Newsletter and Photos menu page. Look for “The Best of Bucksnort” at the bottom of the page… or click on the link in the last line.
In years past I and several other OOS members have gone to the Planet Matches to compete. I usually attempt to arrive at Bucksnort on Tuesday or early Wednesday in order to get in some practice and maybe get in on one of the pick up matches before the first real competition on Thursday. This year, unfortunately, time and other obligations conspired to limit my participation to only the two Long Range events on Saturday and Sunday.
This year, it seems that similar conflicts overtook other OOS shooters who normally attend. For the first time since 2003 I was the only OOS member at the Planet Matches. I did find out that one of the Weiss brothers had been there on Thursday and Friday, but evidently left after Friday’s match…. just before I arrived.
I drove up to the range on Friday afternoon, had an enjoyable meal with the crowd at the daily evening barbeque in the pavilion and then “roughed it” in one of the 14 bunks in the bunkhouse (Thanks goodness for the two window A/C units folks had brought along). Fortunately, of the 7 or 8 folks sleeping in there… only one snored, and he woke up on Saturday morning chewing on one of his own dirty socks. Wonder how that got there….. ???
Saturday morning was typical Missouri Summer…. hot and humid. We had to wait until about 8:00 AM for the fog to lift off the range and allow the 600 yard targets to be seen well.
A long range event is normally done in 4 stages. The first two are “any” sight… and if you have a match rifle with removable sights, most shooters elect to install a scope for these two stages. The other two stages are “irons”… and no optical devices are allowd. Because of the low light early in the day, the “any” stages are shot first, saving the “irons” for later, when the light on the targets will be better for that sort of thing.
If, like me, you prefer to shoot your Service Rifle (The M1 in my case) instead of a Match Rifle, then you are stuck shooting irons the whole match. There were several of us shooting Service Rifles this day, a few M1’s & M14’s as well as AR15’s. Most guys however, were shooting some pretty fancy Match Rifles…. 3 way adjustable buttstocks, hang weights, moveable front swivel, cuff slings, exotic cartridges, sights that cost more than my first two cars (combined)…. and barrels with bloop tubes that reached half way to the target.
I was fortunate in that I was on 3rd Relay… This meant that I would be going to the pits first thing and I would get to serve 3 of my 4 duty stages in the pits early on, before things got too hot… It also meant that the sun would have time to get higher in the sky and light the targets well before I came out for my first time on the firing line.
My first stage on the line was at about 10 AM. The light was still not the best, but better than at 8AM. Wind was quartering from the right rear at about 5 to 7 mph, switching to a tailwind and sometimes over from the left quarter. Pretty tricky…. and got worse as the morning went on…. up to around 15 mph late in the match. This is very unusual for Bucksnort. Typically there is very little wind at this range and when it does show is not this tricky. The one good thing is that mirage was easy to see against the target boards so I was able to make sight changes and hold off at the appropriate times…… mostly.
My first 20 shot string of the day was pretty par for me and my M1…. started off rocky with a couple of 8’s and 9’s, then settled down for some good 10’s & X’s. Ended up with a 191-5X. Not bad… nothing to get excited over either.
Another thing not to get excited over…. About the time I finished my first string I began getting one of the headaches that frequently mess up my day. I was hoping that this was not going to be one of my “monster” headaches… but there was not much I could do about it in any case. I popped a couple of aspirin and drank a Pepsi for the sugar and caffein…. Other than laying down in a cold, dark room with a rag over my face, about the only things I could do for myself under the circumstances.
After that I pretty much went the rest of the day in a pain induced haze.
I alternated firing and scoring with the other two guys on my point for the next 3 hours, before going back to the pits for the final string of the match.
My second string ended as a 195-6X. Amidst the pain I felt good about that… I’ve fired exactly ONE 196 at 600 yards in my shooting career and numerous 194’s, but never a 195.
Comes my third string and, lo and behold… I manage to squeak a 197-9X out of my old rifle and my rapidly failing ability to concentrate. WOW !!!! Even that managed to soak through to my brain. I’d set a new personal best at the 600 line.
Time for my fourth string. By this time I’m torn…. I know I’m shooting a good score… better than I’ve ever done before, but I’m also in so much pain I can hardly navigate. I seriously consider yelling to the RO and telling him to notify the pits that I’m going “DNF”… Did Not Finish… and sit out my last string of fire. Looking back now I’m sure glad I went ahead and bulled it out through the pain. At the end of 20 shots I’m on the scorecard for a 193-6X for my last string.
Not to drag this story on too much longer…. but I’ll just report that the old one eyed half blind guy with the sore head and the ol’ warhorse M1 still have some kick left in them at the long line….. enough to kick serious butt and take names in the process….
My final score for the day was a 776-26X. At the time I was loading up my gear I did not realize that I, the lowly Expert, had just fired a High Master score (97%+)…. with an M1. All I could think of was to get a strong, sweet cup of hot caffeine in me to help my head, then lay down in the A/C’d bunkhouse for a while.
Twenty minutes later I wander over to the pavilion to sit for a few while I drank my hot tea and before my nap. I’m greeted by choruses of, “Hey, there’s the hero of the day”, and “Dang, if having a headache makes you shoot like that I’m gonna’ start banging my head with a hammer when I go to the line”.
In the final tally for the day I ended up winning the Service Rifle division, and placed somewhere around 5th or 6th overall, IIRC (among the Match Rifle shooters).
There was discussion among the Bucksnort Old Timers present as to whether my score was a new range record for an M1 shooter. Since such definite records have never been kept, who knows, but nobody there could think of any one higher over the last 38 years.
A great day for me….. glad I was there to experience it…. just wish I’d been able to enjoy it without a busting head.
A brief note on the Sunday Two Man Team Match. I was teamed up with Mike Barron, a fine old High Master Class gentleman in his 70’s, who just a few years back (2002 ??), won the 1000 yard Wimbeldon Cup at the Camp Perry National Matches. When he’s on his game, very few people can shoot even with this guy at long range.
I shot two back to back strings of 193… one with 7X’s, one with 8X’s for a 386-15X. Mr. Barron, having an “off day”, only shot a 397-15X, dropping 3 points in his iron sight string. This gave us a 783-30X, for Second Place in the Team Match. We were beat out by two guys both shooting Match Rifles.
It was a great weekend for me….. A couple of new personal “bests”, a win in the Service Rifle category on Saturday, a Second Place in the Team, and a chance to shoot with a man who really knows his stuff at the long line.
There, I’ve blown my own horn enough for one day…. but just had to relate that experience.
Before anybody asks….. YES, I was shooting JLK bullets the whole weekend…..
Best to all,
Steve Milholland, aka Swampy