We have 1 match remaining: our autumn John C. Garand match on Saturday, October 18. After that our club pretty much shuts down for the year until our annual business meeting and dinner in January (watch for the announcement here and in an email eblast).
Other matches coming up include the Saturday, October 11 JCG match in Joplin, the October 19 NRA Highpower match in Joplin, and the Smallbore prone match Saturday, October 25 in Joplin. For all of these contact Les Welch (620-429-3819) (moreorles_66725@yahoo.com). By the way, if you want to carpool for any of these or borrow (or buy) a rifle for the smallbore match, let me know—I have a deal for you.
The absolute last match of the year I know of is the Sunday, November 2 match at the Springfield Benchrest Club in Billings, run by our own Steve Milholland. The match is a carbon copy of the matches we shoot at Bois D’Arc, and this will be your last chance to shoot this season.
We may have tied a record with 32 shooters submitting scores in August 16th’s Rimfire Sporter match. What a great turnout! Speaking as a match director and your Dictator for Life, nothing is as gratifying to the person running a match as to have a whole bunch of people on the firing line having fun. (By the way, the opposite is also true.) Thank you all for coming out, and it looks like we should plan on having this match again next year.
I would like to point out some information I dropped on you shooters at the last minute, during the pre-match safety meeting; it concerns the possibility or necessity of remaining prone or seated before the rapid fire strings.
First, as you know, the NRA has formalized their rule: anyone over 60 need not rise on the “Shooters Rise” command. The CMP, though, has no such rule because they run two types of matches: “Excellence in Competition” matches, including leg matches and the National Matches, and Games matches, including the types of things that we in the Osage Orange Sharpshooters put on. However, in their booklet, The CMP Guide to Rimfire Sporter Shooting, they address the issue of standing, disabilities, and safety in a sidebar commentary.
http://www.odcmp.com/Competitions/rimfire.pdf
Here it is quoted in full:
Standing Before Rapid Fire Rapid-Fire. Rimfire Sporter Rules permit competition officials to use their judgment in allowing shooters to remain in position to start a rapid-fire series when they cannot stand to load and start a rapid-fire series because of a medical condition, disability or age. Rimfire Sporter Rules allow anyone who is 60 years of age or older or who has a medical condition that makes it unsafe or difficult to stand to elect to remain in position at the start of rapid-fire series. Competitors who do this must notify the Range Officer before they begin firing. When the command load is given, shooters who do not stand may load in position and must keep the rifle out of their shoulder until the command START is given. They also must wait to fire their first shot until someone who was standing fires a shot—a competitor who remains in position to start rapid-fire cannot fire the first shot. This rule is intended to make Rimfire Sporter a game where all shooters regardless of age or physical limitations can continue to compete. However, it is also important that competitors who are able to stand do not take advantage of this rule.
As we go forward, we will use this rule for all of our matches, whether they be Rimfire Sporter or any other match. This rule is easy to abuse, and it may have already been abused because of the unclear safety briefing I supplied at the match.
I hope we don’t have to get to the situation where we have to file formal protests about the shooting habits of fellow competitors. But please note the last sentence (in bold) of the above paragraph. Anyone under 60 years of age had better have valid excuse for staying down. We may require a note from your mother. Finally, the match director reserves the right to request that some shooters remain down before rapid fire, especially very young competitors. Adults accompanying youth to our matches are urged to discuss this with the match director.
As this year winds down, I find myself way too busy to worry about shooting, yet my mind wanders off to the things I did poorly that I want to correct, the things I didn’t do because I didn’t have time, and the goals that were left unmet. Along these lines, even though my dog and I have begun to emphasize the shotgun and long walks in the woods, I find myself browsing rifle catalogs with increasing frequency, wondering what new piece of equipment might help me shoot better next year.
And in my spare time, increasingly I find myself reviewing the matches and practice sessions I shot (and didn’t shoot for personal reasons), and I try to imagine what it would be like to keep an ideal schedule, as an athlete, so that next year’s shooting will show a significant improvement. Yes, folks, I am severely bitten by the highpower competition bug. It won’t leave me and there is no cure. The tip-off is the constant focus on “next match” or “next year.” How can I do better?” For me, this process includes revamped practice procedures and a promise to get to the range more. And certainly, a better mental focus is necessary if any improvement is to be seen. Of course, those are vague generalities. We could all benefit from these “improvements,” yet the specifics of how we do these things will all be different (except for the “additional range time”).
How might you improve your shooting, or how might you improve your enjoyment of shooting? I can think of hundreds of suggestions, but I will confine myself to only two. First, if you want to improve your shooting (and therefore your enjoyment of it), practice offhand without a coat and with an air rifle. Any air rifle (including a bb gun) will work. Establish a target about the size of our aiming black and shoot. Shoot every day; have fun, and keep records. Many of us are shooting in a “silhouette postal match.” We shoot air rifles at paper silhouette targets at 10 yards. A hit is a hit, and a miss is a miss. I simply record how many targets I hit each day. Some days are great, some days depressing. But by the end of the winter you can really see improvement. It’s great practice, can be done fast, and can be done indoors. It WILL improve your shooting.
The second thing you can do is take another step in competitive shooting and attend a match outside of Springfield. The Joplin highpower matches are usually full of guys from our club. And if you attend the matches in Marshall (Bucksnort Shooting club) you will also see a lot of us. De Soto Kansas (Mill Creek Rifle Pistol Club) is only 2 hours and 45 minutes away, and even the St. Louis Benchrest club is a reasonable drive. What I really want to say is: think about attending the National Matches at Camp Perry. The 2009 Trophy Matches (run by the CMP) are July 31-Auguest 9: http://www.odcmp.com/NationalMatches.htm
But it takes some planning. Think about it.
Taking the next step, stepping outside your personal comfort zone is not always easy, and the rewards are not always readily apparent. Les Welch talked me into going in 2003 and I got a bronze medal; I also said I’d never go back again. It is stressful, intimidating and frequently depressing if you have your mind set on success. And sometimes the hype doesn’t seem to match the event. Still, as one very wise person put it: you have to attend the matches to make the memories. There have been years when we have all sat around and wondered how 4 guys could screw up so badly, and other years we have watched our friends walk across the stage to receive medals. But if you don’t go, you can’t have the conversation, and for my money that’s what it is all about. What’s the saying? “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt to show it?” I want to say that I’ve been there, and I want to do that. They do give out T-shirts at Camp Perry.
Our Camp Perry coordinator is Les Welch (his email and phone are in the first section of this newsletter). Give him a shout if you’re interested.
Just for future reference, the two biggest Missouri matches are traditionally held on the first weekend of May and the first weekend in June, every year, at the Bucksnort range near Marshall and Sedalia. It will take pre-registration about a month in advance to go, so keep in touch if you’re interested.
It’s on my mind to write some more on shooting offhand, but I can’t decide whether to re-write the resources that are already on the web page or to add more. I’m leaning towards adding things because this is more a story of progression than it is the advice of an accomplished shooter. Each new practice situation has taught me something this year, and I will be writing about it. Watch for it once the weather turns cold.
Any questions?? Contact… Bill Corcoran (417) 862-861 or send me an email