Fellow Shooters, 12/15/2018 22's
When I got the crazy idea to build a rifle range 6 or 7 years ago, my family and I stated several things we wanted to accomplish and set a couple of policies we always wanted to follow. Probably the foremost one was that we wanted Smithmoor Range to always be a family atmosphere where multiple generations can gather together, shoot, enjoy each other's company and build relationships. Another big one was that we always wanted to encourage good marksmanship and hopefully see the shooter's skill level improve. From watching Saturday's match, I am pretty sure we can scratch both of those off of the to-do list. Regardless of how well I shoot, it always makes me smile to see families having fun together and people shooting well.
Coralee went back through the past 5 years scores and figured out that on average, the scores have improved one point per year. I think that is pretty big! It's not too hard to believe when you look at the scores from Saturday's match. We had three people clean all the lay downs! Yahoo!! Congratulations to Jim Rodebaugh, Dick Hennebry, and Coralee Smith for getting that done! We have also created the Grand Master class, and it looks like there may be a few more additions to it shortly. My favorite part is we had 7 shooters kill 4 or more chickens! I got my butt kicked in the chicken shooting this month, and I am glad to see it! Of special note was Mark Pachares whacking 7 chickens and Tom Reed getting 6. Wow! Great shooting guys! There were some great scores shot and I am sure I see improvement among all the entries. I can't tell everyone how much that pleases me.
We had 22 shooters make it to the match this month. We had 30 signed up, and as usual, I was a little worried we would have to turn someone away. There is some nasty sickness going around, and between that and auto repairs, we lost 7 or 8 shooters on the day before. I hope everyone gets to feeling better real soon and Kenny finds four tires that are all the same size….lol
A great big thank you goes out to Cat's Shooting Sticks and SPG Sales for sponsoring our paper target match. For those that don't know, a while back we started adding a fifth station to our matches. Although it was initially met with some skepticism, it is well received now and I think some of the shooters even look forward to it. We've tried different things, but mostly we shoot a paper target. I think we are going to semi-standardize it for this season as a 100 yard German ring WSU target from SPG Sales that will be shot at 100 yards. 14 shots will be taken at the target with the best 10 counting for score. The thought being the first four will be sighters. Shooters can choose to shoot it either offhand or prone.
Cat's Shooting Sticks has so very graciously donated a 25 dollar gift certificate to each of our winter series matches to use as a prize. For those that have not heard of Cat's Shooting Sticks, you need to check them out. They make a variety of very high quality cross sticks and shooting accessories. I have several sets and I will verify they are very well crafted, well thought out, and they go out of their way to support our matches. Check them out at
http://catshootingsticks.com/
Larry Baker Jr and SPG Lube and sales need no introduction to anything BPCR related. They are a premier supplier of BPCR related shooting supplies, targets, and miscellaneous other interesting stuff. I am sure SPG is the most dedicated sponsor there is to BPCR shooting matches. Thank you to SPG Sales for your relentless support and your excellent products. If you haven't yet, check them out at
http://www.blackpowderspg.com/
For the fifth station awards this month, we gave the high prone score the Cat's Shooting Sticks gift certificate and the smallest overall group received a tin of SPG bullet lube. Jeff Woodring shot an excellent 242 to receive the certificate and Mike Venard shot a great 1 1/2" group to receive the tin of lube. Coralee had the idea to offer something special to try to entice a few shooters to try the fifth station offhand, and maybe even improve their offhand skills a bit. Perhaps she was just trying to rein in my over inflated ego, but she started what we are calling the Jackrabbit Challenge. The deal is that anyone can opt to shoot the fifth station offhand with no entry fee. If their score is higher than mine, they win a 20 dollar bill…..gulp. Jim Rodebaugh made me pretty stinkin nervous this month, but so far I have escaped. SPG Sales also donated a stack of really cool posters that are a re-creation of an ad that Harry Pope ran featuring pictures of a series of groups that his barrels shot. One of them was immediately hung up in the shooting shed and another was awarded to Cole Sauer for being high junior. We had 4 juniors this month and Cole shot an excellent 29 to win.
We were blessed with an incredibly nice December day to shoot. It was a little cloudy in the morning and the breeze picked up a bit mid-day, but it was so much nicer than a typical December day in Wyoming, no one complained. I thought Coralee hit a home run with lunch. Judging by the lack of leftovers, it appears I was not alone. She made a huge pan of homemade beef and noodles that she thought would feed 30-35 people. 22 made pretty quick work of it. I know I enjoyed it. A couple of big pans of home made apple crisp made up the desert and it was all cleaned up, too. It was hard to tell which was better, the beef and noodles or the apple crisp. I think I would have needed a third helping in order to accurately answer that question. There wasn't enough left for thirds, so for now the mystery remains unsolved….
Perhaps the biggest news of the match was our new resettable target system. The system had been used at another range for another discipline in the past. Dick Hennebry donated it to Smithmoor, and my Dad spent countless hours modifying it to work for 22 BPCR. We finished setting it up in the dark on Friday night and was not able to test it by shooting at it. Dad did a little adjusting on it throughout the match on Saturday, but it general it worked pretty good. The targets are still manually reset, but all it takes is the pull of a lever. It is really nice for several reasons. First, the match goes much quicker as target reset time is much faster. Also, the targets are always set correctly and uniformly. They also cannot fall into the mud or snow, so they stay cleaner and easier to see. So far, I am sure any disadvantage to using them is far outweighed by their advantages . The shooters seemed to approve of them, and I am sure we will continue to work any quirks out as the season goes on. Thank you to Dick for the super donation and to Dad for all of the hard work getting them modified and taking the initiative to get them changed out. I think they are big improvement. You'll have to come try them out and tell us what you think.
I was quite pleased to award Jim Rodebaugh the Match Winner Pin this month. Jim shot a super 35 with clean prone targets and 5 chickens! I doubt there is anyone that has worked harder to improve their shooting than Jim, and Jim is a selfless supporter of our range. He has set a goal to make Grand Master, and he is off to a great start. It was a bit entertaining watching him shoot his rams. He shot those last and really had to concentrate to keep it all together. Great shooting Jim, and thank you again for all of your support. I was the only entry in Grand master class this month, so no award was given there. Master class was won by Coralee with a 32. She was quite pleased and it makes me smile to be able to give her the certificate. AAA saw Mark Pachares win AAA for the last time as his super score of 32 with 7 chickens is his third master score and will be moving him into master class. Zach Farmer shot a solid 28 to win AA class, good shooting Zach. A class ended in a tie between Emily Anderson and young Chase Sauer. They shot off on turkeys and Emily was able to prevail. Good shooting both of you! Chase got a little taste of victory and I suspect there is blood in his eye. I am sure we will see him working hard to claim a win in the future.
The report got a little long this month, but I think folks enjoy reading them so I guess this gives them more to read. Thank you to everyone, my family, our sponsors, and especially our shooters for making these matches such an enjoyable time spent.
Keep your gun clean and your knife sharp,
Cody Smith
Shooter Paper Chicken Pig Turkey Ram Total Place
Grand Master
Cody Smith 223OH 4 10 10 9 33
Master
Steve Anderson 240 5 10 6 10 31
Dick Hennebry 238 1 10 10 10 31
Jim Rodebaugh 194 OH 5 10 10 10 35 MW
Cecil Sauer 233 0 10 7 10 27
Coralee Smith 237 2 10 10 10 32 1st
AAA
JD Farmer 231 2 9 8 7 26
Mark Pachares 231 7 10 10 5 32 1st (moves to Master next match)
Tom Reed 236 5 9 6 9 29
Monte Reed 217 4 8 9 6 27
Cole Sauer 179OH 1 10 9 9 29
Gary Smith 233 4 10 10 7 31
Mike Venard 241 3 9 9 10 31 small group
Tom Wengh 236 2 10 10 9 31
Jeff Woodring 242 2 10 8 8 28 1st paper
AA
Dick Farmer -- 1 9 8 9 26
Caleb Sauer 230 1 9 5 10 25
Zach Farmer -- 2 10 8 8 28 1st
A/B
Emily Anderson 234 2 7 4 7 20 1st
Ruthann Holmes 207 0 7 5 6 18
Mike Roduner 223 0 9 4 4 17
Chase Sauer 225 0 9 7 4 20
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