December 5th, 2015

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

                                                                               Airguns vs Rimfire

The concept of this match started at the airgun building dedication. We had a bunch of shooters talking, and before you know it, an invitation arose to shoot alongside the rimfire chaps. With how accuracy has been increasing over the years, some say that it could out do the rimfire crowd. Well, we thought it would be a great event to showcase our sport by inviting the rimfire folks to shoot with us for some friendly competition. The morning started bright (actually dark) and early for some arriving early to get a good seat, and to start practicing. We had one rimfire fella show up early. It looks like the intimidation factor was overwhelming for him with over thirty BB gun shooters alongside him. So he packed up his rifle, snuck out and left. "Fish out of water" he quoted to the other shooters. Then, one of his fellow shooters arrived and took the challenge. Initially, it was anticipated that there would be five to seven shooters from the rimfire group joining. Well, understandably with the precision that exists in the air rifle arena, we understand the reluctance for them to compete. So we had one lone rimfire shooter, Frank Goff. My hat’s off to him for staying and shooting. He was a great sport! 
We had a great showing of 32 shooters. We were honored by the presence of our distinguished guest, Sue Little, the President of Rio Salado. She won a free match entry and equipment to use for the event at last year’s annual Rio meeting / party. Mark Buchanan was kind enough to loan her some of his high end equipment for the match. 
The three card match went well. We were training new scorers, so we scored each match right afterward. This seemed to feel it took longer than it actually did, considering it was only 15-20 minutes between each match. The great part of this, is that is shows how spoiled we are when we have a dedicated scorer and not one who would like to shoot too! Paul Biedler did a fantastic job at scoring! It looks like the springer group is growing, with six shooters that participated this month. Just to put this in context, we had more spring shooters than some clubs are big!
It looks like the winds were pretty "switchy" most of the match. Special mention to Dave Litt for shooting a 248 5X in these conditions. You are right Dave, “patience pays off”. 
Shout out goes to everyone for helping police the range afterward. Rio has asked us to move the benches behind the yellow line after we were done. Everyone stepped up and took care of business. We appreciate the efforts of those who are able to help those who may not have the strength or physical ability to move them. I understand that some folks come out to the range to practice that may not have the ability to move them. I will address this at the next board meeting. Maybe we could keep just a few out for ya. We are all in this boat together. 
The 100m match was a great success afterward. There were eleven shooters bringing it on. It turned out to be a success with the decision to shoot one target and each neighbor scoring. It is great to see this growing too!

Total shooters for the day: 43!