July 2005 Newsletter

Match Report

Summer has definitely arrived, as a cool morning rapidly became hot. The 15 hardy souls persisted, shooting a sampling of the 2005 IRC stages. Some of the regulars departed from Open division and tried the no-optics approach. As evidenced by their scores, it was not a pretty sight.

What is a pretty sight is the appearance of new shooters. Jack joined us this time and was smiling as he left. Thanks for coming out, Jack.

The stages: Smooth & Steady: 12 targets in groups of 3 with 4 boxes on a diagonal. Start in the leftmost (and farthest) box, hands down. At the beep, blaze away and scoot through the boxes. Shots unlimited and X's take off a second each. Simple enough. Well, except for those barrels that obscured the targets and required leaning far left and far right in the shooting boxes. A round skipped off a barrel rarely found the paper. Derek squeaked by Art with the low net score. Six Inches of Separation: One of the old classifiers that has been re-issued after its appearance in the IRC. Six targets and two boxes, starting in either. First string simply 2 rounds per target freestyle and move to the next box. Second string is shot entirely Strong Hand only, using both for reloading. Shots Limited. A very straightforward stage that was won by Art who persists in shooting his best efforts on classifiers. Hammer Down: A wild 30-round field course, but with defined boxes for shooting, so you couldn't be entirely creative. Start with 3 rectangular steel pretty close up, nailing each with 2 rounds. Hustle over to the barrel and repeat with 2 rounds on each of 3 very distant rectangles, accompanied by that awful echo. Then zig back across the range to a cluster of 3 round plates and a single paper, then dodge the obstruction in the middle of the range to find another 5 shot group, but with paper and steel widely separated. End up in the barricade and tag 3 more paper, followed by a standing reload and then a single shot on each of two round plates. But, only shoot the left steel with the right hand and right steel with the left. Many different techniques were used to hug that barricade and finish off the plates. It was pretty close, but a clean run helped Ron win this stage. Dam dem Feruns: Oklahoma resident Bubber, aka Roger Davis, designed this classifier and provided the name. In regular english, it translates to "Darn Those Far Ones." A barricade, a box and 3 paper at 25 yards. Three strings comprised of one from left side of barricade, one from right side of barricade and one from the box. Most shot too fast and there were some pretty ugly scores. Art keeps forgetting these are classifiers and took the win on this stage. 20/20: The name of this 5 string steel stage probably comes from the vision needed to see the distant option plate. The 3 close steel were mandatory but the dinky one far away was optional. The setup for this stage was a lot more generous than at the IRC, as the option plate was merely 20 yards away instead of the 30 yards at the IRC. Still, it was hard to hit, except for Derek who showed his steel experience handily.

August Match

The next club match will be held August 13 on our regular second Saturday. For those that don't know, we are repeating our contest to encourage members to submit stages and volunteer as match director. As in the past two years, there will be a handsome prize, yet to be determined, for the winner of the stage submittal drawing. Each stage submitted and set up gets an entry. Past prizes have been a S&W 686 and a Dillon 550. More details to follow when the Board determines what the prize will be for this year.

August Rimfire Match

Rich is kicking off an experiment in combination pistol/rifle rimfire steel at the Wheel Burner ranges. Match day is the first Saturday, August 6. The usual 9am start for 3 stages that are shot with pistol/revolver and then again with rimfire rifle. The rifle version includes one extra plate, usually at a much greater distance. Loads of fun and good practice for the Steel Challenge and Nelson's annual Rimfire Championship. Highly recommended. Normal match fees apply except that Juniors only pay $5, so bring out the young ones.

More Shooting in the Southern Cal Area
Hidden Valley Revolver Club. Kerry Standifer reports they have secured access to the Police Pistol Range in San Diego for their 3rd Saturday matches that will start on July 16. This is always a fun match and it's an easy drive. Combine it with a trip to the zoo or Wild Animal park to make a complete weekend.

Central Coast Wheel Gunners have monthly matches at the Hogue Action Pistol range in San Luis Obispo, the home of the IRC for 2006. On the third Saturday of the month.

Team Lopez has 4th Saturday monthly ICORE matches in the northern Los Angeles area.