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December Match: Nelson closed out the year with a nice mix of five stages that had some running, some speed, and enough accuracy that if your sights were off you were in trouble. Ron W. won the match with two stage-wins. Pete at second with two stages as well. Mike P. shooting very well won the limited division and came in at third overall. The final stage-win went to Mike S. shooting incredibly fast on stage 1 and beating his competition by over seven seconds. Also of note for continuous improvement, Mike P. and Harry both, win their first stage in the Limited division. We held the raffle for the S&W 686 going to the random draw among people who designed and set up stages in ’03. In a fine display of cosmic justice Ron Joslin won. With all the effort Ron puts into the club, stage setup aside, it’s hard to think of a more deserving soul. Congratulations Ron. The Stages: Santa; Start in the box with the bag of toys over your shoulder. At the signal engage the twelve paper spread widely over the bay two round each. The bag is placed on the table at the far end after you’re done. If the bag touches the ground before you’re done it’s a penalty. Everything from holding it in your teeth to strong arming the stage was seen. Close Up & Personal; Start seated in the chair, revolver loaded and setting on the table with all your ammo. At the signal engage the five paper in your face and the one way out there with the C zone blacked, one round each. Reload. Do it again. Reload. Do it again. Shots limited, so no help on the hard cover. Fast & Furious; Big field course with 8 paper frustratingly arrayed behind 5 barriers and a popper at the end in the open. From the box shoot ’em as you see ’em but take the popper only from the box. Paper & Steel; Six paper arrayed on the right. A plate rack and 3 poppers on the left. At the signal engage the paper two rounds and knock the steel down. Oh No!; Being the grinch Nelson is this was definitely not to be confused with Ho Ho. Five paper set in an inverted “V”. The only part of the paper not hard covered was a vertical strip the width of the A zone. Some pretty fair distance as well. At the signal engage the left leg 2 rounds, reload then the right leg two rounds, reload then all with one round strong hand. Don’t even think about making up shots, it’s limited. Club 2004: In years past we’ve annually rented a single bay at the Piru facilities and paid a use fee to other clubs when we used their bay for stages. The other clubs have since dissolved or moved and none has appeared to take their place. This left us with a shortage of real estate for 2004. Rich has renegotiated a lease of three bays for a dang good deal considering what we get. We can now spread our considerable inventory of targets and props. This will greatly ease setup and teardown. Alas, it is more then we paid before and so we have to raise the match fee to $20 for members and $25 for nonmembers. Juniors shoot for $7 and first timers for $10. Annual membership fee remains at $25. Of course if we have a healthy increase in match attendees it may be possible to lower the match fee (hint , hint). How about bringing out that neighbor kid that mows your lawn or that lazy brother in law of yours. Campaigning?: January is also the month we traditionally hold elections for club offices. The term election is used in a loose sense as there has always been a dearth of candidates resulting in something like a draft rather than election. Well… we have cobbled together a board in that case so please don’t avoid the match for fear of conscription. We hope that some new blood will step forward (please) with interest in an office and if that’s you, announce your intention at the January shooters meeting. You can rest assured your most vocal supporter will no doubt be the current office holder. It would be nice to have an actual election with voting and all. If not, then Ron Williamson and Ron Joslin will swap making Joslin president and Williamson veep. Rich will continue as treasurer, Dan as secretary/stats and Cedric as range manager. Club Match: For 2004 we continue our club matches on the second Saturday of the month. The January match will be the 10th. January is also a convenient month to pay the annual membership fees and maximizes your return. We didn’t have a chance to get designers and setup for January so Rich has come forward to do the match. We will again this year ask for stage designs and setup with those that do being entered into a year-end raffle for some goodies. The number of entries equal the stages you do. Several ideas have been floated for a prize and when decided will be reported in the news. Sign ups for stages will be taken at the January match. Range Clean Up: As reported above we now have the full time use of three adjacent bays and are determined to utilize them to best measure. We intend to distribute our inventory for convenience. Not reported above is the fact that two of the bays were conflagrated during the great inferno of ’03. Nothing survived save the hardware. To sum, a work day of considerable effort is needed to position the club for shooting nirvana in ’04. A range cleanup is scheduled for January 24th. We will be clearing the bays of refuse and relocating much of the inventory from the original Wheelburners bay to the two newly acquired. Please, please, mark your calendar and let nothing make you stray. We really do need the participation of all shooters and a detailed plan is being developed so your time won’t be wasted. Our club is not for profit and exists only to provide shooting fun to the participants. Volunteerism is the only thing making it work. We had a good turn out last year and hope for the same. Food and drinks (soft) will be provided. R.O. Class: Rich is hoping to have a class at the Wheel Burners range that will teach those interested the skills necessary to become a qualified Range Officer. ICORE does not have an accreditation program for R.O. although there seems to be some migration toward the necessity of one. This class will likely be a pilot program. Some details still need to be worked but a tentative date of February 1st has been proposed. Attendees will need to bring an ICORE rulebook, notepad and pencil as well as their shooting gear. The course will involve live fire exercises. If you're interested let Rich know. Updates will appear in next months news. More Shooting: Here’s some info on other South CA revolver matches. Hidden Valley Revolver Club (HVRC) ICORE match on the 4th Sat. at the Escondido Fish and Game (EFG) Assn. Go to http://members.cox.net/hiddenvalleyrc/ for directions and information. Team Lopez has monthly ICORE matches in the northern Los Angeles area. For more information and a contact, go to http://www.22rimfire.org/teamlopez.htm . |