SEMNO High Masters Shooting Team
Hosted at the Midland County Sportsman’s Club (mcsc.info)
The Annual Foul Weather Rifle Match was held at the Midland County Sportsman’s Club on November 26, ,2016. The day started out cool, but sunny. Unfortunately, as the day progressed it became overcast, and the temperature began to drop.
Five shooters in total competed, Three F-TR and two sling any rifle shooters. The high F-TR shooter was Scott Burr with a 396-17X. High sling shooter was Jake Bondy with a 398-17X.
Results:
On a late October day that could best be described as a one in thousand, we were dry, and almost 70, we had ten (10) shooters, and five (5) Explorers. We used four (4) Silver Mountain Targets and the five explorers as score keepers. Basically, we had a good time, and our targets worked flawlessly.
The high F-TR shooter was Doug Boyer, with a 588-15. The high any rifle (Sling) shooter was Jake Bondy, with a 598-29.
2016-halloween-bsa-charity-match
Based upon a generous contribution from Solomon Diving, and the proceeds of the match, a total of $400 was presented to the members of the Midland Explorer Crew by Ray Gross.
Due to the unavailability of personnel to run the match on the 8th of October, we have postponed the final league match for 2016 one week to October 15, 2016.
On Saturday, September 3, 2016 we had a spectacular day for a shoot. Gentle winds, sunny, nice temperature in the 70’s, and the biggest turn out in over a decade (last one this big was a Charity match that ended up being only 15 shots due to the worst weather we’ve ever shot in).
We experienced a lot of issues with our targets. There appeared to be issues with WIFI connectivity at the 300 yard line, and two targets that would not record hits. After multiple reboots, and some temporary resquadding, we managed to muddle through only two yard lines. All competitors have our apologies for the problems. We will continue to work with the manufacturer to resolve our issues.
Nonetheless, some very good scores were fired. In the F-TR category, John Roethlisberg out Xed Tom Hagle with a 398-23X over a 398-15X. John becomes the 2016 Michigan Mid-Range Prone F-TR Champion. Tailing those two was Bob Lorenz with a 394-22X.
In the Any Rifle category, Gary Duda out paced the crowd with a 397-22X besting second place Jake Bondy by one “X”. Gary becomes the 2016 Michigan Mid-Range Prone Any Rifle Champion. It is notable that Gary is in his 60’s, and winning his first State Championship. Watch out for those old guys….
2016-mid-range-prone-championship-final-results
This month we had our share of excitement. First we had targets that wouldn’t run (something about a humid day, or maybe it was sun spots??). At any rate we managed to finish with 3 of the 5 operational. Still made for a quick competition (relatively speaking), and no one needed to pull targets.
In the F-Class arena, two 200-19X strings were posted. John Roethlisberger, and Robert Lorenz were able to nail the nineteen “X” clean. For John it was just a part of a “hall of fame” day by posting a 600-45X. I do not even remember an F-Open shooting posting a 600 at Midland previously (if there was one, contact me, and I will retract this).
It is notable that John Pierce finally sold John Roethlisberger the rifle that he had been using. So, John can beat John using his own rifle, instead of using John’s rifle to beat John. Who’s on first?
In the Any Rifle Land, Peter Church and Jake Bondy both nailed a 599-34X. In reviewing the rules for breaking ties, this one appears to be settled with rule: 15.4(c)4, the value of the shots in inverse order. With this Peter wins with a X on his third to last shot, vice Jake’s 10.
For those of you attending Mid-Range Prone, or Long-Range at Camp Perry, best of luck. For those going to Canada for the F-Class or Fullbore Championships, best of luck, too!
Our next match is the Michigan Mid-Range Prone Championship on September 3, 2016 (Day after MSU opens against Furman – who the hell is Furman?). Program for the match is available here.
Dan Altman, one of our members, made the cut-off for the 2016 United States Dewar Team during the iron sight phase of the 2016 U.S. National Smallbore Rifle Prone Championship.
Dan, shown below firing the match, was coached by another SEMNO Member, Ken Potter.
We have rescheduled the July 16, 2016 Mid-Range Prone League Match to July 30, 2016.
This action is being taken to avoid a conflict with the Dale Sunderman Memorial Match at MTC.
Well, the day was absolutely glorious. Still, and in the high 60’s and low 70’s. We had ten shooters, five each of F-TR and Any Rifle.
Turned on the targets and they all worked. Moreover, they worked all day. No problems. We squadded short people on target one, so we were getting good RF propagation for the WIFI. So things worked really well.
In the Any Rifle arena, Paul Larson nailed a 599-34X. That’s a heck of a score for any sling shooter. Given Paul is completing his first round of Chemo for cancer, it is almost unbelievable.
Paul was being chased by Jake Bondy, who posted a 596-27X. Additionally, look at the second two scores posted by Mike Quillinan, a 197-9X, and a 198-12X firing a scoped service rifle. He used the first stage to get zeroes.
Over in F-TR land, Tom Majewski posted a 593-25X to best the field. Ray Gross was chasing him with a 589-23X.
The next match is on July 16, 2016 and will be a 3×600, and the July match of the Suburban Mid-Range Prone League.
As I drove up to Midland this morning with my buddy from Ford-Germany, Dave Newton, I thought to myself there is a match in Malvern today, and Monday starts the Mid-West Palma, we’ll probably have a half dozen shooters.
I was wrong. We had sixteen. We ran four targets with four relays. After a short delay with starting due to poor WIFI from the targets to our base station we got started and things were moving along. One target failed, so we moved those shooters over to our hospital and continued the march. We seem to be learning more about radio frequency wave patterns than we really wanted to know, but we are learning more “best practices” with the Silver Mountain Targets.
Peter Church continued his hot hand with a 596-26 besting Jake Bondy with a 595-28 in Any Rifle. In F-TR, John Roethlisberger continued his winning ways with a 597-31. Ray Gross was a close second with a 596-35.
Our next match will be July 2, 2016 for the Independence Day Challenge. A 3×600. Come on up!
Other than a few rain drops on Saturday morning, the weather was perfect. Additionally, for the first time we used our Silver Mountain Targets for the match. Frankly, we were pleased.
During our Winter league and the first of our Suburban Mid-Range Prone matches we had various issues with performance. However, on this last Saturday, we had only minor issues. Those issues were directly related to competitors on the low end of the line periodically blocking the WIFI signal from the base station. The net was competitors were not able to see their last shot. However, everyone became used to the issue, and simply told the offending party to “move their a**”.
In the Target Rifle Category, Kevin Nevius finished with a perfect score: 450-23X to become match winner. He was closely followed by 77 year old Peter Church with a 449-32X, who as a Michigan resident claimed the State Championship. We believe with a couple more years of experience and Pete will get really good! Third place was taken by Jake Bondy with a 448-22X. I think in Jake’s case, he will get better with more experience.
In the F-TR category, John Roethlisberger fired a 444-19X to win the State Championship. Using a rifle and ammo borrowed from John Pierce, Mr. Roethlisberger bested Mr. PIerce, who finished with a 443-19X for second. Third was Scott Burr with a 441-16X.
2016 Fullbore Prone Championship
I would like to extend a thanks from the Midland County Sportsman’s club to Ray Gross, and Scott Burr. Without their efforts it is unlikely the electronic targets would have functioned at the flawless level we experienced on Saturday. Thanks, Guys!
