Results from Grand Rapids, two matches at Howell and Monroe as of November 22, in the year of COVID.
2020 Annual Foul Weather Rifle Match
The Annual Foul Weather Rifle Match will be held on November 28, 2020 at the Midland County Sportsman’s Club (MCSC) stating at 10:00 AM. We will start squadding at approximately 9:15 AM. Please note this is one hour later than normal.
Get away from the family at Thanksgiving (assuming your family is courageous enough to gather this year). Come out to MCSC and enjoy cool, clean air, and shoot a rifle match.
2020-2021 Snow Country – Results to 11/14/2020
This seasons Snow Country has kicked into gear. We have results from Grand Rapids, Howell, and Monroe.
Next match date is November 21, 2020 at Muskegon (the first for the year), and Howell.
2020 Halloween BSA Charity Shoot
On November 7th in the year of COVID, the Midland County Sportsman’s Club ran their annual Halloween BSA Charity Match. Venturing Crew 7772 provided score keepers and assisted in target set up and tear down.
Eleven (11) competitors took part in the match, eight (8) were F-Class and three (3) were sling shooters across three categories.
The match was able to provide $840.00 to the Venturing Crew, which will provide operating funds for 2021. We especially would like to thank Bret Solomon from Solomon Diving, John Pierce from Pierce Engineering, Charles Hayes, and the couple of shooters who turned down their change from a $50 payment for entry fee.
2020-2021 Snow Country English Match Series – Match 1
On November 4, 2020, the Grand Rapids Club fired their first match of the 2020-2021 season. Five competitors attended and began the league for the new season. Then on November 7, 2020 the Howell Gun Club ran their first Snow Country match of the season. Six competitors attended. Great start for the new season.
This season will see the start of decimal scoring for the league. Instead of a total possible score of 600, it will be possible to shoot a 654. So we should see quite a number of scores over 600. However, we should see some real differentiation between scores, especially for F-Class.
2020-2021 Snow Country English Match Series
We have established the dates and locations for the subject smallbore rifle league. The program is: https://www.semno.org/Programs/2020-2021%20Snow%20Country%20English%20Match%20Series.pdf
This year we will be making a change to machine scoring. Locations will decimal score all firing using either Orion systems or Target Scan off of a phone camera. This should provide use with a better mechanism to differentiate between performances, especially in F-class.
3×600 Scores of 600 2006 to Date
When Chris Whitney fired a 600-41X for his first 600 on a 3×600 course of fire, I commented that I believed it had been done only five times previously. I was incorrect. I has been done at Midland eight (8) times previously (since 2006 which is when I started using Access to produce the results).
- Leo Cebula – July 2009
- Peter Church – September 2015
- Peter Church – September 2017
- Ray Gross – June 2018
- Ray Gross – July 2018
- Peter Church – July 2019
- Ray Gross – September 2020
- Chris Whitney – October 2020
Arguably, Midland is an easy range. At least part of the year it is easy. As I thumbed through the scores for about seven (7) matches per year since 2006, I was surprised with the variability of winning scores. Some were surprisingly low, others were at the none, one, or two down. The lows were not necessarily matches with small turn-outs. Rather, they appeared to be days where the wind was not dopeable.
At any rate this was a fun exercise to keep my mind active during my retirement.
Cheers!
2020 Suburban Mid-Range Prone Match 4 Results
On the 3rd of October in the year of COVID (2020) we conducted the last Suburban Mid-Range Prone Match of the season. Twelve (12) shooters came out on a cool, but relatively still day.
We had one important milestone, Chris Whitney shooting a Scoped Any Rifle with Sling posted a 600-41X for the high Any Rifle. I believe this is only the fifth 600 posted at the Midland Range (I admit I could be overlooking a couple more, but they are damned scarce). So this is quite an achievement. Good job, Chris.
For the F-Open, Tony Dekelaita fired a 594-34X for highest score. Steve Goyette was high F-TR with a 589-22X, and Ray Gross was the high Palma Rifle with a 596-41.
Our next match at MCSC will be the Halloween BSA Charity Match on November 7, 2020. Click here for the program.
2020 Suburban Mid-Range Prone League Match 3 Results
On a sunny, but surprisingly cool morning (try 33 F in September), we had twelve (12) shooters compete in the third Suburban Mid-Range Prone match of 2020.
Ray Gross shot the score he should have shot two weeks ago in the State Mid-Range Prone Championship. However, today he busted a 600-39Xs. It certainly wasn’t Ray’s first 600, and hopefully not his last either. It was a very nice score from a .223 Palma Rifle.
Mike Ruhlman was high F-Open with a 597-34X. Lastly Doug Boyer was the only F-TR shooter, and finished with a 573-8X, a far cry from his State Championship finish. We have to wonder what broke.
2020 Michigan Mid-Range Prone Championship
The 2020 Michigan Mid-Range Prone Championship was held on Saturday, September 5, the year of the Coronavirus (2020). There was a few of milestones reached for this match:
- The largest turnout we have ever had. We had 32, which is capacity. We have had matches prior that filled to capacity the week before, but with “morning of” cancelations we had never had a full line before.
- During this match we added competitor 424 in our database (Robert O’Donnel). At the same time we had competitor 1 from the database (Ed Gostomski) as a competitor.
- For the first time in a long, long time, we had more sling shooters than F-class (Thank you, Jamie Root!).
- We had sufficient entries to have awards for five categories: F-Open, F-TR, Any Rifle, Palma Rifle, and Service Rifle.
The day was overcast and ultimately rainy. After a vote was conducted it was decided to shoot the entire match at 600 yards, and to deploy our rain covers on the line. So, you tended to get damp when you weren’t shooting, but you and your equipment stayed dry while you were shooting.
So, we have quite a list of winners:
Any Rifle: Chris Whitney with a 599-37X, out Xing Matt Wieczorek who posted a 599-25X.
F-open: Mike Ruhlman wins in a run away with 598-34X besting Dave Strycharz with a 593-25X.
F-TR: Doug Boyer with a score almost high enough to win in F-Open 598-33X. It was a contest with Austin Nelson finishing second with a 596-34X.
Palma: Hanne Brantner won the Palma Category with a dominating 598-39X over Jamie Root with a 593-29X. Since Hanne is not a Michigan Resident, Jamie is named high Michigan Palma Shooter.
Service Rifle: Tim Plowman fired a 587-20 besting Brock Murphy who fired a 583-22X. Unfortunately, neither Tim nor Brock are Michigan Residents, so Gordon Mason is named high Michigan Service Rifle Shooter.