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Osage Orange
Sharpshooters
News February
2007
2007 Schedule
Saturday Activites at Dalton Range
All Matches Start at 8AM
Apr 21 Beginner's Any Rifle Match
May 12 John C. Garand Match
May 26 Carbine Match
June 9 Rimfire Sporter Match **
July 21 M1 Rattle Battle **
Aug 18 Bolt Gun Match
Sep 1 Garand Rules Match
Oct 13 John C. Garand Match
**These matches are tentative and could
be replaced with other types of matches
See also www.swampworks.com for updates.
Saturday,
April 21 Match
The match Saturday is listed as a "Club League Match",
which means you may shoot any rifle you want. Shooters using
rifles conforming to John Garand match rules will be awarded
medals based on the CMP's percentages (see below). All other
shooters will be lumped into a "match rifle" category.
If there are more than 5 shooters in this category we'll have
prizes.
News From
Previous Matches
Fun Shoot
The Fun Shoot in February was a cold, somewhat snowy match.
About 18 hardy souls came out to win the biggest prizes we ever
give out. Events included trying to hit a $5 dollar bill, shooting
an X for a dollar, and trying to find a $10 bill on the back
side of a blank target. In total, we gave $140 in prizes, so
there was some good shooting.
Clinic
The classroom clinic
on March 3 saw 25 of
us squeeze into the garage area of the Dalton Range. Although
the instructor occasionally forgot exactly where he was in the
program, a bunch of folks got hands-on experience putting on
a sling and reloading the M1 Garand from a clip, so, given that
at least 6 new Sharpshooters were there, it was an amazing success.
A big thank-you is due Steve Milholland, Steve Kemm, and Les
Welch who were used as demonstration models for the correct way
to build a position. I hear Speedo Swimsuits is knocking on
their doors to offer a contract for further modeling.
New Shooters
Match
The New Shooter match on March 10, a follow-on to the clinic,
had 10 people who had never shot in an Osage Orange match before.
That is an amazing success. Experienced shooters acted as coaches,
and you guys must have done a good job, because most of the new
folks joined the club. The top 3 scores were shot by AR-15 shooters
(I hope on the right targets), with Nathan Averret taking top
honors with a 459-8X. The next two shooters were Juniors from
Joplin: Zach Painter with a 448-3X, and Ethan Carder with a 445-5X.
I hope we
can continue to
make new shooters feel welcome and continue to offer our knowledge
and the loan of any equipment necessary to make any them comfortable
in our club. I think we all remember what it is like to start
out in this sport. It seems like the experienced shooters have
an unending supply of equipment. No matter what little glitch
happens during a match, a veteran pulls something out of his
bag to take care of it. Well, with a new shooter, we must be
ready to loan the whole bag. The club members have done a magnificent
job, and I'm sure it will continue to be that way. New shooters
are the life blood of our sport.
Match Procedures
Score Cards
Speaking of score cards, we had some real problems with attention
to detail at the New Shooters match. The score cards needed
to be turned into the CMP and all information needed to be correctly
filled in on the score card. Apparently many shooters didn't
hear the instructions to read the directions on the back and
fill out the score cards correctly. My bad. We should have
gone over score card procedures in the clinic, and I will be
somewhat more forceful in my direction-giving next time we have
a CMP-sanctioned match.
I got a phone call from
Melissa at the CMP. She was nice, gentle, and accommodating,
but some of her questions were most embarrassing. One, in particular,
was, "do you run many EIC matches?" And of course,
the point was that our scorecards looked like they had been done
by 3rd graders. It took her most of an afternoon to record
our scores because of the sloppy workmanship on our part. For
each shooter she has assigned a CMP competitor number to be used
in the future and verified names and addresses. Two shooters,
however, will have their score cards returned because of egregious
errors. Their scores will not show up on the official match
bulletin of the CMP. We will do better next time.
Also, a number of people
did not even turn in score cards, and this does nothing but hurt
the club. The CMP allocates resources such as ammunition at
a reduced cost based on shooter participation. I registered
the match with the CMP indicating that 30-35 people would shoot,
and that's about what we had turn out, but only 26 turned in
score cards. I am required to account, on paper, for the ammunition
we bought at clinic prices and our use of it, and to the CMP
it looks like I asked for 30% more ammunition than was needed.
OK folks, I'm starting
to sound like a bureaucrat and paper pusher, and the whining
is getting too loud even for my own ears. But I really need
your help. We're rather proud of our affiliation with CMP, and
they have provided us some pretty good deals on rifles and ammunition.
These deals get passed on directly to you. It is in our best
interest to be model citizens in all our dealings with the CMP.
We will try harder.
Ammunition
The Osage Orange Sharpshooters always have GI .30-06, .30 Carbine,
and for the foreseeable future, .223 ammunition for sale at each
match. Sales are from the back of my truck to minimize hauling
large lots of ammo downrange and back. If you need ammo for
a match, please make every effort to purchase it promptly at
the beginning of the day while we are all still getting stuff
out of our vehicles.
Membership
Membership in the Osage Orange Sharpshooters requires the filling
out of two forms: a Membership Form and an Affidavit to waive
liability. Both of these forms are on-line, and to get membership
in the club you need only fill them out, have the affidavit notarized,
and send them, along with the annual fee, to our Secretary (who's
name and address is on the membership form): Mike Thorn, 290
Nice Place Rd., Clever Missouri 65631. I highly recommend that
you send a stamped, self-addressed envelope along with your check
for $30. Mike is a hard-working guy serving in a volunteer position,
and anything you can do to make his job easier and expedite processing
is a good idea. If you don't send an envelope, he normally brings
your membership card to the next match. Sometimes Mike misses
a match, sometimes a member misses a match, and sometimes members
really just want membership in a CMP club without shooting matches
(fair enough, that's why we're here). But if you really want
your card mailed to you, enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope
with the application for membership. It will get your card to
you much faster.
Match Procedures
Relay System
of Matches at Dalton
I hope that I am right in saying that this year may see a record
turnout of shooters for our matches. Efficient match procedures
are important, because we have to be completely off the range
by the stroke of noon.
In our matches, we usually
run two relays, and membership in first or second relay is simply
by self-identification or volunteering. We like to have people
pair up so that each firing point has two people on it. The
first relay will shoot the complete match from start to finish,
and the second relay folks will act as score keepers and target
pullers; the second relay will take care of going down range
and replacing targets and scoring them while the first relay
shoots. Then, once the first relay is finished with all 55 shots,
the jobs will reverse. Of course, if you don't pair up, you
get to pull and score your own targets.
Time
You can see how important it is to have all shooters on the line
at the start of the match. First of all, each match begins with
a safety briefing, and this briefing needs to be given no later
than 8:15 if we are to begin and end on time. Shooters should
be called to the line by 8:30, and the first sighting rounds
should be going down range by 8:35. In the whole match operation
there is perhaps 10 minutes of 'slop time.' In other words,
it might be possible to start the match at 8:45 rather than 8:35
and still have adequate time assuming there are no problems or
screw-ups. But please think seriously about this two-relay issue
and 'slop time.' Usually two-thirds of our shooters shoot on
the 1st relay, and the 2nd relay ends up being much smaller.
Too, the 2nd relay is always being pressed for time as we are
headed towards the noon deadline. Time wasted on the first relay
costs the 2nd relay shooters. It's as simple as that. So let's
try to do two things: first, make sure you are paired up with
someone and your point has two shooters, that will make the match
go more smoothly; second, let's try to keep on track both before
the match and during the match to ensure wise use of time.
The Conservation Department
folks don't generally get to the range until right before game
time, so it doesn't help to be an hour early, but you need to
be there by 8am and get your stuff down to the range, buy any
ammunition you need, and then take care of all necessary business,
so we can get going by 8:15.
The safety briefing at
8:15 is an activity that I need to watch more closely. I have
been using it as a general announcement time, and it should not
be that. It should be only about the match and procedures.
We have plenty of time after the shooting ends to talk about
the future. My attention to detail here, and your attention
at the safety briefing will ensure we don't have another score-card-screw-up.
Targets, Pasters,
and Money
Each individual target costs the club approximately 50 cents.
When a target has only 5 or 10 holes in it, pasters can be applied
to the holes and the target re-used. This saves about 40 cents
per target. Frankly, I think most of us could get by with 3
targets per match-one target to sight in, which can then be pasted
up and used for standing, one target for slow prone, and one
target for the two rapid fire stages. With 35 shooters, we could
save $25-30 per match by economical use of pasters. There are
exceptions, of course. Shooters using the AR-15 may want to
sight in on the MR-31 target and then take a fresh one for the
slow fire prone. And some people shoot such a tight group that
the target is essentially unusable. It is because of these exceptions
that we have never formally issued targets or charged fees, but
I would ask everyone to please try to economize.
Rifles and
Which Targets to Use-Prizes Too
We're re-doing the philosophy and fact of award giving in this
year's matches. In fact, it will be quite a bit different from
the past couple of years. Although it was my intention to use
the OOS classification system, it has become clear to me that
some additional options exist for us. Specifically, the CMP
has published achievement level scores on their web site, and
these scores, along with the new medals they have promulgated,
should allow us to fall into line with other clubs and the CMP
on awards. I have converted the CMP's scores to a 50 shot basis
for our JCG, 03, and Vintage matches this year.
Members are welcome to
shoot any firearm in our matches. Anyone firing a rifle that
conforms to the typical CMP-sanctioned games matches (Garand,
Carbine, Springfield, Vintage Bolt Rifle) will: 1) fire on the
SR-1 target; 2) be considered for prizes. Members firing any
other rifle (AR-15, match-conditioned M1) will: 1) fire on the
correct NRA Highpower targets; 2) be considered for medals in
our 'match rifle' category (although Lewis class flight-type
prizes may be awarded). There must be at least 4 shooters in
a given category to give an award. Every additional 4 shooters
in a category will allow for an additional award in that category.
Achievement scores for CMP medals
based on 30 shot
matches for JCG,
03, and Vintage.
John C. Garand Match Springfield Rifle Match Vintage Military
Rifle Match M1 Carbine Match Rimfire Sporter Match T-Class Rimfire
Sporter Match O-Class
Gold 279+
277+ 275+ 352+ 578+ 557+
Silver 272-278 268-276 266-274 341-351 566-577 541-556
Bronze 261-271 257-267 250-265 325-340 550-565 515-540
Achievement scores for
Osage Orange medals
based on 50 shot
matches for JCG,
03, and Vintage scores
John C. Garand Match Springfield Rifle Match Vintage Military
Rifle Match M1 Carbine Match Rimfire Sporter Match T-Class Rimfire
Sporter Match O-Class
Gold 465+
462+ 458+ 352+ 578+ 557+
Silver 453-464 447-461 443-457 341-351 566-577 541-556
Bronze 435-454 428-446 417-442 325-340 550-565 515-540
Rifle Raffle
Steve Kemm has about 30 raffle tickets left for the M1 rifle.
$5 gets you a 1% chance of winning, and that's about a million
times better than the Missouri Lottery.
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Gunpowder note from Swampy
For those that shoot a lot of 4895 powder it has recently come
to my attention that Jeff Bartlett (www.gibrass.com) has pulled down milsurp 4895 powder
back in stock. This may be the VERY last time this occurs. His
price for this latest batch (last batch?) is $100 per 8 pound
jug.
For those that are quick
enough to jump on the deal, OOS Pres. Bill Corcoran says he has
two 8 lb jugs of 4895 that he'll let go for $90 each. First two
customers are happy.....
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Questions or comments????
Contact Bill Corcoran
(417) 862-8618
E-mail <WilliamCorcoran@MissouriState.edu> |