Osage Orange Sharpshooters
News March '05

2005 Updated Schedule - Online at www.swampworks.com/OsageOrange.html

Upcoming Events
Saturday Mar 12 8am Position Clinic, Bois D'Arc
Sunday Mar 13 1pm High Power Match, Billings (Springfield Benchrest Club)
Saturday Mar 19 8am Small Bore Sporter (Youth preferred, Adults second) Marshfield
Saturday Mar 19 200/300/500 yd Across the Course match, De Soto, KS
Sunday Mar 20 1pm High Power Match Joplin
Sunday Mar 20 4x500 yd Long Range match De Soto, KS

Who's Where When
With the shooting season getting underway, we should try to keep track of where Sharpshooters are shooting in matches. I know a few of the members will be shooting at the Mill Creek Club in De Soto, KS on the weekend of March 19 and 20. You can go for either or both days of shooting. Saturday is a regular match shot like we shoot (standing, sitting, rapid prone, slow prone), and Sunday is a series of 20 round prone matches all shot at 500 yards. Les Welch and Mike Thorn are going for sure, so you might want to talk to them if you're interested in trying something new.

A Note from Swampy:     Both Gerri Averett and I are thinking about going up to the Mill Creek Range at DeSoto KS on March 19-20. Whether or not we go will depend on the weather forecast as the weekend approaches. If it looks like daytime highs no lower than the high 50's, and minimal chance of rain, I'd call it a "GO". We'll probably be camping out at the Range's RV hookup area. If anyone else is interested in going, be sure to give us a call or E-mail and we can coordinate.... If you've not been there, the Mill Creek Range is a nice facility. A place well worth going to and expending some powder & lead.

Work Day Report
My backyard hosted Don Simmons, Ed Bowles, Mike Thorn, Pat Worley, Les Welch, Bill Baldwin, Thomas Reemes and Jerry Averett for a morning of building target frames. Kent Ward showed up after lunch to bring the required pamphlets and rifles for the match in two weeks. We got 13 target frames built, each of which will hold 2 targets. We'll use these for the rimfire sporter matches at Marshfield and store them in our backyards. Anyone with a truck who will be attending the rimfire matches and wants to help out by transporting target frames, let me know. Thanks to all the guys who worked. It went fast and it was fairly congenial. We had a nice lunch afterward (if you discount the fact that I forgot to put cheese on the burgers), and I'm sorry not everybody stayed for lunch. Maybe next time.

Rimfire Sporter
We will host 4 Rimfire Sporter matches at the Marshfield range this year. I have applied for CMP registration on these matches, and all the targets, empty chamber indicators, and ammunition have arrived.

Six shooters participated in the first one on Saturday February 26. Ed Bowles brought his two younger family members (Sara and Logan), and Jeff Ikerd's nephew Matthew Savage (age 10) turned in a very nice set of targets. Three shooters from the Branson area (Thomas Reemes's students) took top honors, while Logan Bowles took the award in the 16 and under age group. After the youth were done the adults shot a match, and most of the junior shooters out shot the adults.

The Sporter matches are listed as "Youth Preferred," meaning we will run a 60 shot match (plus unlimited sighters) for youth, and if time permits adults may also shoot. We will give medals to the top shooters overall and the top shooters in various age brackets. Age groups will be determined based on turnout. Cost is $5. After the youth match has concluded, we will run a Sporter match for any adults who wish to shoot (juniors can shoot again if there is room). Adults shoot for bragging rights only. Gates will open at 7:30; registration at 8:00, and we have a period from 8-8:30 where any instruction or coaching could be done. At 8:30 we will have a free-fire period for sight-in and practice, and at 9:00 we will start the match.

Youth
Thomas Reemes and I attended the Junior ROTC drill festival at Ozark High School on a rainy January Saturday. We were able to make some contacts with coaches and parents of children who have an interest in shooting. In particular, Thomas has gotten to know a couple of the coaches, and we hope that we could see some more junior involvement in our club. At least the coaches of all area high school JROTC outfits have gotten our brochure, of that we are certain.
Thomas deserves a hearty thank-you, as he went out of his way to make contacts with the coaches (and to get me to the drill festival).

Finally, The Missouri Sport Shooting Association (the overall governing body for competitive marksmanship in Missouri) will be offering two NRA Junior Shooting Sports Camps for smallbore shooting this summer: June 16-19 and June 23-26. These will be held at the Bucksnort Range near Marshall. John Leinberger, one of the premier junior coaches in the country, will be running these camps. The cost is minimal, and I believe if we had any active juniors in the Osage Orange, we would love to offer a scholarship or two to these events. Contact John Leinberger at gleinber@osagecon.missouri.org or (573) 943-6632 or P.O. Box 303 Linn, MO 65051.

Rifle Raffle
There are some new developments in the AR-15 rifle raffle. We have a lower receiver assembly from Compass Lake Engineering. This unit comes with the famous Compass Lake match trigger assembly. It is a lower reputed to have the tightest tolerances in the world. People say you have to use a pin punch to get the takedown pins out of the lower, and any upper should fit like a glove. As you know, the upper for this rifle is a virtually new White Oak Precision custom upper. So the winner of this raffle will have a totally custom match AR-15. You can't do better; it would cost you $1300 to build this rifle on your own. Our Match Director, Steve Kemm, is selling tickets for $5 each or 4 for $20. We anticipate that the drawing will be after our John C. Garand Match in May, assuming we have sold 200 tickets by then. Only Osage Orange club members are eligible.

Camp Perry
On March 1, Les Welch phoned Camp Perry to reserve accommodations for the National Matches (July 30-August 6). He reserved 3 huts containing a total of 12 beds. So far 10 shooters have committed to going, so there are 2 extra beds. If you want to go to the matches, you need to let Les know about it real soon now. Each hut has 4 beds, and reservations are on a per-hut basis; thus, if there are 5 of us going, he needs 2 huts, etc. Les's phone is 316 429-3819, email is moreorles_66725@yahoo.com.

Marshfield Report
The Marshfield Shooting Club is finally functional. It needs members and it needs people willing to do a little work building target frames, etc. Steve Milholland is the Secretary of the club, and he has applications for membership. Cost is $60 per year. As you know, the Osage Orange Sharpshooters are written into the bylaws of the club as holding 3 seats on the 10-seat board of directors. Currently, Steve, Bill Baldwin, and I are directors. I really would like someone to take my place. Please see me if you will volunteer to be a director for the Marshfield Shooting club.

Osage Orange Membership
Mike Thorn tells me our membership currently stands at about 35. We can do better than that.

Let me know if I can help with anything.

Bill Corcoran (417) 862-8618 wtc928f@smsu.edu
http://www.swampworks.com/OsageOrange.html