November 15, 2009 clays match report

10 guns entered 

 

     4 Open Guns - Class won by David Lee with a score of 45 + 2

         2nd place in Open Class - Hal Hansen with a score of 45 + nothing

 

     6 Limited Guns - Class won by Loren DeShon with a score of 44

apologies for not listing 2nd & 3rd placings, this reporter forgot.

 

     November is halfway over already, and the weather shows it.  It was dark, completely dark by 4:30pm, cold - 46degrees at gametime, overcast with intermittant drizzle.  A typical November day in Western Washington.   The lights were on, one heater roaring, and the shooting challenging enough to wake the dead.

     Chuck Treat, our Arrays Impressario, brough us target array series G today.  Thanks also go to the competitors that set up, replenished, and removed the screens and clays today.  Thanks as always to Chuck Nicodemus for hosting our Sunday afternoon match, and welcome back to Doug McLean, replete with photographs of his latest hunts.  Doug finally quit talking about how good the meat from his latest hunt is going to taste long enough to run our scoresheets and microphones.  If your freezer gets too full Doug, some of us will offer to take the meat off your hands, since it's you. 

     Target Array series G started off with great promise.  White standard sized clays alternating with orange micros, and in a straight line leading to a highly visible orange micro in the middle.  Apparently the Clays Chucks finally developed a heart and gave the competitors targets they could see.  Anyway, it was a straight run in to the middle orange micro and a great start for a match.

     Round 2:   This array saw a white standard clay surrounded by 4 orange micros, and WOW!! another orange micro in the middle.  Chucks, Nicodemus and Treat, the clays competitors take back everything we have been saying about you.  The day is dark, but the targets are bright and highly visible, and life is good.

     Round 3:  Bitter Reality sets in..... 2 stacked orange micros adjacent to a white standard with an adjacent orange micro leading to a blaccckkkkk!! micro in the middle.  It was a nice dream while it lasted.  If it wasn't bad enough trying to see the black micro in the middle, the clothespin holding it on the screen was black as well.  well, phooey.  Some hit it, and some don't but all walk away from the firing line shaking their heads.

     Round 4:  Five clustered orange micros on each side of the blaccckkk micro in the middle.  One finds oneself engaging the highly visible orange micros, then having to stop, look up and peer intently into the screens to see if the black micro is even still there.  If it is, line up on it and shoot at where you think it is.  Sometimes it's there, other times it isn't.  These center black holes with the black micros do absolutely describe the absence of all matter, even light.  The Event Horizon to these black holes presents a drastic contrast.

     Round 5:  V is for Victory, orrrr Victim,  depending on one's frustration with the ability to see the recurring black micro in the middle.  Five orange micros form a V on each side of the black center objective micro.  Just pick 4, engage them, and then, after peering at the array for a bit, try and find the black micro in the middle and shoot it too.  (or at least shoot at it.)

 

     At the end of regulation play we have a winner in the Limited Class.  Loren DeShon has shot a score of 44 and is this weeks Limited Class Winner. 

     In the Open Class.  David Lee and Hal Hansen, each with a score of 45 are tied and prepare for a shootoff.  Target screens back to 44 ft. and a line of black micros all across the screen with another black micro in the middle.  Shooters to the line, load 5 rounds.  shooters ready?  fire!!  If the shooters thought it was hard to see black micros at 30 ft., they should try it at 44 ft.

The black clays just disappeared.  One could shoot at where one thought they were, but it was only a guess.  Well, apparently David Lee guessed better than this reporter, because David hit 2 of the 5 and wins the shootoff, this weeks clays match, and bragging rights for another week. 

     This is a particularly sweet victory for David Lee, because for all the times he has entered this match, and, to quote him: "The thousands of rounds he has put downrange" this is the first time he has won it.  Well, David, you picked about as hard a contest under the most trying circumstances available to win it.  Well done and good shooting.  Your young eyes did you proud. 

     Good News, Clays Shooters!!  I have been assured by our Clays Match Director, Chuck Nicodemus, that he agrees that the visibility of the black clays today required extreme good fortune to hit the targets.  One must, however, remember the adage quoted by WWII fighter pilots:  "Never, ever, trade good luck for skill!!"  It's better to be Lucky than Good every time.  Today, David Lee and Loren DeShon were both Lucky AND Good.  Lucky and Good makes for successful handgun competition.  Well Done guys.  And we'll see you all right here next Sunday at 4PM, when, I'm told, we'll be able to see all the clays all the time.  WOW!!

 

Hal