May 23, 2010 Gig Harbor Sportsmans Club Clays Match Report

8 Guns Entered

                                                                                Score

  

     5 Open Guns - Class won by Hal Hansen              44

 

     3 Limited  Class won by Mark (OJ) Kimura           42

 

         

    Welcome back one & all to Gig Harbor Sportsmans Club, for another Sunday afternoon Clays Match.  It was a pretty day today, in a cloudy, cool sort of way.  It was dry out however, and that's all one can ask in Washington State, especially on the "wet" side.

 

     Thanks as always to our Match Staff, beginnng with our Match Director, Chuck Nicodemus,  Thanks to our Scorekeeper & DJ, Doug Mclean,  and thanks to our Arrays Impressario, Chuck Treat.  Today, our Chuck Treat has brought us Page 5 of The Great Equalizer Series.  The arrays are made up of lines of Orange Standards, orange micros, and of course the ubiquitous black micro in the middle.  Let's visualize the arrays and find the fast path through them. It should be noted that all the clay targets today, both Standards and micros were Orange,  except, of course, for the black micros in the middle.  Also noteworthy today was the fact that the entry field was rather small, only 8 Guns came out to play.  So, an anomoly.  We only set up 2 screens and only 4 shooters at a time came to the line.  Further, no ladies came out to play today, so there was obviously no Ladies Class. Pity.  C'mon ladies, if you all show up to shoot clays, not only would our field of entries be bigger, but more competitive also. 

 

Round 1

     The top row is comprised of a line of Orange Standards.  The bottom row is comprised of a line of orange micros.  If you are shooting in the Limited Class, you engage and attempt to break the Top Row of Orange Standards.  If you are shooting in the Open Class, You engage and attempt to break the bottom row of orange micros.  If successful in breaking all of your primary clays, then you engage the black micro in the middle.

 

Round 2

     The top row in this round starts off with an orange micro, then finishes with 3 orange Standards.  The bottom row starts off with an Orange Standard, then finishes with 3 orange micros.  Depending on your class of competition, break your primaries, and then engage and attempt to break the black micro in the middle.

 

Round 3

     The top row begins with 2orange micros, and finishes with 2 orange Standards.  The bottom row begins with 2 Orange Standards and finishes with 2 orange micros.  If successful so far, head to the micro in the middle and break it if you can.

 

Round 4

     Now the top row begins with 3 orange micros, and finishes with an Orange Standard.  The bottom row begins with 3 Orange Standards, finishing with an orange micro.  If successful so far, the black micro in the middle awaits your attentions.

 

Round 5

     Now we see the inverse of Round 1.  The top row now is comprised of 4 orange micros, and the bottom row is comprised of 4 Orange Standards.  The black micro in the middle still awaits your attentions if you have completed the preliminaries.

 

     At The End Of Regulation Play, we have a couple of winners.  In the Open Class, Hal Hansen wins it with a score of 44.  This reporter was looking over his shoulder at the competition today.  Maybe too much.  Better to concentrate on the fundamentals of shooting.

     2nd Place today went to our Arrays Impressario, Chuck Treat with a score of 42.

Chuck not only knows how to array them, but he can break them pretty well too.

     3rd Place in the Open Class went to our Match Director, Chuck Nicodemus.  Chuck hasn't gotten to play on Sunday afternoons for awhile, as he is always the odd man out who rounds out the field if the numbers don't come out even.  The game has gotten a bit more interesting since last you shot, eh Chuck? 

 

In the Limited Class, Mark (OJ) Kimura has finally won a Limited Class in the GHSC Clays Matches.  OJ has a very successful history of wins in the Open Class, but until today, a victory in the Limited Class has eluded him.  Congratulations OJ, and I trust this will be the first of many, now that you've given that NightHawk of yours a taste for victory.

     2nd Place in the Limited Class today went to Alan Caron with a score of 37. Alan always shoots his Single Action Army Revolver and shoots it one handed.  Alan apparently learned to shoot while holding his horse in his left hand.  Alan, we seldom bring the horse to the Clays Matches anymore.  

     3rd Place in the Limited Class today went to Jay Schoonmaker shooting his .38/40 single action revolver.  Jay shot a score of 35 today.  Were Jay engaging old west adversaries, and they saw what one of his rounds looked like, and saw the size of the holes in Jay's revolver's cylinder, they would all just throw up their hands and surrender.  Jay would never have to fire a shot.  

 

     So that's it for this week folks.  We'll be right here next Sunday afternoon at 4PM and we'll do it again.  Next week we'll look at Page 6 of The Great Equalizer Series which will give everyone an opportunity to practice all the skills on which you have been working so diligently.  So practice properly.  Practice hard.  And practice often.  When you are practicing so faithfully, always remember:

 

"IT'S ALL ABOUT SIGHT PICTURE AND TRIGGER SQUEEZE.  THE REST IS JUST THERE TO CONFUSE YOU."

 

Hal