18 Guns Entered
3 Ladies In Class: Class won by Gitti Anable with a score of 36
2nd Lady: Stephanie Stevens with a score of 30
3rd Lady & the youngest junior in the match: Aubrie Guenther with a score of 20
4 Juniors: Class won by: Brian Tinner with a score of 37
2nd Junior: Jacob Iverson with a score of 33
3rd Junior: Kirk Foreman with a score of 32
4th Junior: Aubrie Guenther with a score of 20
9 Open Guns: Class won by Darren Foreman with a score of 47
2nd Open: Tim Kopp with a score of 45
Tie for 3rd Open between John Iverson & Hal Hansen with scores of 43
9 Limited Guns: Class won by Jay Schoonmaker with a score of 40
tie for 2nd Limited between Gitti Anable & David Lee with scores of 36
tie for 3rd Limited between Jacob Iverson & Tim Anable with scores of 33
Good afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen, and welcome back to Gig Harbor Sportsmans Club and another "Spring" Day Clays Match. Before, briefly during, and following the match it sprinkled rain, it was heavily overcast all day, and the temperature hovered at about 50 degrees. Enough said about the weather. The first order of business today is to thank our Match Staff, in the persons of our Match Director Chuck Nicodemus, our Scorekeeper & DJ Doug Mclean, and our Arrays Impressarios Chuck Treat and Darren Foreman. Gentlemen, this was a fun match and a good re-introduction to the matches after a holiday. Thank you very much indeed for your efforts. So let's look at what all this talent brought us.
Today our Arrays Impressarios Chuck Treat & Darren Foreman presented the Helter Skelter match that we missed last week when we stayed home and helped Mom celebrate her day. It returned today with a vengence, and was sufficiently intense that this reporter has named it: THE RED MENACE. Most of the clays were bright RED, ranging in size from Standards, slightly smaller Midis, a red micro, a black micro with a tiny red center, and instead of the black micro in the middle, there was instead substituted a white 1" wide plastic bottle cap.
The first array presented was an inverted V in the center of the screen with each leg comprised of 4
clays, with the bottom clay a red Standard, decreasing as the leg ascended to the top clay being a black micro with a tiny red center. Then in the middle of the expanse between the legs was the white bottle cap, referred to by one and all as the "aspirin tablet". This array satisfied Round 1, and then Helter Skelter began with Round 2 and the following arrays were left to the imagination of the good people hanging the clays between strings of fire.
The rules for this match differed from the norm a bit in the following ways: 1) No shutouts, you get the score you could hit, and it was up to you to beat your oponent to the aspirin tablet, I mean the bottle cap.
2) All guns, Open & Limited, shoot at the same targets and the same arrays.
3) Chuck & Darren set the first array, and after that it's up to the imagination of the good folks hanging the clay targets as to the clays position on the screen.
The initial impression of the field today was that the array presented in Round 1 emanated from the tortured minds of our Arrays Impressarios Chuck Treat and Darren Foreman. Though that opinion will persist into the future, there are good reasons and lessons to be learned from Round 1, indeed from all 5 rounds. Success in this game requires a variety of disciplines and skills, primary among them is Trigger Control. It may appear that a 4" Red Standard Clay, compared to the other, smaller clays on the screen, is unmissable. So the shooter gets in a hurry, jerks the trigger and misses every clay target on the screen. ooops!!
2) The formations of the clays varied by the string, some resembling sort of straight lines, while some required going from a higher row to a lower one. Just shooting them as you see them requires moving the firearm laterally as well as vertically, and it's really easy to overshoot your point of aim, again resulting in misses. The shooter needs to determine the route requiring the least motion possible, and have the discipline to adhere to that route. For sure there will be enough movement necessary that speed must be apportioned anyway, and there is no point in making it worse than it already is. Keep it simple, or at least as simple as possible.
In sum: Trigger control, discipline of speed and picking the route with the least motion are the elements of success in this game. It's mighty fine training.
We had 3 Ladies shooting with us today, Gitti Anable, our Ladies Class Clays Veteran, won the class today. Stephanie Stevens, back with us after too long of an absence, took 2nd place in the ladies class. A young lady that shot in both our Ladies Class and our Junior Class, Aubrie Guenther. joined us for the first time today, and did herself proud shooting a score of 20 in this very difficult match. Young Lady, be advised: If you will stick with this competition, study your fundamentals of proper shooting, and develop proper techniques, with your young eyes and reflexes you will be very very successful, very soon, and have a great time shooting the matches as well. Welcome to our sport, and we hope to see you often. M'Lady, you did well today. You may be young, but you have talent just waiting to be developed. The older folks had better not look back, as you're going to be gaining ground in leaps and bounds. Once again, welcome to our sport. Ladies, Well Done!!
4 Juniors joined us today, and the class was won by clays match veteran, Brian Tinner. In second place was another clays match veteran and successful shooter, Jacob Iverson. 3rd Junior was claimed by Kirk Foreman, another veteran, and of course our 4th place Junior was our new Lady, Aubrie Guenther. Well done, Juniors.
In the Open Class today, we had some close scores, and a tie. The Class was won by Arrays Impressario, Darren Foreman. Tim Kopp took 2nd Open and a tie score claimed 3rd place between John Iverson and Hal Hansen.
In the Limited Class, Jay Schoonmaker took the win with a score of 40. We had a tie between Gitti Anable & David Lee, both shooting scores of 36, while another tie resulted for 3rd Limited between Jacob Iverson and Tim Anable, both guns shooting scores of 33. Uh, Tim, just in case you forgot, your wife, Gitti, won her Ladies class, and also she beat your score. Gitti shot a score of 36. Just in case you forgot.
OK folks, next week our Arrays Impressarios Chuck & Darren will bring us Page 1 of The Great Equalizer Series, starting another rotation of the series. While this may seem like we are once again entering familiar territory, there is always the possibility that Chuck & Darren may occasionally throw us a curve ball, requiring extra attention and flexibility. Be Ready!!
Until next week then, we'll see you at the range where we'll practice diligently so we'll be ready for whatever the fates, and our Arrays Impressarios, may throw at us. Remember your proper techniques
and don't skip over the fundamentals. We'll see you next Sunday at 4:00PM and we'll see what is in store for us then. Remember the most important points of shooting:
"SHOOT FAST! SHOOT ACCURATELY!! BUT MOST OF ALL -
SHOOT SAFELY"
Hal
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