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WEEK FIVE NEWSLETTER
WEEK 5, Half the Season is Complete.
One of the things I enjoyed last year was writing the news pages. The season was full of surprizes with a lot of great groups and scores in both classes. There was always something extraordinary to write about, or someone... This season had a few bright spots but with all the other things I'm doing now, including shooting, I have not had time to spend on the news as I'd like. Truth is, I have a ton of work to get done for the World Open and really should not be spending time here now. As I sat here bored, I thought about a lot of interesting stats and with me being a "statistician" and all, I figured at the halfway point in the season, it would be nice to compare this year to last, and give a few trivia stats about how this year has gone.
To start with, we are now at the end of match 5 and in the light gun class there is only one person who has a 90 agg. That's a 90.000 agg. In past years, I'd have said there were 10 people with aggs IN the 90's and this or that person was at a 9x.xxx agg. Well, this year if you can even smell the 90's, consider yourself lucky. At this point in the season, we now have a total of 10 people who if they shot 5 100 scores, could break the 10 match record. Shannon Ammerman has an easy path to that! She only needs 4 98's and a 97! Going down the agg standings from her, it gets a lot tougher.
For group in the Light class, we do not have a shooter agg'ing in single digits. John Stahl has a 10.0596 agg and that leads everyone. There are only 6 people agg'ing under 11 inches and only 13 under a foot. If you're feeling bad about the groups you've been firing lately, don't. Everyone else has had those days too.
Not leaving the Light class just yet, there's a few interesting things the database can tell us. Looking at the relay wins for group this year, the average group fired to win a relay so far this year is a 9.3604. Now for score, on average you need a 91.32 to get a relay win. Wow, looking at these numbers I see that the highest score to win a relay for score was me with a 98! Others shot higher scores but they won for group. Who'd have fig'rd. At the same point last year these numbers would have been 7.962" and for score, a 93.333. Eleven scores under 90 have won a relay for score. The lowest being a 67 won by Ray Carley who, has been in some UGLY relays. On the Group side, only 19 relays have been won with groups under 8". 16 relays have been won with groups larger than 10", 10 of those were over a foot. The largest being an 18.175" relay win for group by Kathy Saltalamachia. The next closest person was over 21". Wow, nice shoot'n Kathy!
As many of you know, 50th place in the aggs is what I use as a barometer of how the season is going. This season is at 15.8208 and there's only 8 more people in the 10 match. Actually, even the numbers of shooters shown on the website as having fired are not accurate because the site looks at who had at least 1 shot on paper to determine if they were in the match. We've actually had a lot of targets this year with 0 shots on paper. (I'm one of em). The numbers are crazy this year. In the Score agg, 50th place stands at a flat 76.000.
The Light Gun Winnerlist points are led by John Buhay! Nice going John. I'd be the first to say that I'd have bet the farm you couldn't do it in a season like this using a 6mm but there you sit and it's not from getting lucky relays. Keep up the good work.
The Heavy Gun Class... There's your warning, so if you want to stop reading now, this is the part you want to miss. It's worse yet!
Incredible as it may seem, we only have one person agg'n in the 90's in the heavy class too. Wow, Eric Springman is sitting on a 91.000 5 match agg. Sitting in second place with an agg of 89.6 is Boyd Heaton and if Boyd shot 5 100's to finish the season, he still couldn't break the 10 match score agg record even to tie and get it on a group tiebreak. Eric, Good Luck. You can drop 6 points and still get it. You only need 4 99's and a 98.
On the group side of the Heavy Class, we have 7 people with an agg in the single digits. Under 11" we have 15 shooters and under a foot, we have only 21 There's only 50 people left in the 10 match agg after that horrible week one mess we shot in. That match saw 29 people off the paper without including the shootoffs. In the score shootoff only 4 people had shots on and Sarah Morgan won with a 42. Adding those 7 shooters who had shots off the paper in the shootoffs brings the total to 36. Median score on the day was a 65. (not including the zeros of course, otherwise it was a 46 for 107 targets.)
Average group size to win a relay for group this season was 8.86104". For score the average winning score was a 91.4286. As I look to see what last years averages were at match 5, I see that the data for previous years does not include the field for win so I can't pull out the winning targets. I'll have to write something to fix that and add that data back in later on. I won't even bother with the 50th place group and score aggs because of the fact that there's only 50 people left in the 10 match at this point. I'll wait till the end of the season and do the 6 match aggs to compare.
The last item I have for the Heavy Class is the winnerlist points and anyone who's seen the newsletter knows that Mark King is leading that by a mile. When I look at his shooterstats page, I see a lot of blue. In fact, in the Heavy class, that's all I see. He's had 4 1st's and 2nd's in the 5 shootoffs this season. He must have been tired of winning because he let someone else have a shot at it this past week. Nice shoot'n Mark. In my few years at the club, I've never seen a performance quite like this.
Despite the generally tough conditions some folks are still shooting some nice groups and scores. I know I'm still having a great time shooting this season despite a host of bad days spread throughout my stats. A bad day shooting is still better than a good day at work. The club is running as smooth as glass. The matches are running at a record pace and the 600 yard matches also add a lot to the whole weekend shooting experience. If you've not tried the 600 yard matches, you really should. They're a lot of fun and they show a lot of things that are hard to see at 1000, without quite so much 'noise' in the information the target gives you. I know I've learned a few things by shooting those matches.
I had a conversation following match five with a few of the guys and they thought a lot like I do that regardless of the conditions, regardless of who wins or looses, the shooting is still as much fun as it's ever been. Despite the horrible conditions the guns STILL try to shoot small. I see guys who are amazed at the conditions they just shot in and that their gun still shoots incredible clusters of bullets in what is simply impossible conditions. As I look around the club I see a lot of guns that are built or loaded specifically for the conditions we have at this range and people get the guns to shoot in this stuff. I'm amazed.
The drawing for relays for the World Open looks like a 99.9% chance it will be a computer drawing. I'm still working on the program to do that. It will save all of us a ton of time on Friday night. I'm not sure how to handle walk-ons for Saturday. I'm not even sure how many there might be, if any. I do know that the relay assignments for both days will be posted on Friday Night (however late). If things go the way I plan, they should be available by around 7pm. Hopefully not later than 8pm. I'll make an announcement on the homepage and on Benchrest Central when I am sure there will actually be a computer drawing. I expect to have that answer in the next 48 hours (before Thursday night July 5).
As a final note, I'd like to wish everyone who's entering the World Open, all the luck in the world. There's a great bunch of prizes to shoot for, I wish everyone could get one but the club simply can't afford enough so we'll just have to give them to the folks who shoot the best this weekend. This is a crap shoot if ever there was one. All it takes is relay here and a relay there and you might just come out on top. Lots of people have equipment that will get the job done. Getting Mother Nature to cooperate is the hard part. Again, best of luck to everyone next weekend.
pb
Newsletter Job is STILL Open!
I'm going to let this paragraph here till there's at least someone who mentions their desire to have the job. If anyone out there would like a very low paying job that's about as thankless as can be, let someone in the administration know and we'll get you started! Seriously though, the newsletter is to a point where it's not a huge job, it's now just a little time consuming on Sunday night and Monday. Requirements would be that you have to have broadband internet to do the work and test the files. Must have knowledge of how to do very minor photo work. The photos are basically ready to put in all except doing a rotation of 90 degrees on the ones that are shot portrait for the front page. From there, you have to understand FTP enough to drag and drop a few files and that's about it. There's a program which makes the newsletter from the data entered in the target room so there's very little typing involved. The Pay is $0.00, so if getting rich is your aim, you're applying for the wrong job. Especially in the summertime, I just don't have time to do all the clerical things that need done around the club and should move some of these things to other people and get more folks involved. I'm making a guess that 3 to 5 hours is plenty of time to do what needs done. If you can spare that much time on the monday following the match and would be willing to take over this responsibility, please step forward and give it a shot. This does require a computer with the capability to deal with various camera cards also.
Thanks in advance for considering this.
Week Five Articles from Joe and Frank
A Word From Joe:
I want to thank Tom Kenyon for bringing steps to the range. Tom built the steps so we can use them to get to the back bank to spread clay birds. The steps fit perfectly up there. It will make the job so much easier and safer. Tom is one of the club's founding fathers, still an active member and he really cares a lot about the club. Building and donating these steps is just the latest in a long list of things Tom does for his club. Anyone who sees him should say thanks. Tom hasn't been able to come to many matches lately because his wife, Pat, has been sick and we wish her the best.
We have great prizes for this year's World Open, as usual. I believe our event has the biggest and best list of prizes anywhere in the country. We have many fine scopes, barrels, and other shooting tools and equipment. I don't know of any other shooting event that can compare. Our long list of sponsors are very generous. I want to thank Bill Shehane for sending one of his stocks for the WO. This is a fine gesture and a great example of how we're moving forward in getting all our 1000 yard disciplines together. I agree with what Bill said to me, we're having a real "World Open" this year. All 1000 yard rifles are welcome and the results should be interesting. For those who may still be worried about shooting against 17 lb. guns, let me give you an example of something that happened this past match. A new shooter, Vinny Lijoi, shoot his 16.5 lb. gun, built by Bruce Baer, on Saturday and won his relay. On Sunday he took the brake off his gun and shot it in the heavy gun class. He won his relay (you may remember Sunday- it was pretty breezy.) I was down in the pits for the shoot off and watched his shoot off shots come in. His first 8 shots were under 7 1/4 inches. Unfortunately he had a bolt problem before he could finish. He got his last two shots off but the 10th shot wasn't in the group. I think Vinny is a real competitor and his Pa. legal gun will match any gun that may be at the Open. Another example is what Jason Baney did with his light gun in the heavy gun class last year, he won the overall heavy gun award.
Judy Smith will be serving a turkey dinner with all the trimmings on Friday, July 13th. It will start about 6 PM. The cost will be $7.00. Saturday will be the WO dinner. The club will furnish turkey and ham and all the extras to all WO shooters. Extra dinner tickets can be bought for $7.50. Don't forget our silent auction. Thanks to all those who have donated items and Shauna will continue to accept any donations. We're still selling penny raffle tickets for the scope. It's hoped that the remainder of the tickets will be sold at the Open. We'll have a drawing for a winner as soon as the tickets are gone. Thank you Melissa Wagner for your time and effort in selling the tickets. Our $10.00 gun raffle tickets are still for sale - this is one of our biggest fund raisers, please buy or sell these tickets. We have some really great guns in this raffle. See Debbie Hendrix who is doing all the gun raffle work (thanks, Debbie).
It would be appreciated if anybody who plans on coming to the range Thursday or Friday could give a hand checking to make sure targets are ready to go and we need to rake the back bank. We need to check overall to make sure everything is ready to go for the world open weekend. I'll be there Thursday, just come see me.
We did check to be sure we can order plaques for shoot off winners and, yes we can. If anyone wants a plaque for winning or placing in a shoot off see Sarah, Debbie, or Kathy and let them know. The plaques will be the next size up from the relay plaques and the cost will be $20.00. Thank you Chip Wagner for taking care of the club's plaques. It's been a huge help.
Debbie Hendrix is now officially our new assistant secretary. No one else came forward saying they were interested in running for the position. Thanks, Deb. You do a great job.
Wayne, keep my $5.00 safe, I'll get it back next match. You got me this time.
Joe Salt
From Frank Grappone:
The last shoot before the World Open is in the books, and if you're not ready now- get crackin'. There has been a lot of interest created around the country based on our allowing "local rules" for the Open. Many entries are coming in from different club's shooters to try out our range. If you haven't sent in your entry fee- get crackin'. We have a real opportunity to show off our range, show some different shooters some good old Pennsylvania hospitality, and put a good old fashioned whippin' on them. Let's show all of them why we're the Original and the best.
Prizes are coming in on a steady basis now and we should have the best prizes ever for our World Open shoot thanks to the efforts of Matt Dienes and Melissa Wagner. Jeff Mertz is firing up the skillet and got some special formula rubs to put on the meat to make our evening meal on Saturday night a real treat. As a reminder, there will a silent auction held during the shoot as another way to help raise money for the club. If you have some item at home that you no longer have a use for and someone else may be interested in, bring it to the club for the auction. Look around- one man's trash is another's treasure. I've seen some of the stuff that's been coming in and its "interesting". Got an odd can of powder at home that you'll never use? How about some bullets? Cleaning stuff? Antiques, collectibles are all in order.
Bob Vanderline stopped by the range on Saturday to see an old acquaintance- Bob Aronson and asked if he could shoot a relay? Bob Aronson hesitatingly volunteered his rifle for Bob to use. You see Bob keeps great records on all his rifles and knows that there are 1600 rounds down this barrel and its ready for the scrap heap. Its been shooting terrible all year and Bob's been trying to figure out which gunsmith he's going to let chamber this new barrel. After all- if it won't shoot for Bob- well you know the rest of that phrase. Well if you look closely at the photographs for this week's winners and look way down at the end. Yes that fellow standing there is Bob Vanderline. Which brings me to this week's quote- "usually its the nut behind the bolt" right Bob?
We had another well attended 600 yard match on Saturday after the light gun match. The match went really well and it appears that all the kinks that needed to be worked out have accomplished. Shooters continue to refine their shooting skills at this new discipline, in fact Frank Weber shot the first 50 score. With the new targets this quite an accomplishment. I guess Frank's still got it. We will have the fifth match the next regularly scheduled light gun match. We feel very confident that we can host a fine shoot no matter the number of shooters that show up. We will approach the club this winter with rules, procedures, and schedules to go forward and affiliate with the 1000 yard club for the next year. At that time there will be more familiarity, relay winners will be recognized, aggregate winners will be rewarded with plaques and cash prizes as with the main club. We feel confident that the club will be paid for improvements that have been made and we will have a viable 600 yard club affiliated with the Original 1000 yard club. We felt an obligation to make sure that we could run it efficiently and to the standard expected by the club shooters. We think we're there with minor improvements yet to be made.
I want to thank our World Open sponsors:
Baer Custom Rifles
Bartline Barrels
BAT Machine Company
Berger Bullets
Brownells
Bruno's Shooters Supply
Cabalas
Clymer Manufacturing
Dave Manson Reamers
D&B Supply
DuPont Machine
JB Custom Products (John Buhay)
Jerry Phillips Optics
Hart Rifle Barrels
Hornady Bullets
Mark King Rifles
Kelbly's
Knight Bullets (Brady Knight)
Kowa Optimed, Inc.
Kreiger Barrels
Kunzler & Company, Inc.
Lawton Machine, LLC
Leupold & Stephens
Lilja Barrels
Lyman Products
Midway USA
Montour County Rifles
NightForce Scopes
North Manufacturing, Inc.
Pacific Tool & Gage
Redding Reloading Products
R.W. Hart and Son, Inc.
Shilen Barrels
Sierra Bullets
Sinclair International
Simms Vibration
Shooter's Choice
Springman Rifles
Sure Feed (Tim Sellers)
TM Solutions
Troxells Sporting Goods
More sponsors are still yet to be confirmed. These will be listed on the website right up until the day of the shoot should more be added.
The deadline for early registration for the World Open is the 11th of July. Get your entry in now. I've got mine in so I guess I'll get back to making that strawberry jam.
End of report.
Oneflyer