Center Fire Benchrest Match 1- January 13, 2013 at Mission Rod and Gun Club:
It was cold! Mission Rod and Gun Club is in the mountains and there was snow on the ground but the day was clear and windless. Still 7 shooters showed for the first match of 2013. Some of our regulars could not make it this time due to travel challenges, but it was nice to see Paul Koivukoski back to take a clean sweep of the factory class. Mind you he was the only factory class shooter, but he shot well. And Frank Oblak a serious F Class shooter joined us again. This time Frank brought a Hunter Sporter in 6.5x55sw that he is going to rebarrel in 6BR and put onto a benchrest stock Joe Mendham had. We may be moving him over from the Dark Side (at least once in a while). Sam Parrotta shot the best he has with the Remington 700 I passed on to him and he just bought Joe Mendham’s beautiful BAT so we anticipate he is soon to contend for top honours. Lowell Boyd brought another of his immaculate home built rifles and shot a few excellent targets with it. Wally struggled with a very cranky trigger which I think was freezing up. And me, well my mind froze. While showing some onlookers all about handloading between sets I neglected to prime my brass. The first shot I fired was extremely quiet. A good lesson for me; I need to concentrate on one thing, especially when loading ammo. Wally did remark however that I saved a fair bit of money by not using primers……and look at all the powder I did not use up…..
The course of fire for this match again was five 100 yard Hunter score targets and we decided to close up shop after that because everyone was getting cold. (Except Frank- those F Class shooters get tough lying on the ground) We had hoped to do some 200 yard targets to begin preparation for the Fraser Valley Invitational VFS Match May 5. Mark that on your Calendar!
No one shot a perfect 55 target this time, but both Joe Mendham and Sam Parrotta shot one 54 each. Joe won the aggregate again. He has not been beaten since we began last year. I am starting to be convinced that this is not luck, much as I hate to admit it. However Sam and I both have new guns and are going to tag team him.
We welcome newcomers and if more information is wanted please contact me, Jim Latham, at lathamconsult@telus.net or phone me at 604-795-0618. Please feel free to pass this summary on to anyone you wish who may be interested.
Next Club Match will be on Sunday February 10th. Registration at 8:30 AM. Match commencing at 9:00, completing at 11:30. $5 fee.
Name Rifle Class Calibre 1 2 3 4 5
A Relay
Jim Latham benchrest 30BR 48 48 Brain Fade Ctd. 96 5
Joe Mendham benchrest 6ppc 50 51 51 54 52 258 1
Wally McDonald benchrest 6ppc 50 45 48 48 Trigger 181 4
Sam Parrotta benchrest 6ppc 54 50 50 49 48 251 2
Lowell Boyd benchrest 6ppc 50 43 48 49 49 239 3
Paul Koivukoski Factory 6BR 50 46 44 49 48 237 1
Frank Oblak Hunter 6.5x55 Sw 37 37 41 37 38 190 1
For those of you wondering about the scores over 50 per target, we score the pencil dot center as an 11 rather than counting as X rings so a 255 would be a perfect target.