Results October Topstraps Timed Rimfire Challenge Match

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Decent weekend for the final match of the year, no rain but was cool and Saturday and Sunday had pretty brutal wind. There was a couple stages I was holding nearly on the next target to the left to get hits. In some ways I'm glad it's done for the year but in other ways I will miss watching everyone shoot. I want to thank everyone that came to shoot this year, I hope you found it challenging and fun and hope to do it all again next year. I've seen a lot of improvements in shooters skills and also equipment this season. Ammo availability was tough for some this year so I let shooters use whatever they could find which somehow ended up being higher end stuff for some. I've watched 10's of 1000's of rounds sent downrange and the higher priced stuff for the most part is more consistent but if the shooter doesn't do their part and become friends with Mother Nature to see what she's telling you then the best ammo in the World isn't going to give you an edge when shooting these distances.

I had a bounty on Chris' score last year, if it was beat and they won the match they'd recieve $50.00. Chris nearly beat it but a pesky small bowling pin just kept dodging and ducking and used up a few shots which also caused an extra reload so he missed last years time by 23 seconds and 13 more misses. Derrick tried really hard to beat Chris' score and was close to him this year but thankfully for me I didn't have to pay out the bounty. Maybe next year, everyone said they saw a few things they'd do different next year to try and gain time and also less misses. Bob Brown and myself shot single shot guns, Bob shot an old Winchester 52 pre A with a Unertil scope and I shot a Russian Vostok with an old SWFA on it. Bob nearly got all the targets but time ran out of time. He shot really well for this not being his type of match he excelles at. I managed to finish with a couple minutes left over but got hung up on a small bowling pin that just did not want to be hit.

It was fun watching what happens when the buzzer goes off and for some any game plan you might have had goes up in smoke. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember and felt like I was participating in a slow motion train wreck. This match shooters started at 25 yards and had to engage each target left to right and clean each rack before proceeding. No spotting was done, shooters had to see their own hits/misses and they could take a sighter shot on a bigger plate at each distance to get back on track any time they felt it was benificial. Those shots came out of their 100 rounds in the bowl so it was like getting a miss each time you used one but it could also save you a lot of misses if you were off. The spotter will only call a MISS if you miss but can't tell you where it missed or hit. Remember this as it's important along with the clicking up and not looking at the turrets for me. So, 20 minutes to shoot 75 targets with 100 rounds in a bowl, sounds easy doesn't it? Come try it next year.

Occasionally I had to remind a shooter missing 3 or 4 times on a target to use a sighter to see what was wrong and then they usually finished up cleaning that stage. Very useful if used when needed. Quite a few shooters had little snafus with quite a few fumbling with the rounds in the bowl and when grabbing for them the lube on the bullet got spread on the brass casing and felt like you were trying to grab a slimy nightcrawler and stuff it in the magazine. Some were dropped on the ground and a lot of shooters went home with soiled pants legs from wiping off their hands. Made for a fun match though. Nearly everyone had that one stage that had them stalled, shoot all around it, go for a sighter and be dead perfect and back to that pesky target and still couldn't hit it. Caused quite a few a lot of valuable time and shots.

Scores were calculated using a calculation similiar to Comstock, targets hit plus any unused rounds added minus any targets left which gave you your total point value. The time used in minutes was converted to seconds and added to any seconds left to give a total seconds used. The Total Points were divided by the total time (seconds) to give a number which to make it easy we moved the decimal over 3 spots. We tried all combinations of speed, targets hit or left and it always came out the best shooter won. For any doubters Chris shot with at least 5 witnesses watching him shoot each gun. I have a video of the Izhmash shooting thru and I'll try to get it posted up on Youtube later. Not bragging but it was quite a performance with both guns. It does go to show that a semi-auto or even a magazine fed gun isn't always an advantage, the old slow is smooth and smooth is fast thing is a perfect way to describe watching that old Anschutz Single Shot with an old SWFA 16X scope and $4.50 Eley Target ammo run thru the racks.

Quite a few shooters shot very well, in some ways too well. I told them when they finished they had too many dead center hits and too many targets left unshot when they ran out of time. You can still be precise shooting the longer distances shooting faster than normal but gotta know when to buzz thru and when to slow down for a smaller target. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, normally it takes about an hour to run thru my racks at a normal match but once a year I finish up with this just to have some fun at the end of the season. Hope to see everyone back next year probably in the second weekend of April.

A star (*) next to their placement means they shot a Single Shot gun. No Handguns tried it this year.

The number after their name is which time they shot thru. Some shot more than once.

First Row: Score Name Gun Used Scope Ammo
Second Row: Time used Targets Hit +Rounds Left -Targets Left =Total Points Time Left from 20 minutes

1. 167.27 Chris Kirkpatrick Izhmash Biathalon Arken SH-4 SK Biathlon
9:10 75 +17 -0 =92 10:50
2 155.37 Derrick Warren (4) CZ 457 Athlon SK Longrange
10:05 75 +19 -0 =94 9:55
3. 153.08 Derrick Warren (2) CZ 457 Athlon SK Longrange
10:01 75 +17 -0 =92 9:59
4. 125.71 Matt Gallagher CZ 457 Vortex Strike Eagle Eley Match
11:48 75 +14 -0 =89 8:12
5 123.35 Derrick Warren (1) CZ 457 Athlon SK Longrange
11:21 75 +9 -0 =84 8:39
6. 118.21 Phil Polmisano Anschutz 1700 SWFA 20X RWS Eley Team
13:49 75 +23 -0 =98 6:11
7. 117.64 Derrick Warren (3) CZ 457 Athlon SK Longrange
11:20 75 +8 -0 =80 8:40
8. 113.40 Mark Hall CZ 457 Vortex Viper Eley Match
12:56 75 +13 -0 =88 7:04
9. 107.38 Tim Humphrey Vudoo NF SK Biathlon
14:54 75 +21 -0 =96 5:06
10. 92.28 Randy Wise Savage MK II Arken SK Longrange
17:42 75 +23 -0 =98 2:18
11. 89.85 Dustin Fletcher CZ 457 Athlon Eley Bench
15:46 75 +10 -0 =85 4:14
12.* 85.29 Dennis Kirkpatrick Vostok CM-2 SWFA SK Biathlon
17:47 75 +16 -0 =91 2:13
13. 77.85 Herman Crooks Rim-X NF Center X
17:59 75 +9 -0 =84 2:01
14. 75.76 Bill Nesbitt CZ 457 Vortex Eley Match
16:22 75 +8 -11 =86 3:38
15 75.29 Matt Gallagher (1) CZ 457 Vortex Eley Match
15:43 73 +0 -2 =71 4:17
16. 74.64 Kenny Arnold 10/22 Vortex CMP Eley
17:25 75 +3 -0 =78 2:35
17.* 74.17 Bob Brown Winchester 52 Single Shot Unertil Lapua Polar Bia.
20:00 69 +26 -6 =89 0:00
18. 72.50 Matt Dillon CZ Vudoo Athlon CCI SV
20:00 69 +23 -6 =87 0:00
19. 70.09 Dave Callipare Vudoo NF SK Bia.
19:30 75 +7 -0 =82 0:30
20. 68:50 Scott St. Clair Savage Vortex Eley
19:57 75 +7 -0 =82 0:03
21. 66.67 Alvin Taylor Savage MK II SWFA Eley Club
20:00 67 +21 -8 =80 0:00
22. 61.67 Butch McCort CZ 457 Bushnell CCI Std.
20:00 55 +39 -20 =74 0:00
23. 58.33 Jim Lochary CZ 457 March SK Biathlon
20:00 54 +37 -21 =70 0:00
24.* 57.17 Jerry Shaw H&R Single Shot SWFA SK Bia.
17:47 68 +0 -7 =61 2:13
25.* 43.33 Chuck Wagner H&R Single Shot SWFA RWS Target
20:00 35 +57 -40 =52 0:00
26. 37.50 Karen Marsh CZ Ultra Lux SWFA CCI Std.
20:00 57 +6 -18 =45 0:00
27. 36.67 Rich Harris Ruger Vortex SK Bia.

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