The Last of The Tennessee State Champions

Bart

Member
The Last of the Tennessee State Champions!


For those who haven't looked closely at the stats from Unaka, there was some pretty impressive shooting that started with a race to the finish line for the 5 shot Unlimited between Ralph Stewart, Don Hardeman and Tim Singleton. Ralph pulled out the win by .001 shooting .1610 over "Don The Beast Hardeman's agg of .1611. Not to take anything away from these two fine aggs, but Tim shot a .1628 with a bag gun for third place. Very impressive shooting to say the least!


Here is a picture of The Tennessee State 200 yard Unlimited Champion Ralph Stewart! Ralph has been absent from competition for about a year now. With a newly replaced and healed shoulder, Ralph has returned! It's good to have you back!


Tim Singleton is our Tennessee State Heavy 200 yard Champion. Tim started the afternoon the same way he did in the morning's Unlimited agg and that's shooting lights out! I battled him as best I could but he was far to powerful for me to handle! When the dust cleared Tim was victorious by his agg of .2126 to my .2168


Here is a pic of Tim our Tennessee State 200 yard Heavy Varmint Champion and his lovely wife Jan! Great shooting Tim!

The Light Varmint 200 yard started out as a dream agg for myself. The day before I shot V133 and switched to LT 32 on Sunday morning following Don "The Beast's" lead. My gun was on fire starting match one with a .199, match two .372, match three .281, match four .310! After four targets I was running a .1452 agg. Alas, it was not meant to be. An unfortunate "double" turned what would have been around a .280 into a .672. The final agg was an .1834 and still good enough for the win, but " Oh what could have been". Terry Leonard the maker of some of the "worlds finest stocks" followed with a .2018.


Evidence!!!!


After lunch the running aggregate was posted. It was clear by the stats, it was now pretty much a foot race between Don and myself for the 4 Gun. Going into the final agg it was myself with a .1969, The Beast with a .1993 followed Tim " Young Gun" Singleton with a .2211. I had text Andy Shifflet the results up to that point. He was kind enough to tell me before the match started, "If Don beats you by .072 thousands he kicks your a$$, Just Sayin'"

Standing going into the final aggregate.

Some back ground information needs to be added here. Don and I are reloading shoulder to shoulder in Strangler's (aka Gary Sullivan's) trailer. We are also shooting side by side on benches 6 and 7. So it's a pure head to head competition.

The Sporter began by myself gaining a few thousandths on Don (.458 verses a .397) However on the second group Don took all of that back and then some by shooting a .433 to my .591. At this point we are pretty much dead even. The third group I managed to get a few thousandths back but not much.

The forth and fifth matches were certainly the defining moments of not just the match, but of Don's ability as a shooter to not only "take a punch" but to "give one back!" Going into match 4 Don caught his condition first and rifled off a nice .352. I watched him shoot the group and thought it was around a .280. I looked at Don when he finished and gave him a "thumbs up and nice group!" At this point I'm thinking I'm screwed! But my gun my shot like a laser and I lucked into a .161. Don shook his head and laughed! Strangler is in the spotting scope yelling "Only F-ing Bart would do that!" I was so tickled I couldn't stop laughing either. At that point I figured it was a wrap! But not so fast! On the final group, I started in a pretty good push that was blowing right to left. The group was in the mothball but was taking up quite a bit of real estate. I figured it was a big 5! Don starts his group in some pretty nasty left to right conditions. Disaster lurked with each shot, but he managed to pull out a knot! I thought it was no bigger than a .240. I figured mine was a .570. I looked at Don and said "Great job! I think you just won it!" Truly a spectacular finish under pressure. I'd say this bodes well for things to come for Mr Hardeman. He took the yardage with a .2122 to my 2178 for his first win and to become the Tennessee State 200 Yard Sporter Champion! The 4 Gun was too close to call! When the final targets were hung Don's was a little larger then I though (.271) and mine was a bit smaller (.493). As I looked at the targets Matthew Keller the match director and statistician came up! I said "who won?" He said "the yardage?" No no! I think Don pretty much stomped us for the yardage! The 4 Gun! He said "well I had to peak and see myself, but I can tell you the difference was .0004 ten-thousandths." I said ,Matthew are you going to make me suffer?" So he took pity and told me I had won. I really thought Don had it! Matthew did a great job measuring targets but that was close enough no one will ever know who really won!


Here is Don "The Beast" Hardeman the Sporter Tennessee 200 yard Champion.


The reason for the title " The Last of the Tennessee State Champions" is this is the final match to be held at Unaka Gun club. Sadly waning club support and the burden of putting on the match by a handful of talented young folks is just to much. So this is the last shoot to be held there.

On the bright side of things it was an incredible match for many reasons! Old friends have their health back and have returned to shooting! New shooters like Tim Singleton, Don Hardeman and Gary Sullivan are coming on strong. The head to head competition was great. That type of situation comes along rarely! (Only once when I stomped Andy Shifflet for the win at the Nationals have I had so much fun!)

But the greatest thing about the whole shoot was learning that a very talented young man whose life was out control, lost, and no hope has found Jesus! That young man is Matthew Keller and I'm very proud of him. Just like he told me when I asked, if he had found Jesus. He said "Yes I have! and It's amazing the wonderful things that are happening in my life now!" For the Christians that are reading this they know exactly what I'm talking about! For those that don't! I hope someday you do!

Many thanks to the "Unaka Fabulous 5" for putting on such great matches over the years! Your effort are much appreciated and will not be forgotten!


Matthew Ring leader Match Director and Statistician


Chrystal Range Officer


Sean Target Crew


Chris Target Crew


Dalton Target Crew


Bart Sauter The Last Tennessee State 4 Gun Champion
 
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Awesome weekend of shooting. Outstanding job by Bart and Don to stay on top of things all weekend
Bart, thanks for sharing the best news of all.

Tim
 
Hopefully not the last Tennessee State Shoot. If we get Kettlefoot, Bristol, it is a Tennessee corporation whose owner is Kettlefoot Recreation Inc.

Where did you get that Warriors Path Disc Golf pic of Matthew, Bart?


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Bart, thanks for the great post and pictures and congratulations on the win. The picture of you with the decidedly non-short range BR stock piques my curiosity??
 
Bart, thanks for the great post and pictures and congratulations on the win. The picture of you with the decidedly non-short range BR stock piques my curiosity??

Scott,

That was a pic taken at a long range match in St Louis!

Bart
 
Hopefully not the last Tennessee State Shoot. If we get Kettlefoot, Bristol, it is a Tennessee corporation whose owner is Kettlefoot Recreation Inc.

Where did you get that Warriors Path Disc Golf pic of Matthew, Bart?


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Jerry

I found it in Facebook! I tried to take a picture of Matthew at the match but my iPhone wouldn't work! I think he broke it!

Bart
 
Congratulations Bart! Nice write up. You had me cheering for Don!
Looks like Matthew is the big winner! :)
 
I had wondered why Unaka wasn't listed in the 2016 schedule lineup for the SE Region on the NBRSA site. Sure hate to see it end. I can remember when it started and the boys who's blood, sweat and tears went into starting NBRSA sanctioned matches at Unaka back in the early 90's. I was living in Greeneville Tn then. The day they dynamited the back bank to get 200 yards had the whole club and half the town there to watch. Sadly we have since lost one of those that helped start it and the original instigator-designer now lives in Virginia somewhere. I remember these founding guys even pulled off doing the NBRSA Rimfire Nationals there. That was a feat in itself. I believe it was only their second year into doing NBRSA Sanctioned shoots when they were asked by NBRSA to host the Rimfire Nationals. They accepted the challenge and pulled off a magnificent 7 day event along with some of the biggest names in shooting for sponsors. Can't remember exactly but I believe they even gave around 5 bench rifles away. And the Centerfire matches always drew 60 plus participants. Seems there was always 4 relays in those days. Would have been for long days had it not been for the well oiled machine they had assembled.

Anyway, sad to see the loss of the Unaka matches and sad to see the withering of NBRSA sanctioned clubs in the region. There use to be so many that there was a sanctioned shoot twice a month in the region back in those days. A lot of fine people both now and back in those golden beginning days gave a lot to start this and continue this at Unaka for over two decades. But hopefully with the return of Roanoke to the mix, maybe this downward slope will reverse.
 
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What's the chance of getting Unaka back?


CCBW, I think the "power team" that took over after the passing of Norman Jones is still working on it. Dunno what will be the outcome.

We are looking at possibly getting shoots back at the Bristol club, Kettlefoot. About 5 years ago we spent some $85,000 upgrading the Bristol range, adding a new firing line and 30 new benches only to loose the intended range officer in a non fatal but dehabilitating accident.

The perplexing thing is why the big drop-off in participants. The very first center fire shoot I was in was at Unaka and there were 63 shooters. This final event in 2015 there were only 13 shooters??


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I was just talking with a fellow shooter this morning at breakfast and he passed some names by me about the founding members that had started benchrest at Unaka for all of you interested in that history.

The original instigator was a guy by the name of Tommy Rollins. He was a good friend of James Messer, NBRSA SE Regional Director at the time and Jim Carmichel. I think the idea to sanction Unaka was born at the Super Shoot they all attended together. They approached the Unaka board with the idea and got enough support to go ahead with it.

Tommy Rollins was project manager along with invaluable help from one of his friends named Jerry Ewing. Tommy got a lot of advice from another local friend named Claud Smith that had been the person responsible for getting NBRSA matches at Kettlefoot. Together, all these guys built one hell of a NBRSA Match facility at Unaka where there wasn't even 200 yards to start with, ample parking, electricity and crummy benches.

Tommy signed the club up for its first sanctioned shoot three months from the beginning of the facility build and he and his friends made the deadline. The reason they were successful in such a short 90 days is a tribute to the good senses of the Unaka board. The board believed in their project manager and his people and stayed out of the way.

Up until the late 90's Tommy ran the matches at which time he turned directing over to Jerry Ewing so he could shoot his own matches. In 2000, Tommy had a death in his family and had to move in order to take responsibility of raising two grandchildren by himself which I am told effectively took him out of traveling to benchrest matches until these two children were raised. At that time Jerry Ewing took the bull by the horns.

Since then, Jerry has passed away and my history recollection of what happened from there is absent. I am told that Tommy is living up in Virginia and I am told he has a private 1000 yard range on his farm with covered benches where he and a few close friends get together and play once a month. He has to be at least 70 if not older by now.

One of the guys we have breakfast with in the mornings knows how to get hold of Tommy and said that he would pass the information of the loss of Unaka on to him. I'm sure this will break his heart after all the effort he and his friends put into the initial development of Unaka as a sanctioned NBRSA range.
 
Additional Unaka info. Mike Murray was the president of the Unaka club for many years and was a supporter of the benchrest events there. Mike passed away last year and the Unaka club ended up with a club president currently who is not interested in benchrest. His view, apparently, is the club, being a paid membership, should not block paid members for the two annual benchrest matches that takes the facility away from its paid members for several days. Mike Murray could justify his support because the club made a profit when there were some 50-65 shooters. Like I had written earlier, this most recent shoot had only 13 shooters. I'm sure this lost money for the club. When the target crew has to buy the morning donuts themselves.....well, you figure it out.


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Additional Unaka info. Mike Murray was the president of the Unaka club for many years and was a supporter of the benchrest events there. Mike passed away last year and the Unaka club ended up with a club president currently who is not interested in benchrest. His view, apparently, is the club, being a paid membership, should not block paid members for the two annual benchrest matches that takes the facility away from its paid members for several days. Mike Murray could justify his support because the club made a profit when there were some 50-65 shooters. Like I had written earlier, this most recent shoot had only 13 shooters. I'm sure this lost money for the club. When the target crew has to buy the morning donuts themselves.....well, you figure it out.
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I remember Mike Murray from the early 90's. He was definitely a visionary. From some of the history being passed on to me it is my understanding that Mike knew that Tommy had been manager of all the range facilities at Quantico for years and on top of that had been assigned the task by Quantico to design, layout and build a new long distance range at Quantico. With his knowledge of what was needed to put on sanctioned NBRSA events for a range plus his years of managing and building ranges for the Marine Corps, Mike saw that Tommy was perfect for this job. And I am sorry for failing to give credit to Mike in my original message - The visions and collaboration between Mike and Tommy brought successful sanctioned NBRSA to Unaka along with the help of a lot of talented people they assembled, some of which have regretfully been lost to us. And then all of those who carried the torch for so many years after those beginnings.

I can probably understand the reasoning behind what you say is this new president's reasoning behind dumping sanctioned benchrest at Unaka. It can't be profitable with just a little over a dozen participants. I think that is the single most biggest reason behind the loss of so many sanctioned clubs in the Southeast Region over the last years. As for the participants themselves and why their numbers are dropping off, I can come up with a couple of dozen good reasons that we all are aware of.

I am just as guilty as a lot of others that have left Group shooting for other venues. Years back I turned my three point blank PPC group guns into mid range and long range score guns. I had a lot of reasons but one of the biggest reasons was that most all score events are single day events which means I don't have to own and maintain a house on wheels any more. That was a major expense in multi day Group shoots for me. Now, if I want to, I can get up every Saturday morning and drive to a range within 150 miles of me and participate in a non sanctioned or sanctioned score shoot and be home in time for late supper.

As far as the clubs go, it has to be more cost efficient for them to run a score match than a group match and we all know all of the apparatus and personnel needed to run a successful group match. Don't get me wrong, I dearly miss group shooting but converting to score shooting gave me a lot more options as to where to do close in regional single day events.

I personally think that all of these clubs that were sanctioned group shooting facilities should have had the vision not that many years ago to see what was on the horizon and started converting to single day score events. I mean I could be wrong but what I'm seeing is that single day score shooting facilities are not having the same problems as multi-day group shooting facilities.
 
OK, if there were only 13 competitors that showed up, the first thing that needs to be done is increase that number. I suppose I knew that but was trying to avoid it. Any suggestions?
 
OK, if there were only 13 competitors that showed up, the first thing that needs to be done is increase that number. I suppose I knew that but was trying to avoid it. Any suggestions?

Before you can try and come to any conclusion on that, you first have to look at it like the question "What came first, the chicken or the egg". IOW...... Did participation drop off because the number of clubs diminished or did the number of clubs drop off because participation diminished?

Possible reasons for Club Drop Off:
Participation Diminished
Too Expensive any more
Internal Club Help Diminished

Possible reasons for Participation Drop Off:
Number of Clubs Diminished
Too Expensive any more

It appears to me that there is one common thread between the participants and the clubs and that is economics. Speaking personally, I know that I had twice as much disposable income In the eighties and early nineties to spend on benchrest toys than I do now. It is just a whole lot cheaper for me to shoot a single day score shoot with pre loaded ammo than a multi-day group shoot with loading at the range.

A lot of people's response to that might be that if I can no longer afford to play the game then sit home on the porch and read Reader's Digest. Well, problem with that is... there just might be a sizable number of past participants that are doing just that.
 
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