Pics and Results, Salem 4/27

[Renegade]

Results:

We are changing the schedule at Salem. There will be one more stand alone Air Rifle Benchrest match, the NorthEast Regional on June 29-30. Beginning with our 5/18 match, all of our remaining weekend matches are cancelled. We will shoot a sanctioned USARB scoreline match every Wed. evening starting at 5:30pm alongside our Rimfire BR shooters. There will be a limited number of benches available for us to shoot Air Rifle BR with the RF shooters at their monthly weekend matches. I will post announcements for those matches a week or so before the match. I cannot guarantee more than 3 benches will be available at these matches but their could be as many as 8. First come, first served and I'll do my best to coordinate with Pete Roberson, our RF BR MD, to determine how many benches will be available as far in advance as possible. There are 6+ benches available for AR BR at tomorrow's (Sun.) match.

As the President of the club, I cannot justify announcing in advance that the range will be closed for a match only to have to cancel the match because of lack of interest. This wasn't an issue before this year with our small membership, but the one thing we can thank our current NY Dictator...oops, I meant Governor, for is driving people to join up at their local gun club!
Todd Banks

 

[Brian_K]

That’s very disappointing news Todd, especially after all the hard work you and the rest of the guys have put in and the success your club has achieved in air rifle benchrest.

Hope it all works out for you.

Brian

 

[Dave Shattuck]

Todd,

I know I'm no one to speak out as I've only been to Salem on a very limited basis, but that really sucks.

I can relate though as years ago I tried running an IR 50/50 State Unlimited Championship when only 5 showed up (10 were needed to make it Official). That did it for me running Unlimited Matches, but that was a long time ago. Oh, and by the way, that was the only time I ever shot back-to-back 250's at an IR match, which ended up counting for nothing being done at a non-Official match.

Looking forward to your Big June Showdown.

Dave

 

[Renegade]

Dave,
I know as a Match Director you know how much work goes into organizing and running matches. We don't just show up at the club the morning of the match, shoot, and then pick up after the match. The planning starts months earlier, coordinating with (or attempting to coordinate with) every range within a reasonable driving distance of our ranges. In your and Paul's cases, it's a political battle with other disciplines within the club. This group needs this date, this group needs this facility/storage (and doesn't want to share!) and the club members don't want to give up their only free days at the range because a few benchrest guys want to shoot a match. I'm lucky at Salem because the only other organized shooting sport is Rimfire Br and Pete and I are good friends and work together on the schedules. Then there is meals, and please don't take this the wrong way. Some ranges supply meals, some don't. I happen to enjoy cooking and sometimes lunch is my favorite part of running matches here at Salem. When I announce that a match will include a meal, it means I've already bought the ingredients and will have that meal ready to eat or cook at the range on match day. This is out of my pocket. I'll eat the lunch I planned for Sat. match until I get sick of it, then throw the rest of it away.
Sorry for the rant. My ONLY point in this thread is to try to educate our shooters about how much work is involved in giving you all a place to shoot. I realize that Rick and I are the only dedicated AR BR shooters within 3 hrs driving time of Salem. I had a great time shooting along side our RF shooters today and hope that someday we can get to the point that there are enough local Air Rifle shooters to make it feasible to run stand alone Air Rifle BR matches. Until that time, we'll shoot alongside the RF shooters....and try to sway them towards Air Rifle by continually pointing out that a competitive air rifle costs the same as a competitive rimfire Br gun, ammo is about 90% cheaper, and we can get all the pellets we want!
Todd