Results of the Isabella County Sportsman's Club 100 Yd Group Shoot 6-24-2017

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The Isabella County Sportsman's Club (Located just west of Mt. Pleasant, MI) hosted the second group match of the 2017 centerfire benchrest season. Jay's Sporting Goods of Clare & Gaylord, MI sponsors our matches with their great $20 gift certificates. I want to pass along many thank you's to Bill Nienow for being our excellent range officer. Bill really does make a match fun! And his expertise at the range keeps the match moving along smoothly. Steve Robbins prepared all the targets and made sure that everything was in order days prior to the match. Steve does a multitude of tasks behind the scenes. He sure is appreciated greatly! Harry Ross for all of his precious time devoted to the ranges. Harry is our on-the-scene accountant and his help is so greatly appreciated also! To Mike & Christy Johnston for all of their dedication in setting up the range and helping enter scores - thank you so very much! Dick Wright scores all the targets and shoots up a storm too! I know that I speak for all the competitors Dick - many, many thank you's for your dedication to the benchrest sport and for scoring targets. Heck, if it wasn't for you, Dick, I wouldn't be doing this! Ken Bombalski for setting up the target system. Doug Wetter for spending a lot of hours making the grand spreadsheet for us. And to all of the others that I have failed mention. Without your help, these matches would not be possible! Due to the disastrous flooding in the area, the 100 yard range was flooded and we had to shoot on the 300 yard range.

Now onto the results...

First the 'Benchrest Class'...
World famous benchrest bullet maker, Kenny Hottenstein, came out to shoot for the first time at Isabella and put on a shooter's show with his bullets! Kenny fired a 0.2040 on the very difficult Isabella range to take the top spot in the Benchrest Class. Kenny hauled in $20 bucks, a $20 Jay's Sporting Goods Gift Certificate, and the Isabella County Sportsman's Club Winner's Pin. It was a blast shooting with you Kenny and I sure hope that you come out to all the other matches at Isabella!

In second place was the infamous Ship's Captain, Rob Fairbanks driving all the way down from Rogers City where he moors his pilot boat aptly named 'Captain Robby' . Rob, Kurt Schultz, and Bob Zimmer travel together - Kurt from Posen and Bob from Indian River. They are known far and wide as the 'Up North Gang'. So, Rob fired a fine aggregate of 0.2248 to win second place and the High Master slot. Rob's Captain duties have been curtailed for the past few weeks due to the high winds on the Great Lakes.

Securing the final payout spot (third place) is the 'almost in the hall of fame shooter', Joe Hynes. Joe borrowed his neighbor's boat to transport his shooting gear from his house out to his truck that was parked a block down from his house. Yes, you read that right, Joe had a lake all around his property. The flooding in Isabella County is horrendous! It is actually declared a disaster area by our governor. So, Joe fired a 0.2250 (only 0.0002 separating Rob and Joe) to win $5 for third place.

The Sandbagger Award in the Benchrest Class was easily won by Art Stone firing a fine 1.1188 with his 308 Palma Rifle.

Now the 'Factory Class'...
Sometimes someone comes along and really has a hot shooting rifle. Doesn't matter what they load or what the conditions are, they flat out beat everyone and just shrug their shoulders. Dudley Pierce is that guy! Dud showed up with his factory rifle and his benchrest rifle. His factory gun far outperformed his other rifle at this match. Dudley's 0.2512 first place win earned him $20 cash, plus a $20 Jay's Sporting Goods Gift Certificate, and the Isabella County Sportsman's Club Winner's Pin. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy! Congratulations Dud!

Firing a solid 0.3234 and nailing down the second slot in the Factory Rifle Class was the local legend, Dick Hall. Dick brought out his secret load of 28.9 grains of N133 with Hottenstein bullets. He claims that secret load is the bread and butter for the Isabella range. Dick hauled in $10 cash for his efforts.

Finishing the final payout slot in Factory Rifle is Dick's neighbor, the 'across the lake guy', Kurt Krug. Kurt took a break from F class shooting and came out to duke it out with all of his pals. Kurt's 0.4342 nailed down the final payout of $5 cash in the Factory Class.

The Sandbagger Award in the Factory Class was won by Bob Blazejewski firing a 1.4256 with is 260 Remington Improved Short.

Kurt Schultz has assumed the top dog spot for the Brian Albee Low Group Award with a darn small 0.096"! I think that Kurt is going to make it even smaller with his new rifle that he is getting this week!

The next match will be a score match on July 15. I am attaching the results and the schedule. Please do come out to the Isabella County Sportsman's Club for our shoots - they are a huge blast! You can even indulge yourself in devouring one or more of the World Famous Cops & Donuts that Dick Wright buys from their bakery in Clare, MI! Our schedule is attached too!

And by the way, this line is for Jeff Aberegg....Jeff, you have been summoned by all of your pals to get off your cycle and come out and shoot!

Just the messenger boy...

Matt
 

Attachments

  • Isabella 100 Yd Group Match 6-24-2017.pdf
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  • 2017 Isabella Match Schedule 5-9-17.pdf
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Matt, a lot of our shooters probably don't know this but Kenny Hottenstein won the Super Shoot back around 2000. It doesn't feel too bad when you got beat by a guy good enough to win the Super Shoot. Each year the benchrest shooters of the world come to Kelbley's Range to see who's best in the world that year. And anyone winning has every right to claim to be the best. Ken's a good guy and so darn modest that he won't tell you.

Am I the only one who noted with some amusement that Dudley's agg with his Factory Rifle was .020" better than his (very respectable) agg with his BR gun? I'd hazard a guess that Dudley's factory gun has been massaged a bit. That's the way it should be... we are and should be trying to make our guns shoot better and better. It seems to me that any by-the-book $%$^^%$# who wants to disqualify you from Factory Class cause you put a coat of wax on your rifle is forgetting what this sport is about.

Like our matches in Harrison were years ago, Matt's matches at ICSC are turning out to be fun for everybody. If you win here, you can be proud... you beat some darn good shooters. Last match (score) Jim Dyke shot 23 X's in a freakin' hurricane. We had two Super Shoot winners in attendance Saturday and a lot of other real good shooters. There were three full relays. Any more shooters and we would need four relays. That's fine... Matt and Bill keep it running well enough that we can handle four easily, go to the bar afterward and still get home at a reasonable hour.

Food was slow in coming at the Judge's Bench. I talked to them after we ate and will be calling ahead next time. They will set up a big table for our gang and will see that the food arrives promptly.
 
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Two Super Shoot Winners At Isabella!

As Dick points out, we had TWO Super Shoot Winners at the match on Saturday, Steve Robbins (Super Shoot Winner 2007) and Kenny Hottenstein (Super Shoot Winner (2000). And we also have Dick Wright who has wrote many a fine article on the subject of precision shooting. So there is plenty of knowledge walking around at the matches here at Isabella. It's like walking into the mobile Precision Shooting Library! We are blessed to have so much knowledge at the matches.

Matt
 
Any word how Larry Gage is? His fall that morning was bad but it could have been horrible.
I hope he is doing good.

Joe Hynes
 
That may be so, but if memory serves me right Joe won the nationals that had most of the top international shooters in attendance. Plus most Super Shoots don't have all the top shooters from the US in attendance. Either way some fine shooting is done if you come out on top of either event.
 
Joe,

I didn't mean to leave you out of anything... I haven't been able to very active the last few years and I honestly didn't know... What I do know is that, for a club match up in the Northwoods, you got a lot of really good shooters to beat if you want to win here. It gives me warm, fuzzy feelings to see guys like Joe and Kenny and Lee show up, shoot well and say they had a good time after the match.

We are mid-season already. Every match more people show up. People like Fairbanks, Schultz, Zimmer, Dudley, etc, etc, get up before breakfast and drive a long way to shoot a one-agg match... They have a good time and they come back... again and again. Michigan shooters that aren't coming... your loss. The way Matt has these matches organized... if you are a benchrest shooter and not showing up... you are missing a match that is run exactly the way small matches should be.

I really like the way Dudley has his Factory Gun shooting. My goal for the rest of the year is to, just once, give him a hard time with my Ruger. I got a lot of work to do there.

Next match... score on 15 July.

Dick
 
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