tonykharper
Well-known member
The Indoor Nationals are now in the books and results already posted on the IR 50/50 website.
If you haven't been to Page Valley, Luray Viriginia, this time of the year you have missed out.
Page Valley is beautiful anytime but right now they are just on the cusp of spring.
The pastures have greened up and there are black angus cattle in every field. Some with young calves at foot.
The weather is a little cool and the winds are still blowing but nothing too bad.
The Indoor Range, Piney Hill has had a complete make over.
The club, led by President Ryan Baker, have made many improvements to the range and cleaned the place top to bottom.
They have brought Piney Hill up to the standard shooter deserves. Not the dingy dark barns we too often see.
The energy behind arranging this IR 50/50 Indoor Nationals was Tony and Sharon Picarelli. They did a great job.
Sharon was incredible, she took care of so many things including the scoring.
I don't think there was a single change to her initial scoring of all the targets.
Harvey Reese controlled the firing line, and he kept things moving without hurrying anyone.
The shooters at this match were all very experienced. I made the only rooky mistake, and I'll address that later.
We didn't have any of the typical delays you see at other matches where shooters forget to hang their targets and things like that.
Everything went off without a hitch. A truly enjoyable weekend.
The food, oh the food, was good and plentiful. No one goes hungry at a match Ronnie Leaks caters.
He puts out a spread. Especially the baked goods, his baked goods are special.
Attendance was down but we expected that.
We had shooter come from as far away as Ireland and all the way west to Illinois. Quite a spread of distant.
This weekend focused on shooting IR 50/50 Sporters. This isn't for everyone.
The IR 50/50 sporter is a 7.5 lb. rifle with a 2.25-inch forearm, shooting off sandbags, with a 6.5 power scope.
You can only see the two outer black rings on the targets.
The inner scoring rings and the X dot can't be seen.
The way many shoot the target is a little like using a peep sight.
You can see the white of the target and many use a dot in the scope, they center the dot in the white and judge where the middle is.
If you are perfectly sighted in, that works, but if you need to hold off. It becomes difficult to judge how much you are holding of.
For many that is where the real fun comes in.
This is much different from shooting unlimited rifles off a one-piece rest.
When a new shooter is sat down behind an unlimited rifle with a one-piece rest, and he looks through a 45-power scope he sees a bull that looks as big as a basketball.
He then feels just how settled the rifle is in that one-piece rest and how light the trigger pull is, he thinks ... shucks... I can do that.
Take that same guy and sit him behind a sporter and let him feel that 7.5 lbs rifle sitting on a sandbag then let him look down that scope at the target and the first thing he will say is how am I supposed to hit something I can't even see?
It takes a special shooter to accept the challenge.
We were lucky enough to have those guys gathered together for a Nationals focused on shooting the sporters.
Everyone at the match was a winner but some left with mementos to remember the match. A full list of all the winners can be found on the IR 50/50 website but I've included pics of a quick overview.
If you have other information you would like to add about the weekend or pics to post, please post them here.
TKH
If you haven't been to Page Valley, Luray Viriginia, this time of the year you have missed out.
Page Valley is beautiful anytime but right now they are just on the cusp of spring.
The pastures have greened up and there are black angus cattle in every field. Some with young calves at foot.
The weather is a little cool and the winds are still blowing but nothing too bad.
The Indoor Range, Piney Hill has had a complete make over.
The club, led by President Ryan Baker, have made many improvements to the range and cleaned the place top to bottom.
They have brought Piney Hill up to the standard shooter deserves. Not the dingy dark barns we too often see.
The energy behind arranging this IR 50/50 Indoor Nationals was Tony and Sharon Picarelli. They did a great job.
Sharon was incredible, she took care of so many things including the scoring.
I don't think there was a single change to her initial scoring of all the targets.
Harvey Reese controlled the firing line, and he kept things moving without hurrying anyone.
The shooters at this match were all very experienced. I made the only rooky mistake, and I'll address that later.
We didn't have any of the typical delays you see at other matches where shooters forget to hang their targets and things like that.
Everything went off without a hitch. A truly enjoyable weekend.
The food, oh the food, was good and plentiful. No one goes hungry at a match Ronnie Leaks caters.
He puts out a spread. Especially the baked goods, his baked goods are special.
Attendance was down but we expected that.
We had shooter come from as far away as Ireland and all the way west to Illinois. Quite a spread of distant.
This weekend focused on shooting IR 50/50 Sporters. This isn't for everyone.
The IR 50/50 sporter is a 7.5 lb. rifle with a 2.25-inch forearm, shooting off sandbags, with a 6.5 power scope.
You can only see the two outer black rings on the targets.
The inner scoring rings and the X dot can't be seen.
The way many shoot the target is a little like using a peep sight.
You can see the white of the target and many use a dot in the scope, they center the dot in the white and judge where the middle is.
If you are perfectly sighted in, that works, but if you need to hold off. It becomes difficult to judge how much you are holding of.
For many that is where the real fun comes in.
This is much different from shooting unlimited rifles off a one-piece rest.
When a new shooter is sat down behind an unlimited rifle with a one-piece rest, and he looks through a 45-power scope he sees a bull that looks as big as a basketball.
He then feels just how settled the rifle is in that one-piece rest and how light the trigger pull is, he thinks ... shucks... I can do that.
Take that same guy and sit him behind a sporter and let him feel that 7.5 lbs rifle sitting on a sandbag then let him look down that scope at the target and the first thing he will say is how am I supposed to hit something I can't even see?
It takes a special shooter to accept the challenge.
We were lucky enough to have those guys gathered together for a Nationals focused on shooting the sporters.
Everyone at the match was a winner but some left with mementos to remember the match. A full list of all the winners can be found on the IR 50/50 website but I've included pics of a quick overview.
If you have other information you would like to add about the weekend or pics to post, please post them here.
TKH
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