WATAUGA GUN CLUB September 2016 Newsletter. Newsletter Deal:

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1 WATAUGA GUN CLUB September 2016 Newsletter Newsletter Deal: Morgan and I made a deal in which I will put together the newsletter and he will stay on as the Publicity Officer member of the Executive Committee. I was a member of the Exec. Committee for a little over 20 years which gave me plenty of time to say anything that I needed to say. It seems we cycle around much of the same topics about every three years. :: Wayne Green Nominations for Officers This brings us to the first topic of the newsletter. We need to make nominations for officers in October or at least discuss them. It used to be that you were limited to two terms in any office, but nobody would run for an office so those that would serve had to continue to do so. Currently we do not have a Range Officer or a discipline director for IDPA. Kevin Hartley was gracious enough to be Range officer and Instructor. IDPA has just been sort of running itself. Surely we can do better than this. The common statement is that I don t have the time. Well people, the last time I checked, there were 24 hours in a day for everyone. If nothing else, we have plenty of retired guys that could step up as well as plenty of younger guys that could make time if they would. Please volunteer if you possibly can. Officers for the next year: it would be great if we had multiple people running for all offices. I have one running for Treas. and one for R-O as of now. If you are interested in serving on the search committee call Morgan. Card Readers: New Card readers for the club house doors are ordered. New rules to be added to the range rules for the new action pistol bay are to be considered possibly voted on at the next meeting. Range Officer Report Club Matches The summer shooting season has been going strong the last few months. We ve had great weather this year and rarely had to deal with rain or other inconveniences. The club matches have been held twice a month. To date, Paul Isenhour is leading the Shooter of the Year points, having won or placed in most of the matches. No surprise there!! The most recent match was the August Varmint Rifle Match (3 shots at 100 and 200 yards, and 4 shots at 300 yards.). Top shooters were Steve Byerly, Kevin Hartley and Paul Isenhour. This month s club match is the 100 yard Hunter Rifle Match which consists of 5 shots at 100 yards from the bench. This match will have one more date: Thursday 9/22. If you have not shot this one, come on out! Details are here:

2 Octobers match Range officers choice to be announced. 100 Yard Rimfire Benchrest Attendance has been steady this year, with 20 to 40 targets shot in each match. It has become more popular for shooters to bring several rifles and to shoot as many as 4 classes during each match. One current trend has been the increasing prevalence of dedicated target rifles and expensive ammunition in the.22 Heavy Rifle Scope class. Don t be put off by this, though plenty of mid range rifles manage to hold their own against the high dollar guns! Remember there are classes for light rifles, and every sight type in this match, so bring whatever gun you wish and have fun shooting it at 100 yards. Match details and results are here: Current Range Issues The range is in great shape these days. Bryan and his crew have done a great job with mowing and trimming and it looks really nice. The recent dry weather has allowed the ground to firm up, so there are not any current issues with driving on the range and soft ground. Please be aware, though that when it rains, one should be very careful with driving on the range, and stay on the roads. Trash on Bay 2 and Bay 3 have been a bit worse than normal, due to high shooter activity. PLEASE throw away your shot up backers and targets and put target stands away after your range session. The dumpster is only a few steps from both of those ranges! We have had a few issues lately with shooters shooting into the side berms on Bay 2, and shooting into the ground. Remember to place targets high enough so that shots hit the backstop and not the ground after going through the target. Speaking of side berms, there is big news regarding Bay 5 and 6 New Bay 5 As a response to the increasing popularity of the action shooting disciplines, Bays 5 &; 6 have been consolidated into one large bay, and the berm on the left side has been enlarged to 15 feet in height. This now allows that side berm to be used as a backstop, which greatly improves the usability of the bay for the action shooting disciplines. Because this usage often involves drawing loaded firearms, shooting while moving, reloading while moving, and shooting multiple targets, there are a few safety rules which must be adhered to. You can expect more details on this in the future, but for now, let s expect the following rules to be put in place: -Guns must always be pointed at a backstop when unholstered. -Firearms must never be pointed above backstops or sideberms when drawing, engaging, reloading or moving.

3 -During draw, reload, or movement, the shooters trigger finger must be off the trigger, and outside the trigger guard. -Target height must be appropriate so that all shots impact the backstop. Bullets may not hit the ground in front of the backstop. -Bay 5 is the only range in which shots may be directed into a side berm. -The shooter must remain inside Bay 5 while shooting, in an area defined as within the ends of the side berms. -Targets may not be placed near the ends of the side berm, and a 180 Rule will limit where the shooter may point the gun. In a nutshell, this means that shooters may not point the gun more than 90 degrees to the left or right from the perspective of facing the backstop. This has the effect of never allowing a firearm to point toward the open end of the bay. -Only one shooter may shoot at a time, unless all shooters are sharing a common firing line and target placement. Expect to see more detail on this in the near future. These preliminary rules are still being discussed, and the Range Use Manual will be revised to include the final rules. Anyone having input and opinions on this is encouraged to contact the Range Officer with their input. IDPA Report The 2016 Mountaineer Classic went off without a hitch. There were 11 stages and 135 competitors.. I estimate that over 20,000 rounds went down range which is over 100,000 possible points. The total number of boo-boos was 157 procedurals, 15,813 points down, 257 hits on a non threat, and 156 failures to neutralize. An easy match, this was not. Comments included: This was the best match I ever shot. The match was challenging for all levels of shooters. It had some of the best stages I ever shot. This one goes into the success column. Trap Report: It has been a banner year for WGC Trap! We were represented in FLA., South Carolina, North Carolina, Va., Penn., Ohio, ILL. Major Shoot Winners are: FLA. Noah Gouge South Car. Noah Gouge

4 North Carolina State: Noah Gouge, Steve Watson, David Miller, Brian Kellner (sub. Jr.), Tom Pitts, George Sudderth, Joe Bouverette, Elijah Presnell (his first state shoot and first state jr. trophy) VA: Noah Gouge Penn: Noah Gouge Southern Zone: Steve Watson, Noah Gouge, Brian Kellner Ohio: Noah Gouge, ILL. Grand American: Noah Gouge Noah, having made the second all American team hi rookie year (last year), made it his goal to make the first team this year. With the points he won at the previous shoots he went into the Grand in Fourth place on the first All America Team. He won an unheard of 14 trophies at the Grand world Shooting Championships to finish in third place in the world on the Junior All American First Team! The total trophy count for Noah: He won 77 Major trophies and 8 local (he was at majors most of the time). CRAZY Well Done Noah!!!! We are proud of you! We are still shooting on Monday afternoons and Thursday afternoons from 4 to 8 until the daylight savings puts a stop to that; then we will keep practicing on Sunday afternoons through the winter. Come out and give it a try! If you don t have a shotgun - no worries Come anyway. We will let you borrow one to get you hooked! ~~~Morgan 22 Steel Report This is one of the fastest growing disciplines at the club. It is an excellent way to get started in the Action Pistol disciplines and to hone your skills in transitioning from target to target. You shoot six stages of fire with four stings each. You keep the best three strings for each stage for score. There are five targets per string. There are three divisions. These are iron sighted semi autos, revolvers, or optical sighted pistols of either kind. You can shoot in two divisions. There were 42 entries in the September match. Twenty four were in iron, Twelve were in optical and six were in revolver. Scores are posted on the web site. Advice to beginners on starting one of our competitive disciplines Not asked for so not worth much :: WG Action Pistol I am going to lump all the action pistol disciplines together because at their basic levels they share the same characteristics. The hardest thing to learn is that going as fast as you can is not fast. It is jerky and causes wasted motion. Fast is being smooth and eliminating wasted motion. The difference in the fastest draw in the world and the slowest is hundredths of a second if they are both smooth. How do you get smooth? You

5 slow down and make every part of the movements as efficient as possible. You do them slowly until you make them a habit. Once you reach that point you will be going faster than if you had been going as hard as you can. When training, go at a speed you can control or the habits you make will be bad ones. The only way to do this is with a lot of trigger time. Once you have made the habit, increase your speed. I have been shooting for about 60 years. The first 20, I did things wrong. The second 20 I tried to break these habits. The third 20 I started to learn how to shoot. I can tell you from bitter experience that you cannot miss fast enough to win. If anyone is interested, I will get into specific ways to practice or will try to get someone else to do so. Trap The thing about shooting a shotgun is that they do not have sights in the normal sense of the word. Your eye is the rear sight, so this means that you have to shoulder the gun the same way every time so you get the same sight picture. You do not have much of a front sight, if any so your sight picture is the target indexed over the barrel. This means you have to keep your head down. There are several methods to help you do this (none of which work in my experience). We can talk about them or get Tom, George, or Morgan to do so. Rifle. We are shooting benchrest, but should probably talk about other positions also. The first thing to consider is the eye relief you need between the scope and your eye. This distance changes in different positions. Kevin Hartley, Steve Byerly, and Paul Isenhour are good people to talk with about the various positions in shooting rifles. I will give you a couple of tips about adjusting your scope.. The first is to center the cross hairs before attaching it to the rifle. Put the scope on a mirror and adjust it until you see only one set of cross hairs in the reflection. This means the reticule is centered so you have the maximum amount of adjustment available. The other is to put the scope on a table with a ruler at the eye piece end. Shine a flashlight through the part that goes toward the end of the barrel. Move an index card down the ruler until the light gets as small as it will get (focused). This distance is your optimum eye relief..your cheek weld should put your eye this distance from the scope in whatever position you are shooting in. If you want to continue this as a regular part of the newsletter, let me know and I will try to get some people that know what they are doing to write something for each discipline. By now you are probably thinking My God, is he ever going to shut up? Yes I am. Wayne Green

6 Original message From: Steve Jones Subject:.22 2-Gun rules for October 8th Hello all. Only couple days left until our.22 2-gun match. I've attached a copy of the general match rules and scoring. I 'll go over the scoring in more detail during the match briefing. This match doesn't follow any specific sports rules, either Steel Challenge, IDPA or NSSF. We'll call ours Mountain Rules. They're fairly straight forward with minimum penaltys and are designed to keep the playing field level and most importantly safe. If you have any questions please contact me before the match. Registration starts at Match starts at 1000 See ya there. Steve and Sally PS, Just realized I didn't add anything about divisions. It's either iron or optic, determined by your rifle. Optic pistol/ iron rifle = iron Iron pistol/iron rifle = iron Iron pistol/optic pistol=optic Optic pistol/optic rifle =optic More importantly there is a 3rd division. Pistol only. Iron and optic will go head to head. Pistol only will shoot the same match using only the pistol targets. ============================ Greetings, shooters! It s time again to go shooting. Autumn is upon us, and the beginning of the brisk shooting weather, with attendant winds should be the order of the day this Sunday. 1 PM at the Watauga Gun Club hope to see you there. We ll continue with the new non-sign up sign up process. All you do is draw a bench assignment and pay your money to sign in. It s still $5.00 per gun- the best deal going! Match details attached, or on the web: On another note: I left my camera at the match on September 11. It is a Panasonic Lumix, in a black case, with a small tripod attached. It was on the 1 st bench on the range, and was also in the clubhouse. If you saw it, or have heard someone speak of seeing it or hopefully picked it up for me, please let me know. I d hate to lose it. Thanks and hope to see you at the range on Sunday. Best regards,

7 October 2016 Club Match: Range Officers Choice Concealed Carry Defensive Pistol Match The October handgun match will allow shooters to shoot perhaps the most important gun they own their concealed handgun. The match will allow legitimate concealed carry guns, either revolvers or pistols. The only requirement is that they are legitimate concealed carry guns, and may not have a barrel exceeding 4 inches in length. DISTANCE- 15 feet and 25 yards FIREARM- Any centerfire handgun, with barrel length not greater than 4 inches. Iron sights only. TARGETS- NRA B-6 and D-1 PROCEDURE- All shooting will be done from the standing position, starting from the Low Ready position (gun loaded, arms outstretched at approx. 45 degrees, pointing at the Ready spot on the ground in front of the shooter. One or both hands may be used, at the shooters discretion. Stage 1: NRA D-1 Bianchi Cup Target at 21 feet. 2 strings of 5 rounds each, in 10 seconds. At the sound of the timer, the shooter will raise the gun and fire at the target 5 times. This will be repeated once, for a total of 10 shots for the stage. Any shots fired after the 10 second buzzer will be disallowed, and the highest scoring shot will be deducted from the score. Stage 2: NRA B-6 Target at 25 yds. 2 strings of 5 rounds each, in 10 seconds. At the sound of the timer, the shooter will raise the gun and fire at the target 5 times. This will be repeated once, for a total of 10 shots for the stage. Any shots fired after the 10 second buzzer will be disallowed, and the highest scoring shot will be deducted from the score. Match score is the total of all 4 strings. LOCATION: 50 yard Bench-Rest Range (Bay 2) For Sale: A Hoyt ignite youth bow with 30 carbon arrows, three pin sight and release aid. Been shot five times. New condition. Asking $400, negotiable. Call Brian Kellner For Sale: German Luftwaffe Officers Sword and scabbard in New condition! Have photos or can be seen at Old World Galleries in Boone. Asking $ call Morgan Shaw or Charlie Travis October 2016 Club Match: Range Officers Choice Concealed Carry Defensive Pistol Match The October handgun match will allow shooters to shoot perhaps the most important gun they own their concealed handgun. The match will allow legitimate concealed carry guns, either

8 revolvers or pistols. The only requirement is that they are legitimate concealed carry guns, and may not have a barrel exceeding 4 inches in length. DISTANCE- 15 feet and 25 yards FIREARM- Any centerfire handgun, with barrel length not greater than 4 inches. Iron sights only. TARGETS- NRA B-6 and D-1 PROCEDURE- All shooting will be done from the standing position, starting from the Low Ready position (gun loaded, arms outstretched at approx. 45 degrees, pointing at the Ready spot on the ground in front of the shooter. One or both hands may be used, at the shooters discretion. Stage 1: NRA D-1 Bianchi Cup Target at 21 feet. 2 strings of 5 rounds each, in 10 seconds. At the sound of the timer, the shooter will raise the gun and fire at the target 5 times. This will be repeated once, for a total of 10 shots for the stage. Any shots fired after the 10 second buzzer will be disallowed, and the highest scoring shot will be deducted from the score. Stage 2: NRA B-6 Target at 25 yds. 2 strings of 5 rounds each, in 10 seconds. At the sound of the timer, the shooter will raise the gun and fire at the target 5 times. This will be repeated once, for a total of 10 shots for the stage. Any shots fired after the 10 second buzzer will be disallowed, and the highest scoring shot will be deducted from the score. Match score is the total of all 4 strings. LOCATION: 50 yard Bench-Rest Range (Bay 2)