NEWS and SHOOT RESULTS
Ladies and gents, here we were for the “Father’s Day Shoot”, but where were the shooters???? The temperature was well above freezing with no wind or other weather-related excuses but for the high humidity. Woke up to 65 degrees which rose to a balmy 70 degrees upon arriving at IWLA. By the end of the match, we had a heat wave of near 80 degrees. The humidity did cause some sweating and complaining about problems with hang fires later on. The stronger breeze offered both relief from smoke and an excuse for missing. We again had only SIX shooters this month. Seven counting a new member, Tom Flannery, who did not compete. Way to go for those who did show up. Per-haps the choices on targets made by Schutzen-meister JP Sherkus scared folks off. He did not disappoint having an “Invisible Critter” match. So, as a result, we had a total of 6 riflemen and 2 pistoleros. As this was an aggregate score match, and JP was planning on lots of shooters, meaning all shooters won lots of prizes again. Great to see the stalwarts who showed up.
The first 25 yard target was the “Invisible Mam-moth”. Being a new target, and quite large for 25 yards, JP has us shoot five shots at it. After all, it would probably take that many to stop a mam-moth. This new target turned out to be much harder than it looked – except for JP Sherkus who turned in a 47 2X. Art Twitchell was also not fazed by the critter and turned in a 43 1X for second. Jim Ellis shot a 29 for third, with Rich Burkhart also turning in a 29 for 4th. Jim hit closest to the X on the tie breaker. Frank Niccoli came in next with a 26 and Dave Molash hit a 10 1X to finish that target.
The next target at 25 yards was for three shots. It was an old standby “Three invisible Critters”, you had to hit each critter head once. Everyone did pretty well with this target, but JP Sherkus must really hate peeking squirrels. He turned in a 29 for 1st. Dave Molash turned in a 27 for 2nd and Jim Ellis hit a 20 for 3rd. Rich Burkhart hit a 19 1X for 4th, Art Twitchell turned in a 16 for 5th and Frank Niccoli rounded up out with a 13.
The final target at 25 yards for three shots was Art’s favorite, the “Invisible Squirrel”. Now, we only usually see this target once per year, so here it was. JP Sherkus racked up a 28 for 1st place. This was again followed by Art Twitchell with a 22 (it is/was Art’s favorite target). For 2nd. Kinda went down hill from here. Both Frank Niccoli
and Rich Burkhart turned in a 9 with Frank coming closest to the X for 4th. Dave Molash finished up with a 1.
At 50 yards, JP chose a target that caused whining the last time it was seen last year. It was the “Invisible Rhino” for five shots. Folks said that they couldn’t see it at 50 yards. Come on guys, how do you miss seeing a rhinoceros that took up most of the page? Schutzenmeister JP advised us to just shoot for the center of the target. Must have worked for him as he turned in a 46 for 1st place. Next in line was Jim Ellis with a 38 1X fol-lowed by Frank Niccoli for 3rd with a 36. Rich Burkhart shot a 31 for 4th. Art Twitchell and Dave Molash both turned in a 26 with Dave win-ning the tie breaker for 5th.
The last 50 yard target was the “white Groundhog” for 3 shots. It qualified as invisible since it was white surrounded by black trim. Anyway, guess who came in first? Yup, it was again JP Sherkus with a 28. Rich Burkhart claimed 2nd with a 24 followed by Jim Ellis with 23. Both Art Twitch-ell and Frank Niccoli turned in a 16 with Art closest to the X for 4th. Dave Molash finished up the target.
For Rifle, out of a possible max score of 190, JP Sherkus came in first with a great score of 178 2X. Seems that he couldn’t miss today. Jim Ellis came in 2nd with 125 1X, Art Twitchell was 3rd with 123 1X. Rich Burkhart was 4th with 112 1X, Frank Niccoli was 5th with 100, and Dave Mo-lash finished up with 64 1X .
There were only two Pistoleros this month, two less than last month. Anyway, the first target at 25 yards was the “Small Bullseye”. JP Sherkus was on with the pistol as well and turned in a 32. Seems he was having at least one flyer every time he shot this target. Rich Burkhart turned in a 23 for second. At 50 yards, JP chose the old standard large Bullseye. Again JP Sherkus took the lead with 43 and Rich Burkhart turned in a 34.
So out of a total possible score of 100, JP Sher-kus turned in a 75 for first with Rich Burkhart scoring 57 for second.
Great shooting all, and best of luck next month. Schutzenmeister JP was heard to say that it might be an “Interesting and enlightening” match based on the targets.