A Few Pics from the Smallbore Sil Nationals

[w30wcf]

A portion of the range


14 target setters did a great job of setting and painting the targets



firing line





a couple of shoot offs

[lone ringer]

Thank you for the pictures John. Do you have any more?

[Jason]

Hehehe.. BH is the same height as Mary is when he's sitting and she's standing. Love that picture.

[dan222]

hi folks,
very nice pictures, but!!!!! a lot of shooters and spoters are not wearing any type of glasses, this is not good, and people should wear shooting or saftey glasses near the firing point. sorry but they all know better.....dan

[kitsap]

hi folks,
very nice pictures, but!!!!! a lot of shooters and spoters are not wearing any type of glasses, this is not good, and people should wear shooting or saftey glasses near the firing point. sorry but they all know better.....dan

No kidding........ somebody somewhere was asleep at the switch!

DougF

[mordecai]

Is the whole firing line gravel?

[Bob259]

Is the whole firing line gravel?

Yes, SB and HP ranges

[w30wcf]

Tony,
Here's a few more.....













Regarding eye and ear protection, all competitors and spotters were instructed to use them.
Most everyone I saw were using ear protection but some chose not to wear glasses for whatever reason.......

w30wcf

[teetertotter]

Yes, the pictures are very nice!! I am surprised too, that eye wear was an option. Nobody is allowed to shoot at our club at ANY discipline w/o eye protection.
State pistol and SB Sil are held at our club each year. They must have some kind of sifter for extracting brass casing? Perhaps it is a fairly new facility with improvements to be made. I am surprised too, there is not a rifle/bench rest along side each shooter. Maybe it is in their future planning too. The front fence rail serves the purpose for clips and ammo plus score card storage. I am colored blind and the white banks of animals are hard to distinguish against light back ground.
Black animals would be the preference for distinct animal clarity against light background? Perhaps the black scope dot against a white animal would be an advantage? It sure looks like a very nice Sil range that most everyone would like to have!! I wonder how many competed in the SB Nationals?

[CZforlife]

The reason why so many had no eye protection was because it's was raining in like 2min waves, then it would clear up, but it was still hot enough there that there was a visable steam running right in front of the line and down range. Was almost impossible at some points to see the turkey line with no glasses on, so with glasses it's would have been practically impossible at some points!

[Bob259]

.............. They must have some kind of sifter for extracting brass casing? Perhaps it is a fairly new facility with improvements to be made. I am surprised too, there is not a rifle/bench rest along side each shooter. .............. I wonder how many competed in the SB Nationals?

In order.....
1) The .22 brass stays in the pea stone
2) Long established facility
3) The have movable benches that are moved away from the firing line during the match
4) Believe it was 121

[Innocent]

tt, actually the HP animals are black against the same kind of dirt, much more difficult to see than the SB. The most noticable thing about Ridgway is the gullies around the turkey/ram lines that is not visible in the photos, you need to go downrange to see them.
Great range to shoot and fantastic hosts at that club. One of the best range command callers ever, even at dinner after the match we all went running for our rifles!

Mary

[teetertotter]

What a very nice turn out in deed. Nice to see some young people!! I might just see about nationals next year as an experience.

[lone ringer]

I wonder how many competed in the SB Nationals?

There were 143 entries for Smallbore Sil Rifle and 126 for Smallbore Hunter. There were 106 Hi Power Sil shooters and 96 Hi Power Hunting Rifle competitors.
That is what I was told by my good friend John Kort

[Daddio!]

What a very nice turn out in deed. Nice to see some young people!! I might just see about nationals next year as an experience.

Hi teetertotter!

If I'm not mistaken, one of the members here had told me that next years nationals are out at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, NM. My brother lives just up the road in Trinidad, CO and I've been trying to get the family out there ever since he moved there years ago to teach at the gunsmithing school. So, we're tentatively planning a trip out there for next August so I can experience shooting the smallbore sil nationals, have some work done on a few of my rifles, tour the gunsmithing school, and of course spend a little time in the mountains. I may have to make it a two week trip if I can manage to take the extra time off work. At this point our plan is just in the dream stages but I was just talking to my brother about it last night and I'm going to try and make it happen if all possible. It'd be great if it worked out that you'd be there for the match too.

It's too bad that Beloit doesn't have a range for high power silhouette so the nationals could be held there one year. Your rimfire range is by far the nicest I've seen in person or pictures, not that I've been to a lot of silhouette ranges in my short time shooting this sport. It sure be nice to have the nationals close to home and I think it would do a lot to promote the sport in our area. Oh well, a guy can dream can't he?

I'm looking forward to shooting the WI state match at Beloit next weekend. I'm going to try to make it up there for the Thursday evening match providing my work load permits. I'll have to play it by ear at this point. I have our last club match of the year at Sycamore on Saturday so I may have to just use that as a warm up for the state match on Sunday. See you then!

Take care,

Pat