TargetTalk

First of all, I am grateful that the people who make the National Matches happen managed to keep them going at Camp Perry this year despite the federal budget cuts that must be causing difficulties for the Ohio National Guard. And, of course, I appreciate the work of all the range personnel who slogged through the mud and overcame the technical difficulties on the ranges.

Next, congratulations to Brian Zins on yet another title. He was already amazing when he surpassed Bill Blankenship's win total at Perry and his legend just continues to grow. It's even more impressive this year because Zins had to overcome a saved round in the .22 match.

Also, congratulations to John Zurek for his second place finish. There was a time a few years ago when I didn't think we'd ever see civilian shooters take the top two spots at Perry.

Drainage was a problem this year. Even though we had dry, sunny weather for the last four days of the matches, early July was extremely wet in Ohio and the ground was saturated. The rain that fell early in the week caused minor flooding in many of the huts and turned the ranges into a quagmire.

Is there any practical (i.e., cheap) way to deal with the poor drainage? Soggy huts make it hard to attract new shooters to the sport and having some shooting benches on relatively dry ground while others are partially submerged seems unfair. I am not a civil engineer but I imagine that there's no easy solution.

Zins and Zurek: both former US Marines.

Zurek also won the Air Pistol match, with Brenda Silva (both from Phoenix Rod & Gun) placing third, but winning the women's class.

I kind of thought the mud was an advantage - once you had you position set your feet were stuck there. LOL

Orpanaut wrote:First of all, I am grateful that the people who make the National Matches happen managed to keep them going at Camp Perry this year despite the federal budget cuts that must be causing difficulties for the Ohio National Guard. And, of course, I appreciate the work of all the range personnel who slogged through the mud and overcame the technical difficulties on the ranges.

Next, congratulations to Brian Zins on yet another title. He was already amazing when he surpassed Bill Blankenship's win total at Perry and his legend just continues to grow. It's even more impressive this year because Zins had to overcome a saved round in the .22 match.

Also, congratulations to John Zurek for his second place finish. There was a time a few years ago when I didn't think we'd ever see civilian shooters take the top two spots at Perry.

Drainage was a problem this year. Even though we had dry, sunny weather for the last four days of the matches, early July was extremely wet in Ohio and the ground was saturated. The rain that fell early in the week caused minor flooding in many of the huts and turned the ranges into a quagmire.

Is there any practical (i.e., cheap) way to deal with the poor drainage? Soggy huts make it hard to attract new shooters to the sport and having some shooting benches on relatively dry ground while others are partially submerged seems unfair. I am not a civil engineer but I imagine that there's no easy solution.

I haven't competed at Perry for several years, but IIRC the draining system in the hut area collapsed many years ago, so the large grated drains are useless. It would cost a tremendous amount of money to replace the old drainage system. Since the huts are only used a few weeks a year, the OHNG probably won't do anything about it. The OHNG probably isn't motivated to do anything about the firing line for the same reason. It would only benefit National Match shooters and only for a couple of weeks a year.

Would it be possible to add a couple more inches of concrete to the hut foundations? That wouldn't do anything about the muck outside but at least it would keep the interiors above the water line.

As atrocious as the conditions were this year i bet they try and do something rather than just talk like they did last year after the ranges broke then too. If they dont fix things many will just skip the nationals is my feeling. Ive been twice, 02 and 04 , both good weather years except for wind in 02,but even that long ago one range broke so this is a long on going problem someone should do something about or move it to somewhere that is better equipped.

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Could the NRA lay down duckboards behind the shooting benches? Or gravel?

The NRA can't, Camp Perry is operated by the state of Ohio.

Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

Do it yourself! Drag over an old pallet with the rest of your stuff, or have your devoted love slave do it.

Trooperjake wrote:The NRA can't, Camp Perry is operated by the state of Ohio.

Duckboards wouldn't be a permanent range feature. They would just be temporary wooden platforms, similar to pallets, laid down when the benches are set out and removed when the benches are put back into storage. I don't see why the OHNG would object.

(Does the NRA own the benches, target stands, control towers, and other portable structures used for the pistol matches? Or does that stuff belong to the CMP or to the OHNG? Is it stored on-site at Camp Perry?)

The "do-it-yourself" idea has merit, but I think keeping conditions as similar as possible for all competitors requires some sort of uniform solution.

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It was reported that the speeches at the first shot ceremony indicated that many improvements are planned for housing, etc for the base. We'll see.

As far as the shooting conditions and ranges go, everyone gets about the same place to stand, rotating relays try to get everyone shooting during a different part of the day and it rains on everyone, at the same time.

If we wanted to find the best shot, we'd make everybody use the same benchrest gun and be firing in a enclosed warehouse or something. Or maybe have a rule book as thick as the olympic shooting rule book.

I like to remember that Perry is a match, a contest fired over a period of days, with changing weather, conditions, and many issues. As with most contests, its not the best athlete (shooter) that generally wins, but the best competitor.

I also like to think about the roots of our pistol shooting sport. Dismount wherever you have to; hold the reins in one hand so you won't lose the horse; hold the gun in the other hand and the first shot counts, so no sighters. Bullseye!

Cecil

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In the big scheme of things, the trials and tribulations experienced by the shooters at this year’s National Pistol Matches at Camp Perry are kind of small potatoes. I whole-heartedly agree with 641’s comments though. This is the “World Series” of our sport. The fact that, after a hundred years of history at Camp Perry, the facilities haven’t gotten any better than they are is a sad state of affairs. Most of us have experience shooting at clubs throughout the U.S. that have facilities that put Camp Perry to shame.

There has been lots of talk in the past couple years about the introduction of “electronic target systems”. If there is money enough to do that, then you would think they could at least have paved firing lines, and paths to the targets. Of course electronic targets will eliminate the need for the shooters to go down range. But it would still be nice to have firm footing to stand on, for all shooters; regardless of where you get squadded. Another advantage to the electronic targets is the “spectator aspect”. The addition of that technology has made a huge positive impact in the shooting sports at the Olympics.

Well, I suffered this year, with the wind, and mud.


Look on the bright side, most of the huts had running water.

I left a big tip for the maid at the Travelodge. I ended up having to wash my boots in the bathtub, and my jeans also to get enough mud off of them to put them in the washing machine.
I took my boots off outside the door, and would have taken my pants off there too if I could have avoided getting arrested.

Just put my shooting boots in the washing machine. They still stink.


Still better than staying at home. I guess I am crazy enough to show back up next year. What else am I going to do?

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As far as "duckboards" or pallets in the mud- not allowed by NRA rules.

waxman wrote:As far as "duckboards" or pallets in the mud- not allowed by NRA rules.

There were a couple of guys by us that tried to use their shot up targets and were quickly told they would be disqualified or any shots they took a while standing on them would be a zero - it wasn't clear which but they got off them pretty fast.

I dropped a target in the mud at the targets to deal with mud while scoring and it was picked up. No unfair advantage to that !

A rack of pallets would have prevented the soft earth and standing water from mudding up

It was only chance that I grabbed a pair of boots on the way out the door

That was a first !

I actually had my best scores ever. I fixed some issues I had and shot better in the wind than in the calm (match vs teams on same day)

regards