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Article published August 7, 2007
Real shooters spit in the eye of bad weather

CAMP PERRY, Ohio — Outdoor competitive shooting, as conducted at the National Matches here, has something fundamentally in common with football: Unless lightning and thunder are threatening, you play.

Witness the inaugural M1A Springfield Match on Sunday morning here at the Ohio National Guard’s marksmanship base along western Lake Erie:

Show-up time on Rodriguez Range, rifle and registration packet in hand, was 0710 on the military clock. Commence fire: 0730. First raindrops, about 0731, continuing thereon in a light to moderate fall till about 1330.

By the time shooting relays 3 and 4 finished the match’s final shots and relays 1 and 2 finished their second turn at pit duty about 2:30 p.m., all hands were soaking wet. Yours truly certainly qualified for that distinction, though his middle-of-the-pack marksmanship was not especially distinguished.

OUTDOORS DATEBOOK
Tonight — Public trap and skeet shooting, 6 to 11 p.m., Camp Perry Shooting Club, Camp Perry,
State Rt. 2 west of Port Clinton, repeats Thursday 6 to 11 p.m. and Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Call the
club, 419-635-2682.
Tomorrow — Hike of Peninsular Farms, Fremont, 6:30 p.m., meet at Sandusky County Park
District headquarters, Fremont. Call the park to register 419-334-4495; also, Sunday, hike at Blue
Heron Reserve, 6 p.m.
Thursday — Trapshoot, 5 p.m., Fulton County Sportsmen’s Club, County Road 14 just north of
Wauseon; visit www.fultoncosportsmenclub.org.
Thursday — Trapshoot, 6 to 9 p.m., Ottawa Lake Sportsmen’s Club, 9480 Memorial Hwy., Ottawa
Lake, Mich. Call Jim Smith 419-360-4910.
Thursday — Bird study, profi le on the Bonaparte’s gull by noted naturalist Kenn Kaufman, plus
birding at The Wilds with Shane Roberts, at Black Swamp Bird Observatory, 13551 West State Rt.
2, Oak Harbor. Call to register 419-898-4070; also, Saturday and Sunday, Ohio Young Birders Club
overnight fi eld trip, call BSBO; also, Saturday, hike the dikes at Magee Marsh and Ottawa National
Wildlife Refuge, 9 a.m., meet at the Sportsmen’s Migratory Bird Center at Magee, 13229 West State
Rt. 2, Oak Harbor.
Thursday — Public trapshoot, 6 to 9 p.m., Ottawa County Conservation League, Martin-Moline
Road, Martin. Call Bob Reinbolt, 419-855-8409.
Thursday — Trapshoot, 6 p.m., Sandusky County Sportsmen’s Club, State Rt. 600 east of Gibsonburg;
also, Saturday, cowboy action shoot, safety meeting 9:30 a.m., call Ken Vajen 419-874-6969.
Thursday and Friday — Public trap and skeet shooting, 5 p.m., United Conservation and Outdoor
Association of Hancock County, Township Road 243 north of U.S. 224, and east of Findlay, Friday, 8
p.m., protection trap. Call Don Borkosky, 419-427-4236.
Friday — Star watch, 8 p.m., Beaver Creek Preserve. Call Wood County Park District 419-661-
1697; also, Wildlife displays by Mona Rutger, Back to the Wild, at W.W. Knight Nature Center,
29530 White Rd., Perrysburg; also, all week, pond dials at W.W. Knight.
Friday — Naturalists’ Camera Club of Toledo, 7:30 p.m., Secor Metropark Nature Center, Central
Avenue entrance, program on bird photography by Brian Zwiebel. Call leader Jim Hagan 419-842-
1015; also, Saturday, fi eld trip to Oak Openings sand dunes, 9:30 a.m., meet at Wilkins and Reed
roads parking lot.
Friday through Sunday — Second annual Jaqua’s 1000 trapshoot, daily starts 9:30 a.m., Jaqua’s
Trap Club, 900 East Bigelow Ave., Findlay. Call the club 419-422-0912.
Saturday — Canvasback Gun Club, open house, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., 3801 West Dunbar Rd., Monroe,
Mich., bowshooting, minirounds of trap, must be 18 or with an adult, call 734-241-2875
or 734-731-0741.
Saturday — Walking your dog on the dunes, 7:30 to 9 p.m., Oak Openings Preserve Metropark,
Buehner Center porch, leashes; also, bird study for adults, 9 a.m., swallows, at Blue Creek Conservation
Area/white barn, Schadel Road.
Saturday and Sunday — Toledo Muzzle Loaders, Buck’s Famous Two-day Silhouette Shoot,
daily at 11 a.m., Clinton Boothby Memorial Range, 875 Schwamberger Rd. Call Kent Snyder 419-
474-0113.
Saturday — Toledo Naturalists’ Association, Shorebird fi eld trip, leader John Szanto, meet 8 a.m.
at Tony Packo’s, Front and Consaul streets.
Sunday — Bowshoots: Tomahawk Archery, fi nal leg of Southern Michigan Crown Jewel, register
10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 2085 Erie Rd., Temperance, Mich. Call Jay Kimura 419-351-8190; also, Wildwood
Bowmen, Delta, register 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., call Mike Halpin 419-822-4030; also, Willard Conservation
Club, register 8 a.m. to noon. Call Rob Cabello 419-935-0285.
Monday — Public trapshoot, 6 p.m., Wolf Creek Sportsmen’s Association, 349 Teachout Rd., north
of State Rt. 2, Curtice; voice-activated traps now available. Call Rick Ferguson, 419-836-5264.
Monday through Aug. 16—Hunter education classes, Sandusky County Sportsmen’s Club,
State Rt. 600 east of Gibsonburg. To register call Charlie Nopper 419-637-7565.

On the other hand, I had not handled an M-14 — the military version of the Springfield Armory M1A rifle — in some 35 years. And a borrowed rifle — thanks to match master Mike Krei — and scrounged gear and just five pre-record “sighter” shots at 300 yards do not a distinguished marksman make. On the other hand, were we having fun yet? You bet. In all that rain and mud? No question.

“I absolutely enjoyed it,” agreed John Sigler, president of the National Rifle Association. He and some other Match notables endured the rain a couple of firing points down the line. “Years from now everyone will be talking about being here for this inaugural match in the rain.”

Sigler got no special treatment from the match staff or the weather, observing, “I’m just a competitor here this morning.” He smiled and joked his way through his turn, with all shooters, at life in the target pits. He got his hands dirty and greasy, pulling heavy target frames up and down with each phase of shooting.

Pit duty means hunkering down behind concrete-reinforced elevated earthen bunkers, lowering and raising and scoring targets. It is totally safe, but can be hot and sweaty or wet and cold, depending on the weather. And it’s part of the game. Duck out on pit duty and you lose your score. Fair ball.

Besides, after you get soaked to the skin, you can’t get any wetter. So enjoy it. You came to shoot, so shoot, even if you have to blow raindrops from the rear sight aperture before each shot.

“If they can keep the targets in the frame, we shoot,” said Dot Priesman about the ground rules. She is the director of the statistics office at the National Matches. Priesman explained the six-foot-square heavy corrugated cardboard backers for the targets are pretty heavy, but storm gusts off Lake Erie can tear them loose from their twine lashings.

“We don’t want them blowing around and hurting people.” The wind Sunday was light, southerly, offshore and no threat to the targets. So, on with the match:

The M1A/M-14 is a fine rifle, a wood-and-steel rifleman’s rifle. Yours truly hated to give one up for a synthetic-stocked M-16 back when he wore green skin for Uncle Sam.

So the M1A match made for a pleasant reunion. I still like it as much as I did then. Andy Pollick, my adult son and a former state and national junior Olympic pistol champion, was invited to shoot the match as well. “This thing shoots all 10s [bull’s-eyes],” Andy said of the finely tuned match rifle. “I just wasn’t aiming it at the bull’s-eye every time I squeezed the trigger.”

He also miscounted in the early going and did not fire 10 rounds in slow-fire prone — the steadiest position and a shooter’s best chance at high scores. So Andy automatically lost 100 points on a maximum possible score of 500-50X for 50 shots, the X-score being inner-ring dead-center bulls. He also lost a shot when a round failed to detonate —no alibis allowed in this match. Stuff happens — to everyone, sooner or later.

But he may have caught the bug again, this time for high-power rifle competition with an M1A, instead of pistol events. “Are they going to have this again next year, Dad?”

Actually, Springfield Armory has agreed to underwrite the M1A Match for at least five years, noted Krei, director of the NRA’s competitive shooting division. The NRA sponsors the National Matches in cooperation with the national Civilian Marksmanship Program and Ohio National Guard.

Sunday’s match turned out 503 shooters among 634 registered, and all of them trailed 17-year-old Ryan Castonguay, of New Hartford, Conn., the winner. The shooters, as with all the Matches, came from all around the country. Many of them were warming up for high-power rifle championship events this week, some of which will be fired at an incredible 1,000 yards. The last shots will be fired in the middle of next week.

Obviously, young Castonguay coped with raindrops in the rear-sight aperture and other meteorological distractions a mite better than the rest of us. Hat’s off. He fired a 463-8X to win $2,500. To cook up interest in the inaugural match, Springfield had contributed $25,000 in cash and equipment to sweeten the pot.

In a way, though, the M1A Match is a natural, given the increasing popularity of two other matches which feature retired military rifles — the M-1 Garand and the 1903 Springfield. The M-14 succeeded the Garand in the 1950s and preceded the M-16, which was introduced in the 1960s and continues in service, with upgrades and variations, today. The M-16 in its civilian national match versions has become very popular, but plenty of shooters have M1As in their collections as well.

“We’re calling them the Vintage Rifle Matches,” said Krei of the events using the older rifle models, “and they’re all growing, actually faster than the actual championship matches.”

Raymond Schramm, of Rossford, was among the M1A shooters and kind enough to lend a spare sling and shooting glove to an under-equipped outdoors editor. His readiness to help is typical of the demeanor of shooters on these firing lines. Help is just a request away.

Schramm said he began shooting in the late 70s, was with the Ohio National Guard rifle team eight years and then with the Fifth Army team. A member of the Ohio Rifle and Pistol Association, he waved a hand around the ranges and noted, “This [Camp Perry] is our home. What’s interesting is, we have people come here from all over the country — and it’s right in our backyard.”

•
The Southwestern Lake Erie Chapter of Waterfowl U.S.A. has set Saturday for its 2007 waterfowling workshop at 9500 Bay Creek Road, Erie, Mich.

Field Hudnall, goose and duck calling champion, is set to discuss early and late season goose hunting. At 10 a.m., Craig McDonald, another champion caller, will discuss decoy setup and calling strategies. At 10:45 a.m., George Lynch, of Lynch Mob Goose Calls, will discuss calling and ecoying geese, and how to tune calls.

A lunch follows the seminars. Gun and equipment raffles also are on the day’s schedule.

•
Russell Lamp, who collects stinging insects for use in vaccine manufacturing by the pharmaceutical industry, is offering free removal of nests of bald-faced hornets and in-ground nests of yellow jackets.

Lamp said populations of these insects are down, so the demand is increasing. Contact him at 419-836-3710.