TRBPS Event – Paper, Pins and Plates

by John White

We had an absolutely beautiful day today.  Just a small slight breeze.  Just enough to blow your smoke over the next bench to hang there and disturb the shooter next to you and not enough to be able to see you hit or miss at the 50 yard line so you needed a spotter.

Temperature was almost perfect for either short or long sleeve shirts.  Sun was not blazing hot it was just a nice day to be out, comfortable and easy on everything.  So to those that did not make it, I am sure you know what I am talking about as you were out mowing the yard, raking leaves, pulling weeds, planting flowers or your garden and having more fun.  Not, yea right more fun than shooting?  Only thing better is being with family for me.

So we will started the registration sign in at 8.30am and started the course of fire description and safety briefing about 9.00am.  We had six shooters in the the supported category and two in the unsupported categories at both 25 and 50 yard targets as this seems to be enjoyed by all on the normal range 10 shots each distance. 

SCORING
1st Place: Jon Burgess, Score: 183
2nd Place: Jim Gravely, Score: 144
3rd Place: Chris Woodall
4th Place: Mike Lamb / Chris Greene
5th Place: Dennis Schmidt

The swingers selected were smaller than normal but you all hit several more each than in the past with larger swingers.  Congratulations.  It is so helpful shooters that when you shoot each others targets, you turn in your target and there are marked holes with the other shooter’s name on it to assign responsibility.  It makes it so easy to score.  The only way you can do this is to know where you are shooting and that is a significant improvement as well.  Thank you for considering the scorer’s difficulties in this situation.

So I will fess up,  I dry balled for the second time in my career of shooting bp.  I was so focused on loading, struggling with a tight patch and ball combo, getting gear out of the car as I started late and was so focused on getting to the line and everyone set up, i had a flash in the pan, dang it, forgot to pick the vent, pick the vent, more powder in the pan, flash. 

Dang it, pic, prime flash.  Dang it, I remembered I had already run a clean patch down the barrel to clean before I loaded.  What could it possibly be? I asked myself. I CANT BELIEVE ANOTHER DRY BALL?  I SUSPECT SKULLDUGGERY IS AFOOT!   Could it be I asked myself?  Then this little voice in my head behind me talks to me, I look up, at my loading station and put my head down in shame. 

The voice of the Range Officer behind me, Barney, said did you put powder in your barrel? No, of course not so go pull the ball.  Then to add to the humiliation, my ball puller screw pulled out of the range rod, not out of the stuck ball, but range rod as it was stuck screwed into the ball!  So double the humiliation as the little voice in my head, Barney,  you may have to pull the barrel and remove the breach!  One small miracle for this guy. The range rod screwed back into the ball puller and then success. Four more shots for me to prove I could at least load and fire so done for the day.

We finished at 11am, talked for a while as we met at the train station for a solve all the problems of the world meeting on a beautiful day.  Range was clean, back as if we were not there by 11:15.  20 shots, safety brief, member meeting summary, targets scored, placements announced, targets setup and taken down, gear stored back in our vehicles in two hours 15 minutes.  We had a new shooter who has already bought his rifle, the one he borrowed today and we had an incredibly nice couple drive down from North Carolina to see what we were about and promised they would be back to shoot with us.  Steve Millwood does some incredibly nice wood relief carving and we hope to see more of his work.

Take care all.  Be safe and healthy.  See you soon or on May 30th our next shoot.  Keep your eyes out for our reminder and shoot description in a few days. 

John White