Hello All,
Hopefully the winter has been good to you and you’ve not suffered any flood damage. January and February were just awful. According to the forecast, the weather looks decent for March on Saturday. We’ll be starting around 38 degrees, finishing at 47 degrees with only a 7% chance of precipitation and decreasing clouds. It may be a bit mushy, but the rain is supposed to stop around 3pm on Friday to give it a few hours to dry up. We have a gravel road to walk on and I’ll take this over ankle deep snow any time. Much better than 26 years ago this week when there was 3 feet of snow on the ground during the blizzard of ’93.
I just spent the last hour gathering ammo and all the match stuff together. I hope you don’t have to mutter “Where did I put that last year?” as many times as I did. I’m sure glad I started gathering today instead of waiting to Friday night. If you’re making side bets on what I forget, I’d prefer not to know about it.
The matches will be the same as they were last year with the exception of two rules we changed during the year. The first change is you can put an aiming point on your target as long as it doesn’t interfere with scoring. Hopefully that will help people that have to aim out in the 6 ring at 7:30 on the clock face to hit the black. If the aim point does interfere with scoring because we can’t tell if the hole cut the line or not, you’ll be given the lower score, so be careful with sticky dots. A sharpie mark shouldn’t be a problem. The other change we made last year on the rifles was going from the first 10 minute string, a 5 minute rest break, then the second 10 minute string was to shoot all twenty rounds in 25 minutes without a formal rest break in the middle. We usually ended up shooting the match in 14 or so minutes saving time so you could do other things Saturday afternoon. We still have to clear the line, go forward, retrieve targets, bring them back and score in the shade. Not a big deal now, but later in the summer, I know I appreciated being out of the sun.
The pistol matches are still the same. First string of 10 rounds in 10 minutes, clear the line, go forward and score, paste or post new targets, have a 5 minute rest when everyone gets back, then fire the second string of 10.
The rules can be found on the club’s website: https://cherokeerodandgunclub.com/military/
Rule book: https://cherokeerodandgunclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/CRGC-Military-Match-Manual_2019a_final.pdf
If you’re a new shooter this year, please review the https://cherokeerodandgunclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Military-Yellowsheet-Rulebook.pdf before the match. That will get you familiar with the rules and range commands that we use. Even if you’re not a new shooter, it’s still not a bad thing to review. I will be.
If you’re lazy like me and you know what you’ll be shooting for the matches, you can download, edit and print out score sheet to use before Saturday morning. https://cherokeerodandgunclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MilitaryMatchBlankScoreSheet2019.xlsx Sorry, but I do have the cells where the scorer enters your score protected – so you can’t have all X’s pre-printed on the sheet. Save yourself some time and aggravation writing with stubby pencils and gloves Saturday morning. I will have plenty of blank score sheets on hand if you don’t want to do that.
I’ll be bringing a boo-boo kit this year so if you need a band-aid, we’ll have them. The club has provided the lower range with a trauma kit if, heaven forbid, we need it. I’ll show you where it is Saturday morning. If Amazon delivers like they’re supposed to, I’ll also have a trauma kit that I’ve put together. Would you know how to use the equipment in the kits to stop the bleed? If not, may I suggest you attend one of Grant’s and Randy’s classes? https://cherokeerodandgunclub.com/stop-the-bleed-class-2-2/
The more people we have on the range that know how to control bleeding, the better off we’ll be. Not just during the match, but all the time. The cost of the class is $30 including lunch BUT you’ll be given a NAR CAT7 Tourniquet. If you look that up on Amazon, they’re $30 so you can look at it as you’re being trained for free with lunch included plus have the start of your own kit. In case you weren’t aware, a tourniquet saved a life at Cherokee last year after a negligent discharge when range rules were not being observed. As much as we’re around firearms, this is not just theoretical, accidents happen.
A word of warning, there are lots of counterfeit CAT7s on Amazon from China that aren’t near the quality of what you’ll be receiving. Randy and Grant have the real deal. If you have taken a stop the bleed class, please let me know Saturday morning. I’d like to know who else is trained and can back me up. I went through the February class.
A couple of things I forgot to put in the email before I clicked the send button. The first is we’ll have an awards presentation during lunch for last year’s winners. The second is I’ll be taking pictures during the match to post on facebook. If you don’t want your picture taken, please let me know.
As always, if you have any questions, please let me know.
Hope to see you Saturday
Brian