SEPTEMBER 8, 2019 - MINTO - CENTERFIRE BR/RNBRA CENTERFIRE BENCHREST CHAMPIONSHIP

It was mid-September and we had just been accosted by hurricane Dorian which left New Brunswick relatively unscathed. It did cause quite a lot of damage in Nova Scotia with many many people without power across that province and many trees uprooted, falling on houses and vehicles. 


The southern parts of New Brunswick was harder hit than the Minto to Fredericton corridor and further north and many shooters from the south of the province stayed home to attend to their properties. As a result, the attendance at the Minto CF BR shoot/Royal New Brunswick Rifle Assn. Centerfire Benchrest Championship was very low. 

Eleven shooters pitted their skills against the elements and against each other - and, as the scores will tell you - sometimes the shooters won and sometimes the weather won. At a high level competition such as this, the scores are usually good, but today not a clean match score was to be found and the X-count was also quite low. You could tell that the competitors had frayed nerves by the occasional, (rare actually), short tempers and the unsolicited editorial comments at the firing line.

Dorian and its rain had passed us by, by the time the match began in the morning. As the day wore on, the conditions remained cloudy with sunny periods. The strong winds continued until the end of the match with sustained winds of 15-25km/hr and gusts well over 40km/hr. What was really nerve-wracking, was that the wind could and did switch so unpredictably, that between the time a shooter stopped watching the flags to focus on the shot placement, entirely different wind conditions prevaled. Sometimes you could catch that before you touched the trigger (a win for you), and sometimes you could not see it in time (a win for the weather). 


The match director for this shoot was Conrad L., the organizing committee chairman. Conrad did an extremely good job and the match went off without a hitch. Thanks Conrad. Don M. was the scorer - a difficult job during a post tropical storm but very ably done by Don and verifier Dan G. Thanks guys for this very important job. The range officers were David C., Conrad L., Norbert S. and Bert deV. The targets were changed (and occasionally chased) by John M., Mike C., Guy H., David C. and Bert deV. Thanks for all your help fellows.
A major shoot is not complete without food. David C. brought coffee and banana bread and Conrad L. brought Timbits. The new pistol building was put to good use by Wayne K. who set up his kitchen there. He was the chief cook with delectable hamburgers, hot-dogs, potato salad and a variety of drinks serving the "hungry man" needs of the shooters. Thanks Wayne from all of us.

RESULTS - MINTO/RNBRA - OPEN CLASS:
Bert de V. - 298/8X
Mike C. - 297/11X
Dan G. - 295/13X
John M. - 292/11X
Cecil H. - 292/8X
Don M. - 287/7X
Guy H. - 281/5X
David C. - 281/4X
Norbert S. - 266/2X
Conrad L. - 197/1X

RESULTS - MINTO/RNBRA - SPORTER CLASS:
Bert deV. - 145/3X
Wayne K. - 137/1X
Dan G. - 132/2X
Conrad L. - 130/2X