THE BLOG SITE IS 2 YEARS OLD TODAY - THANKS TO ALL CONTRIBUTORS

December 1st marks the second anniversary of this Blog. 

It has been a busy year for Benchrest shooting in New Brunswick - at least in Minto, Petitcodiac and Lake George - with 28 Rimfire shoots, 19 Centerfire Shoots supplemented by Handgun Shoots in Minto and a good number of fun shoots. A total of 703 shooters attended these events for an average of 15 shooter per match. Of course, many attended more than one event, so if you remove duplications, this is a group of 50 individual shooters. It would be nice if all these would become members of this Blog - you could then have automatic e-mails of new posts sent to your Inbox and never miss an article.


Unfortunately, I could not attend many shoots this year, but had the able assistance of other shooters to send the results and fine pictures. In Minto, Gerry J. sent results and Barbara J. sent pictures of .22 matches. In Petitcodiac, Volker T. sent results and often wrote an article on the shoot, while Darryl K. sent many pictures. In Lake George, Terry McN. sent the results and Barbara J. sent the pictures. Many thanks to all of you for your help and support. Without your help, this Blog would not be very informative - and this is what we want - for the Blog to be a good communication tool for Benchrest Shooters in New Brunswick.

In the past two years, the Blog was visited 19,350 times with readers from 85 countries with the top fifteen as follows:
Canada - 12,163; US - 3098; Germany - 781; Russia - 561; France - 273; Latvia - 229; Turkey - 214; Poland - 163; Ukraine - 163; Malaysia - 139; Australia - 78; UK - 62; Brazil - 55; Taiwan - 46; Italy - 43.

The most read articles included the results of each shoot as well as the "Quick Reminders".

NOVEMBER 30, 2014 - MINTO - 2nd FINAL CENTERFIRE SHOOT - RESULTS

Thanks to Gerry J. for sending these results.

The 2nd Final Centerfire shoot was held in Minto today with 13 qualified shooters attending. It was a cold day with temperatures starting out in the morning at about -10C and warming up to a balmy 0. I'm sure the stove was kept glowing hot and that the shooters were thankful for the enclosed firing point.

It was a very tight race for 1st place in the Open Class among Dave C., Tom W. and Don M. with a shoot off eventually deciding the ranking. The scores for the first final shoot were added to the scores for the 2nd final shoot to determine the overall standings for the yearly trophy. Congratulations go to Dave C. who was the overall winner in Open Class and to Gerry J. who was the overall winner in Sporter Class.

The results below report the 2nd final shoot score + the 1st final shoot score = Total score/X

RESULTS - OPEN CLASS:

Dave C. - 287 + 290 = 577/5X
Tom W. - 285 + 292 = 577/5X
Don M. - 288 + 289 = 577/5X
Bruce B. - 288 + 287 = 575/5X
Terry McN. - 281 + 284 = 565/2X
Malcolm MacD. - 266 + 266 = 532/2X
Grant P. Sr. - 183 + 264 = 447/0X
Dan G. - 291 + n/a = 291
Volker T. - 285 + n/a = 285

RESULTS - SPORTER CLASS:
Gerry J. - 137 + 135 = 272
Terry McN. - 138 + 133 = 271
Wayne K. - 128 + 118 = 246
Grant P. Jr. = 115 + 115 = 230
Norbert S. - 126 + n/a = 126

NOVEMBER 23, 2014 - PETITCODIAC - 100yd FLY SHOOT - RESULTS

The - not so annual yet but who knows - Petitcodiac Fly Shoot took place yesterday with 15 shooters in attendance. The conditions were fair with a lot warmer temperatures than expected (2 - 6 degrees Celcius) and very little wind. Once in a while we had 5 to 10 km gusts which played from side to side and then up and down the range. These did not factor much in the results except when smoke from the stove drifted down range or when you missed a change.

What did affect us older fellows with fading eyeballs, was the intensity of the sun which shone mostly from behind the targets and reflected strongly from the snow. A lot of glare in the first few relays. One shooter with a .17 Fireball and another with a .30BR and just about everyone in between could barely make out the holes in the paper. As the sun moved to the west during the match (to the RIGHT on the Petitcodiac Range), this became better and a lot more Flies were
dispatched as can be seen in the results below. Congratulations to the winning fly hunters and our condolences to Tony L. who seems to have lost his favourite spot on the roster.

RESULTS:                           Target #1             Target #2                 Target #3                 Total                     Rank

Cecil Harvey	22	37	37	96	1
Tom Nowlan	35	19	29	83	2
Brian Petitpas	18	25	35	78	3
Bert deVink	27	24	24	75	4
Darryl Keirstead	22	31	18	71	5
Rod Bourgoin	26	18	18	62	6
Matt Armstrong	15	19	26	60	7
Tony Lewis	16	14	27	57	8
Don Murrin	14	21	20	55	9
John McClusky	9	17	23	49	10
Dan Gladstone	10	18	17	45	11
Shelly Colpitts	19	9	14	42	12
Volker Topf	3	0	12	15	13
John Corbett	11	dnc	dnc	11	14
Martin Topf	11	dn0	dnc	11	15

We all agreed that these Fly Targets were a heck-of-a-lot-of-fun to shoot at and we all had a relaxed and less competitive fun time. They were quite tricky - a tiny head (about 1/4 MOA) was worth 5 points, the thorax (less than 1/2 MOA) was worth 4 points and the abdomen (about 1/2 MOA) was worth 3 points. A touch was worth 1 point. You could be well within the distance for a normal target "bulls-eye" shot and still miss the fly - especially since wings did not count at all.

As is usual for a shoot in New Brunswick, many people helped out. Thanks go to Volker T. for organizing the Match and both he and Martin T. did the scoring. Dan G. and Darryl K. were the ROs while Dan G., Shelly C. and Brian P. did the target changing - thanks guys. Thanks also to Dan and Shelly for the terrific treats that were awfully hard to pass up. Thanks also to all the folks who fed the fires in the stoves to keep us all cozy.

The next shoot in Petitcodiac will be the Christmas Shoot with more fun targets, a meal and good company. Hope to see you all there!

NOVEMBER 16, 2015 - MINTO FUN SHOOT AND AGM

The Annual Minto Fun Shoot and AGM was held today with sixteen members attending. Thanks to Gerry J. for sending these results and to Barbara J. for sending the pictures.

THE FIRING POINT BUILDING:
As you can see from the pictures, the Minto shooting building is pretty well completed, enclosed for the winter with natural light from behind and trap doors for each of 4 benches. What a beautiful job - many thanks to all who worked so hard on this project.

THE MATCH:
This shoot consisted of a .22 LR rifle, any rifle, any ammo, any scope, 36 to 52 shots plus 
sighters and the course of fire was as follows:

50 yd. bench, 6 bullseye target – 10 shots + sighters
50 yd. bench, front rest only, for group, single bullseye target – 5 shots 
50 yd. pigeon, 5 shots off elbows (bench)
100 yd. Bench, flipper – 5 shots
Silhouettes – up to 5 shots at each @  25, 50 and 75 yds

200 yd. - Bench, Ram silhouette, up to 5 shots

SCORING:
Pigeon Target 
head kill zone - 10 points
body kill zone - 5 points
any other hit - 2 points

Flipper
5 points per hit

Group size targets 
score the best 5 of 7 shots
Smallest group, 50 points, next smallest, 45 points, next smallest, 40 points, etc. Only the top 10 would score, unless there are ties, in which case there would be more than 10.

Silhouettes  
shoot up to 5 shots until you hit – 5 points 1st shot, 4 points 2nd shot, 3 points 3rd shot, etc. 


RESULTS:
Shooter            50yd Bull            50yd Group           50yd Pidgeon              100yd Flipper             200yd Ram               Total
Cecil H.            97/6X                  40                    15                         25                      2            179/6X
Terry McN.        96/3X                 50                      9                         20                      0            175/3X
Dave C.             99/3X                 45                    15                         10                      0            169/3X
John M.            90/0X                  45                    10                         20                      4            169/0X
George M.         96/3X                 40                    10                         20                      0            166/3X
Matt McA.         96/4X                 30                    12                         15                      5            158/4X
Mac MacD.        93/2X                 35                      7                        15                      4            154/2X
Barb J.              94/3X                 35                     17                          5                      0            151/5X
Norbert S.          94/3X                 25                      9                         20                      1            149/3X
Wayne K.          95/3X                 20                     12                        10                      5            142/3X
Grant P. Sr.       90/0X                 45                      6                           0                      0            141/0X
Carl J.               92/2X                 35                      0                           0                      5            132/2X
Grant P. Jr.        90/1X                 20                     11                        10                      0            131/1X
Guy H.               97/5X                30                      0                           0                      1            128/5X
Gerry J.             96/4X                 15                      9                           5                      0            125/4X
Don M.              63/0X                 10                      0                           0                      0             73/0X

SUPREME COURT OF CANADA RULES THAT AIR-GUNS ARE "FIREARMS"

SUPREME COURT OF CANADA RULES THAT AIR GUNS ARE "FIREARMS

On Wednesday, November 5, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its ruling R. v. Dunn, finding that most air guns are considered “firearms” for all purposes in the Criminal Code except for licensing and registration.

NOVEMBER 9, 2014 - PETITCODIAC - 22 SPORTER RIFLE MATCH - RESULTS

Well, today was an excellent day for our first 22lr Sporter Rifle Benchrest shoot.  Dan was Match Director and Scorer and kept things running well. Brian posted the targets.  Thanks to Dan and Shelly for the great sweets -

they went fast today with the 4 deg temperature, especially as shooters hugged the wood stove. The ‘wind gods’ at Petticodiac were kind to us with little to no wind.  And thus, we were able to see several 100’s being shot on the 6-Bull target.  A variety of rifles were shot, from Anschutz to CZ to tuned and tactical 10/22s.  

It looks like Martin’s 93 yrs of age and experience helped to grab 1st place.  We’re still not sure why the 1st and 2nd place shooters were laughing so much at the medal presentation….at least one of them should have had a bit of a frown.  After all, the tie breaker was just 2 X’s from the first target!  A very close race indeed. Excellent shooting.  Congrats to all three top shooters - Martin, Dan, & Gerry.

Report by Volker

RESULTS:

Martin F. Topf: 99/2X, 99/3X, 100/0X, 100/3X = 398/8X

Dan Gladstone: 99/0X, 99/1X, 100/1X, 100/6X = 398/8X

Gerry Johnson: 97/1X, 99/1X, 100/3X, 99/3X = 395/8X

Brian Pettipas: 96/4X, 95/1X, 99/4X, 98/1X = 388/10X

Tony Lewis: 98/1X, 94/0X, 100/0X, 94/2X = 386/3X

Tom Nowlan: 96/0X, 97/0X, 94/0X, 98/0X = 385/0X

Volker M. Topf: 96/1X, 96/0X, 95/1X, 95/2X = 382/4X

Norbert Strahlendorff: 92/2X, 93/1X, 95/1X, 97/1X = 377/5X

Darryl Kierstead: 94/1X, 92/2X, 92/1X, 96/2X = 374/6X

John Moore: 95/1X, 98/0X, 87/0X, 93/0X = 373/11X

NOVEMBER 2, 2014 - MINTO SECOND FINAL 22BR SHOOT - RESULTS

The Minto Final .22 cal Shoot was held today with some pretty gruesome weather to contend with. It was very windy and a mixture of precipitation - rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets - and whatever else can fall out of the sky.

The results of today's match are combined with the results for the First Final 22BR Shoot and these combined scores will be the results for the annual Trophies. Thanks to Gerry J., our statistician, for figuring out the final scores and results.

The results below show the shooter, then in brackets, (score for first 22BR final match plus score for second 22BR final match), then the overall rank with the final combined score:

OPEN CLASS “A”

Cecil H. -  (399/16X + 377/2X) - 1st with  776/18X
Matt McA. - (396/18X + 375/4X) - 2nd with 771/22X
Bruce B. -  (393/14X + 376/5X) - 3rd with 769/19X
Guy H. -  (400/10X + 369/7X) - 4th with 769/17X
George M. -  (388/9X + 376/7X) - 5th with 764/16X
Don M. -  (396/3X + 365/3X) - 6th with 761/6X
David C. -  (393/7X + 367/5X) - 7th with 760/12X
Barb J. -  (392/6X + 358/6X) - 8th with 750/12X
Malcolm MacD. -  (392/9X + 335/1X) - 9th with 727/10X
Carl J. - (389/9X + 329/6X) - 10th with 718/15X
Tom W. - (391/3X + 0) - 11th with 391/3X

OPEN CLASS “B”

Terry McN. -  (373/3X + 370/1X) - 1st with 743/4X
Grant P. Sr. -  (369/2X + 333/7X) - 2nd with 702/9X
Wayne K. -  (366/3X + 335/3X) - 3rd with 701/6X
Grant P. Jr. -  (355/3X + 336/2X) - 4th with 691/5X

SPORTER CLASS (all shot today)

Gerry J. -  1st with 745/11X
Wayne K. -  2nd with 731/7X

If there are any errors or omissions please contact bertdevink@gmail.com or Gerry J. at gerry303ca@gmail.com