HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND NEW YEAR

WE WISH ALL OF OUR BENCHREST SHOOTING FRIENDS IN

NEW BRUNSWICK

ACROSS CANADA

AND AROUND THE WORLD

A HAPPY AND SAFE HOLIDAY SEASON

AND OUR BEST WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR

FROM ALL OF US AT PETITCODIAC, MINTO & LAKE GEORGE

08-12-2013 MINTO CHRISTMAS FUN SHOOT

The Christmas Fun Shoot and Annual awards presentations took place at the Minto range this Sunday. Judging from the pictures that Barbara and Carl J. kindly sent, a good time was had by all. Thanks to all who made this event a success with a special mention to Gerry J. who toiled over the statistics and arranged for the lovely plaques presented to the winners.

07-12-2013 PETITCODIAC CHRISTMAS FUN SHOOT

The Annual Petitcodiac Christmas Fun Shoot took place on December 7th, 2013 - having been rescheduled from the week before due to foul weather.

Well, we had a smaller turnout than usual, but everyone was in good spirits and had a good time. For those not able to win a turkey either by craft or luck, they still were in the prize draw and had a hot meal. It was a fun shot, but the competition was very keen with some really good scores posted, especially on the 6-bull target. As a result it was necessary to hold a shoot-off for two of the three competitive targets. Even the good luck target had a couple of close high scores.

The weather co-operated better this time; although the wind did prevail. It was a bit cold, but the shooting hut and the clubhouse offered the warmth of a good wood stove. On behalf of PSC, Thanks to George and Tony for getting the stoves going and to to Tony, Shelly, and John L. for setting the target frames, and Brian and Dan for running targets.  As usual, Barb and Shelly brought great sweets, and some chocolate on the range courtesy of Brian; appreciated. Thanks to our two chefs, Bev. and Joanne who served up the delicious ham and scalloped potato dinner. Thanks to Darryl as Range Officer, and to John C. for assisting with the closing ceremonies and prizes. On behalf of your fellow benchrest shooters at PSC, I (Volker) wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanks to Volker for sending this report and
we thank Darryl K. for sending the picture gallery - "a picture is worth a thousand words" as they say so Darryl must have a pretty hoarse throat by now!!

The shoot consisted of a standard 5-Bull target, a "Fly" target, a "Squares" and a "Good Luck" target. John M. won the 5-Bull target with a score of 100/8X. The "Fly" target was won by Danny G. with 27 points while the "Squares" target was won by Barbara J. with a score of 15. Volker T, who says he would rather be lucky than good, won the . .  wait for it . . . Lucky target.

 

BENCHREST BLOG-SITE ONE YEAR OLD TODAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The New Brunswick Benchrest Shooting Blog-site is now 1 year old having started December 1st 2012. During that time, we have reported on most of the shoots for which results and pictures were available in both Petitcodiac and Minto. Any important developments related to Benchrest shooting have also been reported when ever we were able to do so.

During the past year the Blog has been viewed 9885 times with the top 10 countries as follows:

                                                           CANADA - 6743

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 1301

RUSSIA - 462

GERMANY - 281

LATVIA - 229

CHINA - 55

UNITED KINGDOM - 50

INDONESIA - 47

AUSTRALIA - 45

UKRAINE - 37

Aside from regular viewing of the Shooting Results, the topics that received the most attention over the past year included the following:

GUN SHOWS IN THE MARITIME AREA

THE DISCUSSION PAGE ON THE SPORTER CLASS

BENCHREST SHOOTING RULES - MINTO AND PETITCODIAC

THE EULOGY FOR MIKE WALKER

GUN CLUB MEETINGS

I have, obviously, not been able to attend every Benchrest Shoot this year and so have relied on some very good people to help provide results and pictures. In Minto, Gerry J. has regularly sent the shooting results and many pictures. Volker T. has sent reports of many shoots in Petitcodiac and Darryl K. has faithfully sent pictures of those                           shoots. Barbara J. has also sent pictures of Rimfire BR shoots at both clubs. Many thanks to all of you - the Blog-site would have been much poorer without your contributions.

In the coming year I will try to report on every shoot with pictures. If the shooters are willing I will bring you a selection of equipment that is being used. There shall also be more emphasis on polling the readers on relevant topics to let you know what others think of them. You may notice that a poll on the "Usefulness of this blog as a communication tool for Benchrest Shooters" is on the first page - 10 readers have responded so far. Don't forget, your ideas and suggestions for making this site a better one are always welcome.
Hope to see you in the next shooting season!
contact bertdevink@gmail.com

MINTO ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - NOVEMBER 24, 2013

The Minto Gun Club Inc. held it's Annual General Meeting on November 24th, 2013. A good number of important discussions were held with votes on several initiatives that will affect shooting in Minto in the upcoming year. We thank Dave C. for taking the lead on these initiatives - a lot of hard work was involved, polling the membership and refining the responses into a sensible set of regulations.

We also thank Wayne K. for his hard work over the years as President. Our successful shoots as well as the day-to-day operations of the club depended on his efforts.

Our thanks go to the past Vice-President, Gerry J. who continues to do the arduous job of statistician for every shoot and for the entire shooting program over the year.

Thanks are also due to Bruce B. for his work related to membership, minutes of meetings and managing the finances of the club.

Of course we can't forget the many others who have worked behind the scenes as volunteers both at the range and on behalf of the membership.

One of the more important functions of an annual meeting is to ensure the smooth functioning of the club by electing a new slate of officers. Dave C. became the new President, Wayne K. the new Vice-President and Bruce B. will continue as the Secretary-Treasurer. Congratulations guys!



President Dave C., Vice-President Wayne K. and Secretary-Treasurer Bruce B.



24-11-2013 - MINTO - CENTERFIRE SHOOT - RESULTS

 The weather was definitly the big story for today's shoot. On the plus side was the light which was even throughout all relays due to a cloud cover that only broke for about 5 minutes when the sun peeked out at the end of the shoot. Also on the plus side was that a good number of shooters from both the Minto Club and from Petiticodiac attended - and as usual - the camaraderie and the social contacts were well worth the effort.

On the negative side was that this was the coldest shoot we have experienced this year with temperatures below zero. The wind was stiff with gusts easily reaching 25 km/hr which made the wind chill around -10 C. Many of us experienced cold fingers to the point of not being able to feel the trigger very well. The results clearly reflected this handicap as well as the effects of the wind. Congratulations to Darryl K. who won the Open Class and to Gerry J. who won the Sporter Class - Gerry J. even shot a personal best with one perfect target. He says that is his first in the Sporter Class! When not shooting, we all huddled around the wood-stove to warm up.

RESULTS - OPEN CLASS

Darryl K. - 293/13X

Bert deV. - 291/15X

Don M. - 290/14X

Tom W. - 289/16X

Gus C. - 289/10X

Danny G. - 287/10X

Mack MacD. - 267/7X

RESULTS - SPORTER CLASS

Gerry J. - 276/0X

Danny G. - 270/2X

Bert deV. - 260/1X

Guy H. - 260/0X

Wayne K. - 260/0X

Grant P. Sr. - 244/2X

Bruce B. - 230/0X

David C. - 220/0X

Grant P. Jr. - 168/0X

Many people pitched in to make this shoot possible. Wayne K. was the Match Director and the Scorer with Don M. providing verification of the scores. The Chief RSO was Gerry J. and RO duties were shared by him, Dave C and Grant P. Sr. Donuts were provided by Grant P. Jr. The target changers for today's match were George M., Dave C. and Guy H. Thanks to all.

The match was followed by the Annual General Meeting of the Minto Gun Club Inc. which was smoothly run by outgoing President Wayne K. A number of resolutions were adopted which will affect the classes of competition in Minto and what will be reported on this  blog-site. A new slate of officers was also voted in by the membership.

Because of time constraints and the weather, the handgun shoot was not held today.

contact bertdevink@gmail.com if there are any errors

10-11-2013 - MINTO - 22BR SHOOT - RESULTS

Today's shoot was well attended with 17 shooters from Minto, Fredericton, Maugerville, Petitcodiac, Moncton, and Mazerolle Settlement and points in between.

The weather cooperated with only light winds, moderate temperatures for this time of year and even the snow held off until near the end of the shoot.

Wayne K was the Match Director and Scorer with many pitching in to change targets, verify the scoring, and serving as RO. Thanks to Gerry J. for the pictures and the report on the shoot. Even Barb J., who could not attend, sent her famous treats for all to enjoy. Some very respectable scores were posted - congratulations to the winners and to everyone for a really fun shoot.

RESULTS FOR OPEN CLASS:
Cecil H. - 399/28X
Malcolm MacD. - 397/24X
Danny G. - 396/30X
Matt McA. - 396/30X
Norbert S. - 396/25X
Dave C. - 395/23X
Volker T. - 394/25X
George M. 394/19X
Martin T. - 392/16X
Carl J. - 391/17X
Bruce B. - 390/21X

RESULTS FOR SPORTER CLASS:
Guy H.  - 395/22X
Grant P. Sr. - 373/10X
Wayne K. - 368/13X
Gerry J. - 357/7X
Danny G. - 354/3X
Grant P. Jr - 323/7X

contact bertdevink@gmail.com if there are any errors

27-10-2013 MINTO 22BR SHOOT - RESULTS

Today, seventeen shooters enjoyed pretty good conditions for a top notch benchrest shoot. The weather was good with even light from slightly cloudy conditions with no rain or snow - yahoo! The story on conditions was the wind - what else in new in MInto (or elsewhere for that matter). There were periods when it was quite calm - and we all sought to shoot when that happened - and other times when the wind blew quietly out of the north-east. But what really got some of us excited was when it was calm and you were sighting and shot and quickly glanced at the flags only to notice that when you pulled the trigger the flag had turned completely around. It sure kept us on our toes. The REALLY big story is that 3 shooters in the Open Class were shooting perfect targets throughout the match until the very end and each had a good chance to win and make it to the 400 Club. Matt McA. won with a perfect 400/35X - Congratulations! As it turned out Malcolm MacD. dropped 1 point in the final target while Norbert S. had an unfortunate crossfire. It should be noted that 7 out of 10 Open Class shooters shot at least 1 perfect target while Guy H. was the only Sporter class shooter who did this.

The Match Director today was Wayne K. who also scored while Matt McA. was the verifyer. Terry McN. and Norbert S. served as Range Officers. Barbara J., Terry McN. and Jerry J. changed the targets. Barbara J. again brought us some wonderful treats. Thanks to all for making this a memorable shoot.

RESULTS - OPEN CLASS

Matt McA. - 400/35X

Malcolm MacD. - 399/36X

Bruce B. - 398/28X

Cecil H. - 397/27X

Dave C. - 397/23X

Barbara J. - 396/24X

Carl J. - 393/23X

Norbert S. - 390/36X

George M. - 388/23X

Terry McN. - 378/12X

RESULTS - SPORTER CLASS

Guy H. - 391/25X

Bert deV. - 378/12X

Wayne K. - 374/8X

Gerry J. - 373/14X

Grant P. Sr. - 363/15X

Gerry B. - 350/2X

John M. - 277/5X DNC

After the match, most shooters stayed for a short meeting to give the Rules Committee some direction on the changes that need to be made. It was decided to split the Open Class into "A" and "B" sections. Placement into each of these sub-classes would be based on the shooters performance over a number of shoots. The Committee will make recommendations about details such as cut off scores, number of shoots included in the average etc. There will also be some changes respecting barrel diameter of sporter class rifles and most likely some fine-tuning of rules respecting optics, rests, ammunition etc. It was also decided that scoring for all Matches will be down (i.e., the bullet hole must be within the lines for a score and not touching a line). Other suggestions will be taken up by the Committee for recommendations to the Membership during the Annual Meeting in November. See further the minutes in the post (post was withdrawn) above by Bruce B. Secretary/Treasurer of the club.

contact bertdevink@gmail.com if there are any errors

13-10-2013 MINTO CENTERFIRE/HAND GUN SHOOT - RESULTS

Thanksgiving Sunday was a beautiful day for a shoot in Minto. The sun was out and the temperature stayed around 10 or 12 C although the morning was a bit colder. The winds were gentle but in Minto that could mean anyhting - this time it meant some very tricky winds out of the North-east. They would blow steadily and then drop off completely with some drastic reversals. Needless to say, if we weren't patient and did not wait for our conditions to return we suffered a bad shot. Even so, the scores posted were very respectable.

Today, Wayne K. was the Match Director and scorer with Don M. providing the verification of the scores. The Range Officers were Wayne K., Norbert S., and Bert deV. The Target Changers were Jerry J., Guy H. and Bert deV. Thanks to all who pitched in to help.

RESULTS - OPEN CLASS                            

Bert deV. - 297/22X

Don M. - 295/13X

Tom W. - 294/16X

RESULTS - SPORTER CLASS

Gerry J. - 292/4X

Bert deV. - 290/1X

Luke C. - 288/1X

Guy H. - 286/1X

Wayne K. - 276/1X

Norbert S. - 274/0X

RESULTS - CENTERFIRE HANDGUN

Bert deV. - 74

Gerry J. - 50

RESULTS - RIMFIRE HANDGUN

Bert deV. - 88

Gerry J. - 74

contact bertdevink@gmail.com if there are any errors