Annual Picnic, 2012

Monday, 16 July 2012

The club's 2012 Annual Picnic was held on Saturday, 14 July 2012.  The day started early, with volunteers and the cooks arriving around 7:00 AM.  Of course, preparatory work was being done days ahead of time, to get food, raffle prizes, targets, range set-up, and all of the other things needed to make an enjoyable family event.  The weather, although a bit muggy, was nice with the temperature reaching a high of 82 in the late afternoon.  People arrived in bunches, with the first two groups being the volunteers and rifle shooters, and then another set of people around 9:45 AM, and then a steady stream until about noon.  There were over 192 people who came to the picnic by 12:15 PM, including 81 club members and 111 family and friends.

The picnic included several activities, in addition to the socializing:

• Annual rifle competition
• First annual pistol competition (described later)
• SASS demonstration and participation
• Annual archery competition
• Lunch and drawings for door prizes and raffle prizes
• Annual shotgun competition

The barbecue lunch of pork and turkey, hot dogs and buns, with caesar salad, potato salad, baked beans, steamed corn on the cob, bread and rolls, condiments, potato chips, and ice cream was served at noon, with plenty of food for seconds and thirds (for those who were really hungry).

The door prize drawings began around 10:30 AM, and continued through to 2:00 PM, with ammunition, camp chairs, plants, binoculars, and other goodies for the winners.  There was also a raffle, with three prizes:  a Taurus Model 66 revolver in .357 Magnum (won by Jim Beyer senior), a large box of meat, donated by Jennifer Kunzman, and a 10x10 camp cover.  The raffle grossed over $1,100, with the net profit to help pay for the picnic, and for equipment for the junior shooting programs.

The rifle shooting began at 8:00 AM at a range of 200 yards.  The competition was for smallest group size.  Adult and junior shooters were measured on 6 shots (2 from the bench, 2 from a standing position, and 2 from kneeling or sitting position), but Veteran (senior) shooters shot 4 rounds from a bench.  The winners of all events are listed below.

The archery and pistol shooting began at 10:15 AM.  The archery competition was shot from 50 yards at a bullseye target, with the winner being the archer with the highest score

The pistol competition was broken into two groups:  those shooting centerfire handguns, and those shooting rimfire handguns.  The difference was because the rimfire handguns were much easier to shoot than the much more powerful centerfire handguns, and because all but one of the rimfire pistols used red dot sights, while the centerfire handguns all used iron sights.  In both cases the targets were at a distance of 25 yards from the firing line.  Each shooter was allowed 25 rounds of ammunition, and had 20 targets to shoot at:  (a) two shots each into three different IPSC paper targets; (b) three shots each into each of three different sizes of steel targets; and (c) five clay targets hung on string from the cable.  Although the targets could be shot in any order, and there was no time limit, only the maximum number of shots allowed per target would be scored.  In case of ties, the shooter with the better shot placement (in the A, B, and C zones) in the paper targets won the tie.

The winners in archery, pistol and rifle were:

Class	Position	Shooter	Group (inches)
Archery
Archery	1	Jim Warn	50
Archery	2	Brad Myers	46
Archery	3	Donnette York	39
Pistol Center Fire
Pistol	1	Red Knox	18
Pistol	2	Al Kitzmiller	16
Pistol	3	Doug Kitzmiller	16
Pistol Rimfire
Pistol	1	Ted Troutman	20
Pistol	2	Brad Myers	19
Pistol	3	Jim Warn	18
Rifle, center fire
Veterans	1	Jim Burdett	1.625
Veterans	2	Al Kitzmiller	4.56
Veterans	3	Carston Berreth	4.69
Men	1	Jim Warn	6.375
Men	2	Brad Myers	11.56
Men	3	Jay Partlow	18.875

The shotgun shooting started about 2:15 PM.  The shotgun competition this year consisted of 10 shots at each of the following presentations.

• Goose shoot.  In the goose shoot, the shooter lays on the ground about 50 feet in front of the trap house, and the targets pass over the shooter before the shooter can get into a position to fire.
• Rail shoot.  The rail shoot is standard trap, but shot on trap #2 at the rail behind the trap pad, about 30 yards from the trap house.
• Quail walk.  The quail walk starts with the shooter on the 27 yard line, and targets are released at random intervals as the shooter walks toward the center of the trap house.
• Load and shoot.  In the load and shoot, the shooter calls for the target with an empty shotgun, and must load and shoot after the bird is pulled.
• Car door.  While sitting in a chair behind a vehicle door, shoot through the door window at the target.

Class	Position	Shooter	Score
Men	1	Jim Warn	45
Men	2	Ted Troutman	37
Women	1	Donnette York	22
Junior	1	Cody Partlow	35
Junior	2	Cameron	15

The following people volunteered or assisted in Saturday's picnic.  A new member is signified by an asterisk following the member's last name.  Mike Bruck, Jim Burdett, Jim Casey, Jeff Cohen, Char Elder, Ed Grautski and wife, Tony Heckard, Al Kitzmiller, Jennifer Kunzman, Ron and Lauri Kunzman, John Parish and Cory Parish (grandson), Richard Phaneuf, Jim Robertson, Steve and Dorothy Roden, Colleen Ruiz and Erin Ruiz (daughter), Bob and Pat Scharbach, Paul Shuey, Steve Stash, Dan Stevens, Mike and Vici Strickland, and Mike and Gwyn Williams.