Sunday, 21 July 2013
The club's 2013 Annual Picnic was held on Saturday, 20 July 2013. CRGC member Ed Grautski became the picnic chairperson this year, and experienced for the first time the somewhat frenetic activity associated with bringing together a significant club event. Preparatory work began in early June to get together the schedule of events, prizes, targets, and food. Volunteers, cooks, and range personnel started arriving around 7:00 AM. The weather was a bit unusual for mid-July, with overcast skies and a temperature that didn't get over 70 until the sun broke out around noon. The temperature reaching a high of 83 by 3:40 PM, when the bulk of the clean-up was finished. People arrived in three groups: the volunteers, the shooting competitors, and then the general members and families around 11:30 AM. There were over 118 people (60 members and 58 guests) who came to the picnic by 12:15 PM.
The picnic included several activities, including two which were new this year, in addition to the socializing:
This year the organized shooting was a "Top Shot" event, where each competitor shot for scores in archery, pistol, rifle, and trap. Shooting started at 8:00 AM with a "shotgun start" - shooters were able to shoot the disciplines in the order and at the time of their own choosing within the 2.5 hour shooting window. There were at most 100 points in each discipline, for a maximum overall of 400 points. The events were:
The winners in the "Top Shot" and the four shooting disciplines were:
| Class | Position | Shooter | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top Shots | 1 | Red Knox | 303 |
| Top Shots | 2 | Brad Myers | 294 |
| Top Shots | 3 | Jay Partlow | 291 |
| Top Shots | 4 | Tim Hulse | 282 |
| Archery | 1 | Red Knox | 62 |
| Archery | 2 | Cody Partlow | 58 |
| Pistol | 1 | Red Knox | 96 |
| Pistol | 2 | Brad Myers | 87 |
| Rifle | 1 | Tim Hulse | 88 |
| Rifle | 2 | Jay Partlow | 81 |
| Trap | 1 (tie) | Brad Myers | 92 |
| Trap | 1 (tie) | Jim Tillery | 92 |
| Trap | 1 (tie) | Jim Warn | 92 |
| Trap | 2 | Jay Partlow | 83 |
Also starting at 8:00 AM was the Rimfire Challenge familiarization shooting. This event was open to any picnic attendee until 11:30 AM, and the .22 caliber pistol, rifle, and ammunition were supplied at no charge to each shooter. The purposes of this event were to (1) allow club members to get familiar with this event in a non-competitive environment; (2) determine if there was enough interest for CRGC to hold the event on a scheduled basis later this year or during 2014; and (3) provide a way for people who did not want to compete in the "Top Shot" event to still be able to enjoy a shooting event at the picnic. There were 20 people (only 2 of whom shot in the "Top Shot") who shot the Rimfire Challenge. Their comments after the event were things like "That was really fun." and "What a blast!".
In this familization, each Rimfire Challenge participant fired at most 40 rounds of ammunition, consisting of 2 strings of 10 rounds from the pistol, and then 2 strings of 10 rounds from the rifle. Each string will be timed, but will take a maximum of 30 seconds. There were 6 steel targets including one steel "stop target". The pistol targets were from 7 to 20 yards from the shooting position, while the rifle targets were from 9 to 35 yards away. Each shooter could shoot more than 1 round at each target, but they had to hit the stop target to stop the clock. (The stop target stops the time even if it was hit accidentally.) If the shooter ran out of ammunition the clock was stopped at 30 seconds. The score on a string was the time from the first shot until the time the stop target was hit, plus 5 seconds for each target that was not hit, to a maximum of 30 seconds. The lowest cumulative time wins. A shooter could be disqualified for safety violations (and none were).
At 10:30 AM the Molalla River Rangers (MRR) set up a demonstration and practice match in the east 50 yard bay. Picnic attendees were able to talk to the SASS shooters, watch as the MRR shooters demonstrated how a SASS match was done, and shoot the firearms under the guidance of a MRR shooter. The sound of gunfire from that bay was pretty steady until lunchtime, and quite a few people watched (or participated) in the proceedings.
The lunch of pulled pork sandwiches, Polish dogs and buns, with potato salad, baked beans, steamed corn on the cob, bread and rolls, condiments, and potato chips was served at 12:30 PM, with plenty of food for seconds and thirds (for those who were really hungry).
The door prize drawings began around 1:30 PM, and continued through to 2:00 PM, with a Benjamin 392 pump .22 pellet rifle, Redfield Revenge 3-9x42 rifle scope, training certificates, CRGC engraved knives, shooting books, LED headlights, cleaning kits, and bore snakes as prizes.
The following people volunteered or assisted in Saturday's picnic. A new member is signified by an asterisk following the member's last name. Hugh and Roberta Boyle, Joe Dula, Cindy Gonzales, Ed and Judy Grautski, Winona Hutchens, Dennis Kenagy, Al Kitzmiller, Chuck McClaugherty, Blaine Oswald*, John Parish, L.C. Parshall, Richard Phaneuf, Bob Ray, Jim Robertson, Steve and Dorothy Roden, Bob and Pat Scharbach, Paul Shuey, Dale Smelser, Jackson Starrett, Mike and Vici Strickland, Delores Veldhuisen, Charles Weatherby (non-member), and Scott Werner.