Benchrest Shoot #7 at Mission Rod and Gun Club: Sunday, November 25, 2012
Despite it getting a lot cooler we had 11 shooters this match, tying our best turnout this year. It was mostly our die hard regulars but an F class shooter Frank Oblak joined us. It was great to have him out. He shot well, particularly as the match progressed and impressed us with the fact that he does his own gunsmithing including rifling his own barrels. It was great to see Lowell Boyd bring out his personally built custom 6 ppc. Both these rifles show first class smithing skills.
I got to try out a recent purchase, an old school 30 BR rifle on what we believe is a McMillan stock with Remington 700 action and modified Remington trigger. Frank said he believed the barrel was a McLellan with a .317 neck. It is a lot like me; a little beat up from use…….
The course of fire for this match again was five 100 yard Hunter score targets and we threw in a formal 100 yard Group Target as well to complete relay 3. Since we anticipated there would be other shooters there we ran two relays of 6 and 5 shooters to test our timing as well for our Fraser Valley Invitational VFS Match May 5, 2013. Mark that on your Calendar!
Overall these were the best overall match results of the year so far. We seem to be getting the hang of this discipline. The weather was cold and the wind was very light, but it kept changing just enough that one had to be cognizant of it. Joe Mendham, who reads wind very well, topped the field again with 259 aggregate but several of us were very close to Joe this match.
No one shot a perfect 55 target this time, but both Joe Mendham and Bob Hampton shot one 54 each. The Group Target winner was Chris Klump and it was tiny. As well Chris shot amazingly consistently with four 50’s and a 51.
There were a few folks who shot a personal best, Congratulations: Sam Parrotta, Wally McDonald, Lowell Boyd and Travis Kienas. But Travis had a great hunting season so the BR practice may have helped. Dori Hampton did not quite catch her last match but a few rounds from Bob’s gun mixed in with hers caused that. There is a conspiracy theory out here that the rounds were purposefully switched since Dori beat Bob last match. Mel was using a few different bullets so his scores were not quite to his usual level of consistency either.
My dream of beating everyone with the big hole the 30BR makes did not pan out so I guess my next step is to neck it up to make a .338 BR. Someone said I should just practice more to shoot better- interesting idea I had not thought of………..
But the highlight this time was the chilli and buns prepared by Sue Parrotta. Mel had the warm room nice and toasty so it was a great way to finish the morning. Although we have a December Match we anticipate it may be too tough for Bob and Dori to be able to drive down from Clinton so this was likely the last big match of 2012.
We welcome newcomers and if more information is wanted please contact me, Jim Latham, at or phone me at 604-795-0618. Please feel free to pass this summary on to anyone you wish who may be interested.
Next Matchwill be on Sunday December 16th. Registration at 8:30 AM. Match commencing at 9:00, completing at 11:30.
Name / Rifle Class / Calibre / Target1 / Target
2 / Target
3 / Target
4 / Target
5 / Aggregate / Position in Class
A Relay
Jim Latham / benchrest / 30BR / 52 / 51 / 50 / 51 / 50 / 254 / 4
Joe Mendham / benchrest / 6ppc / 51 / 54 / 52 / 50 / 52 / 259 / 1
Bob Hampton / benchrest / 6ppc / 54 / 49 / 54 / 48 / 53 / 258 / 2
Wally McDonald / benchrest / 6ppc / 50 / 45 / 48 / 48 / 46 / 237 / 8
Mel McIntosh / factory / .260 Rem / 45 / 48 / 45 / 47 / 49 / 234 / 1 factory
Chris Klumpp / benchrest / 6ppc / 51 / 52 / 51 / 51 / 51 / 256 / 3
B Relay
Sam Parrotta / benchrest / 6ppc / 49 / 47 / 48 / 49 / 49 / 242 / 7
Lowell Boyd / benchrest / 6ppc / 48 / 50 / 53 / 46 / 50 / 247 / 6
Dori Hampton / benchrest / 6ppc / 52 / 47 / 50 / 50 / 49 / 248 / 5
Travis Kienas / factory / 6mm Rem / 34 / 45 / 42 / 43 / 34 / 198 / 2 factory
Frank Oblak / F Class / 6.5 XC / 48 / 46 / 46 / 46 / 51 / 237 / unclassified
For those of you wondering about the scores over 50 per target, we score the pencil dot center as an 11 rather than counting as X rings so a 255 would be a perfect target.