It started out cold, about 30F but the day ended up clear with a slight breeze from the north so we were shooting into the wind.
The first match of the day was the Hunter Pistol Smallbore match. There were only three of us there. Tim and Dan shot scoped and I shot metallic sight. I won my match with a 30/40 which is a master score. Dan won the scoped portion with a 31/40. I know, it is hard to feel good about winning a match where there is only one shooter, but it is what it is.
The second match was the Hunter Pistol match. I was trying out a barrel that a guy bought from Ron Striker when he retired from CCI in Lewiston. I guess Ron decided he wasn’t going to shoot any more and sold a bunch of his barrels at the Idaho State Match at Nampa that year. Ron then moved to Tucson, AZ and is managing a range down in that area. If you don’t know Ron, just look at the national long run records for Hunter Pistol on the NRA web sight, he owns most of them. Anyway, I had tried my loads on this barrel on my frame that I use for my hunting barrels and it was hard to close but always did and it shot pretty good. It was really hard to close when I put it on the frame that I use for silhouette shooting and it flew open on the first two rounds so I put my 22 LR barrel back on and shot the Hunter Pistol with that. I shot 7 turkeys, 9 rams, 8 chickens and 8 pigs, but only 3 of the rams fell down so I ended up with a 27 but since I was the only one shooting metallic sights I was the match winner. What a deal!
During lunch, 5 more shooters showed up to shoot Cowboy Rifle Pistol Cartridge and Smallbore. I was paired up with Dan Hawkins of Hawktech Arms. He is a great guy but loves to talk to you while you are shooting. He never shuts up, except when he is shooting. Dan Golden won the match with a 37/40. I started on Turkeys again and wasn’t doing very good but was making some hits. I was shooting my Marlin 94 Cowboy in 357. On the last set, pigs, the “DREDED MARLIN JAM” took me by surprise. Since I have already had this problem with this gun, I put it aside and used my option to change a broken gun for one that works, one time in a match, and finished with my Marlin Mountie. I got the last 6 pigs with it and finished with a 31. Dan Golden got a 37 so he was match winner and I was 1st Master.
The last match of the day was the Smallbore Cowboy Rifle match. I finally got my act together and only missed one turkey and one ram to finish with a 38/40. Dan Golden got a 31 and he got 1st AAA. I was using a box of Remington Cleanbore bulk ammo that I got at Cabelas, just to try out. Even though it was very accurate, I got 2 misfires in one match with it. I will probably buy some more if I get a chance. You can’t be to choosey these days when it comes to 22LR ammo. You use what you can find.
Nampa Rod & Gun Club is located south of Nampa, Idaho on Bennett Road. We are on the web at nragc.org. We have an outdoor range and an indoor range so we shoot both summer and winter.
Sixgun
