Well we showed up at the parking lot of Range 116 to check-in in a slight rain. Conditions were alternating between a light and no rain, visibility was poor. But the Doppler radar indicated that things should clear …..shortly. So off we went to set up the range, and move all of the gear.
After the Safety Brief we assigned targets and had half the guys head to the pits just as the visibility completely closed in. We made the decision based on Mark Roth’s suggestion to try and speed up the match due to the weather conditions and shoot 2 strings of 30 rounds. Since we weren’t reporting scores to the NRA, and barrel overheating was not going to be an issue, commence fire!
After the first round of shooting the visibility improved. Conditions were pretty reasonable for R117.
- First Place for the day: Mark Roth with a 588
- Second: Walter Lange shooting a 578
- Third Overall: Gary Atkinson with 574
Unfortunately Mark did not want to give a speech for his win, and Gary while willing, was late returning from the pits.
I want to thank Van Texas for coming out in the rain as Medic, Dylan Rokos GySgt USMC for serving as our RSO and Rich Elliott for being the OIC and chief fire-former on my new 284. Without their service and support we can’t shoot.
I would like to welcome to the following new faces to the Long Range challenge: Kamran Sadaghiani, SSgt, USMCR, Shamus Flynn, GySgt USMC, John Crockett, Kerry Stottlemyer, Ronald Tirado, and Tom Brady. I hope to see you all out there in June.
For the future…. we had a new definition provided to us for use of Range 117. We will only have two vehicles allowed onto the range! Those vehicles will be the Emergency Vehicle provided for the Medic, and the people/gear/bomb cart hauler. This is all that is allowed by the range regulations that we must follow in order to continue to use the Range. Anything we may have been able to do previously no longer matters. To ensure we don’t have any problems with the range inspectors, we will continue to meet and check in at Range 116 parking lot and depart from there with all gear, guys and guns on the bomb carts. To prevent any problems, please do not park or get off Basilone Road at the R117 entrance other than those 2 vehicles.
Thanks to all of you for coming out in sketchy weather.
Mike Jones
Long Range Director,
Santa Margarita Gun Club