Rain, rain, rain.... 11 mm or almost 1/2" of rain in fact on Saturday. Temp was 12 C or 54 F from 09:00 to 17:00. We held off the start till 10:00 am then fired the 600 yd 2+2+10. Wind was from the 10:00 am at 12 mph with light to medium rain. Broke for lunch and went back at it around 1:00 am at the 800 yd. At 800 yds we change to a 2+10 due to the rain, and I'm glad we did, I poured about 1/2 a cup of water out the front of scope after the 800! Wind had switched to a 11:00 to 1:00 at 15 mph, with light rain at the start, switching to medium to heavy rain after the second relay got off. I was on the second and I was soaking wet. Going to try again tommorow for the remaining yardages, the weatherman says by Sunday afternoon it will stop raining, hope so. He is also calling for a 2:00 wind at 16 mph and looking at the radar it looks like it will clear, all moving off SE in Alberta, like they need more rain eh.
Ron Dawson fired a clean with peeps at 800 yds, 50-3v and is leading in Master Class, with Stan Frost hot on his heals. Peter Jmaeff opted out from the start due to the rain, but then volenteered to run the lines at 600 and 800 yds, so he still got wet, but his rifle stayed dry.
Gord Hulbert is helding the field of 9 Expert class shooters, with only 4 points separating the top 7 in the class. Earl Brown, our most senior shooter, opted out at the 800 yd, something about not being able to see too much with the old Eagleye in the rain.
The F Class turn out was a little light Sat (hoping for up to 7 more Sunday, that would give us 11 in F-O). Only one FF shooter today, Leonard Kaczmarski. Len score using 155g bullets in his scoped 308 T/R rifle is only 6 points off the top F-Open shooters, so Sunday I will see if he wants to move up into F-Open. If the 7 extra show up, that would give us 12 in F-Open and using the 3-6-9 rule should give us up to a 4th place award! Our usual stats guy Chuck who usually shoots FF did not make it out today as he just broke his ankle and has a fresh unsigned cast on his leg. I got the pleasure of doing the stats on my kids PC.
In F-Open, Glen Taylor leads on a count back at this point, with myself breathing down his neck. Glen and I are usually shot for shot, but Sunday he should take it with his 162g 7mm over my 105g 6mm at the longer yardages. He's a damn good competitive shooter and a great close friend too. I was going to pull his leg and tell him Saturday that we had to go back out in the rain for a shoot-off at 800 yds, but I refrained from it.
Once we get to the 900 tomorrow I'll see if the guys want to shoot 900 twice to make up for the 900 missed today. If it is not raining, it would not take much longer.
Here's the results so far... I will update this post with the final results Sunday. I have to have a bath and get to bed now, I spent the better part of tonight clean the water out of my gear.
Well Sunday was another wash, with more rain and wind at 36k, gusting to 54k, right in your face. Temp was 8 to 9 C. Hard to believe that there was only 1.2 mm of it on Sunday. We did get 6 more F Class shooters, but all the T/R shooters opted out at the clubhouse before first yardage. I guess they all had enough of the rain in the face Saskatchewan treatment. Can't blam 'em. Was another 2+ hours of cleanup and dry out tonight.
Nine Fr's hit the line at 300 M (way too much wind for the LR targets) to start the morning off at approx. 8:45 am. 2 of the 5 targets in operation had issues to say the least, with rain, wind, undetected rounds by the pullers in the dirt backstop, in the target, shots marker way off compared to where they should have been (most likely mutilple stickers coming off and you get the luck of the draw as to which one the marker goes into) etc. We did not get off the line until 10:00 and that was only 2 relay, since one rifle was used twice by two different shooters. We headed back to the clubhouse and Glen, Darcy and myself opted out and we released the target crew. The new 6 new Fr's that showed up Sunday continued pulling for themselves and shot 300M targets at 600 and 1000 yds. I know they had a great time, but they too found it hard to get good target service even using experienced shooters. It gets pretty hard in the butts in high wind and rain and everyone gets wet.
The rain is good experience if you plan on shooting at Ottawa, England and/or Scotland. It teaches you how to stay dry(maybe) and how to dry your gear(maybe). Myself, I'd rather have a portable, extendable, secure, covered firing point (no walls, just a roof) for all competitors when it rains or gets so hot it become dangerous to the shooters. I know, whaw whaw, call me a himp if you want, but a rain in your face is not fun, anytime, anywhere, nor is 90+ F temps on your neck and with only 6 firing points, why not!! Maybe what $450 to cover the whole line and 10 minutes of set up per yardage. Sure would make the rain and sun a non issue.
