Take-5^© Rimfire World Championship

Blazer: the world's fastest .22 rimfire stage. A new world 3-string record was set at 4.15 seconds by Mike Setting and he also matched John Allchin's 1.32 second single string record.

Super Squad held on May 1st and the Main match May 2, with awards on Sunday

"Focus on Fun"

The 2009 match is now in the history books. WOW - bigger than last year with 91 total shooters (and a few more who signed up and couldn't make it). Now, imagine 17 juniors, 3 of whom finished in the top 25 - absolutely incredible. We had 85 in the Main Match on Saturday and 9 on the Friday Super Squad.

Super Squad - what's that? This was a new idea to give top shooters the opportunity to compete heads-up, maximum pressure and an all cash payout by finish position. The entry was a hundred bucks each and Take-5^© returned 80% between the 9 competitors, with the winner getting the lion's share. We began at 5PM, in the rain and it was only appropriate, given the inclimate weather, to start on Bay 10 - Qwackers, aka "the Ducks."

Qwackers - get ready to shoot from a chair, behind and through a duck blind. You have a total of 11 rounds to hit and knock down 10 ducks somewhere out there in the camo-decorated area, in the rain. Knowing you are with the Super Squad, you know there are fast shooters coming up. The timer goes off and you push the speed, figuring you will be accurate enough, but if you miss one duck, your mind tells you you now have only enough rounds to hit all the rest with no more misses. Miss a second duck and you know you have just racked up a 5 second penalty - if you get the other 9! Not everyone on the squad gets all 10 ducks and some decide to slow down a bit for the second time through, especially due to the rain getting on the optic sight glass. 

We walk about 1,000' up to Bay 1W and as we do, the decision is made to split into 2 squads to hasten the time. Four go to Bay 1W and shoot 41-41-91 and five go to Bay 1, Blazer. We then swap and continue on through the match in two squads. The daylight is rapidly fading, the clouds block the moon and we look ahead at the lights on Bays 6-7-8 and 9.

The old quotation, "The best laid plans of mice and men..." certainly is appropriate. When we decided to finish with the lighted bays, we forgot that our lights are set up for night shoots and do not light the entire bay all the way to the end. Not only that, but Red-White-Blue has 4 walls that block the lights; however, a solution to help our cause is forth-coming: move in some vehicles to augment the remaining, lighted stages with headlights.

We all finish by 9:30 using all the light we can, but the rain continues to at least a heavy  drizzle. Oh, did anyone mention how the temperature dropped at nightfall?

Every Super Squad member got a special Super Squad pin and there is more than enough interest to continue it to the 2010 match. This time, though,  we'll set the lighting up differently and maybe the rain will go away!!

Several of the Super Squad mentor shooters on Saturday during the main match and everyone enjoys the BBQ that starts at 6PM. We moved in two plate racks and a dueling mini-popper for some friendly 1-on-1 competition after we enjoyed the dinner.

For another perspective on the Super Squad, please go over to Molly Smith's blog page by clicking on this link-to-Molly !!

More to come...................

Photos?? Anyone say, "Photos?"  If you have some, kindly either mail them to PO Box 1859 Paso Robles, CA 93447, or e-mail to me at canscan7@yahoo.com