THE RANGEFINDER the Newsletter of the Oak Ridge Sportsmen’S Association
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE RANGEFINDER The Newsletter of the Oak Ridge Sportsmen’s Association December 2011 Volume 20 Number 12 The current membership count is at approximately 2080+ members Please remember that when using any of the ORSA Ranges safety should be your #1 concern. Everyone must be diligent in observing and correcting unsafe actions by anyone on the Ranges. Also remember that you should always wear proper EYE & EAR protection regardless of whether you are shooting or just watching. ORSA WEBSITE: ORSAONLINE.ORG ORSA MEMBERSHIP INFO: JOINORSA.ORG SAVE THE DATE It's that time of year again when we remind you that the ORSA Annual Party is right around the corner. It will be held Wednesday, December 7, at 7 p.m. in our Club House. Drinks & ham will be supplied by the club just bring a covered dish to share. Call Ed Johnson 483-9573 to RSVP UPCOMING MEMBERSHIP ORIENTATION SESSIONS Membership will offer the mandatory orientation sessions for new members on about the 3rd Tuesday of each month in the ORSA Clubhouse. If you are a new applicant to ORSA and unsure of your current whether you should attend one of the upcoming sessions please contact me at [email protected]. Attending the mandatory orientation sessions prior to being approved as a new member will not grant you access to the facility any sooner. An email confirming the current status of your application is usually sent approximately 7-10 days prior to the scheduled orientation session. All sessions will be at 6:30pm at the clubhouse unless otherwise noted in your email confirmation. The front gate will be unlocked approximately 30 minutes prior and will be locked closed promptly at 6:35pm. Late arrivals will not be admitted to the orientation session. ORSA Member Receives Silver Medal at World Competition ORSA Member Ed Decker of Maryville competed in September 2011 at the 8th MLAIC World Long Range Muzzleloading Championships as a member of the US International Long Range MuzzleloadingTeam (USIMLT) and brought home a team silver medal for 900 yards. Ed also placed 4th at 500 yards in the individual competition, and 5th at 300 yards. There were 72 competitors from 11 countries—United States, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Another major factor in the competition was the arrival of Hurricane Katia the day competition began, challenging the shooters with 45 mph winds and driving rain. We were told that the Brits continued shooting in the rain, and they meant it—no relays were cancelled because of the inclement weather. Ed learned muzzleloading from his grandfather, Amos Watson of Roan Mtn, and hunted deer and elk with a muzzleloader for many decades. About three years ago he became interested in the sport of long range muzzleloading and attended a competition at Oak Ridge. He found it hard to believe that you could shoot a target the size of a basketball at 1,000 yards with a muzzleloader, but he learned that not only can it be done, it can be done with an amazing degree of accuracy! He immediately joined ORSA and enjoys having a 1,000 yard facility just an hour away from home for practice! The world competition is held every other year in a different host country. The US hosted the 2009 championship. The 2011 competition was held at Camp Bisley, an hour south of London, England. The 2013 match will be held in South Africa. Fellow US team members included Dave Gullo of Buffalo Arms, Lee Shaver of Lee Shaver Gunsmith Co., Ray Hopkins of Newark, Ohio, Dave Munch of Cincinnati, Ohio, Ike Leggett of Rixeyville, VA, and Kenn Heismann of Loretto, KY. THE RANGEFINDER Check us out on the web at http://orsaonline.org Page 1 Last NRA Highpower match of the year The last NRA “across the course” high power match of the year was shot the weekend of Nov. 5-6. On Sat. we shot the standard NRA 80 shot match under perfect weather conditions. The match consists of 20 shots slow fire standing and 20 shots rapid fire sitting from the 200 yd. line, 20 shots rapid fire prone at the 300 yd. line and finally 20 shots slow fire prone from the 600 yd. line for a possible total of 800 points. 31 shooters shot the match. The overall match winner was Cecil Baldwin with a score of 780-19x. The high combined master/master class winner was Carl Weston with a score of 769-17x. Second was Curtis McNabb with a score of 767-18x. Winning the combined expert/marksman class was John Powell with a score of 745-13x. Second was Randy Booker with a score of 742-8x. On Sunday, 32 shooters returned to ORSA to shoot in the last Civilian Marksmanship Program Excellence in Competition (EIC) match of the year. EIC matches are held to allow shooters to win points toward the CMP’s Distinguished Marksman award. Since only a little over 2000 marksmen have earned this award in the last 100 years, it’s a highly sought after achievement. A total of 30 EIC points are required to earn the DM award and each shooter is only allowed to shoot 4 EIC matches a year. The match consists of 10 shots slow fire standing and 10 shots rapid fire sitting at 200 yd., 10 shots rapid fire prone at 300 yd. and 20 shots slow fire prone at 600 yd. Since there are no “sighter shots” allowed in this match, every shot counts! Ed Agle was the match winner with a score of 473-10x and received 8 EIC points and a Gold EIC Metal. Brian McElhaney was second with a 470-7x and won the Silver Metal. Since Brian is already Distinguished he got no EIC points. Robert Corley placed third and received 6 EIC points and the Bronze Metal. Gerald Bowers placed fourth with a 465-8x and collected 6 EIC points. For a complete listing of all the competitors and their scores go the ORSA High Power web site at orsahp.com. You will also find a list of all the scheduled High Power matches for next year. Richard Stouder ♦ “Those who hammer their guns into plows – will plow for those who do not” Thomas Jefferson Fast & Furious is a scandal that just won’t go away – this despite the mainstream media’s almost total lack of journalistic curiosity. Despite the best efforts of the Obama team to obfuscate, the truth is emerging. The recent move by Congressman Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, to subpoena scores of documents from Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the Fast and Furious debacle hardly comes as a surprise. The testimony before the Oversight committee by Holder and numerous officials from the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, and other federal agencies was a classical bureaucratic obfuscation, so subpoenas are the next required step towards the truth. It has become abundantly clear that the U.S. Attorney General has repeatedly lied about his knowledge and involvement in Fast & Furious. Issa’s focus on the Attorney General is well- placed. Holder became the point man on gun control during his stint with the Clinton administration and was an obvious choice to help navigate the Obama administration through the political minefield of gun control. Another figure, whose name is conspicuously absent in much of the current debate over Fast & Furious, is also a leader on the gun control issue: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. From Inauguration Day, Obama, Clinton, Holder and another cabinet member, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, were itching to unarm Americans, but how could that be done without exacting an unacceptable political price? With Mexico devolving into a narco-state and violence increasing along the U.S.-Mexico border in 2009, the Obama administration found the perfect scapegoat for their attack on the gun rights of Americans. When Secretary of State Clinton went on her first trip to Mexico she told CBS news that, “The guns that are used by the drug cartels against the police and the military, 90 percent of them come from America.” Clinton’s use of the 90% number sent honest reporters looking for verification. Instead, the number was debunked within days. Still, the administration clung tenaciously to the 90% claim. The following month, in April 2009, speaking at a joint press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama said: This war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border. Dissecting what people in the highest levels of government knew and when they knew it leads only to troubling conclusions. Either they all have lied, under oath or in public comments, about their knowledge of Fast & Furious. Or there exists an unbelievable level of incompetence at the State Department (for not being aware of thousands of guns being sent to violent gangs in another country), at Homeland Security (which claims no knowledge of guns being allowed to walk across a border which falls under its jurisdiction to control) and at the Justice Department (with high-level officials claiming no knowledge of a multi-million dollar operation occurring right under its nose). Rep. Issa’s 22-point subpoena of documents related to Holder will pull on strings that could unravel a much wider network of corruption. The available evidence strongly suggests that Holder lied to Congress about his knowledge of Fast & Furious.