CLUB NEWS

ADDED EVENT FOR OCTOBER!!!

September 18, 2007

To honor the request of other members, the Cedar Pointe ARA Club will  add a three target event on Oct 20, 2007.  Sign-up at 3 PM, first target at 4PM.  Dinner will be available after the match.

September 18, 2007     Tommy Hooten

Congratulations to Jack Harper for winning the Cedar Pointe shoot on September 15, 2007! Jack’s ability to deal with inconsistent weather patterns and switch winds proved he had what it took to bring home the day’s grand prize! During the process, Jack won two targets and scored consistently high enough on the rest to finish with a 2014.16 grand aggregate.  Well done, Sir!

Congratulations go out as well to David Schmidt and Macky Locklin for each winning at least one of the six targets shot. David himself won three of the six targets shot. Way to go guys!

August 6, 2007     Dorothy Jamison

David Schmidt shot a new range record at the Cedar Pointe/Dietzville Range Saturday night. Shooting a Bill Myers smithed Suhl with a Benchmark barrel, David's, cool under fire, produced the first ever 2400 at this range on top of the hill. David also won the Higen's Memorial Trophy. John would be proud of you.

Dorothy Jamison
Asst. Match Director
Cedar Pointe ARA Club

August 6, 2007     Tommy Hooten

Well we finally got to shoot the Higens Memorial and what a day it was! I want to put a shout out to JR who missed the tourney due to work commitments. We sure missed having you around and you sure picked a bad one to miss, friend. We had record setting scores, rainbows, cow herding, a little rain, crazy gusts of at least 40 MPH winds , traveling semi trucks, good food, and camaraderie. Congratulations to David Schmidt for taking first place. Your shooting abilities continue to awe me and I hope to one day be shooting as well as you. Congratulations as well to Danny Killough for coming in second and Scotty Hebert for his third place effort. As far as the rest of us go, we couldn’t have asked for better shooting conditions later in the evening. From about 8:30 p.m. on, I think we could have all put our wind flags away because there was no need for them. For the last three targets, I never saw a single propeller move. What more could you have asked for besides cooler temperatures and lower humidity (one thing at a time huh)? Congratulations are also in order to Fred Jamison for getting us off to a good start. Fred won our local warm up match by continuing to hold his own against some very talented shooters. Thanks to Mrs. Kelly for bringing us some very tasty enchiladas for dinner. The guacamole was some of the best I have ever had.  As always, thanks to Mrs. Dorothy for the scrumptious deserts.

I would also like to thank all our visitors for joining us Saturday. It is always good to see friends and I hope you made it home safely. I also got to meet Scotty Hebert and put a face to a name. It was nice to meet you, sir, and I see that not only do you have shooting skills, but driving ones as well. I was shocked to turn around from the bench and see your huge semi pulling in. It is a wonder you didn’t drive that thing off into a rut trying to get back to the range as grown up as it is. Speaking of grown up, I bet next time you’re down this way you will wear a proper pair of shoes to the range. Them sticker burrs sure are hard on bare feet! As always, thanks to Danny and Chris for showing up. I hope to get over your way one of these days.  Thanks to Danny K, B.J., and Fran as well.  It was nice to see you, my friends. You guys are a wonderful addition to our matches.

As we head into a long stretch before the next match, I need to try and figure out where my problem lies. I managed to shoot a new best target of 2075 but I am not very pleased by it. With the conditions as they were the other night, I can’t help but wonder where my problem lies. If there was ever a time to shoot a perfect score it would have been last Saturday night. I feel conditions couldn’t have been more perfect. However, I feel I shot way too many 50’s that should have been hundreds. As hard as I was trying, it seemed all I could manage to do was to chase bullets around the edge of the fifty ring. I wish there was an “easy button” like on that Office Max commercial that would let you know what needed fixed. Wouldn’t that be neat? Push a button and it says, “You’re shooting the wrong ammo,” or “Your barrel sucks!” or “You should quit while you are ahead!” The thing is, I don’t know if my barrel really is bad. It will, for the most part, group like there is no tomorrow.  Then, out of nowhere, it will start to throw rounds way off into outer space, only to eventually calm back down. So where do you go from there? Do you spend time testing more ammo on a potentially bad barrel or do you potentially take a good barrel off a gun on the pretense that you think it may be flawed? What if you put a new barrel on to discover that the problem only escalates? Anyway, I have come to a revelation, I think. I didn’t once clean my barrel through nine targets and I feel like the gun may be getting tighter. Who knows? Not me, for sure. I do know one thing. The great Ranger in the sky is frowning upon me right now for having a dirty rifle packed away. You know what though? It is going to stay that way until it stops improving. Enough about that.  I will worry about it later.

I want to remind everyone that our next match is not until September 19th and will be held by the Cedar Pointe ARA club. It will start at 10:00 am with warm-up beginning somewhere around 9:00 or 9:30.  If you are coming, you should get there early enough to put up flags and stuff without having to cut into someone else’s practice time. I look forward to seeing everybody and hope y’all have a great month!

Till next time...

July 30, 2007      Dorothy Jamison 

We're going to try one more time. The rain wiped us out the last time, but on Saturday, Aug 4th, Cedar Pointe ARA Club, will host the John Higen's Memorial Tournament. Sign up at 6 PM with first target at & PM. Dietzville BRC, will host a three target warm up at 3 PM in the afternoon. Come earlly, and stay late, to honor a fine sportsman and Marine.

July 21, 2007      Dorothy Jamison 

Cedar Pointe ARA, will host the 3rd Annual Higens' Memorial, Saturday August 4th. Sign up at 6 PM, 1st target at 7PM. Shooting under the lights, on the Dietzville Range, is another experience altogether. The Dietzville BRC club, will hosts an afternoon 3 target warm up match at 3 PM. Again, sign up is one hour earlier. Make you plans now. Look forward to seeing you there.

July 21, 2007  Tommy Hooten

Hello Friends! I have unfortunate news. I received the news last night.

"Due to Flooding and Heavy rains, the Dietzville and Cedar Pointe Ranges have CANCELED the Higen's Memorial Tournament and Dietzville Club matches, scheduled for Saturday July 21st. The Tournament and Club shoot will be rescheduled for August the 4th, same times. We regret the inconvenience."

The only consolation to this is that it will give others who couldn’t attend the opportunity to maybe schedule it in. I hope to see everyone real soon!

Till next time,

Tommy

June 25, 2007  Tommy Hooten

Congratulations to Fred Jamison for winning the 2007 Cedar Pointe ARA Club Night Shoot. Well Done Sir!

Well, I have competed in my very first night shoot. As far as life-changing revelations go, that is about it. Although we didn’t exactly get the calm weather we had hoped for, the evening did bring forth new lessons learned for the beginner. First, there is something very odd about looking through a 36X scope through artificial light and at the same time try to keep it lined up properly. All I kept thinking about during the whole debacle was a saying I have heard for the last year of my indoctrination into small-bore bench rest shooting: “It’s easy to shoot small groups all day long, but it takes a real shooter to put a hole into the middle of 25 different targets.”

Just a reminder to everyone that our next shoot on July 21 will actually consist of two matches. We will begin the day’s festivities at 3:00 p.m. with a club match held by the Dietzville Bench Rest Club. Following the club match, the Higens Memorial, held by the Cedar Pointe ARA club, is expected to begin at 7:00 p.m. Using last month’s night shoot as a precursor to the Memorial coming up, we should see some great scores coming out of both these events. There are still plenty of slots available for this great event and I urge you to contact the event organizers as soon as possible to make arrangements (surf on over to the contact page for more info).

I want everybody to know that I appreciate everything you have done to make a silly east Texas redneck feel welcome in your organization. From the first day, I have felt that I was with family and “that”, I think, is more important than just about anything else we are trying to accomplish. I will keep telling myself this despite the annoying voice inside my head that nags at me constantly about wanting to win my first target. I look forward to seeing everybody at the end of July. Until then, I will look forward to the great fun, food, laughter, and oh yeah, great shooting! Y’all have a safe month.

April 24, 2007     Tommy Hooten

Congratulations to David Schmidt for winning our first Cedar Pointe shoot of the year!

I want to remind everyone of the Texas State Tournament and Pearson Memorial to be held at the end of next month. The Texas State Tournament and Pearson Memorial will be held respectively on the 19th and 20th of May. It promises to be a good weekend with plenty of visitors coming in to even the playing field. The state tournament will be ran by the Cedar Pointe ARA Club and the Pearson Memorial will be held by the Dietzville Bench Rest Club. Both matches will take place at the Dietzville range. The state tournament will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday and the Pearson Memorial will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday.

April 21, 2007     Tommy Hooten

Congratulations to David Schmidt for winning our first Cedar Pointe shoot of the year!  David, a veteran of the Dietzville and Cedar Pointe clubs, was the only one able to aggregate over 2000 points in crazy wind gusts of over 35 mph last Saturday. Not only did David win the overall match, he won four targets in a row to take it with an overall average of 2008.333. Now, I know I am just a beginner to this crazy game, but to shoot scores like that in the craziest wind conditions imaginable is truly impressive to me. Just as an example of how crazy the wind was, imagine looking down range at thirty range flags and not seeing any two of them pointed in the same direction. Now that is crazy wind! Well done, Sir!

Congratulations go out as well to Jack Harper and Benny Hilliard for each winning one of the six targets shot. Way to go guys!

Thanks to our visitors Benny Hilliard, Chris Peet, and Fran Barletta for driving several hours just to come play with us. It was a pleasure to meet and spend a little time with each of you. Being the new guy around here, I am trying my hardest to soak up as much knowledge as I can from the veterans around me. It’s refreshing to get a different perspective on things and to see what the rest of the world is doing. It was apparent that each of you have a lot to add this sport and I appreciate you sharing that with me.

In addition, just because I am the webmaster of this site and have control of what goes on it (and because I can), I would like to toot my own horn. Despite the crazy wind conditions last Saturday, I managed to shoot a new personal best target of 1950. That illusive score of 2000 is within spitting distance for me. In fact,  truth be known, I would have had it last Saturday if I hadn’t shot two bullets at the same bull (don’t ask me how it happened, it’s embarrassing). It must have been the clean bill of health my rifle got after checking it with a stethoscope.

In closing, I would like to say, it was a good day. I got more trigger time (which is always good) and I learned some things like not trying to shoot during brief calm wind conditions when the wind has been constantly gusting up to 35 mph. Somehow, that causes a disconnect between the stars, the rifle, the node, and the shooter. Don’t ask me how, I just know. I witnessed it first hand.

I remember being asked by someone if I was having a good time. My immediate response was yes! If I wasn’t, I would have packed up and left. My time is too precious these days to spend it on stuff that irritates me. This whole crazy game we are playing has become an obsession to me. If I just had more time to dedicate to it, (work is lame that way) I am sure that maybe within the next ten years or so I could be shooting like David. Congratulations again, Sir! Job well done!

 Thanks for the lessons and...See ya next month!

April 24 , 2007     Tommy Hooten

News Flash!!! New winner at Dietzville

Well, we had our first match of the season last weekend. Congratulations to our winner, Rick Shouse, a visitor from Indiana. This was his very first event win and we are proud to be able to say that he got it at our match. Rick battled through some pretty tough and crazy Texas head wind to take his win. He was shooting a new Calfee Turbo (that was absolutely gorgeous) and, like a pro, won the match and two targets as well. He ended up shooting a 2005.83 aggregate, with a best target of 2060. He also managed to show us Texans a thing or two about shooting. Congratulations Rick!!! We hope to see you next month.

Congratulations are also in order to Jack Harper for shooting a 2300 target at our first shoot of the year. As a new guy to this game, your accomplishments are inspiring. I hope to one day soon be at the level that you are.

As far as shooting goes for the rest of us, well, it went. There was a little grumbling here and there, mixed with a few smiles every now and then. The best part though, was the get- together afterwards. As we packed things away and settled in to view the final tabulation of the scores, a wonderful aroma of food began to fill the air. Next thing I know, I am sitting down eating some of the best gumbo I have ever had, washing it down with a cold beer and listening to the stories told by a tight group of friends. These are the things that make it all worthwhile. I would also like to add that what really topped it all off was the delicious cherry/peach “dump it” cake that I so unashamedly took the first bite out of. Mrs. Dorothy there is no way that you could have known that “dump it” cake is my favorite dessert, or that on that day I would get to sample the very best that I have ever had, but it is true. Thank you!

As far as this being my very first match, I could not have asked for more. Although the winds were a little crazy during the shoot, they provided some powerful teaching tools for the future, and I had fun. Somebody mentioned something last weekend about this being an addictive sport. I so totally agree. There hasn’t been an hour pass since I left the range last weekend that I haven’t wished I was out tuning my barrel, practicing, or trying to burn up that new case of ammo I have stored in the closet. I look forward to next month when I can try to beat my new personal best of 1760. It is true...this is an addictive sport.

Now for the best part! Thanks to everybody for such a wonderful reception into your club. You certainly made my wife and me feel very welcome. There is something about Texas hospitality that most people not from around here just wouldn’t understand. Fred, thank you for your tutelage and for answering my never-ending questions. Mrs. Dorothy, thank you for letting me steal Fred away so much in the last couple of months and for putting up with the ringing telephone each time I would call. For the rest of you: Rick, Jack, David, Polly, Macky, and JR, it was a pleasure to meet you and I hope to see all of you next month.

Until next time...Godspeed!

March 17, 2007     Tommy Hooten

Congratulations to Rick Shouse on taking first place in our first event of the year. Rick, a visitor from Indiana came and showed us Texas boys a thing or two about shooting. Way to go Sir! Thanks for the lessons and...See ya next month!

Congratulations go out as well to Jack Harper for shooting a 2300 card in such horrid wind conditions. Way to go Jack!

See ya next month!