Just to fill you all in...
New London County Pistol League
Interleague All-Star Match
All-Star Results:
Hartford’s Metropolitan Pistol League Edges Out
New London in First All-Star Bullseye Pistol Match
Salem:-- Connecticut’s top “bullseye†pistol shooting competitors met in Salem, Conn. on a rainy Saturday, April 2, for the state’s first Interleague All-Star Pistol Bullseye Match. The Metropolitan Revolver League of Hartford clinched its victory over the New London County Pistol League in the last match relay of the afternoon.
The 90-shot, 900-point match was hosted by the New London league and was held at the indoor range and clubroom of E&B Sporting Goods on Route 85 in Salem.
The All-Star match format consisted of 90 shots each for 23 individuals in each league, for a possible best of 900 points per competitor. The aggregates of the top ten scorers in each league -- “the best of the best†-- were calculated to become the team score.
Out of its possible 9000 points, the Met League scored 8562 with 198 “x-ring†hits, and the New London League scored 8493, with 190 x-ring hits. The small, quarter-sized x-ring is centered in the target’s ten-point scoring-ring and is used to break ties. The 90-shot match format is essentially a combination of three, 30-shot matches, each of which has a maximum score of 300 points.
In fact, the best individual shooters for the Met League tied for the day’s high score: Larry Clark of the Windsor Rifle and Pistol Club, based in Manchester, was the high scorer for the match. He posted 872 with 27 x-counts, while Paul Valintakonis, also of the Windsor club, scored 872 but had 19 x-ring shots. For each, the score translates into three conventional matches with scores of over 290: this scoring level is considered a major achievement in match conditions.
The top two competitors in the New London League were Steve Wheeler, of the E&B Sporting Goods Pistol Team, with an 870-24x, and Mike Dane, also of E&B, with an 867-24x. Dane, of Canterbury, has been the Connecticut State Outdoor Pistol Champion, as well as the Connecticut State Air Pistol Champion.
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All-Star Match 2005 --2--
The Met League held a small advantage through most of the day, sustained by their general excellence in the slow-fire stages of the matches, but Valintakonis came through with his exceptional score to put the Hartford-area league firmly on top.
Eleven perfect, 100-point, targets were turned in during the match.
“This All-Star match was developed over the past two years,†recalls Wheeler, who was the match organizer for New London league. A Hebron resident, he’s also competed in the Met league for the Telephone team during the winter match season.
“We had some great shooting and camaraderie, and we’re definitely looking forward to next year, when we’ll be joined by bullseye leagues from New Haven and Fairfield Counties at the Metropolitan Shooters, Inc. target range in Manchester.â€
Speaking for the more than a dozen volunteers who administered the match, Duane Stacey of Terryville, a target-scorer representing the Met league, noted that “This has been a real workout.â€
“We knew the match was going to be close,†she said, “and we had to be more precise than a typical league match. If there was any question on target scoring or shot placement, we had up to seven people and a referee review the targets with backlights and magnifiers to be sure that they were correctly rated.â€
Background: The Match Format
The 90-shot “Indoor 900†Course of Fire is based on an aggregate of three, 30-shot National Match Indoor Gallery Courses (NMC). A single NMC match of 30 shots totals a possible of 300 points fired in slow, timed, and rapid fire stages.
The match is fired at 50 feet using .22 caliber target pistols and standardized “bullseye†targets, whose center “ten-ring†is about the size of a 25-cent piece (for slow-fire sequences), and a silver dollar (for timed- and rapid-fire sequences).
A maximum of 900 points is possible for each all-star competitor, though perfect scores are very rarely achieved. The maximum all-star team score is 9000 points.
The New London League
The ten-team New London County Pistol League was established in 1954. Most league teams have 15-20 shooters who compete weekday evenings during the late fall and winter. Several of the clubs had long been in existence when the league took shape in the early 1950’s, and the bullseye-match format itself is an American refinement of centuries-old competitions conducted worldwide by civilian-sportsmen, police, and military organizations. The teams and clubs welcome interested people from all walks of life.
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All-Star Match 2005 --3--
The New London County League teams are:
E&B Sporting Goods (Salem area)
Electric Boat Athletic Club (based at Groton Sportsmen's Club in Stonington)
Mystic Rod & Gun Club (Stonington)
Niantic Sportsmen’s Club (Niantic/East Lyme)
Nutmegs Pistol Club (based at Quaker Hill)
Pachaug Outdoor Club (Pachaug area)
Pfizer Pistol Team (based at Mystic R&G)
Quaker Hill Rod & Gun Club (Quaker Hill/Montville)
Sprague Rod and Gun Club (Sprague area)
U.S. Coast Guard Pistol Club (staff, faculty, and cadets)
The Met League
The Metropolitan Revolver League of Hartford was established in 1938 and now has 13 teams or clubs reprsenting some 280 shooters. The teams are:
Charter Oak
Colt’s
Tolland County
Windsor
Manchester
Telephone
Bell City
Silver City
Eddy Glover
Torrington
Metacon
Middletown
Capital City
Six of the teams run the Metropolitan Shooters, Inc. range in Manchester, which, in addition to hosting many Metropolitan League matches, also holds a variety of competitions and classes including 900’s, 1800’s, air-pistol matches, state matches, pistol-permit courses, the Loomis Chafee (high school) Rifle Team, and the Pratt & Whitney summer pistol league.
Target Pistols
Specialized, .22 caliber match firearms by Ruger, High Standard, Smith & Wesson, Pardini, and Browning are typical pistols used for bullseye competition both indoors and outdoors. They are often customized for their owners with special grips and sights, and precision trigger pulls. Olympic-grade arms by Pardini, Hammerli, and Walther are frequently encountered.
Experienced bullseye shooters often use optical or red-dot sights that replace the adjustable, open sights that come with a fine target firearm. Nonetheless, indoor target shooting does not demand extremes in equipment; skill is more important than hardware.
(They failed to mention Clark is Current and former state indoor champ and Paul Val is a former indoor state champ.)
I don't blame the other shooter, I blame the design of the ports. Needless to say, my scores weren't quite up to my usual. OK, they were pretty bad. I'm not saying this was the only reason I shot like a dog today but I know it didn't help!
