Okay, the rain wasn't NEARLY the big factor that we've seen in the past, particularly at a Spring National, but the team matches at the 111th certainly kicked off with a splash! as Friday morning's Pistol teams rowed to the firing line. As things turned out, the wet weather once again soaked the shooters but failed to dampen pistol performance. Bob Currie, Mike Trahos, Shelby Hilton, and Todd Wenzel fired their way into the medals with a margin, coming in 4th 'A' out of six paid places in class A-1. Meanwhile, Allen Owens, Dave Jackson, Dennis (of Third Herd), and Jerry French came in 2nd in class B. Or did they??

It turns out that the York Rangers' 'A' team didn't shoot the match, but they dutifully sent their 'B' team over for second phase to shoot their way into 1st Place B. When the protesting died away, [from the stories I've heard, the stat shack didn't catch this outright which is rather alarming, really] whaddya know: YOU CAN'T DO THAT! Since the team that York Rangers fielded becomes their 'A' team, they wound up in 2nd Place in Class A-1, bumping the Bunny 'A' team down to 5th place, but moving the Bunny 'B' team up to 1st!

After the Pistol Match of course came Mortar, and the Bunny Mortar team managed to shoot a 79ft 3-3/4" group, putting them in 34th place out of 48 teams. This did get them onto the first page of the results at least, but well out of the awards.

Our 'A' Repeater team of Dave Jackson, Dean Baehman, Shane Parris, and pick-up Fred Schell wound up in 4th place class A-2, two places out of the silver. 'B'-Teamers John Long, Mike Trahos, Shelby Hilton (and another guy) wound up in 11th place 'B'.

New Carbine: $$$ ...
Being UP for the match: Priceless!

Saturday's Carbine Match brought something of a rally. We wound up with 9 shooters on-site, and John Long returned the pick-up favor with the 3rd NC Artillery's 'B' Team. The BR 'A' Team of Brian, Dave, Dean, Jerry French, Mike Trahos, Shane, Shelby and Todd came off the line at the end of the match not terribly impressed with the way the match went, turning in a total time of 633.1.

At the end of the day around the hut, though, there was some humor when Dean reminded the Pistol teams that they needed to put on uniforms and be at Memorial Park for the award ceremonies. Allen Owens responded with, "what about you medal-winning Carbine shooters? Don't y'all need to dress up and come along?"
Not pictured: Dean's face at that moment.

Shane Parris got off to an incredibly hot start in the Musket match Sunday with a whopping 12 for 12 on the Pigeon Board, a new number-of-hits/no-misses record on Musket Pigeon Board! He went on to shoot a total of three 100% events on the day, and another "never been done before" bites the dust. Unfortunately, the rest of the 'A' Team seemed to vascillate between hot-and-cold and just plain struggling, and they wound up in 39th place with a total time of 882.4 seconds. 19 years ago, our 'A' Team came in 40th place at our first national, so we're getting there!

Meanwhile, the 'B' Team picked up Mike Anderson, the ONLY member of Coastal Rifles to make the trip, but still wound up shooting very short with six shooters. After leaving exactly half the pigeons on the Pigeon Board, their 1291.3 total time bought them 25th place in Class B-1. On the brightest of sides, Pat Mabe got three hits at her very first National! Way to go, Pat!