Bench-Talk

This is Paul, at Francis' House.

This past weekend we (Iosco County Sportsmen's Club) hosted The IBS Benchrest School in Tawas City, Michigan. To say the absolute least, the school turned out to be a great success. We need to be sure that all the helpers at ISC get the proper thank yous they have coming. Lynn Pillsbury has spearheaded the Rifle Program at ISC, and was right on top of everything at the club level. Dinners, lunches, the range all were what we needed, when we needed them. The Clubhouse fit perfect for what we needed, and the speaker system was up to date with microphones and digital recording for the match commands. Francis had the school set up with 25 students from all over the globe, as far east as New York and Maryland, as far west as South Dakota and Texas, one student from Brazil, many from Michigan and Indiana. He had the students paired up with ten excellent instructors that have shot both IBS and NBRSA matches, Group, Score, and Hunter Class. Most Instructors were from Michigan however, we had Mike Swartz from Indiana, and David Halblom from Iowa. Francis collected door prizes for a giveaway from a huge list of contributors. Each shooter and instructor had multiple trips to the prize table as their names were drawn. Francis was able to give each instructor 2 to 3 students for an all day learning session on Saturday and a match on Sunday. The Iosco Club has acquired a great asset in their new secretary, Barbera Thomas. Barb worked all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with Club membership, and IBS school paperwork, then on Sunday Barb scored targets and ran stats for 2 group matches, and a full 100 yard score aggregate. The computer program and printouts ran and were passed out in a very timely manner. Over the course of the weekend, Kim Majewski (Tom's wife) conducted a guided tour of the area for the non-shooting wives of students and instructors. Many were not familiar with the area and for them this was much better than sitting around a gun club. The instructors; Jeff Aberegg, Paul Becigneul, Larry Feusse, David Halblom, Lowell Hottenstein, Joe Krupa, Tom Majewski, John Pierce, Mike Swartz, Al Walewski all came prepared, with rifles if needed, even extra rifles as needed. These instructors gave up a weekend and then some in many cases, and the use of their equipment, and loading facilities, for the future of benchrest, we thank them. All weekend Eric, my son, ran errands for Lynn and the other club members as needed. On Sunday he, Lynn, and Francis ran targets. Eric was a huge help. The students all came prepared and with an open mind for learning, many have shot little or no Benchrest in the past but were anxious and excited to learn. I mentioned after the school that in some, if not in all cases, even they were able to show the instructors a thing or two over the course of the weekend. For the most part the weather cooperated. Each evening we had a brief bout with the showers from the weatherman, but as I mentioned to my students. shooting and being prepared for a match sometimes also means protecting your equipment from anything, including weather. We have ten covered benches at Iosco, and each instructor drew for one of them. He and his students were assigned that bench for the weekend. For ten instructors and 25 students, that meant that the range would be just about as full as we would want for a school at this location. What we had was a sold out show and a great team that put it on. I think the entire world of benchrest owes a thank you to Francis, and the guys at this school for the future of benchrest. Eric captured a number of snapshots during the weekend and we will post them soon.

Paul