Otero Practical Shooting Association
	Otero IPSC - Rocky Flats Rangers - Action Handgun Monthly Newsletter and Match Scores

From the Prez:

Greetings to all members of OPSA!

At the request of several of our members, we are sending out this newsletter to all on our email list as well as posting it on the club website, www.opshooter.org.

As I have taken over as acting president, I am requesting input from all club members on what programs or changes you would like to see the club consider. Member input has contributed to the establishment of at least one new match that I will discuss below. Remember that the club is your club and that we are here to meet the needs of out members.

MEETINGS

Our next meeting is scheduled for March 16, 2010 at 6:30 PM at the Pizza Patio on First Street. We have our meeting room, a nice facility, from 6 onward to permit members to order early from a great menu. There should be enough space for a large group, so please plan on attending.

I would like to thank all members for making 2009 a great year for OPSA. Let’s try to improve on it in 2010.

Stan will taking over as President at our next meeting. In the meantime, get your membership renewals in and have a great holiday season.

Our new and not-so-new club officers:

President: Stan Rzeszutek
Vice President: Howard Morrell
Secretary: Dick Dommers
Treasurer: Jack Partridge
Cowboy Coord.: Marvin Jordan and Butch Rials
High Power Coord.: Jim Silva
22 Coord.: Milt Berggren
Silhouette Coord.: Larry Daniels
IPSC Coord.: Jim Fairhurst

SHOOTING CLUB DONATES PROCEEDS TO CHARITY

Otero Practical Shooting Association (OPSA), a local club dedicated to the shooting sports, made a donation of all proceeds and contributions raised during its October matches, over $1500, to two local charities that support our military members. During its monthly meeting, November 17th, the club presented donations to the Disabled American Veterans, Chapter 14 to support its transportation van. The DAV transports veterans to medical facilities in El Paso and Albuquerque in regular weekly trips. The other recipient of the funds was Miss Maggie Fazenbaker, an Alamogordo High senior who has organized an effort to send care packages to deployed military members. Under the name “Operation Soldier Smiles”, Miss Fazenbaker has thus far prepared and distributed over 8000 packages, that contain notions and small items that are greatly appreciated by troops overseas.

Publicity support from the Alamogordo Daily News and local radio stations was instrumental in getting the word out about the October matches, contributing to the success of the effort. OPSA has over 50 members, many active or former military, and is dedicated to promoting safe shooting activities. OPSA sponsors cowboy action matches, a sport in which participants use 19th century era firearms and dress in western style clothing. Other club matches at the Sidney Paul Gordon range near La Luz include monthly 22 rimfire rifle and handgun, NRA high power and International Pistol Shooting Confederation (IPSC) events. All members of the public are invited to participate in or observe club activities, a complete list of which may be found on the club’s website, www.opshooter.org.

MATCH CALENDAR FOR 2010

Click on the link to bring up the OPSA Match Calendar for 2010. Print a copy and put it on the refrig so you won't miss the next match.

2010 OPSA Match Calendar

 

 

RANGE COMMITTEE

In the event you have not heard about it, the county has formed a committee to study how the range can better serve the community. Thanks to help from Richard Barbaras, I will represent OPSA on the committee and hope to make a positive contribution to their work.

Anyone who has a good idea or two for the club can reach me at 434-8735 (evenings usually good) or at my email address, usnabgo at yahoo dot com.

Straight shooting!

Dick Dommers, President, OPSA

I would like to thank all the OPSA members for their continued support of OPSA events throughout this year. In case anyone hasn't realized, OPSA is the only local club that hosts the majority of disciplines in New Mexico. OPSA has IPSC, Cowboy, Action, NRA High Power, and various fun matches every month. I don't know of a local club that hosts as many disciplines. OPSA has also conducted Friends of the NRA Women On Target events and was the focal point for southern New Mexico's NRA Eddie Eagle children's gun safety program. Members of OPSA also constituted the majority of and leadership of the annual Friends of the NRA Fund Raising Banquet supporting New Mexico firearms programs, training, and education. OPSA members have also conducted USA Boy Scout's Rifle Merit Badge classes and were instrumental, in the first ever in the United States, USA Girl Scout Camp involving shooting activities. OPSA members are instructors for the New Mexico CCW program, participated in the New Mexico Hunters Safety Education program, and provide instruction for basic shooting skills and instruction for individuals wanting to become NRA certified instructors. OPSA should certainly be proud of the club's and their individual member's accomplishments. I just want you to know what a great organization you belong to.

Butch

A special THANKS to all those, past and present, that donate their time to OPSA. Without their devotion we would not have one of the best and most active clubs in the state.

Remember, the setup time for the different matches is 5:00 PM the day before the respective match. Come on out and help set up. It is your match, so lend a hand.

Order Your Own OPSA T-Shirt

Butch has been working to make available OPSA T-Shirts. Order yours now! Information (PDF format)

USPSA

The February 2010 match is scheduled to be an all classifier match (special). If you haven't received your classification in a division, now's the time. See ya next month.

Cowboy Action

The CAS weather gods smiled favorably on us for our Feb. match! Weather was darn't near perfect. Mild temperatures, almost no wind, and the bays were 98% dry. We stole some sweeps from the Picacho Posse match and Saguaro Sam came up with a new one (he thinks). We only had 8 shooters and I attribute that to some of our shooters deciding to live in inhospitable areas (snow bound)or thinking the conditions at the range would be poor. Well, to those in the latter group, you missed a good match. Farmer Jordan will design stages for next month and we were happy to see "City Slicker" at the range. She had some shoulder surgery and hasn't been able to shoot for about a year. A great trooper, she volunteered to help with the scorekeeping, even tho' she couldn't play! Thank you! We were glad to see Nogal Kid back with us. We've missed him! A big KUDO to Dick D., who couldn't shoot the match but came and helped set up anyway. As a reminder, Uberti Kid has taken over the Tularosa Trading Post and has renamed it "Ricochet Shooting Sports". He has supported OPSA for years so give him a try if you need some hardware or supplies. Until next month...

If ya gotta miss, miss fast,

Saguaro Sam


I would like to pass on a thank you to all those that make our matches successful. Stage design, set up, score keeping, steel setting, spotters, RO’ing, teardown, all work together to make the matches fun for everyone.

Action Handgun

We have taken the Action Handgun/Shotgun matches off our list of regular monthly matches. A big thanks to those that helped set up and shoot our match for the last nine years. I know that many, plus myself, will miss this match but keep checking the web site for new announcements. We are thinking about little get together matches using a 3 gun format. Please stay tuned and don't touch that dial. If you would be interested in this type of match and would like a head's up e-mail, let me know at editor at opshooter dot org. I'll be happy to let you know of our plans.

 NRA High Power

First, let me introduce myself. I am going to be the High Power League Coordinator. I am Jim Silva. Many of you know me from the high power league and the other high power shoots we have had. I am also a regular at the range, usually shooting on the 300 yard range. I shoot the high power league, the winter events and recently, the .22 matches. I have shot IHMSA silhouette, IPSC, skeet and trap.

The NRA High Power Summer League officially began on Saturday, the 9th of May after April's match was cancelled due to inclement weather. We only had five shooters participate this month, several less than normal. Conditions were good with a mild breeze blowing. David Budak shot a match winning 439-5x.

Our past match coordinator stepped down unexpectedly and I will replace him as the match coordinator for the remainder of the summer and probably into the winter season of shooting. The current shooters are considering other events for the winter session, so if you have any input please pass your ideas on to Dick Dommers or myself. We are open to any suggestions pertaining to high power shooting.

If you have an interest in high power shooting in general, please feel free to attend one of our shoots on the second Saturday of each month. We always welcome new shooters and also invite back all past shooters. Also, if you have any questions pertaining to the high power league, feel free to email me at jesilva at beyondbb dot com.

Jim Silva


22 Rimfire

January’s Action match was a stark reminder of why I retired down here instead of staying in Minnesota. Saturday was cold, cloudy and wet. Jay graciously offered the use of the covered 50 yd range for our action match, so at least we stayed dry to shoot. We had five shooters. I can’t vouch for their sanity but everyone posted some pretty good scores. Don edged out Jim for first place by just 3/100 of a second with the rest of us within shouting distance.

In contrast for our .22 National Match we had sunny skies. The down-side was it came with a stiff breeze fishtailing across the range between 7-9oclock. Just a good reminder of the importance of reading the wind when shooting at that distance with a .22. If you didn’t catch the wind changes it would throw your groups off center 5-8 inches. We had seven shooters for Sundays match with Ken taking the top spot.

Even with the bad weather we had a pretty good turn-out, just remember there is always room for one more.

Also, remember our proposed schedule change. We will be shooting our Action Match every 4th Saturday of the month at our same time, 0900 with set-up starting at 0800. In addition; starting in January we are planning to shoot our National Match course of fire on the 4th Sunday at 1300 hrs. We will vary the Sunday afternoon .22 matches between National Match, CMP, F-class, Silhouette bench rest and what-ever else we can dream up. (Suggestions?)

So stay tuned, for any changes to the schedule our planned inaugural Sunday match will be a modified High-power National Match shot at 100 yds with .22.

See ya at the range,

Milt

22 SILHOUETTE

Feb 13th Match

The bench rest weather Gods smiled on us today and they gave us a nice morning. It wasn’t to cold and wind was manageable for those that could read it. We had some nice scores tallied. Three new shooters to the 22lr bench rest tried their skills and did very well. All had a good time trying their best, especially guessing the wind. So hope to see more shooters try it, especially juniors. We need to get them involved.

The match on Mar 13 will be the standing silhouette 22 shoot. Ranges are – chicken 40m, pigs 60m, turkeys 77m, rams 100m. All ranges are marked on left side on 200 yard range.

See you there

Larry, Johnny, Stan




Silhouette Rules

AREA MATCHES

Cowboy Action

Ruidoso Gun Club has a cowboy action match, on the 2nd Sat of the month. 0830 sign up.

Ft Bliss Rod and Gun Club (El Paso) holds a cowboy action match on the first Sunday of the month.

Gila Rangers has a cowboy action shoot on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month.

Roswell has a cowboy action shoot the 2nd Sunday of the month.  www.roswellgunclub.com

Truth or Consequences has a cowboy shoot on the 3rd Sunday of the month.

Carlsbad has a cowboy shoot on the 3rd Saturday of the month.

Magdalena has a new club. They shoot on the third Saturday of each month. They shoot at 1 PM. For the location you will have to contact someone there.

IPSC Matches

El Paso - Fort Bliss Rod and Gun Club holds an IPSC match on the second Saturday of the month.  Fort Bliss IPSC

Albuquerque - Rio Grande Practical Shooting Club holds an IPSC match the first and third Saturday of each month. For more info:   Rio Grande Practical Shooters

The Zia Gun Club, in Albuquerque, shoots a variety of action type matches including 3 Gun, action handgun and revolver only during each month.  Visit their web site at:  Zia

Las Cruces is now shooting IPSC sanctioned matches on the first Saturday of the month at the Shooting Range just west of Las Cruces and shoots a Steel Challenge Match on the forth Saturday.  For more info: Las Cruces IPSC

Roswell Gun Club shoots an IPSC match on the third Sunday each month.  Roswell Gun Club

 

Safety on the Range: Who is responsible for safety? YOU ARE! If someone says anything to you about something unsafe-don't take offense, it is for your safety as well as that of everyone else. It is better to maybe hurt your feelings than have anyone get injured.

Thank you to all those who help to advertise OPSA matches.

• President: Stan Rzeszutek
• Vice President: Howard Morrell
• Secretary: Dick Dommers
• Treasurer: Jack Partridge
• IPSC matches: Jim Fairhurst
• Cowboy matches: Marvin Jordan and Butch Rials
• SASS Territorial Governor: Pam Hall
• NRA High Power: Jim Silva
• 22 Rimfire:  Milt Berggren
• Silhouette.: Larry Daniels

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