Winter is Coming! Mentor Match
On October 14, 2017, Warhorse Development hosted its 4th competitive long-range shooting match on the cliffs of the Two Medicine River. The Winter is Coming! Mentor Match was a pro-am team match, where an expert shooter was paired with a novice.
The theory behind this pro-am, was to help some of the new shooters get some one on one training with guys that have been doing this for a while. There aren’t a lot of shooter’s up in this North Central area competing in these types of matches, and we would like to see that change. With this “training” match, hopefully some of the novice shooters are more interested in competing at other matches, and hopefully they got some great prizes that will help them pursue this sport.
The first challenge of the day was a 715 yard cold bore shot. The prize for hitting the target with this first shot of the day was a custom cold bore Velcro patch from Warhorse Development. 8 shooters made this shot and walked away with a patch. These patches were designed by Mountain View Publishing of Valier, MT and embroidered by Patriot Embroidery of Billings, MT, a small veteran owned business.
The bulk of the match consisted of eight stages, with varying setups. There was a “PRS Alley”, which focused more on the PRS discipline (very fast paced, lots of targets, different obstacles/objects to shoot off of). Some stages shot across the canyon/river. One stage was a varmint stage with steel coyotes and gophers that you shot out of the front and back seat of the vehicle. Some of the closest targets were just 98 yards away, while the long shots were 1393 yards, with everything else in between. On most stages the expert ran the stage first, but some stages the novice was up first. There was weak side shooting, and stages where the expert couldn’t see all the novice’s targets and the novice couldn’t see all the expert’s targets.
Originally, we had 21 teams signed up, but due to different circumstances we ended up with 17 teams and 1 lone shooter (so 35 packing rifles in all). We had a youth shooter from Wyoming, and 2 women who competed. It was a brutal day with 25-30 mile an hour sustained winds and gusting near 40, but no snow or rain. Everyone handled the conditions with resigned smiles (it is Northern Montana after all) and no one quit before the day was over. Maybe it was the promise of a hot bowl of chili, cornbread muffins and pumpkin bars that kept everyone going through the long day. Black Rifle Coffee was also shared during the match to give everyone a little warmup partway through the day.
As teams and Range Officers got done, they started trickling back in for the chili dinner while the scores were being tabulated. Once the scoring was finished the awards started with the following winners.
Team 1 – Glen Demaray (Expert) and Don Schmidt (Novice)
Team 2 – Brandon St Clair (Expert) and Seth McAnally (Novice)
Team 3 – Carl Ross (Expert) and Emma Schmidt (Novice)
These teams got to pick from the prize table first and then the rest of the teams went in the order of their placement. Individual scores were also tabulated for the LRC Series. These places went to the following shooters based on individual scores.
First – Brandon St Clair
Second – Don Schmidt
Third – Carl Ross/Brent Wood (tie)
There were even prizes for the bottom 3 shooters provided by AEM Precision (3 ammo wallets). The women shooters had separate prizes that were beaded leather cuffs made by War Pony Beaded Tack and More.
The prize table included actions, barrels, powder, bullets, laser range finders, coffee, beer, and an assortment of other goods and certificates. We had great sponsors and donors that included Sierra Bullets, Tuebor Precision, Proof Research, Sig Electro Optics, Montana Steel Industries, Defiance, Skogen Gun Supply, Mitchell Supply, Black Rifle Coffee, LRC, AEM Precision, War Pony Beaded Tack and More, Demaray Gun Works, Cut Bank Creek Brewery, Jones Creek Precision, Bar 11 Leathermaker, and Kittson’s Kitchen.
Many other businesses and individuals provided other support that made the match possible. We want to give a big thank you to Black Sheep Sports, Pacific Steel, Sig Electro Optics, Diamond D Angus, Super 8, James Kapp, Kathy Dean, Nick and Leandra Gebhardt, Amanda Engman, Rachel St Clair, Emily Leonard and all of the Range Officers! This match was a success due to the generosity of the support team, Range Officers and all our donors.
Thank you to all the shooters and everyone else that participated and helped. We really appreciate your support, generosity, and willingness to come and endure the harsh environment we call home. We hope that the exchange of knowledge was worth the cold fingers and toes and wind burned cheeks.
On December 9th we are going to host a very small Toys for Tots Match. This will be a 4 or 5 stage match with the entry fee being the donation of a toy for Toys for Tots. The toy must be new, unopened, and worth at least $20.
To learn more about Warhorse Development, our products, and matches you can visit our website at www.warhorsedevelopment.com or our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/warhorsedevelopment/. You can also send us an email warhorsedevelopment@gmail.com or give us a call 406-853-2723.
