Mary's Nipple Cup III is in the history books and consigned to posterity. We had a pleasant morning to begin the competition and although the shooting lasted late into the afternoon, the weather remained pleasant and mild. Some wind in the afternoon was surely a factor during the shoot at the Bird Target as it took our experts marksmen more than one try.2.gif)
Utah Schuetzen Society
Mayfield Zimmerbixlers 2008 Mary’s Nipple Cup III
September 20 Mayfield, Utah
Matches
Glückscheibe: Five shot “Luck Target” First place prize, a competition improvement kit from PISA® guaranteed to improve off-hand scores.
Mary’s Nipple Cup: Thirty shots at 15 meters (49’3”) on standard zimmerstutzen target. First place prize, an elegant engraved silver cup.
Ich bin Bayer: While the targets are being scored, we will have one-shot target matches at $1.00 per target. Ties are to be broken with the purchase of additional targets. Winner takes all. Bring extra dollar bills. No credit.
Ehrenscheibe: One shot at an Honor Target. Highest score wins the souvenir target.
Vogelschiessen: One shot from each participant in turn, in reverse order of MNC placing, until a scoring hit is made. Winner will be declared Zimmerbixler King.
The majestic peak of Mary’s Nipple towers above the home of the simple but friendly residents of Mayfield, Utah who invite you to the third annual competition for the prized Mary’s Nipple Cup and Utah State Zimmerstutzen Championship. Match begins at 10 a.m. Sight-in table available from 8 a.m. All matches are to be fired off-hand. Arms restricted to 4mm Zimmerstutzen and .177 air rifles. No telescopic sights. No sighter targets. Hearing and eye protection required. All safety rules and ASSRA rules apply. Pre-registration encouraged. Five Dollar registration fee. Match will take place at Mayfield Zimmerbixlers’ verdant outdoor range at 70 North 200 East. Scheibentoni Jon Spencer, PO Box 429, Mayfield, Utah 84643. 435-979-9723. jon.cgs@lycos.com
Patriotic marksmen from all over the state gathered last Saturday at the Lee Kay Center to contest the Independence Day match for the coveted George Washington medal. Ron took third place with a 831-6, Paul second with a 838-4, and Gary first with and 855-12. On the bench scope match, Gary shot a 249. One of these days, he might be sorry that we are using the ISSA targets. Being a thrifty and environmentally aware group, we are recycling our used targets into Zimmerstutzen targets. Gary, however, wanted to keep this one.
We will be celebrating our nation's independence with our own sort of
On the second Saturday of June, while the membership of the Utah Schuetzen Society is enjoying the temperate climes of scenic and historical Promontory, I hope to be in Germany celebrating a Schuetzenfest and the re-opening of the arms museum in Suhl.
This city, later dubbed “The Arsenal of Europe,” has a history of armsmaking and metal work that extends back to the Bronze Age when the receding glaciers of the last ice age left malleable metal ores available to the primitive miners. The forests provided fuel and, later, the streams motive power. By the fourteenth century, the city had hammer forges. The city is also quite near an ancient trade route that extended from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. In those days most all food and fiber were produced and consumed locally. The major trade goods were salt and metal wares which the men of Suhl produced in all varieties. When firearms came into use, they were produced here in such numbers as to attract the attention of the objects of these weapons. The city, mines, forges, and workshops were destroyed during the Thirty Years War.
It is hard to keep good folks down however, and the arms industry (and those industries related to machine and metal work) flourished up to 1945 when considerable downsizing occurred after a sharp drop in demand. Manufacturers such as JP Sauer, Krieghoff, Heym, and Anschütz, although now located elsewhere in Germany, had their homes once in Suhl. It is still the home to Merkel and several smaller gunmakers.
I found this page some time ago. It has some interesting experiments especially in regards to rust. Allowing rust on a firearm is a mortal, not a venal, sin and like other sins, such as wearing a baseball cap backwards, should be avoided. Last week, on a day that it seemed that I had too much time on my hands, I took the barrel off my Stevens .40-65 to see if it would headspace correctly on my schuetzen. You know, there are days when wind is a problem. Well, it didn't but the loose Stevens threads apparently allow moisture in. I like to use WD-40 where I have used soapy water or Windex despite all the rude things said about it and have had good results up to now. I think that I will use Ballistol in the future and see if that isn't better.
Saturday was the contest for the coveted Jefferson Medal. As I told anyone who would listen, the funds for this prize came from my own pocket. Not a small sacrifice for those who know me. As you may surmise from the photo, Paul Lambert was the champion and not only took home the medal but out shot everyone on the Honor Target. Our next match will be on the second Saturday of May. I want all you Scouts to be prepared!
You know how it is when you hear from an old friend that you haven't seen or even thought about for years. This little guy was my constant companion from the first day that I met him. They were included in our C rations and were/are called P38's but I don't know why. Mine went on my dog tag chain and was used for a lot of reasons besides opening cans. Gapping spark plugs comes to mind. The Army said that we should use a dime to gap the plugs in our generators but when we were in RVN, dimes and all other US money were, of course, made of paper. For those of you who never needed one, you might not understand either its utility or the fondness one can have for its companionship. I can only explain by stating that they were handy. For you intellectuals, maybe it was Pavlovian. P38=Food. I quit carrying mine quite a few years ago when the blade would not stay folded in. I ran across a website today that has quite a bit of history and reminisces about them and spent a good part of the afternoon trying to find where I left mine. It would be interesting to ask a group of people who were in the army back then if they still carried them on their key chains.
Rütli Field is where, according to legend, that the leaders of three Swiss cantons met on August first of 1291 and swore to defend each other. The date, which represents the beginning of Switzerland, is now the Swiss national day much like our Fourth of July and the field, a national shrine. In German, the adjective eidgenoessich (as a sworn comrade) means, literally, "Swiss." In 1940, when war was likely to engulf Switzerland with an invasion from Germany, the Swiss general Guisan, himself reputed to be sympathetic to the Nazis, called the Swiss officer corps to the iconic Rütli Field and there bade them to defend the homeland to the last bullet-and then to use their bayonets.
A few years ago, I decided to obtain a concealed carry permit. There are several reasons why you might wish to have one yourself. First of all, if you happen to be an active gun trader, and I know you are, and don't have an FFL, you can avoid the BCI fee for your background check. Another may be that when you are asked for ID by an officer of the law, you can readily show that you are not an active felon. But the main reason would be to avoid arrest for behavior that many in this part of the world consider normal, prudent, and a sign of good citizenship--such as having a loaded weapon in your possession. The Utah law has some nice features that might not be true of other states. An important one is the lack of a "duty to conceal." That is, you are not bound to have a weapon concealed at any time. There is no bar other than good manners to "open carry." Another is that although a property owner may ban firearms from his premises and you inadvertently (or not) violate, it is no infraction of the law. A good discussion of this is carried on a forum and is worth taking a peep.
Socrates, in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, illustrates for his pupils his idea of subjective cognizance. To do this, he proposes, briefly, that men in a cave are presented with the shadows of objects on a wall for which they deem is reality. However, when brought into the sunlight and enlightened, so to speak, they perceive the ideal. It is my long held opinion that when these cave dwellers see the shadow of what they can only call "hunting rifle" are presented with perfection, what they see is, of course, a commercial Mauser Model A of pre-WWII vintage, with double set triggers, nice wood and checkering, horn tip and caps, and lightly but tastefully engraved.
The Mauser firm went through an extensive downsizing and reorganization in 1945 which included new management. The physical plants were dramatically reduced in size and most of the assets re-allocated. However, the ideal endured and hunting rifles of the "98" design persist until this very day and are not only made in Germany but also in Spain, Italy, and the Czech Republic, and likely in other places. Mauser, the brand name, is now owned by the German firm Blaser, I believe, and they are producing rifles of extraordinary quality. That is what has prompted this post. Mauser, or whoever, has not been idle as evidenced by their model 03. Is this slick, or what?
Chester Dale Rose 1941 ~ 2007 Dale, as he was known by family and friends, died suddenly of a massive heart attack on Sunday, December 30, 2007. His loving and generous heart finally succumbed to the heart disease which had shadowed him throughout his adult life. Dale was born in Trinidad, Colorado to Robert Lee and Bettie Dixon Rose, the only son and older brother of sisters Dixie and Bonnie. His lifelong passion for the desert southwest was nurtured by a childhood spent on the family ranch near Villegreen, Colorado. He spent many hours hiking, exploring, daydreaming, and hunting in his youth. He graduated from Kim High School in 1959 and subsequently attended Trinidad Community College completing his professional training as a gunsmith. Dale worked as a gunsmith for Weatherby, Browning, and P.O. Ackley. Throughout his life Dale loved to talk about, work on, load shells for, and shoot, guns. His knowledge of guns was encyclopedic. In 1981 Dale was hired as a machinist by the Department of the Army, Tooele Army Depot Rail Shop located on Hill Air Force Base, remaining in this position until his medical retirement in 1997. Dale married Sonya Lloyd on October 5, 1967 and they became the parents of three sons, Robert Adam, Jeffrey Lloyd, and Shane Dale. As the boys grew into men, Dale never hesitated to tell his sons that he loved them and that he was proud of them. Sonya and Dale divorced in 1990 and remained on good terms because they were good people. Dale met Marcia McClurg in 1993 at a Wasatch Mountain Club pot luck. The attraction was mutually intense, persistent, and satisfying so they married on October 12, 1996. Dale introduced Marcia to the hands-on pleasures of the desert southwest and to political nonfiction. Marcia introduced Dale to travel abroad and modern fiction. At home, they read books together, obsessed about politics, the environment, and the Iraq war, and told stories of their separate pasts and of their friends and family. Dale's quick wit, oblique sense of humor, intelligence, kindness, and enthusiastic investment in his friends and family will resonate in our hearts forever. Dale is survived by his wife, Marcia; his sons, Adam, Jeffrey (Jesse), and Shane (Heather); his mother, Bettie; his sister, Bonnie (Walter); his uncle, Jack (Janey); his father in-law, Gerald; his many cousins, including Joella (Bob), and his ex-wife, Sonya. He is also survived by his brother in-law, Walton, and nephews, Will (Laurie) and Mike. Dale was preceded in death by his father, Robert Lee; his sister Dixie; and his mother in-law, Mona. Dale's family will hold a viewing at Holbrook Mortuary, 3251 South 2300 East, on Thursday, January 3, 2007 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. followed by an informal sharing of recollections about Dale and his enrichment of our lives from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. As per his wishes, Dale will be cremated and his ashes returned to the desert southwest landscape he loved so much. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in Dale's memory to the Utah Food Bank or to KUED. Online condolences may be sent to: www.holbrookmortuary.com
