Northstar members have no doubt seen the new dirt pile 100 yards in front of the 600 yard line. This is actually more than an expensive pile of dirt! It is our new 500 yard line and Northstar Rifle Club is the only club in Minnesota to have all 3 lines for the new NRA MID RANGE COURSE. Effective Jan. 1, 07 NRA changed the requirement for a long range classification to be earned at ranges of 800 yards and beyond. Understanding that there is a lot of interest in prone shooting at shorter ranges and a lack of 1000 yard ranges, NRA came up with this new classification.

There is only one new target involved which is the MR65 used at 500 yards. There are almost endless ways how one can earn a mid range classification. The popular 4 gun 600 is one way, and many clubs will continue with that. It could also be a 4 gun 500 if a club does not have 600 yards. Likewise it could be a 4 gun 300 fired on the MR 63 targets. It can be 1 gun fired at each range with either 15 or 20 shots at each distance. When fired with 15 at each range it will be called a mini Palma. It can be fired with ANY suitable prone rifle. It can be fired with either iron sights or scopes as stated in the program.

At our matches this summer we will shoot a total of 85 shots prone on Saturdays. Here is the course. We will shoot the mini Palma of 15 shots each at 300, 500 and 600 yards with iron sights and ANY suitable prone rifle. We will then shoot one 20 shot string at 600 with iron sights followed by one 20 shot string with any sight. We will rotate thru shooting, scoring and shooting so that everybody gets to do a fairly equal share of each. Due to moving from 300 to 500 to 600 I would estimate it will take 30 to 45 minutes longer to shoot this than the traditional 4 gun 600.

Since this course is new there will be a learning curve for the first 2 or 3 matches. I would like to encourage ALL Northstar members to give this a try. Right now EVERYBODY is new so here is your chance to tell your grand kids "I was there on day one". You do not need a fancy prone rifle for this game. Your AR15, M1 Garand or Springfield is good enough to start with. I intend to run these matches (as always) safely and pretty informally to encourage new shooters to try it out. There are always old timers there to offer help if you need it. We will be going to random squadding at our monthly matches this summer, so you might very well get lucky and get squadded next to the famous George Pfoser!

And finally, if the club wants to purchase F class targets those folks are welcome to join in and shoot the same course. F class guys should keep in mind that the targets are different and it works best if you have a number divisible by 3. I don't want to spend a lot of time swapping targets.

As always call/write if you have questions or answers.

Bob Peasley