Participants were hot during State Shoot

WALLA WALLA–The unseasonable heat wave over the weekend was brutal for all participants including eight Pomeroy Gun Club members who participated in all or part of the Washington State Championships at Walla Walla Gun Club over last Thursday through Sunday, June 24–27. The heat conditions were so ruthless, some cut short their participation, especially Sunday when a participant was sent to the hospital due to the heat.

Walla Walla Gun Club is located on an old WW II Army Air Corp training facility, and instead of sidewalks to shoot off of like most gun clubs, there are painted walks on the old asphalt runway. The asphalt got extremely hot and kept attendance down for much of the shoot.

There were 300 Targets offered on Thursday. In the Singles event, Larry Bunch had a 96, Holly Ledgerwood posted a 94, Lee Blachly checked in with a 92 and Terry John had a 91. In the first Handicap, Bunch had an 87, Mason Blachly posted an 86, John had an 85, Ledgerwood had an 83, and Lee Blachly put up an 82. In the Second Handicap Blachly had the top score for locals with an 84 as the heat had people fading fast.

Another 300 targets were offered on Friday and Ledgerwood had the top singles score of 97, Bunch posted a 96, Lee Blachly a 95 and Mason Blachly had a 94. In Handicap, Lee Blachly had the top score of 92 which won him the Veteran Champion Trophy, Bunch and Ledgerwood had a pair of 90s. Bunch had an 87 in Doubles.

On Saturday, there were 200 singles offered which decided the Washington State Shoot singles Championship. Ledgerwood posted a pair of 96s for a 192X200 score. Bunch had a 94 and a 95 for 189, Fred Zack had a 93 and 88 for a 181, Robert Koller shot and 83 and nearly shot his age with a 91 in the second 100 for a 174, which was quite an achievement for a 92-year-old shooting in extremely hot conditions. Lee Blachly had 88 and 89 scores for 177, Lee Blachly's grandson Mason had a 93 and an 82 for 175.

Following shooting, the State Annual business meeting was held and Ledgerwood received High Average pins from the State Association for the 2019 and 2020 Target years. She competed in the Lady II division and the top five shooters in each division based on average and a minimum number of Targets are awarded the pins. Two years were awarded since the WSTA shoot was cancelled last year due to COVID.

On Sunday, 200 more Targets were offered and Bunch had an 89 in Doubles and an 89 in Handicap. Zack had an 88 in Handicap, John had an 87, and Lee Blachly also posted an 87. Robert Koller broke 64 of 75 Handicap targets and decided to remove himself from the competition due to the heat, as did many other shooters during the competition. One shooter had to be transported to the hospital by ambulance on Thursday due to heat related problems. The outcome of his problems turned out good.

Bunch tied for High Over All (HOA) runner up in the Senior Veteran division with Rich Evans of Coulee City and the shoot-off would have required shooting some Singles, Handicap, and Doubles and both shooters who have been long time friends decided to flip a coin rather than gear up for more suffering in the Sun and Evans won the toss. HOA is based on the full program of 1,000 targets.

Bunch was also tied for High All Around (HAA) Senior Vet runner up and that also would have required shooting some targets from all three disciplines and the person he was tied with had left the grounds for Home. Bunch was awarded the Trophy by forfeit because he was still on the grounds and was still not wanting to gear up for a shoot off. HAA is based on the 400 Championship targets on the Weekend.

The next local shoot is this weekend at Troy-Deary Gun Club July 3–5.