9th Keith Memorial handgun shoot: ‘Hell, we were there!’
Photos & Report
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The late Elmer Keith is remembered as the father of long range handgunning, so what better way to celebrate his memory—and raise funds for gun rights activities in the process—than to throw together a challenging long-range handgun shoot, invite some friends and fill the air with lead and gunsmoke?
That’s just what Will DeRuyter has done on his property in Valleyford, a rural area about 15 miles southwest from Spokane, WA, for the past nine years.
This year, 33 shooters participated, Gun Week came away with a Fourth Place win (down two spots from three years ago when we last visited this totally invitational shooting match), and everybody seemed to have a good time despite heavy clouds, a hellacious wind that interfered with accuracy, and the annoying realization that the guy who won, Ryan Harris, used a .22-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 41 semi-auto to kick butt.
Keith fanatics, armed with .44, .41 and .357 magnums, were left scratching their heads and good-naturedly pouting and grumbling.
DeRuyter’s “range” consists of a square block of open space with metal targets cut out of a neighbor’s winter wheat field. Shooters fire across a small valley at various-sized targets hanging from a tubular steel framework. This year the target stand was about 140 yards away, and in the past it has been as far as 157 yards. There was an additional challenge, with a single target set out at 585 yards uphill from DeRuyter’s back yard, from whence shooters sat in makeshift lawn chairs and fired using two-hand holds.
This year saw a handful of shooters using rimfire pistols, although most participants showed up with big boomers.
This writer used the same gun I competed with three years ago, a 6-inch Smith & Wesson Model 57 chambered in .41 Magnum. Fitted with ivory polymer grips featuring the S&W medallion and a comfortable palm swell on each panel, it has a ramp front sight with red insert, and rebated cylinder. Made in about 1983, I bought it new and ran two loads through it, both featuring Nosler 210-grain JHP bullets. One load is stoked with 19 grains of Hodgdon’s superb H110 propellant, and the other pushes that projectile with 17.0 grains of Alliant 2400. At long range, they both seem to strike at just about the same spot. Were I shooting at live game at that distance, the difference in bullet impact would be so negligible as to be essentially non-existent.
But this particular match was another matter altogether. At times, the wind would gust so strongly and suddenly that bullet drift for some shooters became a real issue. The draw across which participants shoot runs slightly north-northwest and the wind was blowing from the southeast, at times shifting around to a southwest wind that provided a good tailwind, but still interfered with shooting.
For example, perennial match favorite Ray Gunn of Spokane (honest, that’s his real name!), using a borrowed (he has this habit of using other people’s guns and winning, which drives the rest of us kind of crazy) S&W L-frame in .357 magnum and his own reloads topped with 125-grain bullets, could barely keep his rounds on target. He finished 9th in the field.
DeRuyter put together this little invitational shooting match as a fund raiser for the National Rifle Association. Instead of cutting a check to the NRA each year, he spends his personal money on chow and solicits prizes and auction items, and the proceeds can sometimes be pretty impressive.
This year saw a fierce competition to win a Freedom Arms Model 83 single-action revolver chambered in .454 Casull.
Shooters go through a safety briefing before they start shooting, and by the end of the day, a lot of lead has gone down range.
An added feature this year was NRA’s Refuse to be A Victim course, taught by Robin Ball, owner of Spokane’s Sharp Shooting indoor gun range.
On the cover: Even Will DeRuyter’s, founder and organizer of the annual Elmer Keith Memorial Long Range Handgun invitational match, two daughters participated in this competition. In the GW cover photo, DeRuyter coaches elder daughter MacKenzie, who came in 14th out of 33 shooters.
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