Missouri Update
Didn’t we say something about change being constant in our last newsletter. Well, we have some more change out of Missouri.
Marshal Eli Taylor, H3G #48 has informed us that Bear Creek has been dissolved. Members have been locked out of the range.
The Marshal has arranged with the Southern Missouri Rangers to begin holding Historic 3-Gun matches on the first Saturday of each month. The range is located at 333 Hardwood Rd., Marshfield, MO 65706. Their website is Southern Missouri Rangers. If you live in or visit the area, join them for some great shooting each month. If you have any questions, send them to members@historic3gun.com and we will forward them to the Marshal.
Our thanks to Marshal Eli Tayor and the So Mo Rangers.
We want to also thank Artemus Von Shutze H3G #17, Sarsaparilla H3G #20 and Scratch H3G #33 for all their hard work over the last number of years growing the Bear Creek Club and not only introducing H3G but running some fantastic multi day H3G matches that many of us have enjoyed. It is unfortunate that they were shut out of the range. When you see them, thank them for their great work.
For more great news on the shooting scene, everyone enjoyed themselves at Shell Stuffer’s July match in Illinois so much that he has decided to hold another one the third weekend of September. The advertisement is below. It is followed by a full writeup of the July match.
The Fall Midwestern Historic 3 Gun Championship
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
September 18-20, 2026
Sandoval Sporting Range
63 Range Rd., Sandoval, IL
Match Director: SHELL STUFFER
10 exciting stages
Friday will be specialty matches at 50, 100, 200 yards, timber shoot off, bowling pin challenge, PCC and more. See the July specialty match results for ideas but all H3G legal firearms and others from the era are allowed.
GREAT FOOD, homemade ice cream. All lunches and dinners included.
Air-conditioned club house, free dry camping, free bunkhouse in the clubhouse (bring a cot), motels and restaurants within 8 miles (Salem). No charge for arriving a couple days early with access to the range, evening campfire, alcohol permitted after ALL firearms are put away.
Brass Shaggers provided.
Open round count. Plated and jacketed bullets are allowed. Full load and/or factory rifle ammo is allowed for specialty and main match.
All H3G divisions will be recognized. You may choose your division upon checking in.
H3G membership is required.
FOR ONLY $100
spouse $75, juniors $60
There is no entry form, just call Shell Stuffer at 618-267-6952 or email him at: darrell@donohosfirearmsinstruction.com
Make checks payable to Darrell Donoho, 11236 E Beal Rd., Mount Vernon, IL 62864 or call with credit card information.
Preregistration required. Please register by September 12th.
Midwestern Historic 3-Gun Championship – July 2026
It was a beautiful, bright, sunny day, and very hot day. Then out came the guns! And that was the start of Specialty Match Day at the Midwestern Historic 3-Gun Championship in Sandoval, Illinois. Long range matches included rifle caliber rifles at 200 yards, pistol caliber long guns at 100 yards and the 1911 at 50 yards. Total hits were scored first, and time was used only to break a tie. Then the shortest time wins.
Five sighting/warmup shots were allowed for everyone. That worked well for people who needed to make some sight adjustments. Of course, there was the odd person who still had to use “Kentucky windage” to get shots on target.
You can see from the scores that there were many different rifle categories. If you have a gun that fits within the H3G era, up to World War II, then bring it out as we have a category for you.
Because of the group size, we all shot the long-range matches first. After lunch we moved on to the rest of the specialty matches.
In the afternoon, four different bays were set up, one for pistol, shotgun, PCC and M1 carbine matches. All where “kill em all” stages. Time stopped after all targets had been hit. There was a lot of ammunition expended and the more shooting, the more fun!
Specialty Match Day Results
Long range M1 Garand
1.Hondo. 13 hits. 118.44
2.PD. 12 hits. 104.03
3.Marshal Eli. 11 hits. 116.91
Long range rifle caliber Lever Action
1. EJ, 10 hits. 64.19
2. PD, 6 hits. 71.45
3. Hondo, 8 hits, 31.98
Long range pistol caliber lever action
1. EJ, 9 hits. 37.69
2. LL, 7 hits. (no time)
3. Hondo, 6 hits 23.80
Long range pistol
1. EJ. 11 hits. 24.65
2. LL. 11 hits. 38.61
3. PD. 9 hits. 34.09
Kill Them All Shotgun
1. EJ. 41.60
2. Memphis. 56.66
3. LL. 66.08
Kill Them All M1 Carbine
1. EJ. 81.28
Long range rifle BAMM
1. EJ. 16 hits. 49.49
2. Memphis. 16 hits. 51.78
3. Marshal Eli. 14 hits. 73.5
Long range M1
1. PD 15 hits, 37.51
2. EJ 14 hits, 17.42
Long range, pistol caliber carbine
1. Memphis, 12 hits, 21.39
2. Mitchell Creek, 12 hits, 33.27
3. Back 40, 12 hits, 56.8
Kill them all action pistol
1. EJ, 47.6
2. Serenity, 59.62
3. Mitchell Creek, 73.04
Kill them all, pistol caliber carbine
1. Mitchell Creek, 35.12
2. JD, 44.52
3. PD, 51.59
We casually mentioned breaking for lunch during the specialty matches. What we failed to mention was a well-equipped, air-conditioned club house only 100 yards from the shooting line. Specialty match day had a comfortable breeze, but it was still hot. Being able to relax and eat in the club house was a welcome break.
Even more welcome was the fantastic, wonderful food that was served for lunch and dinner each day. Three generations of Shell Stuffer’s family pitched in to make the shoot such a great success. Shell Stuffer himself made gallons and gallons of the most delicious homemade ice cream and slaved over the hot BBQ each day to contribute to the meals served by his wife and family. Adding to that were the heaps of fresh cucumber, tomatoes and corn from their garden. I can guarantee that no one went away hungry.
Main Match
Saturday, the main match started under bright sun but with little breeze. Fortunately, we had shade to sit and prepare and a huge 6-foot fan that was moved to each bay and gave us some comfort on the firing line.
For this match we shot 5 unique and varied stages and then repeated the same stages a second time. We don’t know if the idea was to do better or repeat our original mistakes, but it appears all the shooters enjoyed shooting the stages a second time. Each of the stages had so many variables and several different ways of shooting them, that you hardly repeat yourself whether you want to or not.
This was an open round count match. Targets were color coded with one color to designate rifle targets and other colors to indicate if fixed targets were to get one, two or three rounds each. There was no order of targets and no penalty for hitting a target too many times – except the time, of course! Pistol and shotgun were the same for all Divisions but the number of rifle shots per target varied by Division.
A big thank you to all our shooters for helping throughout the match. A special thanks to the Oklahoma gang for running the specialty match day.
This match was a lot of fun with a lot of shooting – and a little eating too, especially the ice cream.
Have a look at some of the shooting videos here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIEaaXg0AetE&si=n-0RFbA_pp0ZwQZT
H3G Rule Change
The Board always intended that narrow rubber bases would be allowed on 1911 magazines. It has been brought to their attention that the current rule of ¼” is not quite enough to allow any commercial rubber grips on the 1911 magazine. For example, the Wilson combat 1911 mag, shown below, has a rubber base that is fractionally bigger than ¼” and it also extends slightly more from the bottom of the 1911 frame.
Current rule: Magazines must fit flush to the bottom of the grip except that they may have a base pad projecting up to ¼” below the base of the magazine. It can be made of any material.
Effective 1 August 2026, the above rule will be changed to the following:
Magazines must fit flush to the bottom of the 1911 frame, except that they may have a base pad projecting up to 3/8” below the base of the frame. It can be made of any material.
