May Mayhem

May 16, 2010

The Dakota RoughRiders’ May Mayhem match began overcast and blustery. But 17 shooters braved that start and were rewarded with some pretty decent weather. Once ya start throwin’ lead downrange, you don’t notice the cold and if you don’t have to chase your hat, a little breeze feels pretty good.


We shot 4 stages but were unable to use bay #3 because Obadiah forgot the boat. Ya, it’s wet out there. That’s where that breeze comes in handy, it kept the mosquitoes away….. doesn’t work for tics!


Like I was sayin’, we had 17 shooters and sixteen of us went home a little humbled by the experience, as we were all taken to school (shooter’s school that is) by Dakota Maid. Congratulations on your Clean Match!


Another shooter who deserves mention is Dakota Rough Rider. He actually rang steel with every shot, but suffered one of the many brain fades of the day and ended up with a procedural on a difficult target sequence. Good shooting Rough Rider!


Blake Stone was the overall match winner.


The rest of us worked through a number of malfunctions, brain fades and other totally unexplainable shooting misfortunes, to have as much fun as the law allows.


Last month we heard very touching eulogies for our two recently departed shooting pards and this month, on stage one, we all got to say our final farewells as a starting line for the stage. We have a couple markers up on Boot Hill for those two scoundrels. We buried them last month but just put the markers up before the match, so we’re really not certain if the marker locations are right. See, we did a little celebrating after we “planted” the boys, and kinda forgot where we put them. So you may want to be careful if ya do any diggin’ on the hill.


Blake Stone


January 18, 2026
Dear BMRPA Members, It is with a heavy heart that I am writing to let all of you know that the BMRPA has lost one of its founding fathers. Marlin Fried, the namesake of the Fried Family Marksmanship Center, passed away this week. He is survived by his wife Leanne, children and grandchildren. While Marlin has not been active as a shooter with BMRPA for several years, we would still occasionally see him at the outdoor range in his red Chevy pickup, tending to the trees he had planted. In years before, many of you might have known Marlin from Gun City, the shop he started on Main Street in Bismarck. For those of you have never made it to Gun City, it was the type of unique gun store we don’t really get to see anymore. Not all of the trees at the Fried Family Marksmanship Center were planted by Marlin but a great many of them were. He embodied the spirit of old men planting trees which they will never live to enjoy the shade of. It was that spirit of providing for future generations and his enthusiasm for marksmanship and firearms ownership that inspired Marlin to donate the land that the Fried Family Marksmanship Center sits on today. The BMRPA, a club founded by competitive shooters coming together never had its own facility before Marlin’s gift. It was that gift by Marlin and the Fried Family that was one of the greatest factors turning the BMRPA into an organization that provides opportunities for competitors, youth and female shooters and provides a space to exercise our freedom. For that gift, we are thankful and appreciate how uncommon an act such as that is.  So, Marlin and the Fried Family, we thank you! We also wish to express our condolences to the Fried family for their loss during this sad time. A memorial service will be held at 11:30AM on Monday, January 19, 2026, and visitation will be held Sunday, January 18, at 5:30PM at Bismarck Funeral Home, and 7pm prayer service. https://www.bismarckfuneralhome.com/obituaries/marlin-fried Tom Headrick President, BMRPA
November 25, 2025
2025-26 Junior Marksmanship Program
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