East Texas Championship Benchrest Fun Shoot
A Texas shooter put together a great video covering the East Texas Championship Benchrest Shootout, held August 20-21 in Huntsville, TX. This match, the first at the new Huntsville Range, was co-sponsored by the Pine Valley Benchrest Shooters Association and S&S Precision Rifles of Argyle, TX. On the Friday before the main match, there was also a 500-yard Egg Shoot.
In the video you can see Don ‘Stick’ Starks of S&S piloting a 6.5×47 Lapua long-range varminter he built on a candy-red Robertson Composites ‘Speedy’ F-Class stock. Stick and other competitors were shooting at large (120mm), medium (90mm), and small (60mm) clay birds at 400 yards. Over the course of the day, competitors fired 50 record rounds at the targets. Each shooter came to the line five times to shoot 10 rounds per stage in seven minutes or less. The ‘top shot’ who nailed the most birds took home $600.00 in cash. There was also a team challenge with a $430.00 winning payout.
Thirty-six competitors attended this fun match with $1300.00 in total prize pay-outs for the top four bird-busters. Jason Leavelle won the $600 first-place prize with an 810 score, while Dr. Darrel Martin earned $400 for his second-place finish, 50 points behind Leavelle. Tymn Combest was third, earning $200, and Arthur McMeans took home $100 for fourth place. Pudge Morris was the Junior Division winner. We congratulate all the money winners — it wasn’t easy. According to Mike Cockcroft, who helped run the match, “it was 100 degrees, the winds were strong, and the mirage heavy.” The only wind indicators are range flags at the targets and a couple of standard benchrest flags out at about 100 yards.
Match Winner Used a 6.5×284
Forum member Joe Duke reports: “Jason Leavelle shot a nice 810 out of 1000 (possible) points. He is the winningest shooter on our circuit (fondly known as the ‘Redneck Circuit’) and is always tough to beat. He shoots a 6.5-284 crafted by Sam Duke. Jason’s rifle is built on a Stainless Steel Viper action and sports a Krieger 8.5-twist barrel. I can’t think of one of our shoots that was won with anything other than a 6.5-284 in the last three or four years.”
Rules were fairly “wide-open” for the Saturday Shoot-Out, so you saw everything on the line from varmint rifles to 40-pounders. Most guns are custom bench rigs weighing 17 to 30 pounds. All shooters competed in the same class with these basic rules:
- NO RAIL GUNS OR RETURN TO BATTERY GUNS
- 40 POUND MAX WEIGHT LIMIT
- NO SIGHT OR SCOPE RESTRICTIONS
- NO CALIBER OVER .30
- NO ONE-PIECE RESTS OR GUN-VISES
- NO Shooter-Supplied WIND FLAGS
- NO SPOTTING EXCEPT DURING SITE-IN ROUND
- NO TANK OR CLAM TYPE MUZZLE BRAKES
You should definitely watch the video. It is extremely well made and there are some seriously nice rifles on display. Plus it sure looks like the new Huntsville facility is a beautiful range (even if the Texas winds did blow in the afternoons). CLICK HERE to download Match Rankings and Scores (PDF File).
Similar Posts:
- S&S Precision — Building Tack-Drivers, Texas-Style
- Enjoy Local Fun Matches and GroundHog Shoots
- Fun Matches — Varmint Shoots and Groundhog Matches
- The Lure of Ground Hog Matches and Varmint Fun Shoots
- Groundhog Fun Shoots — Crowd-Pleasing, Affordable Competition
Tags: Benchrest, Clay Birds, Fun Shoot, S&S Precision, Texas, Varmint Shoot
Looks like unsafe gun handling to me. The rifles are held horizontally while competitors walk around behind the firing line. I don’t care if the bolt is open or removed, it doesn’t look good to the uninitialized public on video.
TJ
You need to stick to golf or tennis.
TJ
Every person is entitled to there opinion, and that’s exactly what you stated!! But for the record this was one of the best ran and safest matches yet and might I suggest to you, that you need to see Williamspot and or any of the nationals. You will quickly see that there are responsible and ethical people that shoot there as well as at this match. Hope that clears some confusion up.