USAMU Shooters Lead Long Range Championships on Day Two

Story based on report by Lars Dalseide for NRABlog.
The second day of NRA’s National Long Range High Power Rifle Championships ended with members of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) at the top of the standings. But they’re not alone. A mere point or two behind are Nancy Tompkins and her daughter Michelle Gallagher. These civilian ladies have, in the past, captured a few National Long Range High Power Rifle titles of their own. The mother and daughter team are strongly positioned to challenge the Marksmanship Unit soldiers for the lead.

Two more days remain in the Long Range Championship. As the cool conditions continue, with a hint of rain on tomorrow’s forecast, the challenge will continue. Anything can happen (such as a cross-fire) that could completely re-shuffle the standings. Here is the “Leader Board” at the End of Day Two:

Today started with a lower velocity wind coming out of the south east. We shot 20 shots at 1000 yards as individuals then teamed up for a four man team match, again with 20 shots for each shooter. I shot fine in the morning getting a 198-5X; the winning score on my relay was a 198-10X I think. It was very hard to see the target first thing in the morning. The south eastern wind was only worth 30″-45″ of bullet drift (that’s about half of yesterday’s wind). In general the scores were a little lower today because the wind was a little trickier. While it was relatively constant in velocity, it changed direction quickly and subtly. That’s enough to give even the best shooters a 9 here and there. I don’t think there were any 200s shot with Palma rifles in the individual portion of the match today.

Right before the start of the team match the wind switched around and started coming from the north east with roughly the same velocity. I’m coaching a team made up of shooters from the United States Army Reserve team. Some of them are US Rifle Team members, and past Palma team members, really a bunch of great shooters. In a team match the coach is responsible to call the wind for each shot. Comparing this to a sniper/spotter setup the coach is the spotter and makes all the adjustments on the sights before giving the shooter the command to shoot. I did pretty good for the most part and kept my shooters in the middle the best I could. I was particularly excited to have coached one of the shooters to a perfect 200 — man that’s a great feeling!

Tomorrow (Monday) is a repeat of today with another 20 shots at 1000 for individual and then a four-man team match. After that the Palma match is up next. To read more of Kelly’s Reports from Camp Perry, visit KellysGunSales.com.