Wet and Wild at 2015 TXRA Long Range Championship

This Texas Rifle Association (TXRA) Long Range Championship was a match to remember. Despite rain threats, organizers decided to hold the match. On Friday, against the advice of the weather forecasters, the team match was held. The weather held out long enough to complete the match but over four inches of rain fell Friday night. This made for an interesting weekend as competitors had to park at the 300-yard line and shooters and gear had to be trailered to the 1,000-yard line.

Mann Shoots 600-31X
On Saturday, Day 1 of the individual matches, some very impressive scores were shot at 1,000 yards under heavy cloud cover and very light wind. In F-Open, David Mann shot a stellar 600-31X, followed by Erik Cortina with 599-39X, Matt Davis with a 598-34X, and Mark Walker with a 598-24X. Mann’s 600-31X was one of the best strings ever fired at 1000 yards on the small F-Class target.

In F-TR, the stage was also set for a race to the finish line. Jade Delcambre from Lousiana and Ray Weaver from Texas were tied down to the X count with a 592-26X after Day 1. In the Palma category, Stacey Tamulinas shot a 600-35X and set up a clear lead over the rest of the field with his perfect score.

Kenny Porter went on to win the Match/Any rifle championship, Stacey Tamulinas won the Palma Championship, Johnny Ingram won the F-TR Championship, and Erik Cortina won the F-Open Championship. Here is Erik’s “insider’s report” from the last relay of the last day, when he came from behind to win the F-Open Division:

Report By Erik Cortina
It was the last string of the day as the F-Open shooters came to the line to figure out who would prevail. There were some things that shooters had to overcome. The winds were up and due to Friday’s rain, the impact berm was wet and shooters had dug “rabbit holes” and target pullers were having a hard time spotting hits in the 10 or X ring. I knew Matt Davis was ahead of me by one point and David Mann and Mark Walker were behind me by one or two points.

I only had four sighters and 20 shots for record, so during prep, I made sure all my record shots had primers in them. Prep time was over and it was time to shoot. I took my four sighters and went for record. I had to call for a mark a few times but I knew that the only time they missed a mark is if it was a 10 or an X, so it kept me calm. When I started my record string, I was holding one ring left of center, and when I finished my string, I was holding FIVE rings left of center, which means the wind had picked up substantially. When all the smoke cleared, I had dropped two points, one of which I called. I was relieved that I only dropped two points, but I knew that all I had to do is tie Matt because I had the highest X count. After the smoke settled, I was lucky enough to come out on top over many other great shooters. Winning the TSRA LR Championship is a great accomplishment for me because it is such a great match and I have been wanting to win it for a long time.”

Here are some “Young Guns” at the TSRA LR Championship. Young shooters are the future of our sport.

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Tags: Bayou Rifles, Erik Cortina, F-Class, F-Open, Irong Sights, Palma, TXRA