Sunday GunDay: N50 Airgun & Rimfire Competition at Raton, NM
The National 50 Benchrest League (N50) held its annual National Championships at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, NM on August 23-25, 2025. This event featured air rifles and rimfire rifles competing together. Top shooters from around the country brought some of the most accurate and sophisticated air rifles and rimfire benchrest rifles ever created. Participants enjoyed the Whittington venue, with its great scenery and excellent facilities.
Combined Class champion Mike Schultz reported: “The 2025 N50 Nationals were a lot of fun and at the same time encompassed friendly fellowship and highly competitive shooting. It felt like everyone was there to enjoy each other’s company while giving full effort to do their best. The facilities were excellent and the range itself is perhaps one of the most consistent ranges for even fairness. Mike, Joe, Ardy, and Lou did a great job managing the event and keeping us on schedule. I personally made a number of new friends and look forward to shooting with them again. My Thomas HPX .22 cal air rifle was faithful. My time finding the right pellets paid dividends. I am thankful for N50, the leadership team created a friendly and safe environment. The banquet and awards ceremony had an atmosphere of good food and everyone celebrating whomever received an award. Looking forward to 2026.”
N50 Championship Event Results by Class
Pro Class: Mike Niksch took 1st place with a score of 1494-78X using Slug Air Rifle, He was followed by Mark Clemons 1493-88X and Mark Huber 1491-65X who both shot custom unlimited .22 LRs.
Sportsman Class: Matt Kellerman and Mike Tokar tied for 1st place on points with Matt Kellerman taking the lead by X count. Four top competitors were within 2 points.
Pellet Class: Jayson Barnes won with 1495-85X Dan Burbach was second with 1492-85X and Mike Schultz was third with 1489-85X.
All Pellet Class: Overall ranking for pellet competitors in all 3 classes: Mike Schultz 4459-238X (1st); Dan Burbach 4441-224X (2nd); Ben Womack 4422-159X (3rd).
All Combined Class: The Top 3 competitors shooting any rifle in all 3 classes. Mike Schultz 4459-238X (1st); Matt Kellerman 4458-218X (second), and Dan Burbach 4441-224X (3rd).
Here are comments from new shooter Jayson Barnes: “This is truly a special event, if you want to learn from some of the best! The equipment I used was an FX Dynamic in .22 cal with 700mm slug for the Pro and Sportsman classes and a FX Dynamic 30 cal 600mm in the pellet class. I truly now believe the 50 is more difficult and more disciplined than the 100 — you must really zone in or lose a point or 2 and that will cost you. I had never had scope and flag fatigue before, but on the second day it was very hard, you could not take your eyes from your wind flags or you would pay dearly. In the course of 2 days, you had the opportunity to shoot 18 cards of 25 targets per card.
From start to finish, the N50 [event] ran as well as any I have attended in the last 7 years! We were on schedule by the minute or ahead of time the whole time. As most of you know, this is very rare over the course of two days.
The rules and etiquette are straight forward and upheld. The scoring was also top notch and professional. Your previous card was usually already posted when you finished the card you were on!
I want to thank Joe, Lou, and Mike for being great sports and putting up with us, so many 5-star peeps! And the N50 medals are beautiful! I will covet mine forever and yes, I want more.”
.22 LR Rimfire Rifles and Air Rifles Shooting Side by Side — Same Match, Same Targets.
Air Rifles and .22 LR Rimfires Compete Together
N50 competition is an innovative 50-yard benchrest discipline where .22 LR shooters and Air Rifle aces compete shoulder to shoulder. This modern Rimfire + Airgun sport was created by the National 50 Benchrest League (aka “N50″) which now has 23 registered clubs in 15 U.S. States plus Panama.
The NRA Whittington Center has beautiful ranges. Above is an aerial drone view.
About N50 — The National 50 Benchrest League
Joe Friedrich, Open Grove Benchrest
The N50 National Benchrest League offers a unique shooting experience. We shoot air rifles with pellets and slugs alongside .22 LR Rimfire shooters. We currently have sanctioned clubs throughout the USA offering competition and good fellowship.N50 has three Classes: Pellet, Sportsman, and PRO. The first Pellet Class is strictly for pellet airguns ranging in calibers from .177-.30 using Diabolo-style pellets from various manufacturers.
The second class is the Sportsman Slug/Rimfire. This combined class allows any factory air rifle shooting commercially-made slugs in calibers from .177-.30 to compete against any factory rimfire that utilizes a factory-barreled action with no attachments to barrel. Pellet air rifles may also compete in this class.
The third class is the PRO Class, and no you do not have to have some magic card that says “Professional” to compete. This class allows purpose-built air rifles, and what we call “unlimited” rimfire rifles to compete. Three types of loads are allowed in PRO Class: .177 slug air-driven, .22 slug air-driven, and any .22 LR ammunition.
Another point — in N50, competitors are allowed to move up in class — you aren’t restricted to a “lower” division. For example, Pellet Class shooters can also move up to shoot in Sportsman and Pro. In addition, Factory rimfires are allowed in Pro Class. This way shooters with the less-expensive rifles can shoot more relays and also see how they compete with the unlimited rigs. It’s all about having fun.
We wanted to make N50 as simple as we could combining air rifles with rimfire so folks who have a factory rimfire can participate and have fun. We also did not want a lot of classes, so combining the two gun types would be simpler. To be honest we were worried that the rimfires will outpace the air rifles, but that was not the case at this year’s Nationals.
National 50 Benchrest League Rules and Course of FireThe official N50 website, National50.net, lists N50 rules, classes, courses of fire, and membership requirements. There are currently 23 affiliated clubs nationwide, with more coming. General Rules — Here are some of the more notable N50 General Rules that apply to N50 matches: Target Distance: 50 yards As far as hardware, N50 is pretty open. For all 3 classes, any scope is allowed and any trigger is allowed. For all 3 classes, stocks are unrestricted, stocks may be bedded, and rifle weight is unlimited. However, the Sportsman Class must retain factory barrel and action. N50 competitors in all classes may use 1-piece rests, 2-piece rests, bags, or bipods — whatever they prefer. CLICK HERE for More Information and N50 Official Rules » |
CLICK HERE for a free, printable version of the N50 practice target shown above. NOTE: Scroll down to the bottom of the webpage for the printable targets. You can also download the two parts of the N50 target as separate LEFT and RIGHT side PDFs. Download LEFT Side PDF | Download RIGHT Side PDF
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Tags: Air Rifle, Joe Friedrich, N50, National 50 Benchrest League, Raton NM, Rimfire Benchrest, Whittington Range
