With the firing of a cannon, the 2010 Smallbore Position Championship commenced on July 22, 2010. Today, the 22nd, competitors will shoot the Metallic Championship, on the 23rd the Any Sight Championship will be held, and the team matches will run on Saturday the 24th. Over 300 shooters will compete for the Frank Parsons Memorial Trophy. In years past, juniors have comprised around 70% of the total competitors. This year junior shooters make up 85% of the competitors. That’s a good sign for the future of the sport.
This report came from the NRA Blog which will provide scores, photos, and videos in the days ahead. Above is a video from the 2009 Smallbore 3P competition at Camp Perry.
Chip Lohman, Managing Editor of Shooting Sports USA magazine, has crafted a video covering the 2010 Bianchi Cup, the richest (and one of the most prestigious) handgun competitions on the planet. Lohman’s video shows all phases of the event, and you can see great performances by Doug Koenig and Jessie Abbate. Smith & Wesson’s Doug Koenig won his 12th Bianchi Cup title, while newly signed teammate Jessie Abbate topped S&W Captain Julie Golob for the Women’s Overall, giving S&W a dominant performance at this year’s tournament. Koenig won the Open Class without dropping a point, finishing with 1920-179X.
Free Subscription to Shooting Sports USA
Every month Shooting Sports USA provides coverage of a wide variety of NRA disciplines, from 10m air pistol to 1000-yard high power matches. Each monthly edition provides features stories, plus schedules for matches nationwide. CLICK HERE to receive a FREE digital edition of Shooting Sports USA, sent directly to your e-mail box each month.
With modern benchrest guns capable of shooting “zero” groups in competition, one wonders what is next in the accuracy game. Perhaps laser rifles? Well, the U.S. Navy believes high-tech lasers may replace projectile weapons in the future — the very near future. In fact, the Navy has already successfully tested a deadly laser cannon.
U.S. Navy Blasts Drones Out of Sky with 32 Kilowatt Laser Cannon
The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), with support from Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), successfully tracked, engaged, and destroyed mock-threat Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) flying over the ocean. The Navy’s new “Death Ray”, actually a high-intensity (32 Kw) laser, was aimed using a beam director on a KINETO Tracking Mount, controlled by a MK 15 Close In Weapon System (CIWS).
According to Scientific American: “During the test, the Navy’s Laser Weapon System (LaWS) … engaged and destroyed four UAV targets flying over water near the Navy’s weapons and training facility on San Nicolas Island in California’s Santa Barbara Channel, about 120 kilometers west of Los Angeles. The Phalanx — a rapid-fire, computer-controlled, radar-guided gun system — used electro-optical tracking and radio frequency sensors to provide range data to the LaWS, which is made up of six solid-state lasers with an output of 32 kilowatts that simultaneously focus on a target.”
According to Navy sources: “This marks the first detect-thru-engage laser shoot-down of a threat representative target in an over-the-water, combat representative scenario. Multiple UAV targets were engaged and destroyed in a maritime environment during the testing, the second series of successes for the U.S. Navy’s Laser Weapon System (LaWS) Program. This brings to a total of seven UAVs destroyed by the Surface Navy’s first tactical development for fielding a Directed Energy weapon system.”
Watch the video below to see delta-winged UAV “splashed” by the Navy’s new “Death Ray”.
According to Program Manager Capt. David Kiel: “Further development and integration of increasingly more powerful lasers into Surface Navy LaWS will increase both the engagement range and target sets that can be successfully engaged and destroyed.” As lasers and other directed-energy systems are perfected, the Navy expects to improve the speed of its responses to aerial threats, while reducing weapons costs: “Laser weapons that provide for speed-of-light engagements at tactically significant ranges [can achieve] cost savings by minimizing the use of defensive missiles and projectiles.”
Are you looking for a stable and affordable shooting bench for your next varmint safari? Well, why not build your own? Clemdog, a talented wood-worker and avid varmint-hunter, has designed a sturdy, portable bench you can build for $75.00 in materials. The bench is made from plywood attached to Rugged Buddy sawhorse legs which fold open and engage securely with patented snap-locks. These tubular steel legs cost about $60.00 per set. Clemdog’s bench can also be built with banquet table legs. These are cheaper, but heavier (and some extra assembly work is required).
Clemdog Shows How to Build Your Own Bench
Clemdog has created a nice video that shows, step-by-step, how to build his portable shooting bench. Clemdog writes: “I am amazed at the number of shooting tables on the market today. I’ve seen them in catalogs at prices ranging from $75 to almost $500. While I’m sure it’s a pleasure to shoot from one of the high-end benches, I wouldn’t want to drop the cash on one, nor would I want to assemble and disassemble one each time I repositioned. The vast majority of the lower-end tables or benches are so rickety that it would be difficult to shoot accurately from them. If you have a saw and a drill, or can borrow one, here’s how you can make your own portable shooting and reloading bench for [about $75.00].” Just watch the video below:
Instructions for Table Fabrication
Clemdog says: “Start with a 3/4″ plywood panel, available at Home Depot or other lumber yards for about $15. Pay a few bucks more for a birch or other nice veneer, it will look fantastic if you varnish the table. The panels come 48″ x 24″. You will also need some wood glue, and about 15 #10 wood screws, about 1-1/4″ long. Check out my video on how to build the bench using a set of folding Rugged Buddy 34″ sawhorse legs. If you opt for standard banquet table legs, you will need about 20″ of scrap 2×4 and four to six 3″ lag bolts with washers and nuts to bolt the 2x4s to the table top.”
At the end of his video, Clemdog offers some sound advice: “Don’t buy a crappy bench, or spend hundreds of dollars on a bench. Build your own. It will be a fun project and it will last you for years.” For more info, visit Clemdog’s personal webpage, which also hosts a series of reloading videos.
Dennis DeMille is a past Camp Perry National Champion, and one of the nation’s top High Power shooters. Since retiring from the U.S. Marine Corps, Dennis has served as the General Manager of Creedmoor Sports in Oceanside, California. With his decades of competitive experience, Dennis has a wealth of knowledge. In this three-minute interview, Dennis shares insights into the High Power shooting game. He discusses the most effective ways to train for competition, the fundamentals of good marksmanship, and how to recognize and perfect your natural point of aim. Dennis also offers solid advice on how to get the best “bang for your buck” when choosing shooting accessories for High Power and Across the Course competition.
Creedmoor Sports Now Carries Phoenix Sights and Accessories
Phoenix Precision builds high-quality, affordable sight systems for iron sights competitors. Phoenix products have become popular as they deliver excellent precision and repeatability, while costing considerably less than some other premium sights.
The Phoenix Precision rear sight, offered as either top-mount or side mount, costs $379.95. This unit offers three (3) minutes per knob revolution, with quarter-minute clicks, 70 minutes of elevation adjustment and 60 minutes of windage. It features stainless guide pins and lead screws, with a black anodized aircraft aluminum body. The Phoenix rear sight accepts Anschutz and Gehmann accessories.
Phoenix offers a companion front sight system in three different heights: ultra-high for T2K and Eliseo tubeguns, medium-high for AR spaceguns, and low for traditional prone rifles. The $184.95 Phoenix front sight features a fully adjustable 360° leveling bubble which may be positioned either above or below the aperture. The front sight mounts on any barrel with an end diameter of .750″ (call for .812″ or .920″), and accepts all standard 22mm inserts. As shown below, Phoenix also offers extra clamp-mounts for $59.95, and a 2″-long Delrin front shade for $17.50 that easily attaches to any 22mm iris.
Many of our readers are now using smart-phones for ballistic calculations. Now there is a new App for the iPhone which makes mildot target ranging simple and easy. Mil-Dot Rangefinder 2.0 does all the math for you. Just input the size of the target, and the program calculates range instantly, in yards and meters. The standard edition costs just $1.99 while the “Pro” version is $9.99. We think that, if you’re going to really use this program in the field, it’s well worth paying ten bucks for the Pro version. The Pro edition gives you a full-featured ballistics calculator with windage/elevation corrections. That calculator alone is worth the extra money, and the Pro version offers many other features, which are listed below:
Target ranging (yards and meters)
US Army and USMC mil-dot reticles
Target Info display
Advanced ballistics calculator
Fast windspeed/direction adjustment
Range card (ballistics chart)
Point of impact indicator
Bullet drop compensator
Windage/elevation corrections
Time to target
Shot energy/velocity at target
Multiple Ballistic Profiles
This is a very powerful program. We suspect it will take most users a few days before they really understand all its functions and options. To see a more detailed demonstration of the Mil-Dot Rangefinder App, click on the YouTube video below. There’s no voice-over, so the video can be hard to follow. But at least the video showcases the flexibility of the program and the wide variety of functions it offers. Credit The Firearm Blog for spotlighting this useful App.
Impossible Shots, a spin-off of the Shooting USA TV show, is now the most-watched series on the Outdoor Channel’s Wednesday Night line-up of gun-related broadcasts. Reflecting its growing popularity, Impossible Shots will now also air on Saturdays, at these times: 4:30 PM EST, 3:30 CST, 2:30 MT, 1:30 PT. Impossible Shots features amazing trick-shooting challenges performed by six top professionals: Pistoleros Bub Munden, Jerry Miculek, and Gil Guerra, rifleman George Sutton, and archer Byron Ferguson. There are also regular appearances by Team Winchester’s Patrick Flanigan, considered the world’s fastest shotgun shooter. In the video below, Flanigan shoots 12 shells in just 1.442 seconds!
We are just three weeks from the start of the 2010 National Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry, Ohio. The National Championships, which have been held since 1907, draw more rifle and pistol competitors than any other shooting match in the Americas. The physical “playing field” is impressive — Camp Perry, situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie, boasts the largest outdoor rifle range in the world.
The NRA’s Competitive Shooting Division has just released a “Welcome to Camp Perry” video, which covers the history of the National Championships along with pistol, smallbore rifle, and highpower rifle disciplines. This entertaining, professionally-made video shows the diversity of the competitions and the overall scale of this big, annual event. If you watch carefully, you’ll see cameos by champions such as Carl Bernosky. The video is highly recommended….
Registration, Programs and Entry Cards
If you want to compete at Camp Perry, it’s easy to register. Simply CLICK HERE to REGISTER ONLINE.
Note: Programs and entry cards for 2010 will only be mailed to those individuals who did not register online in 2009. Those who registered online may again do so for 2010 or they may request that a program and entry packet be sent to them. All others must request a copy of the National Matches Program by writing to:
Hand-loaders know how to assemble bullet, brass, powder and primer into a loaded cartridge. But have you ever wondered how brass cartridge cases are formed, or how bullets are made, starting with raw materials? Federal Ammunition (a division of ATK) has created an interesting video that shows how factory-loaded ammo is created, from start to finish. The video shows how cartridge brass is cupped, drawn, sized, annealed, then finished-formed. In addition, you can see how bullets are formed then inserted in cartridges with automated machinery. This is a fascinating video, worth watching.
Bullet-Making Process at the Sierra Bullets Plant
A second video, produced for the Discovery Channel’s How Stuff Works TV show, illustrates how bullets are made at the Sierra Bullets plant. Watch 80-lb billets of lead being drawn into wire to be used as bullet cores. Then see how copper jackets are formed, lubed, sized and combined with bullet cores to create the finished product — precision bullets for hunters and match shooters.
Thanks to German Salazar for finding these two videos.
Chip Lohman, Managing Editor of Shooting Sports USA magazine, has crafted an interesting YouTube video covering the inaugural NRA Intercollegiate Rifle Club Championships, held this past April at Purdue University. The video shows all phases of the event — sign-ups, gun inspection/weighing, 3-position competition, and the awarding of prizes. The Univ. of Michigan (Ann Arbor) team won the event, followed by Clemson (second place), and Indiana Univ. of PA (third).
Every month Shooting Sports USA provides coverage of a wide variety of NRA disciplines, from 10m air pistol to 1000-yard high power matches. Each monthly edition provides features stories, plus schedules for matches nationwide. CLICK HERE to receive a FREE digital edition of Shooting Sports USA, sent directly to your e-mail box each month.
Chip Lohman, Managing Editor of 
The Phoenix Precision rear sight, offered as either top-mount or side mount, costs $379.95. This unit offers three (3) minutes per knob revolution, with quarter-minute clicks, 70 minutes of elevation adjustment and 60 minutes of windage. It features stainless guide pins and lead screws, with a black anodized aircraft aluminum body. The Phoenix rear sight accepts Anschutz and Gehmann accessories.
Many of our readers are now using smart-phones for ballistic calculations. Now there is a new App for the iPhone which makes mildot target ranging simple and easy. 
We are just three weeks from the start of the 2010 National Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry, Ohio. The National Championships, which have been held since 1907, draw more rifle and pistol competitors than any other shooting match in the Americas. The physical “playing field” is impressive — Camp Perry, situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie, boasts the largest outdoor rifle range in the world.
Registration, Programs and Entry Cards
