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June 19th, 2007
 Vincent Hancock of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU), won the Gold Medal at the Int’l Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Lonato, Italy, on June 14, shooting a perfect match. Hancock, who won the Men’s Skeet world title in 2005, earned another spot in the history books by taking top honors at the Lonato World Cup. He fired perfect scores throughout the event, never missing a target in 150 shots.
George Achilleos of Cypress, Harald Jensen of Norway and Axel Wegner of Germany managed to drop only one clay each the entire match, but the shoot off left them in Silver, Bronze and fourth place, respectively. Earlier during the World Cup, Spc. Joshua M. Richmond of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit stole the spotlight by taking the Gold Medal in Men’s Double Trap. His win secured the final shotgun Olympic Quota Slot required for the USA to send a full roster of shotgunners to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
June 16th, 2007
Field Report by Zak Smith
One of the best field-style hike-and-shoot long-range rifle challenges is known only to a small number of shooters. Dave Wheeler has been running his “Steel Safari” match for about ten years on his 1000-acre private ranch near Logan, NM. The match showcases practical rifle shooting in the field. Competitors locate small and medium-sized steel targets (often hidden), range them, and engage with one shot only, under a challenging time limit. Some movement on the clock is required, and shoot positions are always improvised, the best you can do while on a reverse incline, over a rock face, shooting down a gully, or leaning out the side of a truck.
The Steel Safari is a “Hunting Rifle Championship, a non-standard contest that examines practical hunting skills, including target recognition, range estimation, wind doping, trail skills, and marksmanship”, according to the match entry form. (Dr. David Kahn’s Kenyathlon is another well-known “hunting match”.) However, these skills are not limited to hunting. Events such as the Practical Rifle Team Challenge (NM), Int’l Tactical Rifleman Championship (WY), and various Sniper Challenge matches around the country use a similar format. The game involves target location, ranging, and making first-round hits in field conditions, while moving through natural terrain. This is a far cry from Benchrest and NRA Highpower Long-Range events.
Click for Large PHOTO.
Billed as the “last Steel Safari,” this year’s event attracted 26 shooters (from TX to CA) shooting a variety of rifles and calibers. The match defines two classes: standard and light rifle. The light rifles are limited to 9.5 pounds, while the standard rifles can be as heavy as the shooter wants. Caliber must be .243 Win or larger, up to a max of .300 Win Mag.
The match is primarily composed of two, day-long field courses, each between 2 and 2.5 miles in length, termed the “short” and “long” courses. The short course had 11 shooting locations in addition to the first stage on the known-distance (KD) range. The long course had 9 shooting locations plus a 100-yard mover back near Match HQ.
Click HERE to read Zak’s full 2007 Steel Safari match report, with many more photos.
Editor’s Note: Reporter Zak Smith won the 2006 Steel Safari. This year he finished second, shooting his .260 Rem AI AW. Zak notes: “A local Colorado shooter Mike Dowd shot like a house on fire both days, winning light rifle and the over-all match by four points. My decent but consistent shooting on both days put me at first in standard class and second overall.” Though Dave Wheeler has announced he’ll no longer be sponsoring the match, several Colorado shooters hope to run the Safari again in 2008, in association with Colorado Multi-Gun LLC.
June 9th, 2007
The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP), a federally sponsored program to advance rifle shooting skills, offers a variety of training and competition programs dedicated to junior shooters. The US Army Marksmanship also hosts a Youth Clinic in August.
2007 CMP Three-Position Air Rifle Summer Camp
The 2007 CMP camp season is underway and there are still a few openings, especially in the June 11-15, Reno, NV camp and the July 2-6, Millersville, PA camp. Applications are still being accepted, but some programs are full. Commuter porgrams cost $225.00 while residential programs cost $350.00. Click HERE for complete information on the Summer Camp program. For questions please contact Sommer Wood at swood@odcmp.com or by phone at 419-341-5248. Summer Camp Application Form. General background on three-position air rifle shooting is found on the CMP website, where you can download the National Standard Three-Position Air Rifle Rules.
CMP Junior Three-Position Air Rifle Camps are for school-age junior shooters who have a basic knowledge of the sport. Athletes should have completed basic rifle marksmanship training and one season of three-position competition. CMP camps are designed for students who will be in grades 9 through 12 during the coming school year. There is no minimum score requirement. Here is the schedule of remaining Camp programs:
June 11-15: Reno, NV – COMMUTER ONLY
June 25-29: Bowling Green, KY (FULL)
July 2-6: Millersville, PA
July 13-15: Fort Benning, GA (Standing Position Camp)
July 16-20; 23-27; July 30-Aug 3: Fort Benning, GA (All FULL)
 Eastern Jr. Highpower Clinic
and Championship
From June 24-30, 2007, under the auspices of the CMP, a full week of clinics, coaching and competition will be offered at Camp Butner, NC for junior service rifle competitors. Instruction and coaching will be provided by the USMC Rifle Team and military personnel. The purposed of this event is to promote interest, education, and competition to the sport of Highpower Rifle Shooting among Junior shooters.
 Experienced coaches and instructors from the United States Marine Corps Rifle Team and military personnel will be conducting clinics for both new and experienced junior shooters. Instruction in both shooting individual matches and shooting as a member of a coached team will also be provided. This week-long program is offered to help junior shooters expand their current knowledge, experience and expertise. It is also an opportunity for juniors to form bonds of camaraderie within the sport. Click HERE for complete information on the Eastern Jr. Highpower Clinic/Championships.
USAMU Smallbore/Air Rifle Summer Camp
The United States Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) will once again host a Junior Rifle Camp this summer. The dates are 13-17 August 2007 at Fort Benning, GA. This junior shooting camp is open at shooters ages 12-20 with a cost of $35 per shooter. For further information and registration packet, please contact 2LT Lucas Leinberger at lucas.leinberger [at] usaac.army.mil or call (706) 545-2343.
June 8th, 2007
We’ve given our readers a double dose of Tactical this week (see our latest Feature STORY), so it’s time to showcase some shiny, long-barreled rifles with wicked paint jobs.
Pala guns are purpose built for one task–knockin’ down steel critters at 200 to 600 yards with Extreme Accuracy. Pala, an Indian Reservation in So. California, has a monthly match that atracts serious marksmen from throughout the state. You shoot four types of targets, each at a particular distance. The targets increase in size the further out you go.
Click HERE for GIANT SIZE Range Photo.
There are a wide variety of rifles, but typically you see a BR-style rifle, with a heavy, 28-30″ barrel, often using a muzzle brake. The brake definitely helps you spot your hits by reducing muzzle jump. You need a very accurate chambering, so you’ll see 6BRs, Dashers, 6-284s, 6.5-284s, and a few 6mm Remingtons. Our friend John Adams has tried a 22-6.5×47 at Pala along with his own .243 wildcats. This long-range silhouette game is great fun (and you can go gamble at the Casino when you’re done). Here are some Pala rigs on the line. Note how the shooters have fabricated platforms to raise their front rests:
The Berger Bullets crew–Eric Stecker, Shawn McKenna, and Michelle Gallagher recently attended the Pala Match. Eric reports: “You would think that shooting silhouettes using rests and scopes would be easy but it was quite a challenge since the wind direction and velocity changes could easily push your bullet off the small varmint silhouette targets. You really had to stay on top of the changes to get hits each time. The high score of the day was an impressive 48 out of 50. (For the record we were not at the top of the list as this type of shooting is harder than it may seem but I did beat Shawn and Michelle…teehee).” Nice shooting Eric (Shawn took second place, F-TR Class, at the 2006 Nationals).
A while back we did a feature story on a husband/wife team who shoot at Pala. Click HERE to read the story. It has some nice photos of the range taken by John Adams, and it even includes Katy’s famous guacamole recipe!
For more info on shooting at Pala, visit Ramshooter’s Website (nice rifle photos), and the North County Shootist Assn. site.
June 6th, 2007
Zak Smith isn’t the only kid on the block with a new 6.5×47 Lapua tactical rifle. Our 1K editor, Jason Baney, has built his own 6.5×47 tactical rig. It has a trued Rem 700 action, Krieger 8.5 twist 25″ barrel, AI CS detachable box magazine (DBM), Badger bottom metal, and a custom U.S. Optics 3.8-22×44 SN3 scope with a EREK elevation turret, MDMOA reticle, and left-handed windage knob. Even with limited load-testing time, Jason quickly found a tack-driving 2960 fps load with Lapua Scenar 123s and Reloader 15.
With that load, Jason recently competed in the Allegheny Sniper Challenge (ASC). Jason placed first in his squad, out-scoring some past and present military snipers. Jason said the load and gun performed flawlessly: “If I could hold it… the gun could hit it. No magazine issues whatsoever. This round is good to go in a mag-feeder.”
Click the above photo to see a VIDEO showing Jason hitting multiple metal targets in a timed, rapid-fire sequence at ASC. Note how much JB has to swing the rifle around and adjust for angle and elevation changes. In this stage, Jason had to engage seven targets from 200 to 600 yards, starting at 350, then moving out to 600 and back to 200. Jason says: “There was a 20 mph full-value crosswind running and we weren’t allowed to touch the scope. That’s a serious hold-off.” Jason was one of the few ASC shooters to “clean” this stage, hitting all targets. Running a tac gun in ASC is a far cry from shooting free recoil from the bench–something which Jason does pretty darn well too. But Jason says: “BR, Tactical, Varminting–They’re all about accuracy and they’re all fun.”
In the weeks ahead, when he’s not involved in Williamsport 1000-yard BR matches, Jason will be working up loads for this rifle, and a new 6mm/6.5mmx47 switch-barrel project gun AccurateShooter.com is developing. His next experiment is to try H4350 with the Berger 130s in the 6.5×47 Lapua. Reloader 15 shot bugholes with the 130s, but Jason felt that ambient temps affected his velocities too much.
Here’s a “glamour shot” of Jason’s 6.5×47 rifle in McMillan A5 stock, smithed by GA Precision. Click for BIG PHOTO.
June 1st, 2007
While the Benchresters were drilling bugholes at the Super Shoot, west coast tactical devotees were slapping steel at 75 to 1000 yards in Sacramento. In the first-ever Nor-Cal Tactical Bolt Rifle Challenge, 43 shooters battled through a variety of innovative scenarios, many involving shooter movement or targets at unknown distances. This was a far cry from a static benchrest match or even a Highpower match, though participants shot from all positions–prone, kneeling, sitting, and standing. Though this was the first match of its kind at Sac Valley, all available spots “sold out”, and the match attracted big-time sponsorship. The happy winner was Dave McGrath who came home with a $2200+ U.S Optics scope. Dennis Lorenzo finished second, while Mark Soulie took third.
There were a variety of stages in the two-day match, held May 26-27. One of the timed action stages started with the shooter 20 yards behind his rifle. On a signal, the shooter ran to his rifle and engaged a mini-popper at 75 yards, then moved to a barricade and engaged 3 more medium poppers at 175 yards. But there’s more–next he targeted four clay birds at 175 yards (from prone) and finished on another mini-popper at 60 yards. All this had to be done in just 2 minutes! In another multi-target stage, the shooter started on an elevated wooden ramp. On the signal, he engaged an MGM target with two rounds at 100 yards. This was immediately followed by two rounds at a pair of 10″ plates at 250 yards, then two rounds at a pair of steel targets at 330 yards. Then, with action open, he moved off the raised ramp, re-positioned on the trunk of a car and engaged two more steel plates at 540 yards. There were eight rounds total for that stage, with a two-minute time limit. A more conventional evolution involved taking successive shots at two steel targets from standing, kneeling, sitting and prone positions.
Below is Bolo, whose “Lucky Dragon” Benchrest Rifles were featured in last month’s Blog. He demonstrates that you can have fun shooting a variety of disciplines, with very different rifles. And what you learn via one discipline can often help another. Whether it’s benchrest or “move and shoot” action, the common denominator is shooting skill and rifle accuracy. For more information on this interesting match, read this Snipers’ Hide thread or visit WestCoastTactical.com.
Click HERE and HERE for more full-size photos.
May 31st, 2007
The 2007 NRA National Silhouette Championships will be held, from June 2 to August 22, over a number of weekends, at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, NM. The first set of matches, for Long Range Pistol and Smallbore (rimfire) pistol, will run June 2-9. Other National Champrionship matches are scheduled as follows:
Jul. 8-10 Smallbore Rifle | Smallbore Hunting Rifle
Jul. 12-14 High Power Rifle | High Power Hunting Rifle
Aug. 6-9 Black Powder Cartridge Rifle
Aug. 10-11 Black Powder Cartridge Rifle—Scope
Aug. 13-16 Cowboy Rifle
Aug. 19-22 Hunter’s Pistol | Smallbore Hunter’s Pistol
Entry forms and programs are available from NRA Competitive Shooting Division, Attn: Silhouette Dept., 11250 Waples Mill Rd., Fairfax, VA 22030. Be sure to include your complete mailing address and specify which championship you wish to enter. You can also call (703) 267-1474, send a fax to (703) 267-3941, or e-mail silhouette@hrahq.org. For more information on silhouette shooting see: Rifle Silhouette Shooting, and SteelChickens.com.
May 29th, 2007
 The overall winner of the Super Shoot was Steve Robbins, topping a field of 346 competitors. Steve won the Two-Gun with a “Low Two” agg. Congrats Steve! His winning rig (built by Dwight Scott) featured a BAT Machines action, Scoville stock, Krieger barrel, March scope. He was shooting Bart’s Ultra bullets pushed by Vihtavuori N133 powder.
Lowell Hottenstein was second in the Two-Gun. Lowell also won the LV Grand Agg. Kent Harshman won the HV Grand Aggregate. Congrats to Kent Harshman for an impressive showing in challenging conditions. Steve Robbins was runner-up in the HV Grand Agg and HV 200.
HV Grand Agg Top 10:
1. KENT HARSHMAN .2092
2. STEVE ROBBINS .2240
3. LEE EUBER .2307
4. GENE BUCKYS .2443
5. JOE KRUPA .2457
6. DAVE BRUNO .2463
7T. JEFF SUMMERS .2521
7T. BOB SCARBROUGH, JR. .2521
9. JIM CARMICHEL .2548
10. BART SAUTER .2555
Top 5 Shooters in the HV 200 were:
1. JOEL NADER .2195
2. STEVE ROBBINS .2268
3. KENT HARSHMAN .2279
4. GENE BUCKYS .2495
5. DAVE BRUNO .2536
Bob Hesotian had .199 Small Group.
Note, for the 200 yard scores, the actual average group size (in inches) is divided by two. Then this is combined with the 100-yard score for the Grand Aggregate.
May 25th, 2007
Kelbly’s Firearms Industry Super Shoot (FISS), one of the most important Benchrest matches in the world, is running this week in North Lawrence, OH. Here are preliminary “Top 10″ results. Scheduled matches are: LV 100 Wednesday, HV 100 Thursday, HV 200 Friday, and LV 200 Saturday. On Wednesday there were excellent conditions. It was hot (90° F), but there were mild winds, mostly left to right. On Thursday conditions were similar but “but the Agg’s were smaller and more 0’s shot. Wind picked up around 1 and didnt let up” according to JDS, posting on Benchrest.com.
Day 1 — Light Varmint 100 yards
1. GARY CONAWAY .1888
2. Lowell Hottenstein .1932
3. JEFF SUMMERS .2018
4. LARRY COSTA .2116
5. JAMES MOCK .2128
6. JIM CARMICHEL .2144
7. DARREL LOCKER .2150
8. MICHELLE SUTTON .2264
9. ALLIE EUBER .2266
10. GARY SINCLAIR .2278
Small Group by Ron Hoehn, .091 |
Day 2 — Heavy Varmint 100 yards
1. BILL GAMMON .1594
2. JIM CARMICHEL .1764
3. LEE EUBER .1894
4. KENT HARSHMAN .1906
5. JOE KRUPA .1920
6. LARRY COSTA .2062
7. HARLEY BAKER .2112
8T. MIKE RATIGAN .2162
8T. JASON GARRETT .2162
10T. STEVE ROBBINS .2212
10T. JEFF STOVER .2212
Small Group by Lee Euber, .072 |
May 23rd, 2007
 The results of the recent Lapua 300m Europa Cup, held May 8-12 in Pilzen, Czech Republic are now available online. Click HERE for a .pdf file with complete results, and visit the Europa Cup Website to view excellent photos of the competition. Top shooters from a dozen European countries competed in both prone and three-position (standing, prone, kneeling) disciplines, all shot with iron sights, using either Standard Rifles or Competition-Class rifles. (Standard rifles are more conventional-looking with heavier, deeper stocks, and fewer adjustments. The “Competition” Rifles are often metal-framed with elaborate adjustments and hand platforms hanging below the fore-arm. Many of these high tech stocks are convertible for use with a rimfire barreled action in small-bore competition.)
French shooter Solveig Bibard (photo below) dominated the women’s matches, winning both the 300m prone match with a 589 score and the three-position match with a 576 Score. Solveig also lead the French team to victory in the women’s prone team event. Bibard was shooting a French GE600 stock by SERCS, with (we believe) a Bleiker action. She used Lapua 6mm BR Factory ammo. Notably, Bibard’s 589 prone score would have placed her 10th in the men’s competition.
In the mens’ ranks, Germany won the three-position Competition Rifle team event, while the Swiss team won the three-position match with Standard Rifles. The German Team used Lapua 6mm BR factory ammo. We are told the Swiss team was shooting RUAG factory 6mm Swiss match ammunition. In men’s individual competition, Sweden’s Stefan Ahlesved won the three-position Standard Rifle event (582 score), and was first in Competition Rifle prone (594). Arild RØeyseth (Norway) won the three-position Competition Rifle match. Stephan used Norma 6XC factory ammo and Arild used Norma-brand 6mm BR factory ammo. All matches, both invididual and team events, employed acoustic target telemetry. This plots shot placements (on the target) in real time, outputting data to monitors at the shooting stations and a central scoring computer. You can see a target monitor in place below.
Photos courtesy Europa Cup, All Rights Reserved
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