On Monday, 11 July, the 2011 NRA National Rifle and Pistol Championships officially commenced at Camp Perry, Ohio. DCM Emeritus Gary Anderson led a procession of special guests into the ceremony.
Poor weather cancelled the traditional delivery of the colors by a parachute team, so the flag was presented to Anderson by a squad from the Ohio National Guard. VIP Guest Joseph Westphal, Under Secretary of the Army, addressed the gathering, and then Westphal fired the ceremonial First Shot, followed by wounded warrior SFC Sene Polu, who fired the second shot.
Now that the championships have begun, each morning the National Matches start with a bang — a big bang. With the raising of the colors, a cannon is fired in salute. On 12 July, Mike Krei, NRA’s Director of Competitive Shooting was chosen to fire the cannon, marking the first day that shots are going down range at the NRA National Pistol Championships.
Pistol Championships Underway
We are now into the second day of competition in the National Pistol Championships. It’s day two of the NRA National Pistol Championships, and that means competitors are firing the NRA Preliminary Pistol Championship today in three separate relays. In this morning’s first relay, shooters took to the range to complete the Center Fire, .22 Caliber, and .45 Caliber stages of fire. The aggregate of these stages comprises each competitor’s total score.
Who are the front-runners? SFC Jim Henderson of the Army Marksmanship Unit won this Championship last year with a score of 890-42X, but the record of 894-50X was set by Brian Zins in 1996. At this stage in the match it’s too early to tell who the winners might be, but with 10-time National Champion Brian Zins sitting out this year, there may be some surprises. James Lenardson, SSG Jean-Noel Howell, David Lange, and SSG Patrick Franks are just a few of the competitors who are riding high after yesterday’s Revolver Matches, but Philip Hemphill, SFC Henderson, John Zurek, and many others could still finish on top of the podium.
Story by Kerrin Brinkman and photos courtesy the NRA BLOG.
USA v Scotland F-TR at Blair Atholl Match Report by Laurie Holland
After their success in Ireland (Bulletin June 27th) a third of the American shooters, Tony Robertson in F Class and a complete F-TR team captained by Darrell Buell, travelled to Scotland to shoot over Perthshire’s famous Jubilee Range above Blair Atholl. As well as competing in six individual 900 and 1,000-yard matches in the Scottish Long-Range Meeting, the USA challenged Scotland to a 900-, 1,000-, and 1,100-yard yd F-TR team competition, to be held on the American Independence Day, July 4th.
After practice on Friday, July 1st, US competitors did well in the six individual matches over the weekend taking four out of the top six places overall with Stan Pate and Michelle Gallagher leading the way. However, Scottish home team captain Paul Crosbie took all three 900-yard matches and one 1,000-yard yard match. Winners of the other two 1000-yard events were Michelle Gallagher, and Scotland’s Laurie Holland, shooting his .223 Rem (That’s right — Laurie beat all the .308s with a .223). The weekend’s overall F-TR winner was Paul Crosbie on 405.23v (ex 450.90v) narrowly leading Stan Pate and Michelle Gallagher. After tying on Saturday, Scottish Shooter Les Bacon slowly pulled ahead of Tony Robertson in F Class and took this section by five points on an aggregate of 420.25v.
Scottish team captain Paul Crosbie and coach Tim Kidner pause during a wind change.
Independence Day Challenge — Team Scotland Beats Team USA
The 4th of July started cooler and cloudy with a near calm disturbed by intermittent light fish-tailing breezes from behind. The 900-yard scores benefitted from this, the six strong teams averaging 70 or more points per shooter out of the possible 75. After the 900-yard stages, Team USA was ahead with 427-24V against Scotland’s 420-20V.
By the time the teams relocated to 1,000 yards, the overcast had gone, sunshine alternated with moving shadows from big white puffy clouds to produce heat-induced, variable winds and intermittent mirage. Scores tumbled and there were many gaps between shots as the wind coaches stayed their hand waiting for a previous condition to return or trying to read a new one. Different wind doping approaches were apparent with Scotland’s Tom Kidner and Hamish Hunter relying mostly on the wind flags and plots while Nancy and Michelle spent considerable amounts of time glued to a pair of massive spotting scopes trying to read the mirage.
Nancy calls 1K wind for daughter Michelle Gallagher. USA captain Darrel Buell is just behind them.
At 1000 yards, the Scots produced 357-8V against the visitors’ 346-8V, putting them into a four-point lead overall. Remarkably, however, the youngest American shooter, Sierra Scott nailed the best individual 1,000-yard score, a 65-2V. With everything hanging on the 1,100-yard stage, conditions were as for 1,000 yards only more so — warmer, still more variable winds and intermittent aiming difficulties from a boiling mirage downrange. The Scottish coaches’ experience really paid off now, their shooters scoring 295-2V, 23 points ahead of the visitors. Three out of the top four individual results (with scores of 50 or better) were by Scots, and top scorer Paul Crosbie posted a 59 shooting the big 210gr Bergers. Michelle Gallagher (shooting Berger 155.5s) nailed an excellent 57 to edge Scotland’s Peter Burbridge (55 points shooting 208gr Hornady A-Max). Laurie Holland posted an impressive. His .223 Rem ‘mouse gun’ was obviously still in the groove at 1,114 yards!
So, the home team kept its honor and Blair Atholl’s reputation intact. While disappointed, the visitors knew they had done really well given their inexperience with the quirks of this most difficult of venues. Everybody had a great time, some old friendships were renewed, new ones made. This was F-TR at its most enjoyable with four days shooting that no participant will ever forget. There was even an informal 1,233-yard competition on the Saturday afternoon won by US team captain Darrell Buell.
Here’s an amusing story, if a sad one for Porsche fans. After his Porsche 911 sports car broke down, the owner, faced with a massive repair bill, decided to donate the vehicle to a local charity — the Commonwealth Second Amendment (Comm2A), a group that works for gun law reform in Massachusetts. Well Comm2A, with co-sponsor Northeast Shooters, decided the best use of the donated Porsche was as a target! The two organizations hosted a fund-raising shoot-out, with the Porsche as the star of the show.
Jaloponik blog writer Matt Hardigree explains: “After the engine of his Porsche 911 decided to die (and take much of the cooling system along with it in some kind of powertrain suicide pact), the owner considered the $20,000 repair job and instead decided to donate the car to a non-profit. A non-profit dedicated to protecting gun rights. [A]pproximately 140 people showed up for the fundraiser. It’s difficult to know exactly how much ammo was spent decimating the Porsche, but 10,000 seems to be the conservative estimate.” READ full article HERE.
Editor’s Comment: While I understand the purpose of the fund raiser, I wonder if the Porsche would have be worth more in parts value than the sum collected from the shooters. On the other hand, as Jalopnik’s Hardigree writes: “Who hasn’t wanted to take a few shots at a 911, even an older model, after years of dealing with Porsche drivers?”
It’s a huge win for gun rights in Chicago, tactical training, and free hats, this Sunday on Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk Radio, the nationally-syndicated radio talk show about guns and the shooting sports.
Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation joins Gun Talk Sunday to discuss this week’s 3-0 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals over a Chicago, IL ordinance that required gun range training as a stipulation to own a handgun, but also banned gun ranges within city limits.
“This is a significant victory that could have strong implications well beyond the Chicago city limits,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The court is making it clear that cities cannot adopt firearms ordinances that are so deliberately restrictive that they make it impossible for citizens to exercise their rights under the Second Amendment.”
Also visiting Gun Talk this week is Bill Davison of TacPro Shooting Center in Texas. Davison drops in to discuss tactical training tips, techniques, how to begin training and how to continue through the years.
Callers Can Win Free Baseball Cap
And as a special “Thank You” for our listeners, anyone who calls in and speaks with Tom on-air this Sunday, July 10th, will receive a baseball hat from the Gun Talk prize closet. To get a chance at the hat, call 1-866-825-5486 when Gun Talk is broadcast live on Sunday afternoon. Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk Radio airs live on Sundays from 2PM-5PM Eastern, and runs on more than 115 stations, plus on XM (Ch. 165) Satellite Radio. All Gun Talk shows can be downloaded as podcasts. More information is available at www.guntalk.com.
The White Horse Center Range near Peeltree, West Virginia, will host the 2011 National IBS 1000-Yard Nationals from September 3-5, 2011. The good news is that the match directors have lowered the fees in response to the week economy and high gas prices. If you register before August 8th, the match fee is only $80.00 per gun.
Match Schedule and Fees
The 1K Nationals will be a 3-target Aggregate match for both Light Gun (LG) and Heavy Gun (HG) with six (6) targets total. Membership in the IBS, NBRSA, or Williamsport organizations is required — bring your membership card. The match will run Saturday, Sunday, and MONDAY, September 3, 4, and 5. Practice and Sight-in will be available Wednesday (8/31), Thursday (9/1) and Friday (9/2), starting daily at 8:00 am. NOTE: There will be a $10.00 per target fee during practice days and the shooter must furnish his/her own target puller.
Match fees for the Nationals are $80 per gun ($40 per gun for Juniors), if post-marked before August 8, 2011. Thereafter fees go to $90 per gun ($45 per gun for juniors). All registrations MUST be received by 3:00 pm Friday, September 2nd. No walk-up registrations will be accepted on match days.
How to Get There
The Center is located 9.7 miles south on State Route 20 from I-79, exit 115 or 10.1 miles north of Route 20 from Buckhannon. Look for a brown and yellow Dept. of Natural Resources sign on Route 20. Take Crouse Road to the next sign, turn right at the sign, and proceed up the hill to the Center. Map coordinates are: 39°, 7′, 11″ North latitude; 80°, 13′, 4″ West longitude. The White Horse Center website has information on area hotels and campgrounds.
Story Tip by EdLongrange. We welcome submissions from our readers.
Proposed gun laws based on flawed technology were recently defeated in New York and California. In New York, A1157, a micro-stamping bill, was effectively halted in the New York State Senate. Meanwhile, across the country in California, the California Assembly Public Safety Committee voted down SB 978, a bill that would have required all air rifles to be brightly colored.
Micro-Stamping Blocked in New York Again
In New York, A1157, which earlier this year passed the General Assembly, failed to be voted on in the New York State Senate. This marks the fourth straight year that microstamping has been defeated in the Empire State. The proposed legislation would have required micro-stamping of handguns. This technology has not yet been perfected and it can easily be defeated by criminals. Requiring microstamping of all new handguns would force manufacturers to invest in very expensive machinery (or go out of business). Increased manufacturing costs would be passed on to the firearms consumer. To learn more about microstamping, read the NSSF Microstamping Fact Sheet.
Law Restricting Airguns Defeated in California
Last week, the California Assembly Public Safety Committee defeated SB 798, a bill that would have mandated that all airsoft and airguns (included Olympic-grade pneumatic air rifles) be brightly colored. In theory, this would help police officers distinguish airguns from actual firearms. In fact, because anyone can spray paint a firearm a bright color, this law would have jeopardized the safety of the public and especially police officers. AB 798 was defeated in large part because of opposition from law enforcement groups who understood the risk of criminals painting real firearms to disguise the weapons’ lethality. AB 798 is one more example of “feel good” legislation that would do more harm than good.
OutdoorsTrader.com is a FREE alternative to Gunbroker.com and AuctionArms.com for selling firearms, magazines, optics, and hunting gear. Set up like a Craigslist for gun stuff, OutdoorsTrader.com lets you place free ads for buying, selling or trading guns, ammunition and parts. Conveniently, you can search ads by state, or even by zip code proximity.
Because OutdoorsTrader.com is relatively new, there are relatively few listings at present, but we expect that to grow. We clicked on “Oregon” and found a couple dozen listings, mostly handguns. A search for “Colorado” revealed a half-dozen listings, half rifle, half pistol. So OutdoorsTrader.com has a long way to go to challenge the big players such as Gunbroker.com and AuctionArms.com. But we’re glad OutdoorsTrader.com exists — it’s always a good thing for consumers to have more options.
OutdoorsTrader Charges No Fees, Unlike Gunbroker
We hope OutdoorsTrader.com becomes successful. Gunbroker.com is fairly expensive for the seller, who pays when the item sells (at auction). On an expensive rifle, Gunbroker.com fees can be significant. The cost to sell a $3500.00 rifle on Gunbroker.com is $56.88.
By contrast, OutdoorsTrader.com is free to join and entirely free to use. Once an account has been created, the user may post ads of his own and also leave replies on other posted ads. OutdoorsTrader.com has been around for a couple years. We hope it gains in popularity so it can provide more competition to Gunbroker.
Smallbore competitors — mark your calendars for July 15 through July 19. That’s when the 2011 NRA National Metric Smallbore Championships will be held at the Wa-Ke’-De Range in Bristol, Indiana. Practice Relays will be held on the 15th. With Position shooting scheduled for July 16-17 and Prone for July 18-19, this event is a great way to tune up your marksmanship skills prior to the Smallbore Championships at Camp Perry which kick off on July 21st.
The Second Annual NRA Metric Smallbore Championships are limited to the first 200 competitors. You can still register now by contacting H.Q. Moody at 703-267-1475 or HMoody@nrahq.org. Don’t procrastinate — anyone attempting to sign up after July 8th will have to do so at the Statistical Office at the Chief Wa-Ke’-De’ Range. The Jameson Inn in Elkhart, Indiana is the host hotel. Mention the National Metric Championships to receive a special rate.
USA Shooting is pleased to announce that 2008 Olympian Jamie Beyerle (Lebanon, Pa.) has qualified for a nomination to the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team pending approval by the United States Olympic Committee. Upon approval, Beyerle will be competing in her second consecutive Olympic Games in Women’s 50m Rifle Three Position. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Beyerle finished fourth in Women’s 10m Air Rifle and fifth in Women’s 50m Rifle Three Position. Beyerle is currently the top-ranked Women’s 50m Rifle Three Position shooter in the world. In 2011, Beyerle won gold at ISSF World Cup events in Sydney, Australia and at her home range in Fort Benning, Georgia. In the ISSF video below, you can watch Jaimie’s winning performance in Sydney:
National Rifle Coach Major Dave Johnson said, “Jamie has continued her march to the top of our sport. In the last 12 months, Jamie has earned three gold medals in World Cups and placed in the top five in two more starts. Her performance has earned her a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team as one of the best in the world.” Jaime credits Johnson and the USAMU for much of her success: “It is an honor to be nominated to represent the United States in the 2012 Olympic Games. I would not have that honor without the support of USA Shooting and Coach Dave Johnson as well as the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit and Coach Tom Tamas, who have all helped me to achieve my goals thus far.”
The Creedmoor Cup F-Class events in Ireland have come to a close. The Irish hosts ran a great match and the American shooters proved their prowess — winning both team and individual titles. Here’s how the events were scheduled so you can keep things in order: after several practice days, the two-day NRA-Ireland F-Class Individual Championships was held Wednesday and Thursday last week. Then, on Friday, competitors divided into F-Open and F-T/R squads to shoot the USA vs. Europe matches. On Saturday and Sunday, the main event, the two-day Creedmoor Cup Match was held. All of these matches were conducted on the brand new 1200-yard range in Tullamore. The Irish are to be commended for constructing such a great range in a relatively short time.
American Shooters Dominate Team and Individual Events
We don’t have all the scores yet, but we do have key results. We’re proud to announce that the USA won the main Creedmoor Cup event! Prior to that, on Friday, the Yanks prevailed in the Europe vs. USA Challenge match (sort of like the Ryder Cup). Forum Member Erik Cortina reports: “I’m not 100% on the numbers but I know we beat them by about 110 points shooting in the rain! We have a very strong team and excellent wind coaches!”
In the individual competitions held during the week, American shooters also topped the podium. In F-T/R individual competition, Darrell Buell won the championship with a solid performance. Larry Bartholome shot superbly in windy conditions to win the F-Open match. (Larry was using a Precision Rifle & Tool Low Boy stock, Nightforce scope and a SEB Neo Rest.) Larry’s compatriots also shot well — there were nine Americans among the top 11 F-Open shooters. That is definitely a dominant performance by our talented F-Open squad.
Here are some reports from Ireland that came in from Forum members Erik Cortina and TonyR over the last few days:
Sunday, 6/26: “The second day of the Creedmoor Match was completed today and the USA has won the Gold Medal. I haven’t seen the score but I’m sure it will show up at some point. Shooting conditions were again tough with high speed fishtail tail winds that switched rapidly but our wind coaches, Bob Mead, Nancy Tompkins, Michelle Gallagher, Dale Carpenter, Jim Murphy, and Ricky Hunt were up to the challenge. The Irish Team were great hosts and we all had a wonderful time. They put together a new range with this event in mind in just a few months and it is something to be proud of.” — TonyR
Saturday, 6/25: “Shot the first day of the Creedmoor Cup today. Winds were tough! We had a fishtailing wind from 5-7 o’clock and we were being pushed into the 3 ring with ease, the F-T/R guys were going into the 1’s! We didn’t have a good day, we dropped 434 out of 4,000, but they had a worst day than we did, they dropped 648 points! So to say winds were tough is an understatement! We are having tons of fun regardless.” — Erik
Friday, 6/24: “We just finished shooting the Europe vs. USA Challenge. I’m not 100% on the numbers but I know we beat them by about 110 points shooting in the rain! We have a very strong team and excellent wind coaches!” — Erik
Thursday, 6/23: “Larry shot great today [to win the F-Open Championship]! In F-Open, there were 9 of us in the top 11. This is an awesome range! We have been shooting in 25 +- winds for two days and it’s fun when you can stay ahead of the wind, but if you get behind it, it’s not fun at all…” — Erik
Want to see more photos from Ireland, and read more reports from the competitors? You’ll find more info about the Creedmoor events, match results, plus linked photo galleries on the USA F-T/R Team’s new Facebook Page. Log on to: http://www.facebook.com/us.rifle.team.
On Monday, 11 July, the 2011 NRA National Rifle and Pistol Championships officially commenced at Camp Perry, Ohio. DCM Emeritus Gary Anderson led a procession of special guests into the ceremony.
Here’s an amusing story, if a sad one for Porsche fans. After his Porsche 911 sports car broke down, the owner, faced with a massive repair bill, decided to donate the vehicle to a local charity — the 
It’s a huge win for gun rights in Chicago, tactical training, and free hats, this Sunday on Tom Gresham’s 
The White Horse Center Range near Peeltree, West Virginia, will host the 2011 National IBS 1000-Yard Nationals from September 3-5, 2011. The good news is that the match directors have lowered the fees in response to the week economy and high gas prices. If you register before August 8th, the match fee is only $80.00 per gun.
Match Schedule and Fees
