The 2025 Southwest Nationals kicked off yesterday at the Ben Avery Range outside Phoenix. The individual 600-yard match was held for F-Open, F-TR, and Sling shooters. There was a good turn-out, particularly in the F-Open class. Shooting was impressive, with 11 F-Open competitors recording 600 points over the course of three 20-rd sessions — not dropping a single point all day. F-Open Ace Peter Johns was the top finisher, with 600-47X.

Modern F-TR rifle looking down-range at Ben Avery Shooting Facility.

Tracy Hogg took the F-TR division with 598-36X. In the sling division, which had both “A” (Any Sight/Any Rifle*) and “P” (Palma) classes, David Luckman topped the field with a stellar 600-48X score. Robert Gustin (in “A” class) had the next highest score, 600-46X. That’s mighty impressive for a older marksman who competes as a Grand Senior.

Today, February 13th, there will be mid-range Team Competition at 600 yards. Expect this match to go down to the wire, and probably be decided on X-Count. CLICK HERE for a Squadding List of teams with target assignments.

Multi-time National High Power Champion Brandon Green is competing this week at Ben Avery. On his Facebook page, Brandon posted: “If anyone wants to follow along with the 2025 Southwest Nationals here’s the link: DesertSharpshooter.com/2025-southwest-nationals. An incredible amount of talent on the range this week! The individual Long Range Championship event will start this Friday.”

2025 SWN 600-Yard Mid-Range Match, Individual Results

The shooting by the top F-Open shooters was mighty impressive. The top 11 finishers all had 600 scores, not dropping a point. And the next dozen shooters finished with 599 scores, just one point back. Among the 599ers, Brandon Zwahr had a 599-47X, matching the X-count of F-Open 600-yard winner Peter Johns.

Stunning F-Open rifle with SEB Mini front rest with Blake Machine accessories.

Top competitors show focus and concentration in SWN mid-range match 2022.

Bird’s Eye Ben Avery — A Look at the Range

If you’ve never visited the Ben Avery Facility north of Phoenix, Arizona, here’s a video that shows the 1000-yard range (including drone footage). The desert range at Ben Avery is something special — check out this “birds-eye view”. This 2016 video also includes an interview with Derek Rodgers, F-TR World Champion, King of 2 Miles, and the only man who who has earned both F-Open AND F-TR USA National titles.

Sling Shooters in Palma Division
For the Palma division, the cartridge of choice is the .308 Winchester (7.62.x51). This versatile cartridge is still capable of extreme accuracy. Never underestimate a skilled sling shooter with a good Palma rifle. Below is multi-time NRA National Long-Range Champion John Whidden in action at Ben Avery a few seasons back. John’s rifle featured a centerfire action in an aluminum Anschutz small-bore stock.

CLICK HERE for Phoenix Travel and Lodging Information.

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* Brandon Green explains: “The ‘A’ is for Any rifle/Any sight (so basically unlimited up to .338 with either iron sights or optics). And ‘P’ is Palma division”, which is limited to iron sights rifles with .223 Rem (5.56) or .308 Winchester (7.62×51) chamberings.

The 2023 Southwest Nationals (SWN) have concluded. Though there were very challenging wind/weather conditions this year, the 2023 SWN was a very successful mid-range and long-range event. There was some great shooting in F-Open, F-TR, and Sling divisions. We congratulate the 2023 Long-Range SWN Champions: Erik Cortina (F-Open, 1241-60X); Jeremy Newell (F-TR, 1221-49X); and Justin Skaret (Sling, 1233-50X). Notably, Skaret won Sling Division by 11 points — a big margin. SEE ALL 2023 Results.

The 600-yard champions were: Louis Buatt (F-Open, 600-39X), Luke Ramsey (F-TR, 596-31X), and Randy Teissedre (Sling, 597-33X). Buatt shoot a remarkable “clean” 600-yard match, not dropping a single point while amassing 39 “X”s. Superb performance by Louis!

Shown below is F-Open Long-Range (1000-yard) Winner Erik Cortina. Erik’s purple F-Open rifle was chambered for the new wildcat cartridge based on the 6.5 PRC necked up to 7mm. This drives high-BC 7mm Berger bullets at 2950 fps.

Our friend Gary Eliseo, maker of Competition Machine rifle chassis systems, said this was a tough match this year: “The 2023 SWN is in the books. This year we faced extremely challenging conditions with very strong erratic winds and cold temps but it was great catching up with so many friends from around the country, thank you all….”

The F-Class Worlds will be held in South Africa this year. The 2023 SWN offered good practice conditions for Team USA, which posted: “The USA F-Open team had two very successful days of practice for the upcoming World Championship in South Africa. We were also blessed to have five USA rifle team members in the top 10, with Erik Cortina taking the win and Bill Kolodziej taking silver.”

Here are the Long-Range TOP TEN for each of the three divisions. CLICK HERE for ALL results:

The SWN was made possible this year through the participation of three dozen sponsors including Berger, Lapua, Vihtavuori, Applied Ballistics, SEB Rests, Lilja Barrels, F-Class Products, Forster Products, Sightron, PMA Tool, K&M, Creedmoor Sorts, McMillan Stocks, Nancy Tompkins, and many other companies.

Click the links below for full results, including Grand Aggs and day-by-day performances. You can also find further results plus a large collection of photos at SouthwestNationals.net.

The Berger SW Nationals is one of the few American events where sling shooters compete on the same firing line as F-Class competitors (though in separate groups).

Team competitions were closely fought. In the F-TR Division, Team USA Blue (2505-70X) edged Team Texas (2504-76X) to win by one point. In F-0pen, Team Rollin Coal (2558-129X) finished three points ahead of runner-up Team Grizzly (2555-102X). In the Sling Division, U.S. Palma Gold Team (2555-104X) took first-place, ahead of U.S. NRT Gold (2504-104X).

Reading the wind can be challenging at Ben Avery. What’s your wind call here?

Top competitors show focus and concentration in mid-range match 2022.

Stunning F-Open rifle with SEB Mini front rest with Blake Machine accessories.

Working in the pits is part of the Berger SWN experience.

Hundreds of Competitors from the USA and 8 Other Countries
Along with top American F-Class and sling shooters, the Southwest Nationals attracts competitors from around the world. Last year, on Day 1 of the 2022 SW Nationals, Nancy Tompkins posted: “We started the day off with National anthems for Brazil, Canada, Puerto Rico, Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the USA.”

Photo by Nancy Tompkins near Ben Avery Shooting Facility in 2022. Nancy posted: “Thank you to all of the sponsors, volunteers, and shooters who have traveled from all over… to make this match so special.”

See you next year!

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