In response to a Bulletin article about Protective Eyewear, one of our Canadian readers posted a personal story. His account demonstrates the importance of wearing eye protection whenever you shoot — no matter what type of firearm you are using — even air rifles. We hope all our readers take this to heart. All too often at rifle matches we see shooters, even some top competitors, risking their vision by failing to wear eye protection.

Eye and Hearing Protection are now MANDATORY for Highpower Rifle competitors and Pistol shooters in all CMP-affiliated matches. The 2020 CMP Highpower Rifle, Pistol, and CMP Games Rulebooks all contain the following rule: “All competitors and competition officials are required to wear appropriate eye and hearing protection when on shooting range firing lines during highpower rifle or pistol firing. All competitors must comply with this requirement before they can participate in a CMP sponsored or sanctioned competition. Competitors are responsible for selecting their eyewear and hearing protection.”

Eye Protection — Lesson Learned
by Nicholas from Canada
As a boy on a mixed farm on the plains the first shooting stick I owned was a Red Ryder BB gun. My Dad bought it for me as I showed a keen interest in the shooting and hunting sports. I was about 9 years old at the time.

We had literally thousands of sparrows in our large farm yard and they liked to roost on the steel railings in the barn loft. I took to slowly thinning out their ranks by flashlight at night as these little winged pests settled in the farm buildings.

One evening as I slayed sparrow after sparrow in the barn loft — with about a dozen farm cats following me to consume these easy meals, I fired at another bird centered in my flashlight beam.

However, my aim was a bit low — and the copper pellet hit the steel beam square on. Instantly I felt a sharp pain as the BB bounced back and hit me squarely between the eyes on the bridge of my nose – drawing blood from the partial penetration into the skin. A half inch either way and I’d have lost an eye!

Never, never, never shoot at any target with a steel background with any firearm, even a BB gun – is the hard lesson I learned, and wear the best shooting glasses that money can buy!

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT!!

Editor’s Comment: Among competitive pistol shooters, the use of safety eyewear is universal. You’ll never see Rob Leatham, Julie Golob, or Jerry Miculek competing without eye protection — for good reason. The handgun sports’ governing bodies effectively enforce mandatory eye protection policies. We wish the same could be said for competitive rifle shooting. We often see benchrest, High Power, and F-Class competitors shooting without eye protection. We’ve heard all the excuses, yet none of them trump the safety considerations involved.

We recommend that all shooters and hunters employ eye protection whenever they use firearms or are at a location where live fire is taking place. You only have two eyes. A tiny bullet fragment or ricochet is all it takes to cause permanent blindness in one or both eyes. As rifle shooters, we place our eyes a couple inches away from a combustion chamber operating at pressures up to 70,000 psi. I know quite a few guys who will religiously put on safety glasses when running a lathe or a drill press, yet the same guys won’t use eye protection when shooting their rifles — simply because it is “inconvenient”. That’s nuts. It doesn’t matter is you are a cub scout or a multi-time National Champion — you should wear eye protection.

I will give you a personal example. A year ago I was shooting a 9mm pistol. One of the cartridges had a primer burst outward blowing small particles, some brass, and a piece of the pistol’s extractor right back into my eyes. Thankfully I was wearing good wrap-around safety glasses. No injuries at all. But without those safety glasses, this could have been very serious. I always wear safety glasses with ALL firearms. Shown below is the same kind of primer blow-out I experienced, but with a .270 Win rifle cartridge.

Be wise — protect your eyes. To learn more about eyewear safety standards, and to learn about the latest options in ANSI Z87-certified protective eyewear, read our article on Eye Protection for Shooters.

In response to a Bulletin article about Protective Eyewear, one of our Canadian readers posted a personal story. His account demonstrates the importance of wearing eye protection whenever you shoot — no matter what type of firearm you are using — even air rifles. We hope all our readers take this to heart. All too often at rifle matches we see shooters, even some top competitors, risking their vision by failing to wear eye protection.

Eye and Hearing Protection are now MANDATORY for Highpower Rifle competitors and Pistol shooters in all CMP-affiliated matches. The 2020 CMP Highpower Rifle, Pistol, and CMP Games Rulebooks all contain the following rule: “All competitors and competition officials are required to wear appropriate eye and hearing protection when on shooting range firing lines during highpower rifle or pistol firing. All competitors must comply with this requirement before they can participate in a CMP sponsored or sanctioned competition. Competitors are responsible for selecting their eyewear and hearing protection.”

Eye Protection — Lesson Learned
by Nicholas from Canada
As a boy on a mixed farm on the plains the first shooting stick I owned was a Red Ryder BB gun. My Dad bought it for me as I showed a keen interest in the shooting and hunting sports. I was about 9 years old at the time.

We had literally thousands of sparrows in our large farm yard and they liked to roost on the steel railings in the barn loft. I took to slowly thinning out their ranks by flashlight at night as these little winged pests settled in the farm buildings.

One evening as I slayed sparrow after sparrow in the barn loft — with about a dozen farm cats following me to consume these easy meals, I fired at another bird centered in my flashlight beam.

However, my aim was a bit low — and the copper pellet hit the steel beam square on. Instantly I felt a sharp pain as the BB bounced back and hit me squarely between the eyes on the bridge of my nose – drawing blood from the partial penetration into the skin. A half inch either way and I’d have lost an eye!

Never, never, never shoot at any target with a steel background with any firearm, even a BB gun – is the hard lesson I learned, and wear the best shooting glasses that money can buy!

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT!!

Editor’s Comment: Among competitive pistol shooters, the use of safety eyewear is universal. You’ll never see Rob Leatham, Julie Golob, or Jerry Miculek competing without eye protection — for good reason. The handgun sports’ governing bodies effectively enforce mandatory eye protection policies. We wish the same could be said for competitive rifle shooting. We often see benchrest, High Power, and F-Class competitors shooting without eye protection. We’ve heard all the excuses, yet none of them trump the safety considerations involved.

We recommend that all shooters and hunters employ eye protection whenever they use firearms or are at a location where live fire is taking place. You only have two eyes. A tiny bullet fragment or ricochet is all it takes to cause permanent blindness in one or both eyes. As rifle shooters, we place our eyes a couple inches away from a combustion chamber operating at pressures up to 70,000 psi. I know quite a few guys who will religiously put on safety glasses when running a lathe or a drill press, yet the same guys won’t use eye protection when shooting their rifles — simply because it is “inconvenient”. That’s nuts. It doesn’t matter is you are a cub scout or a multi-time National Champion — you should wear eye protection.

I will give you a personal example. A year ago I was shooting a 9mm pistol. One of the cartridges had a primer burst outward blowing small particles, some brass, and a piece of the pistol’s extractor right back into my eyes. Thankfully I was wearing good wrap-around safety glasses. No injuries at all. But without those safety glasses, this could have been very serious. I always wear safety glasses with ALL firearms. Shown below is the same kind of primer blow-out I experienced, but with a .270 Win rifle cartridge.

Be wise — protect your eyes. To learn more about eyewear safety standards, and to learn about the latest options in ANSI Z87-certified protective eyewear, read our article on Eye Protection for Shooters.

The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU), in cooperation with Shooting USA TV, has created a series of instructional Pro Tip pages covering a wide range of shooting disciplines. All totaled, there are more than 50 USAMU Pro Tips. Most relate to rifle marksmanship but there are also numerous tips for shotgunners and pistol shooters. Each Pro Tip entry includes multiple photos and 6-15 paragraphs, in an easy-to-follow format. Many Pro Tips also include an instructional video produced by Shooting USA. Here are three Pro Tip videos, and links to seven more Pro Tip web pages.

USAMU TOP TEN PRO TIPS

1. Reading the Wind with SGT Sherri Gallagher.
Apart from gravity, wind has the most pull on the bullet as it travels down range. Being able to accurately read the wind and mirage will greatly enhance your performance on the rifle range. National Champion, SGT Gallagher gives you some of her tips.

2. Angle Shooting with SFC (Ret.) Emil Praslick.
SFC Praslick shows you how to determine the angle to your target, and then how to include that to change your data necessary to hit your target on the first shot.

3. Rifle Grip, Stance and Body Position for 3-Gun with SFC Daniel Horner.
Professional 3-gun marksman SFC Daniel Horner, U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU), give tips on how to properly handle a semi-automatic rifle, including grip, stance and body position.

4. Service Rifle Positions (with SFC Brandon Green)

10. 3-Gun Rifles By Division (with SFC Daniel Horner)

The ability to read the wind is what separates good shooters from great shooters. If you want to learn wind-doping from one of the best, watch this video with 2010 National High Power Champion (and U.S. Army 2010 Soldier of the Year) Sherri Gallagher. Part of the USAMU’s Pro Tips Video Series, this video covers the basics of wind reading including: Determining wind direction and speed, Bracketing Wind, Reading Mirage, and Adjusting to cross-winds using both sight/scope adjustments and hold-off methods. Correctly determining wind angle is vital, Sheri explains, because a wind at a 90-degree angle has much more of an effect on bullet lateral movement than a headwind or tailwind. Wind speed, of course, is just as important as wind angle. To calculate wind speed, Sherri recommends “Wind Bracketing”: [This] is where you take the estimate of the highest possible condition and the lowest possible condition and [then] take the average of the two.”

It is also important to understand mirage. Sheri explains that “Mirage is the reflection of light through layers of air, based off the temperature of the ground. These layers … are blown by the wind, and can be monitored through a spotting scope to detect direction and speed. You can see what appears to be waves running across the range — this is mirage.” To best evaluate mirage, you need to set your spotting scope correctly. First get the target in sharp focus, then (on most scopes), Sheri advises that you turn your adjustment knob “a quarter-turn counter-clockwise. That will make the mirage your primary focus.”

Our friend Darrell Buell has a new Beast — a monster 64-inch-long .375 CheyTac that weighs more than 70 pounds! Designed for ultra-long-range shooting (two miles and beyond), this beast represents the state-of-the-art in extreme long-range rifles.

Darrell reports: “This rifle is pretty much purpose-built to shoot 2+ miles extremely accurately. It is a .375 CheyTac (lengthened) built on a BAT 2.5″ action. The custom 35″, 1:10″-twist Brux barrel is a fat, 2″-diameter ‘straight taper’ with fluting. A custom 5″-long muzzle brake is fitted at the end. All barreled action work was done by R.W. Snyder Custom Rifles. The stock was created to fit the build by PDC Custom, and the massive muzzle brake as well.” The “bridge” at the end may look like a barrel block, but it’s not — the barrel completely free-floats. (The Picatinny rail on top of the bridge allows use of an overhanging bipod as an alternative to the JoyPod).

Darrell has lots of elevation on tap: “With 150 MOA in the Ivey rings, another 20 MOA in the scope rail, 55 MOA in the Nightforce Competition scope, and 10 MOA in the FCR-1 reticle, there’s an impressive +235 MOA available.”

The bipod Darrell will be using for his ELR sessions and the ‘King of 2 Miles’ match is a custom counter-weighted JoyPod crafted by Seb Lambang. With the counter-weight, Darrell says his monster 70-lb gun “adjusts as smoothly as an F-T/R rig”. The glass is a Nightforce 15-55x52mm Competition scope carried in Ivey +150 MOA rings, which in turn are mounted to a +20 MOA BAT scope rail. Darrell says: “It’s been a heck of a couple months, getting this monster built in time, thanks particularly to Southern Cerakote, which turned it around in less than 24 hours.”

Buell’s Beast runs 350gr solid bullets at approximately 3250 fps. Check out the massive .375 CheyTac cartridge compared to a .308 Winchester:

Click above image to view full-screen photo.

Want to see how this Beast shoots? Here’s your chance. Darrell will be running a 4000-yard Extreme Long Range (ELR) Training course in North Carolina, June 12-14, 2015. The class will be taught by Darrell, Maverick Stroud, and past High Power National Champion Sherri Gallagher. The closest target will be at one mile, with max distance 4400 yards. A few spots are still available (details below). For more info visit the LBI Precision Facebook page or email darrell.lbiprecision [at] yahoo.com.

4000-Yard ELR Training Course with Darrell Buell and Maverick Stroud
Dates: June 12, 13, 14, 2015
Location: New Bern, North Carolina.
Entries: A few course placements are still available.

Serious guns, serious distance. Anyone with a .338 Lapua Mag, .375 Cheytac, .408 Cheytac, .50 BMG, or variants thereof… do NOT miss this one. This North Carolina course is focused on Extreme Long-Range shooting. The closest target will be at one mile, and the furthest one will be past 4000 yards! The course will be a 2.5-day format. Friday afternoon will be spent on site, with ELR precision lectures by Pro ELR/PRS shooter/instructor Chase ‘Maverick’ Stroud, and long-range wind reading theory to practice lectures by Darrell Buell. Saturday and Sunday will be spent shooting out to a max range of 4400 yards. Throughout both live fire days, Chase, Darrell, Robert Vestal, and Christopher Sykes will be working with attendees on wind reading, position, and technique, with the goal of being able to put your first shot on steel at a mile or more, every time. Lunch and dinner is included, courtesy of our own shooter/chef Christopher!

Class size on this one will be extremely limited, to ensure maximum one-on-one instruction and coaching, so reserve your spots today. Price for this unique class is $1000. Send checks to Vestals Gunsmithing: 16230 Lee Hwy, Bristol, VA 24202. Credit cards accepted, call: (276) 669-9680. For more info, email darrell.lbiprecision [at] yahoo.com.

UPDATE — Sherri Gallagher Will Be Coaching
We are very happy to announce an addition to the NC ELR Course staff. Our good friend SSG Sherri Gallagher of Army Marksmanship Unit fame will be joining us. In addition to having won about everything possible to win in the High Power long-range world, Sherri is a wind coach and trainer par excellence. We’re happy to have her join us!

“Thank you. Bless you. May your lives be filled with happiness today and everyday.”

Here is a photo of the one of the greatest moms in the shooting community, Nancy Tompkins, along with two of her little girls (who both turned into pretty good shooters themselves). On Nancy’s right is Michelle Gallagher, a top long-range shooter. On the left is Sherri Jo Gallagher, who was the second woman in history to capture the NRA National High Power Championship at Camp Perry. Who was the first woman ever to accomplish that feat? You guessed it — Nancy Tompkins, Sherri’s mom, was the first-ever female High Power Champion.

Also in 2010, Sherri was named the U.S. Army Soldier of the Year, the first female soldier to be so honored. This award is given to the top soldier at the U.S. Army’s Annual Best Warrior competition.

SGT Gallagher is currently a proud member of the U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team. In that role, she gets to do fun stuff like this…

SGT Sherri Jo Gallagher

In 2010, SGT Sherri Jo Gallagher became the first U.S. military shooter since 1987 to win the Nat’l High Power Rifle Championship. She was only the second woman ever to win — the first being her mother, Nancy Tompkins.

Sherri’s family is legendary in U.S. shooting competition. She spent her childhood summers touring shooting competitions with her parents, Mid and Nancy, both competitive shooters. Sherri’s sister Michelle Gallagher is also a top-level long-range shooter, with many titles to her credit. “My family is always there for me — we are really close,” Gallagher said. “I am who I am today because of my family. We have so much fun and live life that way.”

National Championship
First Place: Carl R. Bernosky, Ashland, PA, 2391-141x
Second Place: SGT Sherri J. Gallagher, Englewood, CO, 2390-131x
Third Place: Staff Sergeant Brandon K. Green, Fort Benning, GA, 2388-135x

Winners of Other Trophies and Awards
Here is a gallery showing many of the award winners at the 2012 National High Power Championships. These photos were taken backstage at the awards ceremony. Below the gallery, winners in both Service and Match Division are listed, along with their awards and relevant scores.

Breaking News — Carl Bernosky hung on to win his 10th National High Power Championship, with a 2391-141X final Aggregate. Just one point behind, after four days of competition, was 2010 Champ SGT Sherri Gallagher. Sherri shot a 200-12X in the final event (Crowell Trophy Match) to close the gap, but it was too little, too late. Bernosky had a lead going into the last event, so even though he dropped a point (scoring 199-13X in the Crowell), he was able to prevail by a single point. Had Carl dropped two points, he still would have won the Championship because Carl had a higher X-Count than Sherri, who finished with a 2390-131X Agg. All in all, it was a well-deserved win for a great shooter, one of the best ever, that’s for sure.

This was one of the most exciting championships in recent memory. Two shooting marvels, both past High Power National champions, were neck and neck all the way ’til the end. And either could have lost the title with one errant shot or crossfire. SSG Brandon Green of the USAMU shot a superb match to finish third with 2388-135X. Multi-time High Power Champion David Tubb racked up the fourth-highest Aggregate: 2387-145X. That means David had the highest X Count of the top 5. However, we’re told by Emil Praslick that: “David Tubb shot his Match Rifle fitted with a scope this year, placing him in the Any Sight/Tactical Class.” Accordingly, Tubb was not in the running for the overall championship.

All photos courtesy NRAblog.

We congratulate Carl Bernosky on his hard-fought victory in 2012. This title brings Carl’s total to 10 High Power Championships, really an amazing accomplishment. We also congratulate runner-up SGT Sherri Gallagher, and all the shooters who competed at Camp Perry in the High Power Championship events.

This Championship should go down to the wire. Carl is one of the best standing shooters in history, so he should do well in the Crescent Cup, while Sherri is a long-range wizard so we can expect her to do well in the 600-yard Crowell Trophy match. What’s more, Sherri is shooting a .260 Remington which may offer better ballistics at 600 than Bernosky’s 6mm Hagar. FYI, on Thursday, Gallagher shot superbly in the 600-yard Air Force Cup match — her 200-17X score was just one X shy of the National Record (which was set by Sherri’s mother, Nancy Tompkins).

Gallagher’s showing in the Air Force Cup helped close the gap between her and leader Carl Bernosky. The two shooters are slowly pulling away from the rest of the pack, although there is the possibility of another winner if one of the leaders has a real disaster. SSG Brandon Green and Rodrigo Rosa are both just three points back from the leaders (Green has more Xs than Rosa though). The high Service Rifle shooter is still SSG Tyrel Cooper, who has a 1787-71X score. Ty’s score is remarkable considering his AR-platform rifle has relatively crude military sights and non-adjustable buttstock.

High Power Rifle Championship — Match 400
Scores As of Thursday 8/9/2012

1. Carl Bernosky, 1795-106X
2. SGT Sherri Gallagher, 1795-101X
3. SSG Brandon Green, 1792-104X
4. Rodrigo Rosa, 1792-101X
5. David Tubb, 1790-107X