Rhode Island NRA Four Position Sectional
Smithfield hosted the 20013 Rhode Island National Rifle Association Four Position Sectional on March 10, 2013. The competitors fired an 80 shot aggregate with 20 shot shots in each of prone, standing, sitting, and kneeling.
While a bit short on numbers it was long on competition and opened with a four way tie for the prone match. Smithfield’s Joe Graf tied with New Hampshire’s Bob Lynn and two shooters from the Quaker Hill Rod and Gun Club Jenn Sloan, who just had won the Mohegan Rifle League Individual Four Position Championship, and Nash Neubauer. Shooting iron sights Neubauer, a Distinguished Rifleman who recently moved to Connecticut from Illinois, bested the field with a score of 200-20X to Graf and Lynn’s 19Xs and Sloan’s 17Xs.
In the standing match Graf jumped into the lead with a 97-7X on his first card and held off a surging Sloan, who fired a 95-5X followed by a 96-4X, with a 95-2X in his second ten shots for a 192-9X total. It was a one point margin that would have gone the other way if the numerical score was tied as Sloan had four Xs on her last target.
Lynn came back in the sitting match with an opening salvo of 100-9X to Graf’s 100-8. The Granite State rifleman held onto his slim lead when he out Xed Graf by one X on the final target, 99-9X to 99-8X. Both were extremely consistent as each fired the same score, right down to the X count, on both targets.
Going into the kneeling, and final, stage, Graf held a solid four point lead over Sloan who would not concede anything until the final 20 shots had been scored. She pick up one point, opening with a 100-9X to Graf’s 99-7X. The aggregate was now Graf’s to loose and it would take a disaster on his behalf to do so. Not giving up Sloan shot a second 100-9X wrapping up a kneeling win. However, Graf came back to shoot a clean and secure the gold medallion.
Graf’s first place finish of 790-57X puts him in a good position to earn a national step towards the NRA Smallbore Position Distinguished Rifleman Award. With last year’s cut off at 786 Sloan’s second place finish with a 787 might also slip through to door. Lynn rounded out the top three with a 778-48X.
Neubauer, who has recently taken up smallbore as a winter training to aid his high power shot a 763-37X with metallic sights. The college freshman still has a few years of junior eligibility left and will certainly make a mark in those categories.
2013-ri-4p-sectional (PDF, 14KB)
