The 2016 NRA National Smallbore Metric Prone Championship, hosted by the Desert Sharpshooters, began today under sunny skies and tough switching conditions at the Ben Avery Range, Phoenix, Arizona.
Reya Kempley, no stranger to the winner’s circle, opened the match with a 391-24X in the metallic sight Metric Dewar. She enjoyed a thin margin of victory over Mark Delcotto, a member of the 2009 Roberts Team, and Larry Sawyer who posted a pair of 191-17X for first and second Master respectively. Justin Tracy, a teammate of Delcotto’s on the Roberts Team, was third Master at 389-19X while Allen Thomas closed out the money winners. British Rifleman Expert Mike Arnstein enjoyed both the change of climate and a Expert/Sharpshooter class win, shooting a 384-19X, while Marksman Rob Nabower shot a 379-14X to rake his class. Ray Del Rio topped the F-Class category with an outstanding 398-20.
Richard Fowke, not to be outdone by traveling companion Arnstein, took the iron sight 100 Yard match shooting 391-17X with a rifle of his own design. Air Force Academy alumni Mike Seery was two points behind as first Master, 389-20X, just ahead of second Master Kempley, 389-15X. Third Master was Peter Church shooting a 389-14X while Thomas placed fourth posting a 388-12X. Arnstein continued his control over his class with a 385-14X just as Nabower’s 384-10X held sway over the Marksmen. Del Rio kept a strangle hold on F-Class carding a 395-22X.
With the targets at 50 meters the leaderboard changed with Seery jumping up from second in the 100 Yards to first in the short range match on the back of a 397-23X. Long Range specialist Nancy Tompkins emerged from the pack to take high Master shooting a 393-21X. Tracy notched a 391-23X for second in class while Church, 391-10X, and the Army Marksmanship Unit Erik Uptagrafft, 391-18X, finished third and fourth. Ken Nelson pushed Arnstein aside and took the Expert/Sharpshooter class with a 384-11X. Nabower pulled off a hat trick winning his third class award in as many matches with a 381-12. Former National Guard All Guard shooter John Andres put together a near perfect 399-30X to depose Del Rio and win F Class.
At the end of the day Seery emerged triumphant posting an 1173-58X. Tracy had a four point deficient, 1169-53X placing him first Master. Uptagrafft was right on Tracy’s heels after carding an 1168-52X. Church’s 1168-38X was good for third. Kempley slid into fourth shooting an 1163-52X. As expected Arnstein, 1151-47X, Nabower, 1144-36X, and Del Rio, 1187-63X, ruled their respective classes and category.
With metallic sights in the record book ten NRA Named its 2016 Wakefield Cup Team. The Wakefield is sponsored by the National Smallbore Rifle Association of Great Britain and is the metric equivalent of the Dewar International Trophy Match. Virginia McLemore acted as team captain assisted by coach Ron Wigger. The team consisted of Michael Seery, Justin Tracy, Eric Uptagrafft, Peter Church, Kevin Nevius, Reya Kempley, Larry Sawyer, Mark DelCotto, Allen Thomas, Robert Gustin, and Andrew Krause.
Day two, any sights, has all the makings of a real dog fight with so many at the top just a few points away from each other and, as we all know, in prone shooting humility is often just one shot away. While day one was challenging day two was a nightmare. Dust devils scooted across the range, wind ran between 10 and 20 miles per hours and could not make up its mind which way it wanted to blow as it switched from left to right only to change its mind and run in from 12 o’clock all between the time it took to scope a shot, aim and squeeze.
Tracy seems to have a handle on things as he won the opening Dewar with a 389-22X. The score was two points and two Xs lower than the iron sight winning score which foreshadowed a trying day for all concerned. Uptagrafft was second Master as he shot a 383-14X to give up six points to the leader. Sawyer followed with a 383-13X as Tompkins mustered a 378-16X for third Master. Kempley closed out the class with a 377-13X. Seery suffered a leader’s nightmare as the wind carried away his carefully nurtured iron sight lead. Ken Nelson’s 371-15X broke Arnstein’s run as Expert/Sharpshooter winner with a 362-4X while it was business as usual for Marksman class winner Nabower, a 365-8X. In F-Class Lou Murdica scored his first win shooting a 383-14X.
At 100 yards McLemore,383-15X, out Xed Uptagrafft, 383-10, for the win. Second, third, and fourth Masters were Sawyer, 382-13X, Tompkins, 383-12X, and Church, 380-13X. Nelson’s 362-4X topped the combined class as Nobower closed in on a Marksman class sweep with his 363-4X. F Class shooters were spreading the wealth as Jack Arnold appeared in the winner’s column posting a 383-5X.
Going into the last 40 shots Tracy enjoyed a four point lead over Uptagrafft. If this were a conventional prone match he might breath a bit easy but metric targets in tough conditions made it anyone’s game.
At 50 yards Delcotto came charging forward and posted a 392-22X to win the match. Ron Wigger, from whom little had been heard, posted the high Master score, a 390-18X followed by Tracy, 389-17X, Kempley, 389-15X, and Uptagrafft, 388-16X. Bill Lair made some noise among the Experts/Sharpshooters shooting a winning a 377-6X. Nabower closed out a successful two days in which he dominated the Marksmen with a final score of 373-8X. Yet another F Class rifleman grabbed a bit of glory, this time Bob De Pasque who won the final match with a 391-26X.
With the shooting over ten calculating began to determine the winners. Tracy managed to hold onto his lead to win any sights with a score of 1158-48X relegating Uptagrafft, 1154-40X, to first Master. Sawyer, two points and behind but five Xs ahead of Uptagrafft was second. Tompkins posted an 1146-47X for third. DelCotto’s win in the last match allowed him to edge out Church,1142-41X to 1141-33X, for fourth Master. Nelson consistent performance saw him total an 1107-28X for the Expert Sharpshooter win as Nabower cruised comfortably home winning his class in all three matches, 1101-70X. Andres plugged along all day near the top of the F Class standings to win any sights by a comfortable margin scoring a 1136-45X.
Justin Tracy captured the 2016 NRA Metric Prone Smallbore Rifle National Championship shooting without any real flash, other than shooting more Xs than anyone else, but rather by producing a relatively consistent stream of scores in difficult conditions ending up with a 2327-101X. Eric Uptagrafft, 2322-92X earned the silver as Larry Sawyer rounded out the trio on the podium with a 2315-91X.
Tompkins was first Master followed by Delcotto, Kempley, and Nevius. Arnstein was the Expert/Sharpshooter champion who won by building up a solid lead in iron sights which sustained him through a trying any sight day. Marksman Rob Nabower made a clean sweep of all six fired matches to win his class. It was a close run thing in F-Class with Del Rio, 2325-106X holding of Andres, 2323-104X, for his championship win.
