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NH: 2014 4P State Champ Results: 2014-nh-4p-state-champ (PDF, 75KB)

The 55^th Western Wildcats 6400
by Hap Rocketto

The Western Wildcats Rifle Club’s 55^th Annual Smallbore Prone 6400 Championship, considered to be one of the nation’s premier 6400s, was contested over a four days from March 20-23, 2014 at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix, Arizona.

Among the match’s many interesting facets is that it is the site of the first 6400X6400 ever shot, a feat accomplished by Tom Whitaker, 6400x574X, in 1975. It also requires that any competitor who is a Distinguished Smallbore Prone Rifleman, a supported athlete (e.g. USOTC or USAMU) or has fired five or more 1600 or 1200 scores be classified as a “High Master.” Toss in the sartorially splendid Wildcat sweatshirts awarded to the winner and first in class of any of the 1600, 3200 & 6400 aggregates and/or anyone firing a 1600, a generous prize table, as well as scope only and F-Class competition and you can see why 72 shooters from as far away as New Jersey and New York converged on Ben Avery.

The schedule alternates metallic and anysight competition over the four days and Olympians Mike McPhail and Eric Uptagrafft as well as Ken Nelson made their presence know by nailing down 1600s with iron sights on the first day. McPhail prevailed with an X count of 135. On day two Justin Tracy, a recent transplant to the Great Southwest, took the day with a 1600-147X any sights while octogenarian Joe Farmer and Reya Kempley also went clean, but with lesser X counts.

Day three saw several near perfect scored with iron sights as Uptagrafft won the day with a 1599-135X with McPhail hot on his heels posting the same score but with 129 center shots. Junior Allison Villa gave the Army shooters a run for their money with her 1598-117X. The third day also marked the completion of the metallic sight 3200 aggregate which saw Uptagrafft and McPhail separated by one X. Uptagrafft shot a 3199-264X to McPhail’s 3199-263X for the win. Villa was Master Class winner while John Giles, Hal Abel, and William Morris took Expert, Sharpshooter, and Marksman class honors.

The match concluded with a scope 1600 won by Steve Goff, one of the few shooters to have earned Distinguished Badges in International, service rifle and pistol, and smallbore prone and position rifle. Goff posted a 1600-147X besting seven other perfect scores. With both days of scope in the books Tracy and Kempley both had 3200s but Tracy managed 11 more Xs for the any sight aggregate win.

When all the brass was swept up and the scores totaled McPhail emerged the winner with a score of 6398-545X.Tracy was second and Kempley third with 6396-544X and 6394-541Xs respectively. The first three High Masters were Uptagrafft, Goff, and Kevin Nevius while Nancy Tompkins was named High Woman and Peter Church High Grand Senior. High Senior honors went to Lones Wigger while Villa was high junior.

Allen Thomas was top Master followed by Ken Nelson. Expert Oliver Milanovic won his glass in close competition with second place John Giles and bronze medalist James Gaines. Michael Toliver topped the Sharpshooters as Michael Hagestad and William Morris finished first and second among Marksman.

Scope laurels were won by Jack A. Arnold followed by Phillip Meyers, Jim Murphy was F-Class match winner and high F-Class senior was John Andres while Andrew Cyr and Rocky Felix were first and second Master.

2014-az-wildcats (PDF, 84KB)

2014 Smallbore Rifle Prone Season Opener

Mike Upchurch, Match Winner

Mike Upchurch took the lead in match 1 of four matches at RBGC’s 2014 season opener on March 15 and was never headed. The tournament drew 19 entries and was held on the newly renamed Mark Skutle Range in honor of the late great American, Mark Skutle.

At the midpoint of the 1600 tournament, Mike had posted a perfect 800, 2 points better than eventual runner-up Don Greene and 3^rd place Steve Hardin. The already “switchy” winds continued to increase in velocity over the course of day frustrating most of the field. But Upchurch lost just three points in the final 80 shots and held on for a 1-point win over runner-up Greene and 2-points over third place Hardin.

Dennis Lindenbaum and Tommy Steadman, the two most senior seniors in the tournament mutually agreed to simultaneous withdraw after 120 shots (ostensibly to help score targets) conceding high senior honors to eventual third place overall Steve Hardin. Lindenbaum won the geriatric 1200 with a mediocre 1192-59x, besting Steadman’s sub-mediocre 1184-54x.

Following is a summary of the final match results and class winners:

NameClassScore

Mike Upchurch EX 1597 115X Match Winner

Don Greene MA 1596 117x Second

Steve Hardin MA 1595 101x Third

Howard Pitts MA 1588 106x 1st Master

Wayne Forshee MA 1586 109x 2^nd Master

Larry Sollars EX 1594 107x 1st Expert

Cindy Forshee EX 1583 74x 2nd Expert

Keith Jarriel SS 1574 103x 1st Sharpshooter

John Anderson MK 1557 60x 1st Marksman

Jonathon Moore F 1575 85x 1^st F-Class

RBGC’s 200 yard smallbore prone season begins on Saturday, April 5 on the high power range. Registration will be at the 300 yard firing line parking lot and the match begins at 9:00 AM.

For details about this event, please visit our website at http://www.rbgc.org/200YardRimfire/200YardRF.html or contact 200 yard SB match director Doug McNash at 200yardrimfire@rbgc.org.

The next smallbore rifle prone match will on Saturday, April 19, on Mark Skutle Range (formerly MP2). The match begins at 9:00 AM.

For information about RBGC’s monthly smallbore prone matches see visit RBGC’s website at http://www.rbgc.org/SmallBore/Smallbore.html or you may contact match director Tommy Steadman at smallbore@rbgc.org or call 404-713-4323.

MA: Air Rifle PTO Results: 2014-ma-air-rifle-pto (PDF, 185KB)

VT: Postal Results, Week 8: 2014-VT-Winter-Postal-League-Week-8 (PDF, 260KB)

Below are the results from the March NRA prone/3P match held at the Plattsburgh Rod & Gun Club, NY: 2014-ny-prone-3p-mar (PDF, 38KB)

submitted by James Lee

Maspenock Junior Rifle League March 2014 Match results and final indoor results.

The final matches of Maspenock junior Rifle League were held Saturday March 8’th at Harvard and Southborough. – Harvard hosted Maspenock and Marlborough and Southborough hosted Holliston, Riverside and Maynard. Remaining in the season for these competitors is an outdoor match at Harvard March 29th and the awards banquet at Maynard April 12th.

The final team rankings are:

First Place: Marlborough 3780.

Second Place: Southborough 3574.

Third Place: Harvard 3512.

Followed by Maspenock, Maynard, Holliston and Riverside.

The first place team of Marlborough is coached by head coach Mark Tessier, with the help of coaches Vinnie Amatucci, Bobbi Cintolo, Rick Currier & James Lee. It’s only Marlborough’s third season as part of the league, so congratulations on the quick rise for Mark, his team and his coaches. Mark employed a strategy of getting as many competitors to every match as possible. The top four scores at each match count for the team. The more competitors at a match the better chances for high scores. The heavy hitters for Marlborough were A.J. Carmody with a season total of 1016, Colton Valchuis 931, Gianna Ferrecchia 907 and Bradley Smith 882. Paul Ferrecchia with a total of 870 edged out Bradley Smith in two of the matches having his score count for the team.

The second place Southborough team is coached by Mark Monique. His lead scorers are Abby Monique 1072, John Renzoni 862, Beau Mumford 830 and Brett LeBow 778. Joel Gardner 768, was in the best 4 for three of the matches contributing 24 points to the team total.

The third place Harvard team is coached by Don Miller with 4 assistant coaches. Colleen O’Shea Leads the team with 974 followed by Nick Pelrine 868, Mary Anne Anderson 850 and Haley Dickenson 772. Griffin Millette and Wyatt Moberg each had scores contributing to their team total.

It’s important for each team to have many competitors at each match since one of the team leaders may have an off day, miss a competition due to a scheduling conflict or an up and coming team member may have a great day and take one of the top for scores for their team for the day.

Along with the three position scores fired by the intermediate and advanced shooters on each team, there are beginning competitors who fire only in the prone position. Some have fired prone all season, some have advanced from prone during the season to three-position and some have just fired their first ever prone match on the final match.

Competitors who advanced from prone only to three positions during the season were Ethan Starbard of Southborough, John Sharkey of Holliston, Luke Philips of Harvard, Christian Szretter, Devan Szretter, Ben Plucinski and Nina Eisenhofer of Riverside.

The competitors firing their first ever match in the league in March were: Matt Young of Maspenock, Bradley Bigelow and Kai Nowers of Harvard and Chris Cousineau of Maynard.

In total, there were 55 competitors at this match, with a total of 68 throughout the season from the 7 teams from Harvard Sportsman Association, Holliston Sportsmen’s Association, Marlborough Fish and Game, Maspenock Rod and Gun Club (Milford, MA), Maynard Rod and Gun, Riverside Gun Club (Hudson, MA) and Southborough Rod and Gun Club making for a great end to the indoor competition season.

For individual scores, the top performers in three-position were Abby Monique of Southborough (282), Chris Milliken of Maspenock (263), A.J. Carmody of Marlborough (251) and Colleen O’Shea of Harvard (245). As these competitors work through the marksmanship program, they must score a 230, 240, and 250 or better in matches to achieve their expert qualification. These top competitors have either achieved or are close to achieving their expert ranking.

The top individual scores in the prone only competition were Christopher Thomas of Maynard (251), Katie Aiken (246), Alex Clark (244) and Matt Young (230) all of Maspenock. Next season these shooters will likely advance to three-position.

The awards banquet will be held April 12’th at Maynard, contact any of the teams to attend and learn more about the league and see the many awards which were won by the hard working competitors in the league.

Each of the teams is funded in part by the local program fees, generous sponsorship from their local club, and grants from the Friends of the NRA and NRA foundation. Please consider supporting your local club or supporting the friends of the NRA by participating in one of their dinners or raffles. Without your support, this league would not be possible.

If you would like to learn more about the teams and the league consider attending the March 29 outdoor match at Harvard or the Banquet on April 12th or contact any of the teams in the league. If your club has a junior rifle program and you would like to join the league or you are trying to start a team, contact any of the teams in the league and we will help.

Many thanks go out to the head coaches of the teams, the assistant coaches and particularly the parent volunteers who kept the coaches, competitors and spectators fed at the clubs.

NH: 2014 Open 3P Metric Sectional Results: 2014-nh-open-metric-3p-sectional (PDF, 85KB)

AZ: State Metric 3200 Results: 2014-az-metric-3200 (PDF, 50KB)

VT: Postal Results, Week 6: 2014-VT-Winter-Postal-League-Week-6 (PDF, 471KB)

VT: Postal Results, Week 5: 2014-VT-Winter-Postal-League-Week-5 (PDF, 256KB)