Western Wildcat Wrap Up

Note: Because of atmospheric conditions, or some such other problem-probably euphoria, our Assistant Correspondent in the Field, Mark Del Cotto, was only able to send the aggregate results.

In a hard fought contest between national champions it came down, as it so often does, to X count. Current National Smallbore Conventional Prone Rifle Champion Mark Del Cotto and reigning National Smallbore Metric Rifle Champion Eric Uptagrafft fought it out for four days in the blazing heat and blinding sun and after 640 record shots were separated by a scanty six Xs. On the strength of his any sight aggregate X count Del Cotto captured the Henry Benson Memorial Trophy Plaque, the trophy like the Palma is lost in limbo, emblematic of the Western Wildcat championship 6396-536X to 6396-530X. Allen Thomas took third place over all with a 6393-493X. Peter Church, 6393-479X, lost third by Xs but was named Grand Senior champion.

High Master winner was Kevin Nevius, 6392-524X. A point behind him, but with an X count that tied the high for the tournament, was Nick Mower, 6391-536X. Mower also took the any sight aggregate with an impressive 3200-289X while Uptagrafft was the iron sight winner shooting a 3198-268X. Although it is impolite to discuss age with ladies it must be noted that Ginger McLemore, 6390-462X was high senior.

Adrian Harris was the top Master, 6390-492X, with Daniel Erpenbach shooting a 6380-473 for second. Another Master, Norman Lilyerd, took home the junior crown after posting a four day total of 6372-431X.

Mike Kelly, 6387-501X, swept both the metallic and anysight in the Expert class to nail down the aggregate in impressive fashion. Mike Arnstein and Rob Nobower spilt second place in the sub aggregates with Arnstein winning metallic and Nobower winning any sights tying in score, 6351. Arnstein’s 404Xs gave him second place in another rtight contest.

Chuck Eyberg led wire to wire in the combined class and won in convincing style with a 6348-342X. After losing second place in the metallic sight aggregate to Hall Abel by one point Paul Seyler bounced back, was second with any sights, shooting a 6327-367X for second place.

The Wildcats are also an NRA Regional and so Del Cotto, Uptagrafft, and Thomas also received gold, silver, and bronze toned medallions. Four steps for NRA Prone Distinguished were also awarded but only Thomas profited as the rest of the top four already have earned the award.

The 59^th Western Wildcats Championship

Day Three

The third day of the 59^th Western Wildcat Championship saw iron sight replace scope. The conditions were ratcheted up a bit more providing no relief from the desert heat while the winds continuing to toy with the shooters.

Kerry Spurgin returned to the winner’s circle with a 400-32X in the opening Dewar. Nancy Tompkins and Richard Fowke trailing him as both shot 400-32Xs. Adrian Harris captured Master honors with the only 400 in the class while Daniel Erpenbach came in second firing a 399-30X. Expert Mike Kelly kept all 40 of his shots inside the ten ring with 34 of them in the X ring as a 398-23X gave Alexander Allison second. Madison Rovelli posted a 397-18X to take the combined class.

Stuart Lind’s 400-32X won Optics while Ed Mank, 399-29X, and Arbia Massouris, 397-29X, splitting the Master awards.

Jeff Huen won the F-Class shooting a 399-36X. Ray Del Rio was hot on his heel posting a 398-26X as Jim Murphy, 397-11X, and Dan Pagliari, 396-25X, were in hot pursuit.

Perfect scores were few, and far between, at 100 yards as Peter Church’s 400-31X took the match. Spurgin was second with a 400-28X as Thomas Allen, 400-26X, filled out the top three. A 399-28X earned Harris top spot among the Masters as Caleb Cooper, 399-23X, was second. Kelley ran away with the Expert award, a 400-31X to second place Jim Evenson’s 394-17X and a 397-15X for Rob Nabower. Chuck Eyberg won combined with a 396-12X.

Ed Foley had the only 400 in Optics as John Hoffman, 399-28X, and Baker Del Cotto, 397-27X took first and second in the Optic Master class.

A 395-27X helped Murphy top F-Class. Sam Pagliari was first Master, a 393-23X, followed by Huen and Jack Arnold knotted at 393-19X

Mark Del Cotto shot a 40035X to win the Meter Match as Church and Ginger McLemore fought it out for second and third tied up at 400-32X. Harris claimed a second Master class win with his 400-36X followed by Davis Bay who compiled a 40034X. Expert Kelly earned another class win, shooting a 400-34X as Allison battled him for the class posting a 397-19X. Seyler out Xed Vincent Herrera and Eyberg, 394-21X to 394-20X to 394-18, for the combined class win.

James Gaines racked up a 400-34X to take Optics. Del Cotto, père, shot a 400-31X to beat out Mank, 399-32X first in Master class.

Murphy continued to roll in F-Class with a 399-27X win. Malanie Simmons, 397-32X, Dan Pagliari, 397-31X, and Del Rio, 397-25X, completed the awards list.

The 50 Yard Match winner, Thomas, nailed down an important win with his 400-38X. Fowke was close shooting a 400 with 37Xs as Uptagrafft and Nevius shot 400-36Xs.

Harris won his fourth award of the day as he paced the Masters with a 400-36X Just ahead of David Bay who recorded a 400-34X. Kelly, 400-34X, notched a second Expert class win ahead of Nabower’s 399-20X. Seyler had a 399-24X to wrap up combined class honors.

Gaines won Optics, cleaning it with 35Xs. Mank bested Del Cotto, père, 400-31X to 400-28X for a win in the Master class.

Kathleen Garvin, 398-27X, edged our Murphy, 398-26X, for the F-Class win. Sam Pagliari, 398-23X was second Master with Jack Arnold, 397-29X, in third.

The day ended with Thomas the only competitor close to perfection, his 1600-119X winning. McLemore dropped one and ended up second with a1599-109X. Church had the highest X count, 137, but had let two shots drift out of the ten ring for a 1598-137X.

A good Meter match allowed Harris, 1596-131X, to keep Erpenbach, 1592-110X, at bay in the Master class. Kelly swept the Expert class which gave him an aggregate of 1598-128X to skate past Allison’s 1584-79X. Seyler and Eyeberg battled out for the combined class crown with Seyler winning 1580-87X to 1579-64X.

A tight race in Optics was decided by the Yard match. Gaines pulled ahead of Lind at short range by a point and took the aggregate 1598-130X to 1597-109X. Baker Del Cotto topped the Master shooting a 1596-113X and besting second place Mank by two points and two Xs.

Murphy won F-Class shooting a 15-89-111X Heun out Xed Murphy but dropped six more points than the winner to take first Master. Ray Del Rio,1580-96X was second. There was a little family feud going on with the Pagliaris as Dan and Sam both carded 1578s but Dan’s X count of 100 was ten better than Sam’s and so he was third.

The match goes into its final day with the top five separated by five points, Eric Uptagrafft, 4797; Mark Del Cotto, 4796; Pete Church and Allen Thomas at 4795; and Kevin Nevius, 4792. It will take endurance, excellent hold and wind reading, and a touch of luck, for one to prevail and take home the Henry Benson Memorial Plaque.

The 59^th Western Wildcats Championship

Day Two

Note: I have been very remiss in not citing my sources for these reports. Many think I am enjoying the warm sunshine of Arizona watching the matches when, in fact, I am hold up in cold and snowy Rhode Island. Like you I am vicariously enjoying scoping the matches through the generous offices of my good friend Kevin Nevius, who is there fighting the conditions. At the end of each day he sends me a snapshot of the results bulletins before heading back to the motel for a refreshing shower and restorative dinner. Another shooting crony, Nancy Tompkins, sent in the Wakefield score sheet.

The Western Wildcat alternates sights each day. After a tight race with metallic sights on the first day most were expecting the same tough competition but a little gentler ride using scopes. However, the folks from the Midwest and the Southwest, which had been experiencing some close to record temperatures lows, were not use to the 90 degree temperature. Many had already shot the Metric Championships so they were entering the fourth day of a six day shooting marathon.

Our Correspondent In The Field, Kevin Nevius, opened the second day with a match winning 400-36X in the Dewar but had scant room for the win with Nick Mower and Allen Thomas both posting 400-35Xs for second and third. Daniel Erpenbach shot a 400-30X to be top Master with Adrian Harris, at 400-29X, close behind. Expert Mike Kelly’s 400-33X led the class as Jim Evenson came in second shooting a 399-27X. Hal Abel topped the combined Sharpshooter/Marksman class with a 400-29X.

In the Optics Category James Gaines’ 399-31X won with Phillip Meters, 398-20X, and Baker Del Cotto, 399-30X, leading the Master and Expert classes.

Jim Murphy continued his dominance in F-Class with a 387-31X followed by Jeff Huehn, 394-24X, Dan Paligari, 395-25X, and Barney Higgins, 393-25X.

Kerry Spurgin Creedmoored Eric Uptagrafft, both shooting a 40-34X, for the win at 100 yards as Nancy Tompkins, 400-33X, pulled into third. Erpenbach, 400-30X, repeated as top Master with Harris, 400-29X, again second. Brian Hunter and Kelly tied with 399-26Xs with the Expert class win going to Kelly after a quick look at the rulebook. A 398-25 shot by Vincent Herrera gave him a combined class win.

Ed Foley took the Optics 100 yard match with a 399-24X as Stuart Lind’s 398-28X bested the Masters. A 398-22X saw Kurt Ingham atop the Expert class.

Huehn, 397-27X, won F-Class. Bob De Pasque posted a 397-26X for Master class honors followed by Bob De Pasque and Pagalari, 397-26X and 395-25X respectively.

At 50 Meters Nevius roared back with a near perfect 400-39X for the match win. A pair of 400-38Xs fired by Mak Del Cotto and Richard Fowke placed second and third. Erpenbach posted the best Master score, a 400-35X, as Norman Lilyerd took second shooting a 400-33X. For the third time Kelley won Expert, this time with an excellent 400-38X, ahead of Hunter who put up a 399-33X. Chuck Eyeberg‘s 397-22X was the best combined class score for the match.

Myers won Optics on the back of a 400-32X while Arbia Massouris posted a 400-31X for first Master while Kevin Thomas’ 400-27X took the Experts.

Murphy tightened his grip on the F-Class aggregate by shooting a 398-31X at Meters for the win. George Crawford earned Master honors, 397-31X, followed by Pagliari, 397-32X, and Treder, 397-31X.

The day closed with Spurgin being perfect at 50 Yards, a 400-40X. Given the heat and long day he elected to not make a try at beating the 41 year old National Record of 400-40X plus an additional 165Xs shot by Mary Stidworthy/Sparling. Mower posted a 400-39X for second followed by McLemore’s 400-38X. Erpenbach bested the Masters with a 400-34X followed by Harris, who lost out to the winner on a tiebreaker. To no one’s surprise Kelly took the final match in the Expert class with his 400-36X. Mike Arnstein was four Xs behind him for second place. Paul Seyler broke into the winner’s circle in the combined class shooting a 400-34X.

Del Cotto, père, 400-36X, was the Optics match winner while Massouris won his second set of laurels in the Master class with a 400-31X. Frank Lucero Creedmoored Thomas for the Expert win, both having shot 399-26Xs.

Murphy took F-Class carding a 398-31X. Treder shot a 397-31X for first Master followed by Pagliari’s 397-23X and Ray Del Rio, 395-23X.

Aggregate totals saw Mower post the day’s only 1600. His clean, with 144Xs, gave him the daily aggregate and a coveted Wildcat sweatshirt. Spurgin was a point and an X behind the leader, 1599-143X, for second. Del Cotto, fils, 1599-141X was third overall.

Erpenbach shot the second of two 1600s on the day, 1600-130X, for the Master class title while Harris’ 1599-116X was second. Kelly swept the Expert class with five out of five wins, his 1599-133X taking the day. Hunter posted a 1594-115X for second. The combined class went to Eyberg’s 1591-90X.

Myers won Optics posting a 1596-100X for the day. Foley was first master, 1594-117X as Thomas won Expert with a score of 1594-102X.

A 1586-112X gave the F-Class prize to Murphy followed by the usual F-Class suspects, Huehn, 1581-102X, Pagliari, 1580-103X, and Treder at 1578-107X.

Going into day three the first name of the leaderboard was Uptagrafft, 3199-264X, followed by Del Cotto, 3198-269X, and Peter Church, 3197-230X, who quietly slipped into third. Only four points separate the top six shooters with Nevius, Mower, and Thomas all still in the game.

The 59^th Western Wildcats Championship

Day One

The 59^th Western Wildcats Championship, the longest continuously running 6400 prone tournament, got underway at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix, Arizona in March 16^th.

Hard on the heels of the NRA Metric prone championship 40 shooters contested in the metallic and any sight aggregate, an even dozen in the optics only 6400, and more than a dozen F-Class shooters set up gear.

The match name may have changed but many of the faces from the Metric Championship were seen under cap bills and behind shooting glass frames as targets were hung for the first match of the day, the Dewar and High Master dominated, Eric Uptagrafft, fresh from his Metric win, continued his winning ways opening the day with a 400-36X, one of eight 400s posted. Kerry Spurgin shot a clean with 33Xs for second while Kevin Nevius and Nick Mower fought it out for third with 400-32X.

The Wild Cats require all competitors who are supported, hold the NRA Distinguished Smallbore Rifle Prone Award, or have shot five, or more, 1600s top shoot in a special High Master Class for open awards only. While all sling shooters fire on conventional targets the F-Class competitors will use the metric targets.

Adrian Harris’ 400-33Xs earned him Master Class honors while Norman Lilyerd’s 400-27 placed him second. Expert class winner Mike Kelly shot a 399-28 while Mike Arnstein grabbed second with a 398-23X. The combined Sharpshooter/Marksman class was won by Chuck Eyeberg’s 398-25X Ed Foley put up a 400-35 for an Optic class win while Jim Murphy, 399-31X led F-Class.

Conditions at 100 yards became tougher as the day wore on but Uptagrafft was up to the task and notched up another win shooting one of only two cleans, his with 32Xs.Pete Church as read the wind well as evidenced by his second place 400-27X. Marc Del Cotto let one slip, 399-30X, and found himself in third place.

Masters Harris, 399-31X, and Lilyerd, 399-31X, swapped places while Arnstein, 399-20X, moved to the top of the Expert class slipping ahead of Kelly, 397-25X. Eyeberg picked up his second combined class victory with a 396-21X. Frank Lucero posted a winning 399-22X in optics while Bill Treder challenged Murphy in F-Class.

The psychologically challenging Meter Match saw Del Cotto, 440-31X, break Uptagrafft, 400-30X, string of wins as Peter Church, 399-28X grabbed third.

Lilyerd, 399-29X, returned to the top of the Master list with Harris, 397-28X on his heels. Kelley carded a 398-31X and Arnstein a 396-22X for first and second Expert. Eyeberg would not let go of his lead in the combined class winning his third match with a 396-22X. Optic rifleman Stuart Lind cleaned the match with 30Xs as F-Class’ Murphy topped his competition shooting a 397-33X.

Perfect scores were required for almost all victories at 50 yards. Mower and Ginger Mclemore both came clean with 38X to top the High Master with Del Cotto, 400-36X, in third. Masters Lilyerd and Harris cleaned it with 33 and 32Xs respectively while Experts Kelly and Arnstein finished one and two with X counts of 33 and 29. Eyberg was the only perfect combined class score. Ed Foley returned to the top of the Optic class out Xing Lind by one, 40031X. Dan Pagliari posted the only 400 among the F-Class shooters.

At the end of the day Uptagrafft prevailed against the best efforts of Del Cotto and Nevius. When three National Champions do battle it will be a hard fought and close contest. Uptagrafft won with a 1600-131X, Del Cotto was just short of perfection shooting a 1599-128X. Nevius was not giving and one ahead of him any slack with his 1598-119X. Just to keep everyone honest Church was just ten Xs behind Nevius.

Lilyerd nudged our Harris on the first day by two points, 1598-116X and 1596-123X. Kelley and Arnstein were atop the Expert class in a tight race, 1594-117X and 1593-94X. Eyeberg, 1590-92X, was king of the combined class with a ten point edge on his nearest competitor. Lind, 1596-122X, and Gaines, 1594-117X led the optics shooters. Murphy, Treder, and Huehn shot 1586-121, 1586-108X, and 1581-112 respectively to top the F-Class.

Day two will see any sight replace irons for the bulk of the sling shooters while the optic and F-Class crowd with use scopes.

With three more days of shooting nothing is vouched safe for those in the lead.

With the command “Commence Fire!” the 2017 Anysight Smallbore Rifle Metric Prone National Championships got underway. The pack of a half dozen competitors knotted up for the lead for the grand aggregate knew that every shot would count any there would be no quarter given.

Starting with the Dewar Match there would be many surprises as the day wore on and new faces appeared in the winner’s circle. Wes Schumaker, Nancy Tompkins, and Kerry Spurgin battled out it shot for shot ending in a three way tie as they each posted a 396. The X count was needed to settle the hard fought match which went to Schumaker who had amassed 30Xs. Spurgin slipped past Tompkins, 25X to 23Xs. Mike Arnstein picked up where he left off winning the combined class with a 385-16X.

Spurgin kept up the pressure at 100 yards with a match winning score, an impressive 397-22X. Richard Fowke was not giving up easily and scored a 395-23X for second place just four Xs ahead of third place Ron Wigger. Brian Hunter was not going to let Arnstein walk over the class and shot a 387-16X to out point the British Expert by five.

With 40 shots left at 50 meters it still was anyone’s match. Wigger put his imprint on the proceedings with a 396-27X. Right on his tail were four 395s, Eric Uptagrafft, Tompkins, Howard Pitts, and Allen Thomas. The X count for second was tied at 26X for Uptagrafft and Thomas with Uptagrafft winning the tie breaker. Arnstein roared back to regain his hold on the combined class shooting a 387-17X.

After spending a day hovering just below the radar Uptagrafft emerged as the any sight champion shooting an 1184-76X. It was not an easy victory as Tompkins had challenged him all day and was second by a mere 11 Xs. Fowke was third posting a 1176-61X. Arnstein motored home to class honors with an 1154-45X.

The any sight results were a precursor to the grand aggregate finish. Uptagrafft’s steady performance earned him the 2017 National Champion crown with a score of 2368-140X. Tompkins hard holding on day two gave her a 2358-119X, allowing her to climb into second place. Fowke shot well, 2356-126X, but was unable to hold on to his two point metallic sight lead but took home the bronze medal. Mark Del Cotto was first Master, 2353-125X, followed by Wigger, 2347-115X, Kevin Nevius, 2345-121X, and Spurgin at 2343-115X.

High senior was Ginger McLemore while James Gained wrapped up the special Grand Senior category.

Arnstein has free reign over the combined class with a 2291-84X, well ahead of Hal Able who put up a 2260-76X.

F-Class rifleman Jeff Huehn read the wind very well as evidenced by his 2388-168X winning score. Jim Murphy and Ray Del Rio tied at 2374 but the X count gave the Senior title to Murphy and Del Rio was first Master followed by Bill Treder. Baker Del Cotto ran roughshod over his fellow Grand Seniors for that venerable title.

VT:Postal League, Week 4 Results: 2017-vt-postal-week-4 (PDF, 113KB)

NH: 2017 JORC Results: 2017-nh-jorc (PDF, 157KB)

VT:Postal League, Week 3 Results: 2017-vt-postal-week-3 (PDF, 94KB)

PA: Guthsville Prone Results: 2017-pa-Guthsville (PDF, 20KB)

CT: 2017 JORC Results: 2017-ct-jorc (PDF, 860KB)