The CMP recently established a 20-point air gun range in Camp Perry’s Bataan Armory so that it can host air rifle competitions like the new Camp Perry Open.

The Civilian Marksmanship Program supports three-position air rifle matches all across the country. Every year CMP personnel and equipment travel coast-to-coast for these junior events. So it may come as a surprise that a significant three-position air rifle match has never been conducted at Camp Perry, CMP North Headquarters near Port Clinton, Ohio, especially considering that for a century Camp Perry has been a Mecca for competitive shooters from all over the country who attend the annual National Rifle and Pistol Matches. This finally changed on 20 January 2007 with CMP’s first Camp Perry Open. This match was the beginning of what the CMP hopes will become an annual series of three-position air rifle matches at Camp Perry.

Jacob Dame, 17, from Portsmouth, RI, had the highest individual final score in the precision class with a 97.7 and was second overall with a 666.7 total.

In September 2006, CMP acquired the Bataan Armory from the Ohio National Guard, and for the first time had space at Camp Perry large enough to set up an air rifle range. Quickly a 20-point range was constructed and planning began for the new range’s first event. The Camp Perry Open was conceived and it was decided that a clinic would be the kick-off event on Friday night, followed on Saturday by a 3x20 three-position air rifle match. Range capacity was set at three relays or 60 shooters, although at the time it seemed ambitious to plan for 60 competitors in an area where junior three-position air rifle shooting is largely undeveloped.

In November, the Camp Perry Open was announced in CMP’s online publication The First Shot, and it quickly began to fill. Within the first week 20 competitors were signed-up and registrations came in steadily in the weeks leading up to the event. To the pleasant surprise of everyone at CMP the match completely sold-out a week before it began. 60 shooters were entered in the match, with 27 participating in the clinic the night before. Teams not only traveled from Ohio, but also from Michigan, Illinois and even Rhode Island to compete.

Waukegan High School, Waukegan, IL, won the first place team award in the precision class. Team members (l. to r.) Steven White, Iris Gordillo, Dana Carpenter and Juan Adan are shown here with CMP Director Gary Anderson.

Both Precision and Sporter shooters filled the three relays, and everyone participated in a relay final. Scoring was conducted with CMP’s new Visual Image Scoring (VIS) technology that utilizes 8.5 x11 inch scanable 10-bull targets. This new system, called Orion, works by digitizing and scoring the scanned images of the target bulls. The highly efficient program allowed all scoring for the match to be conducted by one CMP staff member, a job that would normally require a large team of scorers. As Orion completed scoring, scores were uploaded into CMP’s Competition Tracker program and posted on the CMP website. This program allows for real-time score tracking during the match so people can follow the match on the range or from home.

As an added, special feature, Orion software makes it possible for athletes to download printable PDF files that show their three-position shot groups together with the scores, tenth-ring scores, X and Y coordinates and radii of each individual shot. Anyone who wants a printout of these scores can click on the total three-position score for an individual shooter and the file will download. The scoring program is designed to work with images that can come from any 8.5 x 11 inch flat-bed, consumer grade scanner that can scan at 300dpi or better. To make the program useable by typical computer owners, a new 8.5 x 11 inch 10-bull target was created and printed by American Target Company. The program used by the CMP is officially a beta version, but a final version that is being designed for use in scoring 10-bull air rifle targets at clubs and ranges across the country is scheduled for release in the second or third quarter of 2007.

Kenton High Army JROTC was the second place sporter class team. Team members (l. to r.) were Sierra Ziegler, Christine Watkins, Jacob Long and Tiffany Patton.

The Camp Perry Open was Orion’s first test in a live competition, though its success had already been proven during the JROTC Postal Competition in December where it was used to score over 16,000 targets. The software again performed with flying colors; the competitors raised very few score challenges.

The day seemed to go very well for the competitors too, as reflected by their scores. Awards were given to the top three individuals on each relay, as well as to the top three overall teams and individuals in both Sporter and Precision classes. In the Precision class the top team was Waukegan HS of Illinois with a 2267. Scoring team members were Dana Carpenter, 579, Iris Gordillo, 565, Juan Adan, 562, and Steven White, 561. The second place team was Newport Rifle Club from Rhode Island with a 2137, and third place was awarded to Detroit Sportsmen’s Congress of Michigan who posted a score of 2000. The individual champion in the Precision class was Waukegan’s Carpenter who added a 95.2 final to her 579 to post a 674.2 aggregate. Second place went to Jacob Dame of Newport Rifle Club who shot the high final of the day, 97.7, to finish with a 666.7 aggregate. Third place went to Gordillo of Waukegan, who shot a 95.0 in the final to finish with a 660.0 aggregate score.

Precision class individual winners in the Camp Perry Open were Dana Carpenter (middle), 1st; Jacob Dame (l.), 2nd and Iris Gordillo (r.), 3rd.

The Sporter class team champion was Western Reserve Academy from Hudson, Ohio, near Cleveland. The team fired a score of 2030 for the win. Scoring team members were Jake Fowler, 534, Michael Damioli, 508, Chance Cover, 495, and Rachel Battershell, 493. Ohio teams also claimed second place and third place in the Sporter class. Second place was secured by Kenton High School with a score of 1762 while third place was awarded to Springfield HS with a score of 1716. Fowler of Western Reserve Academy was the overall individual Sporter champion after adding an 80.1 final to his overall score to finish at 614.1. Tyler Luce of St. Joseph County Straight Shooters 4-H Club in Sturgis, Michigan claimed second place with a 591.2 aggregate score. Western Reserve Academy’s Damioli placed third with a 587.3 aggregate.

Tyler Luce, 14, from Sturgis, MI, fired the highest sporter class final round score with an 84.2 and placed second overall with a 591.2 total.

Congratulations to all of the competitors in the CMP’s first Camp Perry Open, everyone involved helped make this a successful event. We hope to see an even larger turn-out next year! For complete scores from the 2007 Camp Perry Open visit the CMP website at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=1924, for photos go to http://www.odcmp.com/Photos/07/CampPerry_Open/index.htm.

The following Competitors received EIC points: