The First Shot Ceremony for the 2006 National Matches is now just 95 days away. Most shooters and competitors who will come to Camp Perry for this summer’s Nationals are now making plans to attend. If you are one of those people, CMP Programs for the National Matches are now posted on the CMP web site to give you the information you need to make your plans and the CMP Competitor Tracker On-Line Entry System for all of the National Matches events is now turned on so you can enter the matches and schools. The on-line entry system was turned on this past weekend in anticipation of this week’s official announcement; 250 competitors have already registered for the matches.

If you plan to attend the 2006 Pistol Small Arms Firing School, National Trophy Pistol Matches, Rimfire Sporter Matches, Rifle Small Arms Firing Schools, USMC Junior Highpower Clinic, National Trophy Rifle Matches or this year’s new M1 Carbine, John C. Garand, Springfield or Vintage Military Rifle Matches, you can open the CMP Competitor Tracker page at http://clubs.odcmp.com/matches, select the matches you want to enter and submit your entry.

Students and competitors who attend the 2006 Pistol Small Arms Firing School will be able to fire in a new M9 Pistol EIC Match that awards “introductory” 4-point legs to eligible competitors.

The official program for the Pistol and Rifle Small Arms Firing Schools is posted at http://www.odcmp.com/NM/safs.htm. The big change in the Pistol SAFS schedule is that it will include a new M9 Pistol EIC match that awards 4-point legs to the top 10 percent of competitors who have not previously earned any EIC points. The M9 EIC match will be fired on the second day of the school, on Tuesday morning, 11 July.

The official program for the National Trophy Pistol Matches is posted at http://www.odcmp.com/NM/pistol.htm. The schedule of events for the 2006 Pistol National Trophy events that will be fired on Sunday, 16 July, is the same as last year except that faster electronic score posting will make it possible to move the CMP Pistol Award Ceremony up to 5:00 PM.

The official program for the National Trophy Rifle Matches and CMP Games Events is posted at http://www.odcmp.com/NM/rifle.htm. There are several important changes in the 2006 National Trophy Rifle week schedule. First of all, the CMP was able to work out a new agreement with the NRA that adds one full day of firing to the rifle schedule. Shooters who come in for the Rifle SAFS and USMC Junior Highpower Rifle School must arrive on Friday this year instead of on Saturday, as in previous years. Small Arms Firing School and USMC Clinic check-in will take place on Friday, 28 July. USMC Clinic classroom instruction will actually begin that afternoon. The Rifle SAFS will now take place on Saturday and Sunday, 29-30 July. The school will end on 30 July with the firing of the M16 EIC match. The M16 EIC Match has been moved from the middle of the week to be fired in conjunction with the school so that Rifle SAFS students will now have an opportunity to conclude their school by firing in a real competition.

SFC Norman Anderson, U. S. Army Marksmanship Unit, won both the President’s Rifle and the National Trophy Individual Rifle Matches in the 2005 National Matches.

Competitors who compete in the National Trophy Rifle Matches that start with the President’s Rifle Match on Monday, 31 July, should plan to arrive on 29 or 30 July to check in. For those who want to confirm Camp Perry zeros, the service rifle squadded practice will begin at 11:00 AM on 30 July.

The President’s and National Trophy Individual Rifle Matches will be fired on Monday and Tuesday, 31 July and 1 August. Plans again call for six relays of competitors.

The traditional Whistler Boy Junior Highpower Team Match will be featured on Wednesday, 2 August. This is always a major event for junior service rifle shooters. For the last two years, the M16 Rifle EIC Match was fired on the second Camp Perry highpower range at the same time as the Whistler Boy Match. This year, with the M16 match moving to Sunday, an open time slot was available and a new National Trophy Match will be fired.

The 2005 National Matches will feature two new rifle events, an M1 Carbine Match for “as-issued” U. S. M1 Carbines, and a Hearst Doubles two-person team match for service rifle competitors.

The new match will be called the Hearst Doubles Match. This event will be a two-person team match where both team members will fire the President’s Match course of fire (10 200 standing, 10 300 rapid, 10 600 slow) with regular competition service rifles. The Hearst Trophy, a National Trophy that has not been in competition for several years, will be awarded to the winning team. Competitors will be free to pair up with any other competitor. Teams will pair fire the 200 and 600 yard stages. Team members can coach each other, but they may not have another person coach them.

The Hearst Doubles Match will also be used to experiment with a handicap system that will support the presentation of a second set of awards based on handicapped scores. The CMP emphasizes that this handicap system is an experiment designed to gather data and experience that will assist in determining whether the handicaps that have been so successful in building interest and participation in sports like golf and trap shooting can work in shooting. Initial handicaps will be based on scores fired by competitors in the 2006 President’s and National Trophy Individual Rifle Matches. With all of the CMP’s EIC and National Trophy match results now recorded in computer files, it ultimately could be possible to develop handicaps based on a large number of scores. The Hearst Trophy will recognize the best two-person teams based on raw scores, but the second handicap system will give the CMP a chance to learn more about one possible means of growing service rifle shooting even more.

The National “Dogs of War” Trophy that was commissioned by Congress in 1903. During the 2006 National Trophy Pistol and Rifle Matches, 62 National Trophies will be awarded to the best of an expected 4,000 competitors.

The addition of the Hearst Doubles Match now gives service rifle competitors an unbroken six or seven-day series of competitions that begin with the Marine Corps school for juniors and the Rifle Small Arms Firing School on Saturday and Sunday or the Squadded Practice on Sunday, the President’s Match on Monday, the National Trophy Individual Match on Tuesday, the Hearst Doubles Match on Wednesday, the National Trophy Team Match on Thursday and the Infantry Trophy Match on Friday.

For competitors who begin the week with the President’s and National Trophy Individual Matches, the Hearst Doubles Match will also provide a challenging bridge to the CMP Games Matches that now will offer a full three-day series of events beginning with the new M1 Carbine Match on Thursday. That will be followed by the Springfield and Vintage Military Rifle Matches on Friday and the John C. Garand Match on Saturday.

Early response to the new M1 Carbine Match indicates it could be another very popular competition. It will be fired on Thursday morning, 3 August. “As-issued” U. S. Military M1 Carbines or M1A1 Carbines must be fired. A 40-shot course of fire that includes prone slow-fire, prone rapid-fire, sitting rapid-fire and standing slow-fire shooting will be used. Firing will be at 100 yards on either the old military “A” target or the SR target. Full details on this match can be found in the National Trophy Rifle Match Program.

The addition of another full day of firing in the National Trophy Rifle Matches week will allow the Springfield and Garand Matches to both have significantly increased range capacity. This should eliminate the early waitlist situations that restricted participation in these matches during the last three years. The 2006 Springfield and Vintage Military Rifle Matches will move from Rodriguez Range to the larger Viale Range. This will increase range capacity to the point where competitors can enter and fire in both the Springfield and Vintage Military Rifle Matches on Friday, 4 August.

The John C. Garand Match will again conclude the week, but this year, it will be the only event fired on Saturday, 5 August. This means that both Rodriguez and Viale Ranges will be used. There will be eight instead of ten relays so Garand Match firing, which previously concluded at 6:30 or 7:00 PM, is now expected to finish by mid-afternoon on Saturday. The use of both ranges will add over 400 squadding spaces to the Garand Match range capacity so everyone who wants to fire in this year’s match should be able to do so.

Steve Reiter of Tucson, Arizona, won the National Trophy Individual Pistol Match for the second year in a row in 2005. Major General Greg Wayt, Adjutant General of the State of Ohio, presented the trophy and a presentation M1 Garand rifle.

The 2006 CMP National Matches program offers one new pistol event, an M9 Pistol EIC Match; two new rifle events, the Hearst Doubles Match for service rifle competitors and the M1 Carbine Match for CMP Games competitors; expanded range capacity for the Springfield Rifle Match that will allow the firing of both the Springfield and Vintage Military Rifle Matches on one day and significantly expanded range capacity for the John C. Garand Match that should make it possible to accommodate everyone who wants to enter this match.

Check these web sites to obtain information and make your plans to attend the 2006 National Matches:

• National Trophy Pistol Matches Program: http://www.odcmp.com/NM/pistol.htm

• National Trophy Rifle Matches Program: http://www.odcmp.com/NM/rifle.htm

• Pistol and Rifle Small Arms Firing School Program: http://www.odcmp.com/NM/safs.htm

• CMP-USMC Junior Highpower Rifle Clinic:  http://www.odcmp.com/NM/JrHPClinic.htm 

• National Rimfire Sporter Match Program: http://www.odcmp.com/NM/rimfire.htm

• On-line entry for all CMP National Matches events and competitions: http://clubs.odcmp.com/matches