Harold Pate Leads All Rifle Competitors at CMP Games – Oklahoma

By Steve Cooper, CMP Marketing Manager

ARCADIA, OK – Harold Pate, 52, of Ft. Worth, TX, put on quite a rifle marksmanship display in the military rifle portion of the 2014 CMP Games – Oklahoma, winning both the Three-Gun and Four-Gun Aggregate rifle championships and racking up a total of 10 Excellence-in-Competition points.
 Another great crowd of nearly 200, matching last year’s attendance, enjoyed five days of mild but breezy weather at the Oklahoma City Gun Club.  Shooters participated in a variety of vintage and modern military rifle matches and pistol competitions in addition to some great instructional clinics, April 9-13.  

CMP Chief Operating Officer, Orest Michaels, presents the Four Gun Aggregate winners plaque to Harold Pate at the CMP Games – Oklahoma at the Oklahoma City Gun Club.  Pate won several matches and earned 10 Excellence-in-Competition points during the event.

The CMP Small Arms Firing School kicked off the activities, with 38 students participating in classroom and range instruction.  After being briefed on the basics of marksmanship and the safe handling and operation of the AR15 service rifles, attendees experienced dry-fire practice and live fire in the afternoon session.
On the firing line, the class completed position work, dry-firing and fired 15 practice shots before firing an Excellence-in-Competition match – a 40-round, 400-points-possible event.  Shooters fired 10 rounds each in prone slow-fire and rapid-fire, sitting rapid-fire and standing, also called “off-hand.”

The CMP’s Orest Michaels joins, left to right, Roy Woodman, of Iowa Park, Texas, winner of the SAFS M16 EIC match and runner-up Brian Maguire, of Sherman Oaks, California. It required a triple tiebreaker to determine the match’s outcome. Matt Stotzman, of Ft. Smith, Arkansas placed fourth. The three shooters each won introductory EIC leg points during the match, as did Thomas Baker of Dumas, Texas (not pictured).

Roy Woodman, 66, of Iowa Park, TX, won the SAFS EIC match with an aggregate score of 363-3X, but needed three tie-breakers to defeat second-place finisher Brian Maguire, 43, of Sherman Oaks, CA, (363-3X).  With the same X-count and identical standing scores of 85-0X, it was Woodman’s 91-1X in rapid fire sitting over Maguire’s 90-0X, that proved the difference. 
Thomas Baker, 57, of Dumas, TX, placed third with an overall score of 360-5X and Matt Shotzman, 30, of Ft. Smith, AR, placed fourth with an aggregate of 357-6X.  All four shooters earned four introductory EIC leg points toward their Distinguished Rifleman’s badge.  Woodman was the high scoring senior and Kerighan Wheeler, 15, of Flower Mound, TX, was the high scoring junior, in fact, junior woman in the event, firing a 323-3X.

Kerighan Wheeler, 15, of Flower Mound, Texas, was the high scoring junior in the Small Arms Firing School M16 EIC Match, firing an aggregate score of 323-3X.

The SAFS M16 EIC match is designed to introduce rifle shooters to the world of championship-level competition and offers one of the few chances to earn introductory points.
Those who accumulate 30 EIC points earn the Distinguished Badge, considered the mark of excellence in shooting sports.  Collecting the points requires finishing in the top 10 percent of the points-eligible shooters in qualifying EIC matches.  All shooters in the SAFS M16 EIC Match were required to fire a CMP-issued rifle using CMP-issued ammunition.

Randy Ent, of Russell, Pennsylvania, was the John C. Garand Rifle Match winner, firing an aggregate score of 287-6X.  Ent was also the high scoring senior in the event.

On Day II, eligible competitors had another shot at taking home leg points in the Service Rifle EIC Match, using their own equipment and ammunition.  Harold Pate  was tops in the eligible group with an aggregate score of 473-6X.  Shooters fired the National Match Course - 10 shots standing slow-fire at 200 yards, 10 shots sitting rapid-fire at 300 yards, 10 shots prone rapid-fire at 300 yards and 20 shots prone slow-fire at 600 yards.
John Gaines, 25, of Norman, OK, placed second in the points-eligible pool with a score of 457-8X.  Andrew Timmons, 49, of Wichita, KS, placed third with a total score of 456-4X and Eric Pauls, 48, of Fenton, MO, placed fourth with an aggregate total of 455-7X.  Each of the four men received EIC points, from within in a field of 44 eligible competitors and four Distinguished shooters.
Overall, Distinguished competitor Roger Farley, 48, of Piedmont, OK, was high scorer (475-10X), followed by Pate.   Distinguished shooter Larry Stonecipher, 61, of Ada, OK, placed third overall (468-4X) and Distinguished shooter Danny Arnold, 48, of Norman, OK, placed fourth overall, (458-6X).
Also beginning on Day II and running the course of the event, CMP held the three and four-gun GSMM series of vintage military rifle matches which included the John C. Garand Match, Springfield Rifle Match, Military Vintage Bolt Rifle Match and the Modern Military Rifle Match.  Competitors had the choice of firing each of the four rifles in any combination in the matches.         
The GSMM series is flexible, challenging competitors to win a three-gun or four-gun aggregate or just have fun shooting any combination of rifles up to four times. However, to win an individual match, first firing of that rifle is recorded as the official score – all remaining matches fired with the same gun are treated as a re-entry and is eligible for achievement medal scoring only.

Harold Pate captured first place in both the Springfield Rifle and Vintage Military Rifle matches.  He went on to win the Four Gun Aggregate championship.  His score of 291-11X in the Springfield Match included a pair of 100s in prone slow-fire and rapid-fire (100-5X/100-6X respectively) put an exclamation point on his outstanding Oklahoma performance.

Randy Ent, 61, of Russell, PA was the John C. Garand Rifle Match winner, firing a total score of 287-6X.  Eric Pauls placed second with a combined score of 284-2X.  Placing third was Harold Pate, who also fired a 284-2X, but lost in a tiebreaker to Pauls by one point in the standing stage, 89-0X to 88-1X.  Ent was also the high scoring senior in the event.
Four shooters fired in the Unlimited Garand category and were eligible for achievement medals.  Harry Hannah, 33, of Norman, OK, led the Unlimited group with a score of 283-5X.
Harold Pate captured first place in the Springfield Rifle Match, compiling an aggregate total of 291-11X, including a pair of 100s in prone slow-fire and rapid-fire (100-5X/100-6X respectively), finishing with a 91-0X in the standing position. Mike Sexton, 55, of Tulsa, OK, placed second with a very good score of 286-9X and James Fletcher, 62, of Whitney, TX, followed with an aggregate score of 282-8X, which also earned him high senior in the match.

In Modern Military Rifle, Robert Spurrier, of Lakewood, Colorado, took top honors with a lights-out score of 293-10X.  Spurrier fired a 100-4X in prone slow-fire, 97-4X in rapid-fire and an unreal 96-2X in the standing stage, with his Navy .308 M1 Garand.

Pate also took top honors in the Vintage Military (Bolt) Rifle Match with another great score of 287-9X.  He fired a 100-5X, 98-4X and 89-0X in the prone slow, rapid and standing stages, respectively.  Gere Goodenberger, 50, of Claremore, OK, placed second with an aggregate of 276-5X and knocked off Johnny Fisher, 39, of N. Hollywood, CA, (276-5X) in a tie-breaker, winning the standing match 89-87.  Randy Ent was high senior with a score of 274-4X.
In Modern Military Rifle, Robert Spurrier, 53, of Lakewood, CO, took top honors with a lights-out score of 293-10X.  Spurrier fired a 100-4X in prone slow-fire, 97-4X in rapid-fire and an unreal 96-2X in the standing stage, with his Navy .308 M1 Garand.  Johnny Fisher placed second with an outstanding aggregate of 289-11X and Harold Pate followed with an outstanding 288-7X for third place.
As no surprise, Harold Pate won both the Three-Gun Aggregate and Four-Gun Aggregate comfortably with aggregate scores of 862-22X in the Garand/Springfield/Vintage Military Rifle matches and extending his score to 1150-29X with a strong showing in the Modern Military Rifle Match.
The Three-Gun runner-up was Randy Ent with an 839-15X and third place was captured by Johnny Fisher, one point behind at 838-16X.  Ent and Fisher swapped positions for second and third in the Four-Gun race as Fisher posted an aggregate total of 1127-27X to Ent’s 1109-19X.

Silas Fentress, 64, of Oklahoma City, (358-0X) prevailed victorious in the M1 Carbine Match and was the high senior scorer in the match.

Silas Fentress, 64, of Oklahoma City, fired 358-0X to win the M1 Carbine Match, with Harold Pate (357-1X) finishing second. Mike Sexton placed third with a 356-7X aggregate. Fentress was also the high senior scorer in the match.  A total of 39 competitors fired in the four-stage match, featuring prone slow-fire, prone rapid-fire, sitting rapid-fire and standing.
In the Vintage Sniper Rifle Team Match, John Gaines and Larry Stonecipher, competing under the team name “Sooner Magic,” took top honors with a team aggregate score of 384-15X.  Gaines carded a 99-5X at 300 and 95-3X at 600 yards (194-8X) while Stonecipher fired 99-4X and 91-3X (190-7X) in the 18-team event.

CMP North General Manager Christie Sewell congratulates the Vintage Sniper Rifle Team of Larry Stonecipher and John Gaines, competing under the team name “Sooner Magic.”  The tandem took top honors with a team aggregate score of 384-15X.

Second place in the sniper match went to Bob Thomas, 55, of Del City, OK and Kelly Worth, 53, of Richardson, TX, shooting as “O-T,” with a team score of 379-7X.  Gere Goodenberger and Jimmy Hamilton, 58, of Broken Arrow, OK, scored 370-8X under the team name “Gruesome Twosome.”
The top three individual scorers in the match Goodenberger (99/96/195-7X), Gaines (99/95/194-8X) and Don Rutherford, 62, of Tallapoosa, GA (97/94/191-4X).  Wesley Fentress, 29, of Oklahoma City, OK, earned honorable mention after losing a third place tiebreaker with a score of 97/94/191-3X.
For complete results and information about the CMP Games – Oklahoma 2014, log onto: https://ct.thecmp.org/app/v1/index.php?do=match&task=edit&match=10814. To view photos from the event, log onto: http://cmp1.zenfolio.com/.

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