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| The National Rimfire Sporter Match took place on Camp Perry’s Viale Range. Here a junior competitor fires on the Rimfire Sporter target where standing position firing is done at 25 yards. |
One hundred eighty shooters, the highest number yet, stepped to the firing line for the fourth rendition of the CMP National Rimfire Sporter Match on Sunday, 24 July. The day started with rain, changed to calm, cloudy weather and finally ended with the strong winds. In addition to offering just about every kind of Camp Perry weather imaginable, the day featured a festival atmosphere where almost the entire CMP North staff came out to help run the match and serve a barbecue cookout at the end of the day. Many also took advantage of their visit to Camp Perry to check out the National Matches Commercial Row and the CMP Store.
In Rimfire Sporter shooting, competitors fire plinking and sporter-type smallbore rifles that cannot weigh more than 7 ½ pounds and must have at least a 3-pound trigger. Except for shooting mats or ground cloths and spotting scopes, which are permitted, special target equipment is not allowed. The idea is for shooters to use rifles that almost every gun owner already has and to keep equipment costs at a minimum so that everyone starts with an accessible, level playing field.
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| Chad and his son Ben Cleland from Swanton, Ohio were one of several father-son pairs at the match. Chad won a gold achievement medal while Ben won a silver medal. |
Rules for the match are also designed to facilitate participation by shooters of all ages and sexes. This year’s match featured an astonishing number of father-son, father-daughter, husband-wife and other family combinations. Several were shooting in their first matches ever. Match attendance was also bolstered by the fact that more clubs around the country are beginning to run these matches at the club level. Rimfire Sporter is now a featured event in the 4-H Shooting Sports National Invitational. Several 4-Hers who shot in that match in June made the trip to Camp Perry to compete.
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| In Rimfire Sporter, special shooting equipment is not used. Shooters fire rimfire sporters of all types with either telescope sights (first three shooters) or open sights (shooter on the right). |
The Rimfire Sporter target is designed to be big enough that everyone can get hits, but to also have a ten-ring that challenges the best shooters. The highest score fired in this year’s match was a 590 and the highest score yet recorded is a 594, so perfect scores have proven elusive. There are two classes of competition, the T-Class for shooters who use telescopes limited to 6X and the O-Class for shooters who use traditional open sights. Semi-auto or manually-operated rifles can be used, but shooters with manually-operated rifles get a five second time bonus in rapid fire series. The adventure of using different types of rifles in this match is appealing. Shooters at Camp Perry used every type of smallbore action, semi-auto, bolt, lever, pump and straight-pull (biathlon).
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| 18-year-old Nicholas Combs, Sedalia, Missouri, had the high O-Class score with a 566 and the third highest T-Class score with a 583. |
The top score in the O-Class was fired by Nicholas Combs, an 18-year-old 4-H Shooting Sports club member from Sedalia, Missouri. Combs fired a 566-15X score to top the list of shooters who fired open-sighted rifles. In June, at the 4-H Shooting Sports National Invitational in Columbia, Missouri, Combs won the Rimfire Sporter competition there with an outstanding 594 score. Combs also had the third highest overall score in the T-Class with a 583-23X score fired in the high winds of the fourth relay.
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| Ron Springsteen, an active silhouette shooter from Otsego, Michigan, fired the highest overall score with a 590 to become the T-Class award winner. |
The top score in the T-Class was fired by Ron Springsteen, a veteran metallic silhouette shooter from Otsego, Michigan. Springsteen fired his match-winning 590-26X score with a Thompson-Center Classic semi-auto. He also was assigned to the difficult fourth relay. Springsteen now has topped the results lists of this match for the last three years with a 583 in last year’s extremely windy conditions and a 591 in 2003.
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| Jennifer Butcher from Grafton, Ohio fired a 562 T-class score in her first competition ever to earn a gold achievement medal. |
Overall, scores in this year’s match were higher than in previous years. 48 different O-Class shooters were presented CMP gold, silver and bronze achievement medals during the award ceremony after the competition. In the T-Class, 72 shooters earned gold silver or bronze achievement medals. All competitors received National Rimfire Sporter T-shirts as a memento of their competition day at Camp Perry.
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| Coaching is permitted in Rimfire Sporter shooting. This facilitated participation by several father-son, father daughter and husband-wife teams. |
The 2005 match began with a well-attended clinic on Saturday afternoon and ended on Sunday evening with a barbecue cookout and lots of competitors talking about being back next year for the 5th 2006 National Rimfire Sporter Match.
Complete results for the 2005 Rimfire Sporter Match are posted on the CMP web site at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=828. Photos taken during the National Rimfire Sporter Matches are posted at http://www.odcmp.com/Photos/05/Rimfire/index.htm.
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