CAMP PERRY, OHIO – Now more than ten times larger in the number of event entries compared to the first Camp Perry Rimfire Sporter Match in 2002, hundreds fledgling and veteran shooters are still finding the “introductory” event an enjoyable challenge. The very first CMP Rimfire Sporter match was held at the Wolf Creek Gun Club in Atlanta, Georgia, in April of that year.
Eleven competitors fired in the Atlanta test match and the match winner fired an aggregate score of 550. As it was in 2002, the Rimfire Sporter Match was designed to accommodate a beginning shooter with nothing more than a store-bought .22 caliber rifle bearing no precision competition gear.
|
|
Volunteers and staff scored more than 400 targets throughout the four-relay Rimfire Sporter Match.
|
At the ninth annual CMP games match this year, 457 entries were logged and shooters filled four relays, many taking advantage a re-entry option which allows them to fire the match with open sights, telescopic or aperture sights, and for the first time ever, a tactical .22 rifle. The competition is a six-stage, three-position match with slow-fire and rapid-fire strings at each position.
|
|
Duane Tallman explains safety and range procedures with the assistance of Bill Wayda during the Rimfire Sporter Clinic.
|
The day prior to the match features an introductory safety and marksmanship clinic which helps acclimate beginning shooters to the policies and procedures that help ensure safety and organization once shooters arrive on the firing line.
|
|
Brad Donoho explains the proper setup of the rifle sling for prone and sitting/kneeling phases.
|
This year’s clinic was conducted by Rimfire Sporter Chief Range Officer Duane Tallman and Chief Line Officer Bill Wayda with special shooting position instruction by CMP Program Coordinator Brad Donoho.
|
|
Chris Calvin, left, and his dad Tim celebrated Chris’s gold achievement medal in Telescopic Sights Class in his first-ever match.
|
First-time match shooter Chris Calvin, 20, of Greenford, Ohio, earned a gold achievement medal, by scoring a 585-29X in T-class, good for ninth place out of 286 entries.
“I absolutely loved it,” Calvin said. He said he and his father, Tim, 44, promptly visited Commercial Row to purchase more ammunition to practice for next year’s match.
It was Tim’s third year at Rimfire Sporter and said it’s a great event. “It’s a combination pressure and pure fun – we really enjoyed it,” he said.
|
|
Tom Smallwood, John Gaither and Adam Gaither, all of Indianapolis, Indiana competed in their first-ever Rimfire Sporter Match.
|
It was also the first appearance for Marc Smallwood, 47, John Gaither, 46, and Gaither’s brother Adam, 32, all of Indianapolis, Indiana. They said they learned about the event after John purchased an M1 Garand rifle through the CMP sales program last fall and read information about it.
“We’re doing this because it’s fun and it makes you practice. We don’t know how we’ll do but we’re using this as a stake in the ground – a place to get started,” John said.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Smallwood said. “This is about bragging rights until next year!”
|
|
Brian Wyss, Sr., left, and his son BJ made the short trip from the Oak Harbor, Ohio area. Dad scored targets throughout the day and BJ fired in the Open and Telescopic Sights classes.
|
Veteran shooter Brian “BJ” Wyss, Jr., 15, of neighboring Graytown, Ohio, fired in his fifth Rimfire Sporter match as a solo entry because his father, Brian Sr. took a break from this year’s match.
“It’s fun,” Wyss, Jr. said. “It’s the only match where you can shoot any .22 of any kind.” He fired in both the telescopic and open sight classes.
“It is a fun match and the age range is amazing,” Wyss Sr. said. “In what other sport can you have an 11-year-old competing with someone in their 70s?”
|
|
Ed Mangerie, Isaac DeAngelis, Andrew Scialdone and Rex Walter, left to right, participated as teams in this year’s first Youth-Adult Partner Match.
|
Ed Mangerie, 59, of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, fired the match for the first time with one of his grandsons, Isaac DeAngelis, 12, of Koppel, Pennsylvania, in the new Youth-Adult Partner match. It was DeAngelis’ second Rimfire Sporter experience.
Mangerie and DeAngelis finished second in the match to Scott and Keith Stich, also of Koppel.
“I let him down; he shot better than me,” Mangerie said as he joked later about his 12-year-old grandson getting the upper hand. DeAngelis fired a 575-18X to Mangerie’s 549-10X.
|
|
Tom Wonderly, 64, of Portage, Ohio attended his first Rimfire Sporter Match and first of any at Camp Perry this year. “I can’t wait to bring my grandkids to this event next year,” he said.
|
Andrew Scialdone, 10, of Koppel, another grandson of Mangerie and cousin of Isaac, shot the partner match with Rex Walter, 50, of Ellwood City.
Mangerie, Walter and family were part of a large contingent of individual and team shooters from the Koppel-Big Beaver Sportsman’s Association which makes the Rimfire Sporter Match an annual event. This year several members of the Koppel-Big Beaver squad took home achievement awards.
|
|
Ravenna, Patricia and Bretton Rebol shoot as a family and this year mom and dad won medals and Ravenna overcame multiple leg surgeries to shoot her best score ever.
|
Likely last year’s youngest shooter at age nine, Ravenna Rebol, of Madison, Ohio, returned in 2010, but with surgically repaired knees. She required assistance on the firing line because her tight muscles and surgical adhesions made it uncomfortable to get in and out of position.
Ravenna underwent dislocating patella surgery on both knees, according to her parents, Bretton, 42, and Patricia, 38, but wanted to return to Camp Perry to shoot once again. With four surgeries on one leg and five on the other, Ravenna’s medical team harvested additional tendons from her upper and lower legs and attached them to her kneecaps so they will track more centrally over her knees.
CMP allowed her to shoot from a chair and the now 10-year-old was able to complete the course of fire and shoot the best score of her young life – a 459-4X. Her prior best in the rimfire series was 413 in a recent club match and considerably better than her 2009 Camp Perry score of 296.
Since their daughter is limited to light exercise until she heals and grows taller, shooting has taken over as her favorite activity, her parents said.
“What she loves more than anything are dinosaurs,” Patricia said. “Her three favorite things are shooting, art and paleontology - that’s why she has a dinosaur carved into her rifle stock,” she said.
Shooting has given the family an activity they all can do together, and competitively, her father said. “Kids can be competitive with adults in shooting at all ages.”
|
|
Bill Palk, 64, of Annapolis, Maryland drops into position during rapid fire using his AR15 clone Tactical Rimfire Rifle.
|
Compared to other shooting classifications, Tactical Rimfire entries were light but visible on the firing line. The top three scores in Tactical Rimfire were 561, 563 and 566, with 22 entries. The top three in Open Sights were 573, 574 and 578, with 149 entries and the top three in Telescopic class were 589, 592 and 593, with 286 entries.
For more information and complete results of the 2010 Rimfire Sporter Match, log onto
http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=5689.
NEXT ARTICLE
|
