The U. S. Marine Corps finally turned the tables on the Army on the last day of the 2005 National Trophy Rifle Matches. The U. S. Army Marksmanship Unit dominated the matches until a U. S. Marine Corp Rifle Team, coached by Gunnery Sergeant Rodney Abbott, pulled off an impressive victory in the National Trophy Infantry Team Match, winning with a score of 1271. The heavily favored Army team had already won the National Trophy Rifle Team Match the day before and USAMU shooters had won most of the individual competitions earlier in the week. The USAMU team had also won the Interservice Infantry Team Match the week before they arrived at the Nationals.
The Infantry Team match is often called “rattle battle” because it involves firing a large amount of ammunition in a short period of time. Six-person teams start with 384 rounds that they distribute among team members. Teams must engage eight silhouette targets while firing from the prone, first at 600 yards, then at 500 yards. When the teams move to the 300-yard line, they must shoot from the sitting position at small silhouette targets. If they have any ammunition left, they fire the remaining rounds in the standing position at 200 yards. Each time they fire, they have 50 seconds to fire as many accurate shots as they can. With M16/AR15-type rifles, highly skilled Infantry Trophy shooters can now fire 40 or more shots and get hit counts in the 30s. Hits at 600 yards count four points, at 500 yards, each hit is worth three points. Hits at 300 and 200 yards count two and one points respectively. In addition to the score for the number of hits on each target, teams earn a bonus at each yard line equal to the square of the number of targets that have six or more hits.
In the Infantry Team Match at Camp Perry, the USAMU Praslick team gambled with a load plan that called for team members to fire all of their rounds at 600 and 500 yards and to retain no ammunition for the shorter 300 and 200 yard ranges. It was a gamble that paid off in their Interservice win, but this time it did not work. The Army team missed their zeroes and the wind at 600 yards. With so much of their ammo gone, they could never recover and finished 18th with a score of 986. The U. S. Navy team was actually the second place service team.
For the second consecutive year, a civilian team placed second overall in a match that was once the exclusive province of military teams. The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Carney team fired a 1259 total, just 12 points behind the winning USMC team, to win the
Leatherneck Trophy that is awarded to the high civilian team. The high junior team and winner of the Junior Infantry Team Trophy was Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association Gold. They fired an 1143 total and finished ninth overall. All-Guard Morgan finished seventh overall with 1169 and won the Celtic Chieftain Trophy as the high reserve component team.
44 teams fired the National Trophy Infantry Match in competition and 16 additional teams fired out of competition. For results go to http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/
report_eventAward.cgi? matchID=827&eventID=12&awardID=1. For pictures go to http://www.odcmp.com/Photos/05/NTIT/index.htm. |
