CAMP PERRY, OHIO – In what has become one of the most colorful and nostalgic series of National Matches events in recent years, the 2008 National CMP Games Matches that feature events for M1 Carbines, Springfield Rifles, Vintage Military Rifles and M1 Garands certainly met or exceeded the expectations of those who cherish competition featuring some of America’s and the world’s most famous military rifles.

Beginning with the M1 Carbine Match, an event that was added in 2006 and fired on 31 July this year, some participants came dressed in standard shooting gear while others donned period military uniforms with chaps, helmets and bandoleers. The CMP Games series also featured the 1903 Springfield Match, the Vintage Military Rifle Match and the rock-star of CMP games events – the John C. Garand M1 Rifle Match.

Both serious and recreational shooters participate in the final games events and in the end go home with plenty of stories, lots of great experiences and a good share of the competitors even take home gold, silver or bronze CMP Achievement Medals. Cut-off scores to earn achievement medals are found in the CMP rulebook and the CMP National Matches Program.

Rachelle Heller, 26 of Cedar Falls, Iowa and her father, Tom Dills, 51, of East Bethany, New York “meet in the middle” between their homes to visit and do what they like to do as family – shoot competitively.

It was Heller’s fourth year of participation in the games events and Dills’ sixth. Both fired in the Springfield and Garand matches.

“It was the most perfect day,” Heller said, commenting on the weather and shooting conditions. She recently was married and took a job in Iowa but the father-daughter-shooting bond is still strong, they said.

“I look forward to the mid-summer at Camp Perry. We’ve made good friends here and plan to come back every year,” Dills said.

Bob Tigert, 60, of San Leandro, California participated in his first Springfield and M1 matches at Camp Perry in 2008. A former employee of a military subcontractor, who tested weapons technology at Camp Perry in the 1960s, said he enjoyed his return to the range.

“It’s a great learning experience and I’m getting closer to shooting for a bronze medal!” he said.

This year’s M1 Carbine Match winner was John Friguglietti, Jr. of Lincolnton, North Carolina, who fired a 371-1X aggregate score. Friguglietti and his fellow competitors fired 10 sighters in 10 minutes followed by 10 shots slow fire prone in five minutes, 10 shots prone rapid fire from the standing position in 60 seconds, 10 shots sitting or kneeling rapid fire from standing and 10 shots slow fire standing in 10 minutes.

All firing by this year’s 543 competitors, was conducted at 100 yards on the SR-1 highpower rifle target (200 yard SR target reduced for firing at 100 yards).

Friguglietti’s individual stage scores were 99-0X, 93-0X, 87-0X and 92-1X, respectively.

Matthew Schmidt edged Christopher Roberts in a tiebreaker for second place with a 368-6X over Roberts’ 368-3X. The high junior shooter was Eric Curavo of Northwood, Ohio, (344-2X) and the high senior was Fred Weidenhof of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, (362-4X).

The semiautomatic M1 Carbine was carried in World War II and the Korean War by paratroopers, front-line troops that were required to carry other equipment and by those in rear areas who found full-size rifles too bulky and pistols inadequate for their needs.

The Springfield Rifle Match, in which competitors fired “as-issued” M1903 or M1903A3 rifles, was won by junior shooter Christopher Hudock of Raleigh, North Carolina, with an aggregate score of 287-8X on Friday, 1 August.

Hudock outscored Robert Boxler (285-3X) and Joseph Yaw (283-7X) who finished second and third, respectively. Hudock’s score breakout was 97-4X, 95-4X and 95-0X.

In the Springfield match, each of the 743 competitors were allowed five sighters and then shot ten rounds for record in the prone position in a 15-minute time period. This was followed by 10 shots rapid-fire prone in 80 seconds. The final ten record shots were fired in the standing position in 10 minutes.

The bolt-action Springfield 1903 and variants served the US military from its inception at the turn of the century and appeared in World Wars I and II, the Korean War and even the Vietnam War, many times in sniper roles in later conflicts.

The course of fire for this match is identical to the John C. Garand M1 Match, except shooters receive an additional 10 seconds during the rapid fire prone portion of the match to work their rifle’s action.

As the winner of the overall match, Hudock topped Jim Minturn (280-5X) and Nick Mowrer (274-4X who captured second and third, respectively) in the junior shooter category.

Franco Scarpino of Pembroke, Massachusetts, won the senior division of the Springfield Match with an aggregate score of 283-3X.

The Vintage Military Rifle match held Friday and Saturday, 1 and 2 August welcomed 330 shooters shouldering a variety of “as-issued” military firearms, including the US Krag or M1917 US Enfield rifle or manually-operated foreign military rifles including the Swedish, German and Turkish Mausers, Swiss Schmidt-Rubin, Russian and Finnish Mosin-Nagant and British Enfield.

Michael Hawkins of Bois Darc, Missouri, took top honors in the Vintage match with a 286-7X. Hawkins fired a Swedish Mauser. He was followed by David Schnelle who used his Swiss Schmidt-Rubin to fire a 285-7X and John Friguglietti Jr. took third with a 284-1X, shooting a US M1917.

Christopher Hudock, winner of the Springfield Match, used his Swedish Mauser rifle to fire a 258-0X to win honors as the top junior in the event.

Donald Rice Jr. of Stillwater, Minnesota, won the senior category with a 283-4X firing a Swedish Mauser.

A Model 1903 Springfield Presentation Rifle, crafted by Eric Pierce of National Match Armory, Rendon, Texas (http://www.nationalmatcharmory.com), was awarded to Gary Leginza of Michigan who was selected through a special drawing. At the end of each relay, competitors were randomly selected to have their rifles inspected and those whose rifles passed inspection were entered in the drawing.

In the CMP Games Event finale, the John C. Garand Match, 1,177 shooters took to the firing line using “as issued” M1 Garand rifles. They followed the same course of fire as the Springfield Match with the exception of a 70-second rapid fire phase due to the speedier semiautomatic action of the rifle.

The M1 Garand chambers the same .30-06 round as the Springfield and is fed with eight-round clips. The Garand, as it’s commonly called, was named for its designer, John C. Garand. It saw service in WWII, throughout the Korean War and into the Vietnam War when it was replaced first by the box magazine-fed M14 and eventually the M16. The M1 Garand remained in service in many foreign military units around the world well into the 1960s.

The match winner, Christopher Roberts of Charlotte, North Carolina, fired a 292-6X in the three-stage event. Roberts shot a 99-3X, a 99-2X and 94-1X in prone slow fire, prone rapid fire and standing slow fire, respectively to win the match.

David Guthery took second place with a 290-8X aggregate and Ira Jones Jr. captured third place, shooting a 289-7X.

Gallager Bobseine of Cattaraugus, New York, won the junior title in the Garand Match in a tiebreaker over Tanner Kern, firing a 277-3X to Kern’s 277-2X. Michael Lucky grabbed the third position, firing a 275-3X.

Ira Jones Jr. of Hubert, North Carolina, who finished third overall, won the senior title, shooting an aggregate of 289-7X.

An M1 Garand Presentation Rifle, crafted by Eric Pierce of National Match Armory, Rendon, Texas (http://www.nationalmatcharmory.com), was awarded to 16-year-old Alex Butler of Ridgewood, New Jersey, who fired the highest handicapped score in the match. Shooters’ handicaps are based on the average of each shooter’s scores in CMP-sanctioned matches over the previous two years.

CMP Games Matches stress camaraderie and recreation over competition and they celebrate the history of military small arms development and the traditions of military marksmanship. To the extent that these matches are competitive, most competitors’ efforts to excel seldom go beyond competition among good friends or family members or with themselves. These matches truly are about combining marksmanship skill development with fun.

Full results from the National CMP Games Events can be viewed at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=3426 with event pictures posted at http://www.odcmp.com/Photos.htm.

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