CAMP PERRY, OHIO – If you ever woke up as a child on your birthday, rubbed the sleep from your eyes and walked into your living room to find a new bike with a ribbon on it, then you can relate to how a New Jersey teen felt when a pristine presentation grade M1 Garand rifle arrived on his doorstep after winning the 2008 John C. Garand Match handicap award.

Alex Butler, 16, a high school junior from Ridgewood, New Jersey, won a custom-built Eric Pierce presentation M1 for shooting the highest handicapped score in the 2008 John C. Garand Match on 2 August. The handicap rankings are a new system developed by the CMP to reward the shooters who do the best in competing against their established averages. A high handicapped score is almost always a recognition of who showed the most improvement.

Butler’s raw score of 256-4X, with a handicap rating of .7696 applied to it, raised his score to 332-4X. This vaulted him to the top spot in the Garand Match handicap rankings. His raw score was one point shy of the cut-off for a bronze achievement medal and he finished 19th out of 60 juniors in the field, but none of the juniors or adult shooters who ranked ahead of him in raw score achieved as much improvement over their established averages as Butler did.

Ronald Murajda of Rillton, Pennsylvania finished second with a handicap score of 326-4X and the race to win the M1 Garand presentation rifle while Michael Theis of Fostoria, Ohio took third in this contest with a handicap score of 322-6X.

To qualify for the high handicap award, shooters must have at minimum a two-year history of firing in the Garand match to establish a mathematical base. The competitor achieving the greatest improvement over the established average wins. It was Alex’s third appearance in the Garand match.

“I was a little bit surprised, but it was cool,” Alex said when he learned that he was the recipient of the engraved National Match Armory rifle.

“Alex has matured a bit and I’m sure that’s making a difference,” his dad Mike said in reference to Alex’s improvement. “In the past if he threw a bad shot, he wouldn’t handle it well, but he has calmed down.”

“I’m very impressed by his patience,” Mike said.

Alex credits time at the practice range for his improvement over the past three years. Butler’s family members are regulars at their home range, the Ridgewood Rifle Club, the same range used by U.S. Olympic 50-meter three-position smallbore shooter Sandra Fong.

“I was always dropping a shot, but I agree that I’ve matured – it’s one of the reasons I’m having more success,” Alex said.

He fired a 97-1X in slow fire prone, 93-3X in rapid fire prone and got leaky with a 66-0X in standing slow fire, but his scores have continued to climb since his first John C. Garand Match in 2006 when he fired a 135 x 300 and in 2007 when he improved to 167-5X.

“Prone is my favorite position, but off-hand is a challenge,” Alex said. “I like shooting the Garand match because the people are very friendly, so it’s a lot more relaxed.”

“And it’s kind of cool shooting with my parents,” he said.

Alex is one of four family members who have caught the shooting bug. His dad, mom, Jessica, and sister Becca, 13, made the trek to Camp Perry this year and all four shot in the Rimfire Sporter match 13 days earlier. It was Becca’s second year of Rimfire Sporter and mom’s first, but she plans to come back to participate in the Small Arms Firing School for Rifle in 2009.

“It used to be just a father and son event but the ladies have shown interest and now that they have some experience under their belts, they’re looking forward to coming back,” Mike said.

“The whole family will medal next year,” Mike said, referring to the Rimfire Sporter match. This year dad won a bronze and Becca was the 15th ranked junior and missed bronze by five points. All four family members fired in the telescopic sight category, or T-Class.

“Becca had a couple of jams in the Rimfire Sporter match and lost those shots or she likely would have earned an achievement medal, so she has an additional incentive to return next year,” he added.

Mike placed 14th out of 1,177 participants overall in the Garand match and earned a gold achievement medal. He has won two gold achievement medals in Rimfire Sporter in the past using a semiautomatic rifle and has started over with a bolt gun to earn a bronze this year.

A proponent of junior shooting, Mike said he has run a couple of matches at the Ridgewood club using reduced targets in an effort to get more young people interested in the sport.

“Unfortunately the number of young shooters in New Jersey is dwindling and that’s sad, so I support the CMP and encourage them to offer rimfire sporter matches at the club level,” Mike added.

To view the John C. Garand Match Handicap scores, log onto http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_eventAward.cgi?matchID=3426&eventID=11&awardID=5. To view all results in the Rimfire Sporter match, log onto http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=3420.

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