The 2009 Western CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches took place at the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Ben Avery Shooting Facility north of Phoenix, Arizona.

The objective of the CMP Games Matches is to encourage participation, to get more people out on ranges for “rifle practice” and competitions. The four days of shooting during the 2009 Western CMP Games at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility north of Phoenix surely fulfilled that objective. The Games saw competitors complete a record 476 event entries in six different CMP Games rifle events.

Five of the six Western CMP Games Matches took place on the Ben Avery Shooting Facility Highpower Rifle Range.

With an emphasis on education, enjoyment and the camaraderie of competitive target shooting, the Western Games schedule included a well-attended New Shooter Clinic, daily award ceremonies where dozens of shooters were recognized and a Sunday afternoon barbecue. And for the shooters who elected to stay all week, the CMP Games Matches were followed by a daylong service rifle clinic and four days of Creedmoor Cup Matches.

SSgt Jason Haislip, USMC, won the Western Games “3-Gun Aggregate” award by firing the highest overall score, a 857-13X, with the three As-Issued Military Rifles. Haislip also won the Vintage Military Rifle Match when he fired a 288-4X with a M1917 Enfield (shown here).

A major focus of these matches is on educating and encouraging new shooters. The CMP Matches kicked off with a clinic on Saturday morning attended by over 50 students who said they had never fired a match before. Many had just purchased CMP rifles and wanted to learn how to use them. The clinic offered two hours of classroom instruction and demonstrations on the safe handling of as-issued military rifles; safe range procedures; target shooting positions and techniques and shooters’ responsibilities as scorers and target pullers. That was followed by over an hour of practical work where clinic students practiced loading and unloading their rifles and dry firing in the prone and standing positions.

The Western and Eastern CMP Games programs offer shooters lots of choices in deciding how many events they want to shoot. Some competitors elect to shoot a single GSM (Garand-Springfield-Vintage Military Rifle) Match. Some came just for the Rimfire Sporter Match. Lots of shooters combined the As-Issued M1 Garand Match on Sunday where introductory 4-point legs were up for grabs with the firing on one or more GSM events. But a surprisingly large number of shooters took advantage of every match opportunity by shooting five different rifles in all six CMP Games Matches.

The competitions began on Saturday afternoon with the first of three GSM events. Each GSM event used the 30-shot John C. Garand course of fire. Competitors could elect to fire a different rifle in each of the three matches or they could fire the same rifle, usually a Garand, two or three times on a reentry basis. At the end of each day’s events, CMP Achievement Medals earned by shooting scores that equal or exceed established “cut scores” were awarded to all the competitors who earned them that day.

John Marx, Conifer, Colorado, fired a 371-2X in the M1 Garand Special EIC Match. As the “High Eligible Competitor” in this match, Marx won a Bushmaster DCM-XR competition rifle donated by Bushmaster Firearms. Marx is shown here firing his K-31 Swiss rifle in the Vintage Military Rifle Match.

The first two sets of match winner awards were decided on the second day when the Special M1 Garand EIC Match took place in the morning and the Rimfire Sporter Match was fired in the afternoon. Entries in both matches were up significantly this year. 98 competitors were squadded in the EIC Match with 75 who were eligible to earn “introductory” 4-point legs because they had earned no previous EIC points. The highest-ranking eligible competitor was John Marx from Conifer, Colorado. Marx finished with a 371-2X total to pace the seven shooters who received 4-point legs at the end of the day.

“Staggered starts” are now used to begin Rimfire Sporter rapid-fire series. All competitors start from standing with magazines loaded, but with empty chambers. Competitors with manually operated rifles, who have 30 seconds to get into position and fire five shots, receive the first START command. Five seconds later, competitors with semi-autos who have 25 seconds to fire five shots, receive their START command. Here, competitors with semi-autos are waiting for their START command while competitors with manually operated rifles are already down in position.

The Rimfire Sporter Match was fired that same afternoon on the BASF smallbore range. 53 shooters were squadded in two relays—one fired while the other handled target changing and scoring duties. Two targets were mounted at a time to allow the consecutive firing of slow and rapid-fire stages for each position and to reduce the time spent sending target changers downrange. The Rimfire Sporter discipline is relatively new to shooters in the west and many competitors were firing this event for the first time. Responses ranged from enthusiastic positives to “this is the most fun I’ve ever had in target shooting.”

Hilliard Elliott, Granada Hills, California, was the oldest competitor in the Phoenix matches. He has participated in every Western CMP Games. He celebrated his 88th birthday on 17 October by shooting in the Western Games Garand Match. Elliott is a U. S. Navy WWII veteran whose ship was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Rimfire Sporter competitors had their choice of firing in either the T-Class for rifles with telescopic sights or the O-Class for rifles with classic open sights. Dewayne Wolfer from Burbank, California topped the T-Class competitors with a 586-16X, just two points ahead of Lee McKinney, Rio Rico, Arizona, who finished with 584-23X. Robert Harper, from Tucson, Arizona led O-Class shooters with a 560-16X.

Another interesting opportunity that everyone in the Rimfire Sporter Match had was to win a Remington M597 semi-auto rimfire rifle with telescope donated by Remington Arms. The Remington rifle was to be awarded to the shooter who had the best center shot on the final rapid-fire standing stage. It took a jury several minutes to inspect all the targets with center Xs and determine that James Fletcher from Chico, California, had the best center shot and won a new Remington rifle.

Dewayne Wolfer, Burbank, California, won both the Rimfire Sporter T-Class and the Carbine Match. He is shown here firing his Carbine.

The third day of Western Games competition featured a second GSM Match in the morning and a 40-shot Carbine Match in the afternoon. Dewayne Wolfer won his second match in two days in the Carbine Match. After topping the Rimfire Sporter T-Class on Sunday, he fired a 358-4X in the Carbine Match. A 98-4X in the prone rapid stage highlighted that score.

Robert Harper, Tucson, Arizona, won two of the six Western CMP Games Matches. He fired the high O-Class score in the Rimfire Sporter Match with a 560-16X. Harper also won the John C. Garand Match with an excellent 290-12X total. He is shown here with his M1903 in the Springfield Match.

A whole series of awards were decided on the fourth day when the third GSM Match was fired. Robert Harper, Tucson, Arizona, who fired a 290-12X score with his M1 on day one was declared the winner of the John C. Garand Match. SFC Robert Pirisky, ARNG, fired a personal GSM match record of 289-5X with his Springfield on day four to win the Springfield Rifle Match. SSgt. Jason Haislip, USMC fired his M1917 Enfield on day four and took the Vintage Military Rifle Match with a 288-4X.

Lee McKinney, Rio Rico, Arizona, won three High Senior Awards in the CMP Western Games. He is shown here firing a Browning T-bolt in the Rimfire Sporter T-Class event.

Each of the Games Matches also featured High Senior, High Junior and High Handicap awards. Lee McKinney, Rio Rico, Arizona, won three High Senior awards while Michael Miller, Downey, California, won two. 17-year-old Jim Minturn from Temecula, California, dominated the Junior awards. Minturn was a member of the California Grizzlies Junior team that won the Infantry Trophy Match at Camp Perry this summer. Maj. Franklin Pierce, USMCR, won two of the three High Handicap awards that go to shooters who fired the best scores relative to their established handicaps. Other notable scores included a 289-8X Garand reentry score posted by Maury Krupp of Tucson, Arizona.

A M1903A4 Replica sniper rifle donated by the Gibbs Rifle Company was awarded to the winner of the 3-Gun GSM Aggregate. Marine Staff Sergeant Jason Haislip took this impressive rifle home.

A new 3-Gun GSM Aggregate award was added to the CMP Games program starting with the 2008 Western Games. Michael Miller won the first GSM Aggregate in 2008 with an 823-11X where both strong winds and inferior ammo affected scores. At the 2009 Eastern Games in May, David Thompson from Keyser, West Virginia, won with an 856-22X. Marine Corps Warrant Officer Peter Burns won the GSM Aggregate at the National Matches in August with an 858-12X. At Phoenix, Burns’ teammate, SSgt Jason Haislip, topped the 3-Gun Aggregate with a 857-13, while Burns was second with an 841-16X.

Each of the four days ended with a reception and opportunity to socialize with fellow competitors, a chance to check the gun and ammo sales selection at the CMP gun truck and the presentation of awards. A total of 185 gold, silver and bronze Achievement Medals were presented during the four ceremonies. The chart shows the medal distribution. Of special interest is the fact that there were a disproportionate number of gold medals in the Garand and Springfield Matches. This can indicate the high skill levels of many competitors who attend this match, but it is also evidence of the impact that the high-quality Hornady-.30-06 ammunition, which was issued to competitors in the Garand and Springfield Matches, had in increasing scores in those matches.

GySgt R. Lee Ermey, USMC (Ret.), who stars in his new History Channel TV show Lock N’ Load, fired Bronze Achievement Medal scores in two Garand Matches at Phoenix. New episodes of Ermey’s show appear on Fridays at 10:00 PM Eastern Time.

All of the scores fired by competitors in the 2009 Western CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches are posted at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=4969.

Photographs taken by CMP photographers during the Western CMP Games and Awards Ceremonies are posted at http://www.odcmp.com/Photos.htm.

The next Regional CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches will be the Eastern Games at Camp Butner, North Carolina on 8-16 May. The official program for those matches is slated for release in the next two to three months. The dates for the 2010 Western CMP Games are 16-24 October.

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