The 2009 Western Creedmoor Cup Matches, the third held at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility near Phoenix since moving from Camp Pendleton, California, are now in the books. CMP and Creedmoor Sports of Oceanside, California, together with the Arizona State Rifle & Pistol Association served as hosts of the matches and games events.

The Creedmoor Cup Matches, which immediately follow the CMP Western Games Matches, provide the nation’s best highpower rifle shooters prestigious national-level competitions similar to those fired at the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio each summer and the Eastern Matches fired at Camp Butner, North Carolina. Creedmoor Cup events spanned Wednesday 21 October through Sunday, 25 October.

The Creedmoor Cup Matches gave shooters an opportunity to participate in a rifle clinic plus four days of match and service rifle competition.

On Wednesday Ken Roxburgh of Team Remington, retired USMC Master Gunnery Sergeant and veteran sniper training instructor, conducted a highpower rifle shooting clinic with assistance from fellow Team Remington member Thomas Rider.

The clinic provided attendees with lecture, demonstration, dry-fire activities and plenty of hands-on coaching from some of the finest competitive shooters in the nation.

On Thursday shooters participated in a National Match course practice which gave them a chance to hone their skills with sighters and 10 shots standing at 200 yards, sighters and 10 shots sitting rapid fire at 200 yards, sighters and 10 shots prone rapid fire at 300 yards and sighters and 20 shots prone slow fire at 600 yards.

On Friday, the four-man USMC Team Base Hawaii shot an aggregate score of 1899-42X to win the service rifle Creedmoor Team Match. Firing members of the team were GySgt Ryan Benedict, SFC Robert Mango, CWO2 William Bush and Sgt Kenneth Wittiekiend. Course of fire was the National Match Course Team Match shot at 200, 300 and 600 yards.

The USMC Shooting Team, coached and captained by CWO3 Peter Burns and teammates Cpl Mark Windmassinger, SSgt Jason Haislip, Cpl Sean Morris and Cpl Joshua Martin took second place honors with a 1888-46X. The Remington team of Thomas Rider, Richard Curtis, Gregory Swanson and Owen Deveroux finished third with an aggregate score of 1885-42X.

The match rifle team winner was Predator, consisting of Phil Hayes, Neil Jensen, Royal Hubert and Matthew Hubert. They fired an aggregate score of 1895-40X for the win.

GySgt R. Lee Ermey, USMC (Ret.) presented an AR-15 Rifle to an M1 for Vets recipient during the Western Creedmoor Matches Awards banquet. The goal of the M1 for Vets Program is to give transitioning combat wounded veterans an opportunity to get back on the rifle range to participate in shooting competition.  Photo Courtesy of Jonathan Ocab http://photography.ocabj.com.

The team of Dennis DeMille, Ronald Zerr, Steve Davis and GySgt. R. Lee Ermey USMC (Ret.) firing under the name Deadeyes placed second with an aggregate score of 1878-52X and the Tucson Rifle Club-Black of SFC Robert Pirisky Jr. ARNG, Jeffrey Schneider, Cecil Rico and Jeff Dedischew finished third with a score of 1857-33X. Gunny Ermey competed in both the Western CMP Games events and the Creedmoor Matches. Gunny Ermey is the host of the new cable television show Lock 'N Load. Log onto http://www.history.com/video.do?name=LockNLoad for more info.

The Team Individual Aggregate top four finishers, separated only by tiebreakers were Dennis DeMille (489-21X), junior Rico Tyler (489-15X), Cpl Mark Windmassinger USMC (489-15X), and Phil Hayes (489-13X).

On Saturday competitors fired the Creedmoor Cup Match, fired with either a match or service rifle.

SPC Sherri Gallagher, USA, was the Creedmoor Cup Match Rifle winner. SPC Gallagher was awarded a Remington Tactical 700 donated by Remington.  Photo Courtesy of Jonathan Ocab http://photography.ocabj.com.

The Creedmoor Cup Aggregate Match overall winner was match rifle shooter SPC Sherri Gallagher US Army with a combined aggregate score of 797-33X. Neil Jensen followed with an aggregate score of 791-30X.

Ken Roxburgh, of Team Remington, awards Creedmoor Cup Service Rifle winner, TSgt Daniel Rodriguez, ANG, with a Remington Tactical 700 donated by Remington.

TSgt Daniel Rodriguez ANG scored the highest Creedmoor Cup aggregate in service rifle with a 782-26X, with junior Tyler Rico edging SFC Robert Mango, USAR for second with a score of 781-33X compared to SFC Mango's 781-25X.

The top junior Creedmoor Aggregate shooter was Tyler Rico with a score of 781-33X. Remington donated a Bushmaster Firearms AR-15 upper to the High Junior. The top senior was Brandon Dale with a score of 751-20X and High woman winner was SPC Sherri Gallagher US Army with a 797-33X aggregate.

Remington donated two Raffle Rifles for the Western Creedmoor Matches, a NM AR-15 Rifle and a Remington 597 .22 cal. Rifle. The winner of the NM AR-15 Rifle is shown above. Over $5,000 was raised for the M1 for Vets Program.  Photo Courtesy of Jonathan Ocab http://photography.ocabj.com.

Creedmoor Sports concluded the day's events with a barbecue co-sponsored by Remington and awards ceremony and provided an outstanding array of shooting sports prizes. Remington was also major sponsor of the 2009 Western Creedmoor Cup Matches as they donated three rifles to match winners and two rifles for raffle prizes to raise money for the M1 for Vets Program. Between Creedmoor Sports donations and Remington’s raffle rifles, over $5,000 was raised.

Shooters closed the competition on Sunday, 25 October with the Creedmoor Excellence-In-Competition 500-point Individual Match - a National Match Course with 10 shots, 200 yards slow-fire standing, 10 shots, 200 yards rapid-fire standing to sitting, 10 shots, 300 yards rapid-fire, standing to prone and 20 shots at 600 yards slow-fire prone.

Distinguished rifle shooters GySgt Justin Skaret USMCR, Tyler Rico and Neil Jensen took first through third place with scores of 488-12X, 487-18X and 487-11X, respectively.

A total of seven EIC “Leg” medals were awarded during the Creedmoor EIC Match. Junior shooter Joshua Lehn had the top overall non-distinguished score (478-9X) earning him the 10-point leg. SSgt Wayne Ullrich, USMCR, finished second with a score of 475-10X and Rick Nhan finished third with a 474-10X. They both earned 8-point legs. Nile Ragusin (473-7X), Cpl Kyle Billings, USMC (471-6X), Douglas Thompson (470-12X) and Ronald Wager (468-10X) all earned 6-point legs.

For complete results of the Creedmoor Cup Matches and CMP Western Games, log onto http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=4969. Photos from the Creedmoor Cup Matches are posted at http://www.odcmp.com/Photos/09/WesternCreedmoor/index.htm. The 2010 Eastern CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches at Camp Butner, North Carolina are scheduled to take place 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 and Creedmoor Cup Matches are 16-24 October.

More information about Creedmoor Sports, Inc. is available from their website at http://www.creedmoorsports.com/store/home.php.

Information about the Ben Avery Shooting Facility is available at http://www.azgfd.gov/outdoor_recreation/ben_avery.shtml.