Tucson Rifle Club Highpower Shooters at The National Matches

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The 102nd National Trophy Rifle Matches and NRA Highpower Rifle and Long Range Championships were held at Camp Perry, Ohio from 2-15 Aug 05.

The best highpower rifle shooters in the nation gather together each year to shoot slow and rapid fire matches at distances from 200 to 1000 yards. Eight Tucson Rifle Club shooters made the 4200 mile round-trip this year. They didn’t come home empty handed...

CMSgt Issac Smith and SSgt Dan Rodriguez were members of the All Guard Team. SSgt Justin Skaret and Sgt Wally Tang shot for the USMC Reserve. TSgt Dave Johnson was on the USAF Team. Bill Gibson, Maury Krupp, and Lee McKinney made the trip on their own dime.

The National Trophy Matches start with the 30-shot President’s Rifle Match also known as The President’s 100. Placing in the top 100 out of 1286 shooters is no mean feat. This year Justin Skaret’s 290-7X put him 42nd and Ike Smith’s 287-6X placed him 95th. Wally Tang’s score of 286-5X missed the cut by a single point.

The next day was the National Trophy Individual match. In this 50-shot match shooters compete for gold, silver and bronze medals. In addition, the top ten percent of non-Distinguished shooters earn points toward their Distinguished Rifleman badge. The final standings and medal places are subject to several reviews in the months following the match but preliminary results have Distinguished Riflemen Justin Skaret, Dan Rodriguez, and Ike Smith in the medal standings. Non-distinguished shooter Bill Gibson’s score of 476-11X appears to have made the cut earning him a bronze medal and ten “leg” points.

The National Trophy Team Match is the oldest and most prestigious Service Rifle match in the United States. Ike Smith’s score of 472-5X helped his All Guard-Chandler team to a third place in the overall standings and award of the Hilton Trophy which goes to the highest placing Reserve Component team.

In the National Trophy Infantry Team Match, Ike shifted to the highest scoring Reserve Component team, All Guard-Morgan, which won the Celtic Chieftain Trophy.

The most popular events at the National Matches are the Springfield and John C Garand Matches. These 30-shot matches are all fired at 200 yards with unmodified “as issued” pre-1950 Service Rifles and issue ammunition. This year 700 competitors shot in the Springfield and 1258 in the Garand.

In the Springfield Match Bill Gibson and Maury Krupp each earned silver medals with scores of 273-3X and 268-6X respectively.

In the Garand Match, Dave Johnson’s 280-6X got him a gold; Bill Gibson’s 273-5X brought him another silver.

In the NRA National Championships awards are given to the overall first, second, and third place finishers. In addition, awards go to individual shooters based on their relative standings within their respective class (ie, more shooters in a class means more awards).

Without a doubt, the biggest winner this year was Dave Johnson who won the overall Service Service Rifle Expert class with a 2291-47X out of a possible 2400. Dave also won his class in two of the three 800-aggregate matches: the Vandenberg Cup (768-11X) and the Clarke Trophy (766-18X). In the individual matches Dave won his class in the 200yd slowfire standing Navy Cup (189-2X) and Crescent Cup (185-1X), the 200yd rapidfire sitting Coast Guard Trophy (199-7X), the 300yd rapidfire prone Marine Corps Cup (197-6X) and Cavalry Cup (198-7X). The good news for the rest of the Expert class is based on these scores Dave will be moving up to the Master class.

Justin Skaret’s 197-9 won the High Master class of the Long Range 1000yd Andrus Trophy Match. His 200-13X was good for third place in the Service Service Rifle High Master class of the 200yd rapidfire sitting Coast Guard Trophy. A score of 490-20X earned him a bronze medal as part of the USMCR-Gold team’s third place overall finish in the Enlisted Men’s Trophy team match.

Wally Tang won the Service Service Rifle Master class in two of the three 200yd sitting rapidfire matches: 200-11X in the Scott Trophy and 200-13X Appreciation Cup.

Bill Gibson’s 199-10X was good for 2nd place in the Civilian Service Rifle Master class of the 300yd rapidfire prone Coast Artillery Trophy (actually a tie for first broken by the separate scores in the two 100-point strings that make up the match).

Maury Krupp managed to squeeze out a Civilian Service Rifle Sharpshooter class fourth place in the 200yd slowfire standing Members Trophy with a 181-0X. His 2141-22X will move him up to Expert class by two-tenths of a percentage point.

TRC’s lone Master class Match Rifle shooter, Lee McKinney, came home with a bunch of 4th in class awards: the 800-aggregate Nevada Trophy (775-23X), Coast Guard Trophy (198-11X), Marine Corps Cup (198-9X), and the 600yd slowfire prone Crowell Trophy (197-8X).

"Maury Krupp"

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by luiten published on August 22, 2005 9:48 AM.

Tucson 600 Yard Match Results - July was the previous entry in this blog.

Tucson Smallbore Results - Sept is the next entry in this blog.

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