The 2008 Junior Smallbore Camp Awards photos

During the Smallbore Rifle Phase in the National Matches at Camp Perry, the Junior Smallbore Camp was held from July 19 to July 24. The awards ceremony for this camp took place on Thursday, July 24 before the NRA Smallbore Awards Ceremony, so the juniors had a seperate designated time to receive recognition for their accomplishments.

I took photos from that event, which are in this online album.

Camp Perry Retired Marines Banquet

Last night the Camp Perry Retired Marines held a benefit-banquet which featured a dinner and about $15,000 in door prizes. The banquet was held at the Camp Perry Clubhouse with more than 400 people were in attendance. I've posted a photo album of the shots that I took at the banquet last night.

The mission of the Camp Perry Retired Marines is to thoroughly support junior competitive shooting. They strive to educate and financially support junior shooters involved in high power competitions. For more information on this organization, visit their Web site.

Preliminary Results for the High Power Whistler Boy Team Match

The Whistler Boy High Power Team Trophy Match was the first event in the NRA High Power Phase of the National Matches and took place yesterday. The Match started at about 7:30 a.m. and was completed by 2:00 p.m. This match was very similar to the Smallbore Whistler Boy Match. 144 junior competitors were broken up into 72 teams, where each team had two shooters, and an optional coach and captain. Each competitor shot two sighting shots from 200, 300 and 600 yards.

Finishing in first place, The Arizona Juniors Gold Team shot a score of 964-24X. The team was comprised of Tyler Rico, 486-12X, and Andrew Swazey, 478-12X.

In second place was Team WSRPA Bad Applettes-Shew with a score of 963-23X. Team members from Washington, Jennifer Nyberg scored 486-15X and Kelsi Unangst shot 477-11X.

The team from Raleigh, N.C., Sir Walter Seen finished in third place with a score of 961-27X. Christopher Hudock shot a score of 484-16X and Mark Nations scored 477-11X.

The Whistler Boy High Power Trophy Team Match was sponsored by Bushmaster Firearms. Results are not final. Below are photos that were taken throughout the match.

toledoblade.com: Gibsonburg man wins smallbore prone title at Camp Perry

X marks the spot for Kevin Nevius of Gibsonburg, who has fired his way to his first national smallbore rifle prone championship in the 2008 National Rifle and Pistol Matches at Camp Perry.

Nevius, who has been winning matches and sub-championships in the prone, or flat-on-your-stomach position, since at least 1997, last week took the top smallbore or .22 prize with a winning score of 6387-475X out of a possible 6400. A total of 291 shooters competed in smallbore prone.

Steve Pollick is The Blade's Outdoor Editor. To read the entire story, click here.

Up Close With Ryan Castonguay

The NRA/Springfield Armory M1A Rifle Match will take place on Sunday, August 3 at Camp Perry. In last year’s match, more than 500 competitors took over the range to win top honors and $25,000 in cash and prizes. Seventeen-year-old Ryan Castonguay made his mark in history as he was named Champion in the 2007 debut of the Springfield M1A Match.

I met up with Ryan on the range today as he was competing in the Whistler Boy High Power Trophy Team Match. Ryan, a resident of New Hartford, Conn., will compete in the M1A Match again this year.

As I spoke with Ryan, he talked modestly about what he anticipates to achieve at Camp Perry. Now as an 18-year-old, he hopes to finish within the top three of the M1A Match, which will be conducted at Camp Perry for the second time in the history of the match. He said that he isn’t shooting as well as he did last year, but he’s confident with his performance because of the amount practice he has done in preparation to this year’s National Matches.

Although he is involved with many shooting clubs from home, Ryan traveled to Camp Perry with the Connecticut State Rifle and Revolver Association. Other than focusing on high power rifles, Ryan also shoots smallbore rifles and is becoming acquainted with pistols.

Below are photos of Ryan that were taken today on the range.

3-Position Championship Awards Photos

We've received a request to create an album of the photographs that I took at the 2008 3-Position Championship Awards Banquet. This was back on Saturday, July 19. View the album or watch the slideshow below.

2008 CMP Event Photos

Our friends who run the Civilian Marksmanship Program have a photo page, which catalogs this year's CMP matches.

Shooting -- A Lifetime Sport

Brent Greer over at The Ready Line has some nice analysis about shooting at Camp Perry. Check it out...
http://thereadyline.blogspot.com/2008/07/shooting-lifetime-sport.html

The Breda Fallacy: Camp Perry!

Breda blogged about her recent visit to Camp Perry...
http://thebredafallacy.blogspot.com/2008/07/camp-perry.html

Free NRA membership for active-duty members of our Armed Services

Taken from our website ...

On behalf of the nearly four million members of the National Rifle Association of America, thank you for serving our country! We deeply appreciate your sacrifice, and would like to offer you a complimentary one-year membership in the NRA as a token of our gratitude and respect. Your membership will include all regular benefits of membership, including a subscription to your choice of our three flagship magazines.

If you are not an active-duty member of our Armed Services, but would like to continue to help NRA provide FREE memberships, please click here.

If you are an active-duty member of our Armed Services, please complete all fields on this form in order to receive your free membership. Please understand that this offer is open only to active-duty personnel. Thank you ... And welcome to the NRA!

Visit www.nra.org/SupportOurTroops for more information.

Photos from the 2008 Smallbore Prone Championship

This is one of the best photos that I took from last night. Here are some more of the photos that I took. Some of them just did not come out OK and if one of those photos is yours, I apologize.

So what's next for the 2008 National Rifle and Pistol Championships? CMP week will begin and the NRA portion will be on hiatus at least until Wednesday, July 30, when the NRA Whistler Boy takes place. Steve will be covering that. I will be out at the Professional Outdoor Media Association’s 3rd Annual Business Conference in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The NRA High Power Championships kick off that Sunday with one of the best matches out here, the NRA-Springfield Match. That will be awesome match to cover, and Steve and I will do our best to give the full picture of that day.

On Monday, August 4th, the team matches will take place and NRA News will be out for another live broadcast. Cam better be ready, because I'll be bringing the big spoons to that broadcast.

Also, if you have a Facebook page, a fellow NRA blogger, Danielle, set up a new NRA group, NRA In Motion.

If any of you have any suggestions to improve this blog, just let us know. It's your blog, we're just reporting what's going on.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Mention on Accurateshooter.com

They mentioned our blog on their blog. I think that’s blogerrific.
Check out their blog here…

http://accurateshooter.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/camp-perry-match-results-available/#comment-9399

The beauty that is Lake Erie

I took a little time off after enjoying a fun two weeks of smallbore. Here’s one of the photos that I took while walking the beach of Lake Erie. I’m working at posting the award photos from last night and will have them up shortly.

Scores Final: Nevius dominates X marks

It's official: Kevin Nevius won 6387-475X. He beat Tarl Kempley 6387-468X.
David Cramer placed third with 6385-473X.

The Woman Champion is Tarl's sister, Reya, who finished 10th overall with a score of 6379-483X
Here's my take on Nevius...

Kevin Nevius was so happy when I was out there taking the shots for our magazine and the blog. I can personally say that he deserves this award. He remembers me from the first time that I came out to Camp Perry to cover this for the NRA. That was in 2006 when Kevin's close friend, Paul Gideon won the Prone Championship.

I remember being all nervous that night because it was my first time at Perry. Kevin was smiling and he looked approachable so I walked up to him and had a great interview. Kevin wasn't mad that he got 3rd place that year. He was more interested in praising his friend, Paul.

Now, in about 30 minutes Kevin will have the night to himself. It's an honor that's well-deserved.

Welcome South America!

South America became the first continent to have all of its countries view our blog.
Frankly, I wouldn’t have guessed that it would have been South America.

Preliminary Results for Match 300, 314, 346

Match 300, Smallbore Rifle Prone Championship:
1. Kevin Nevius from Gibsonburg, OH 6387-475X
2. Tarl Kempley from Carson City, NV 6387-468X
3. David Cramer from Aliquippa, PA 6385-473X
Civlian Champion: Kevin Nevius
Woman Champion: Reya Kempley from Carson City, NV 6379-438X
Senior Champion: David Cramer
Intermediate Senior Champion: Paul Gideon form Gambier, OH 6383-452X
Collegiate Champion: Kim Chrostowslki 6372-452X
Junior Champion: Mark Nations from Raleigh, NC 6379-435X
Intermediate Junior Champion: Claudia Duska from Bristol, CT 6355-414X
Sub-Junior Champion: Remington Lyman from Meriden, CT 6344-337X
Service Champion: SPC David Sprecher 6381-481X
Any Sight Only Champion: Martha Kelley from Hendersonville, NC 6359-430X
High Visitor: Jim Ward 6371-432X


Match 314, Dail 1600 Aggregate
1. David Cramer 1600-135X
2. Kevin Nevius 1600-127X
3. Tarl Kempley 1600-121X

Match 346, 50 yard any sight
1. Michael Jarboe from Rineyville, KY 400-38X
2. David Cramer 400-37X
3. Kim Chrostowski 400-37X

RESULTS ARE NOT FINAL

More photos from Camp Perry

The Dual Purpose Railway Boxcar



The M4 Sherman

More photos from Camp Perry

The Nike-Hercules Missile


The Nike-Hercules Missile

More photos from Camp Perry

The M113 Armored Personnel Carrier



The M42 Duster

More photos from Camp Perry

The Bell AH-1 Cobra



The Bell UH-1H Iroquois

More photos from Camp Perry

The M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank



The M551 GEN Sheridan

Photos of the current leader

Dan went out and took these photos of the current leader, Kevin Nevius. The resident of Gibsonburg, OH has a score of 5987-442X. Results are not final.

More photos from Camp Perry

While waiting for more results to come in, Dan and I went around base and took a few photos.


This is the new addition to Camp Perry, the air gun range. The facility is very nice, but no one was in there when we went in there.

Preliminary Results for Match 345

In Match 345, 40 Shots, 50 Meter Any-Sight Match the Preliminary Results are as follows:

1. Boyd Glodsby from England, AR scored 400-36X. He is 9th on the leader board.
2. Shawn Carpenter from Norwich, CT scored 400-34X.
3. Kevin Nevius from Gibsonburg, OH scored 400-32X.

As for the current leader board...
1. Kevin Nevus with a score of 5987-442X
2. Tarl Kempley, 5987-358X.
3. David Cramer, 5985-436X.

Before this competition, Kevin was ranked 52 overall!

Roberts Team

Since Steve is working on the laptop I thought this would be a good time to use the Volunteer Office Computer, which has Internet access, to give some background on the Roberts Team. First off I think a big kudos is in order for Beth for bringing this in for the volunteers.

Now, on to the Roberts Team ...

All Smallbore Rifle Prone competitors who compete in the 2008 National Championship Metallic Aggregate have the opportunity to be on the 2009 United States Robert’s Team.

A team of 12 competitors (10 team members plus two alternates) will be selected from the U.S. Dewar Team to comprise the U.S. Robert’s Team. Now the team is not named after Joe Roberts (camp perry joke)

The competitors selected for the Robert’s Team will be sponsored by the NRA to travel to Great Britain in August 2009. They will compete for the Lord Robert’s Trophy, Bisley Camp, Surrey, England.

Preparing for the Awards Ceremony

Later tonight after the results are final, the annual smallbore rifle prone awards ceremomy will begin here at Camp Perry. Here are a few photos in preparation for the event. The awards ceremony will take place in the theater at 9 p.m. tonight.


Allison is a stat office assistant and is helping set up the trophies.


Dick Sorrentino is the administrative officer of the National Matches and supervises the correct display of the trophies.


Emily carries a podium while arranging the overall display.

Photos of the top 3 at this point

Justin Tracy: 5785-420X


Paul Gideon: 5785-417X


David Sprecher: 5783-433X

Random shots

Mrs. Feldbusch told me not to post this photo or I would be in trouble.


This is crunch time for these guys, also.

Flags Galore

I thought this was a nice shot, after walking the line just now.

Results for Match 344

The Prliminary Results for Match 344 are in. This was the 100 yard any-sight competition, 40 shots.

The winner of the match is David Cramer from Aliquippa, Penn. with a score of 400-35X. Tied for second place with a score of 400-33X Glenn Dubis from Weston, CO and Paul Gideon from Gambier, OH with a score of.

Here is the current Leader Board:
1. Justin Tracy, 5785-420X
2. Paul Gideon, 5785-418X
3. SPC David Sprecher, 5783-433X


Results are not final.

The process of scoring targets

People may not realize the speedy and thorough process that takes place in order to efficiently score the competitors’ targets in a timely manner. Throughout the next few posts, I have set up a photo illustration of what actually happens to these targets after they are shot at from the firing line.

Line officer Jack Lee from St. Petersburg, FL collects the targets from the competitors as they remove them after each position.


Line Officers then sort through the targets to make sure that each competitor properly labeled their target. Ole Pedersen of Skanderborg, Denmark (middle) then collects the targets from the line.


Ole places the targets into a van that collects all targets from different locations on the range. The van then takes the targets to the statistical office.


In the stat office, volunteers work together to properly score targets. They use lights to get a better view of each shot.

The process of scoring targets, continued ...

Lauren Shaw, an assistant in the stat office, takes targets and enters the scores into a computer, where the scores are put in the correct order with specific software.


Assistants in the stat office work on creating the preliminary results for each competition. After the challenge period expires, they also entire in the changes and put together finalized results. There are about ten or more people who work in the stat office.


Shelly then takes the scored and entered targets over to the viewing room.



Volunteers then display each target. They are sorted by the assigned target number that the competitors shot on. This is also the location of where competitors can view their target and challenge a score if necessary.