NRA F-Class Championship: Walt's Day 2 Write-up

Board member Walt Walters is back with more from the NRA's F-class National Championships, held at the Winnaquah Gun Club range in Lodi, Wisconsin.

"Wednesday started out as a very cold day. It was 40ºF with the sky overcast and light winds out of the northeast. Today was National Championship team day with four-man team matches at 600 and 1000 yards with the “Berger Trophy” awarded to the team with the highest aggregate of both the matches. Also fired concurrently was the Europe USA Challenge Match with 8 man teams vying for the F-Open trophy, the “J.J. Conway Trophy,” and the F-T/R teams vying for the “Farquarson Trophy.” These will be awarded to the winners at the awards ceremony on Saturday at the completion of the national championship.

At 600 yards Team Spindle, coached by Emil Praslick, took an early lead and never looked back. They finished that yard line dropping just 3 points, which won them the “Skip Talbot Trophy.” Their final score was 797-49x. In the runner-up spot was USFC Team Berger scoring 794-45x. Highlights on team Berger were Larry Bartholome and Robert Bock both posting 200’s adding 15 x and 14 x respectively. During the firing the wind picked up slightly varying in velocity and direction just enough to give all the coaches fits in keeping up with the changes.

The teams all moved back to 1000 yards with firing commencing around 11:15am. Shawn Ahrens once again lead his team off to a great start posting an outstanding score of 200-10x’s. He finished the day with an aggregate score of 400-21x. Team Spindle once again led the way firing a 793-32x to win the “Shiraz Balolia Trophy.”

High F-T/R team was Team Sinclair scoring 1544-47x.

For the Europe USA Challenge Match, Team USA forged out ahead early and was never behind in the match. The USA Open Team opened at 600 yards only 32 points down while Team Europe lost 52 points in the initial stage. Open Team USA closed 51 points down at 1000 yards and ended with a final score of 3117-121x to win the “J.J.” Conway Trophy.”

F-T/R Team USA forged to an insurmountable lead at 600 yards dropping only 17 points while F-T/R Team Europe lost a huge number of points, namely 68 points, and the lead was then insurmountable. Final scores for the “Farquarson Trophy” were USA 1535-50x, Europe 1447-16x. It was a great win for F-T/R Team USA with a balanced effort from all shooters.

Tomorrow’s shooting will be the first day of individual competition with the course of fire being 3 matches firing 15 rounds for record."

Check back tomorrow for additional updates and photos.

*Photo courtesy of Mr. Walters.