NRA F-Class Championship: Walt's Day 4 Write-up

It’s Friday already and we are just one day from completion of the F-class national championships. Today was the first day of 1000-yard competition. The weather cooperated today with clear skies, temperatures beginning in the low thirties rising to the high fifties. Wind was light to medium in strength but very tricky to read as it was shifting direction very quickly from 200 yards to the targets. Three matches were fired with each 15 shots for record. It was possible to score 450-45x. Going into today’s F-T/R competition Danny Biggs was leading with his score of 444-19x. After the day’s firing was completed, Danny was still leading with an aggregate score of 868-24x, having fired individual match scores of 140-0x, 141-1x and 143-4x, for a day’s total of 424-5x. That was 2 points better than Darrell Buell’s aggregate score of 866-18x. It appears the championship will be determined amongst 4 competitors in that there are only three others within 5 points of Danny.

In the F-open championship the day began with Bob Bock leading with his score of 444-22x. Bob was knocked out of first place by Nick Taylor who fired three scores of 150-7x, 150-6x and 145-3x for a daily aggregate score of 445-16x. Larry Bartholome, Jim Murphy, and Bret Solomon bested Bob Bock’s score and also moved up in the overall aggregate for the championship. Charles Ballard started being noticed as a contender for the championship when he moved up in the standings firing three excellent scores of 150-8x, 149-8x, and 149-8x to post the best aggregate of the day, 448-24x. Going into Saturday, Charles is just 1 point behind Nick with Mike Downey in third just 4 points out of first. There are just 5 shooters within 6 points of the top score and the championship will probably be decided amongst those 6 competitors.

NRA F-Class Championship: Walt's Day 3 Write-up Competitive Shooting

It's day three at the NRA's F-class National Championships at the Winnaquah Gun Club range in Lodi, Wisconsin, and NRA Board member H.J. "Walt” Walter is once again serving as our NRAblog.com correspondent:

Today was 600-yard day at the F-class nationals. Three matches with five relays were fired. There were 34 F-T/R shooters as well as 83 F-Open shooters.

Today’s weather was almost a repeat of yesterday. The temperature was once again in the low 40s; however, the winds were howling just a little bit more that yesterday. Many competitors were exasperated and had no coach to help, as this was individual match day. Most points were lost today due to the inability of the competitors to keep up with the wind changes.

In Match #1, Brad Farrell, an F-T/R shooter, led the way firing a 150-9x (with a perfect score being a 150-15x). In the F-Open category Shawn Ahrens had a perfect 150-13x. During the firing of this match the wind cooperated and was not bad to neither read nor keep up with the changes. Beginning with Match #2 the wind was a different story. It picked up in velocity and was tricky at times to read and keep up with the changes. At the completion of firing Dale Rathwell had the high F-T/R score firing a fine 148.7x. Open shooters Larry Bartholome, John Gaines and Bryan Otey all chimed in firing a perfect 150 with 10x.

Match #3, the final match of the day, saw the wind calm down and be more forgiving on the shooters. However, only Rick Jensen fired a perfect score firing a 150-8x.

In the aggregate for today’s 600-yard matches consisting of Matches #1, #2 & #3, F-T/R shooter Danny J. Biggs, firing 149-7x, 149-5x and 146-7 triumphed over all other F-T/R shooters, establishing an aggregate score of 444-19x. In the F-Open category, Robert Bock scored 150-9x, 150-6x and 149-7x respectively to end the day with and aggregate of 449-22x and was declared match winner.

Gong into the first day of 1000-yard matches the F-Open shooters have 15 competitors bunched up less than 7 points off the pace. F-T/R shooters on the other hand have only 4 competitors within 7 points of the leader. Tomorrow and Saturday will be the 1000-yard phases of the national championship and anything is possible but those within the 7 points of the leader are in the best position to overtake the leader.

Don't go anywhere! Tomorrow Walt will once again report live from Lodi, Wisconsin.

NPSC Match Results

The match results from the 2008 National Police Shooting Championships are now available online.

NRA Women's Wilderness Escape: 2008 Scrapbook

Want to see what the 2008 NRA Women's Wilderness Escape was like? Just take a look at this scrapbook!

The Wilderness Escape provides women 18 and older with a nine-day "get away" opportunity to experience the softer side of firearm education with exposure to a wide variety of shooting sports, hunting, and outdoor activities. It's hosted at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico.

The Women's Wilderness Escape will return to the Whittington Center on September 24 - October 2, 2009. Space is limited to just fifty participants, and reservations will fill quickly — so request an NRA Women's Wilderness Escape information packet and application today!

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.

NRA F-Class Championship: Walt's Day 1 Write-up

NRA Board Member Howard "Walt" Walter, who I had the honor of meeting during Camp Perry, was kind enough to contact NRAblog.com with a report from the frontlines of the NRA's F-class National Championships, held at the Winnaquah Gun Club range in Lodi, Wisconsin.

Read Walt's Write-up below:

"I left Flat Rock, North Carolina, and after two long days of travel arrived at the Best Western Motel in Lodi which will be our base of operations for the next 7 days. Yesterday and today were devoted to practice with competitors firing both 600 and 1000-yard distances with an added bonus of an exotic 15 rounds at 1200 yards.

We kicked off the activities on Monday evening at a local restaurant with a “meet and greet” where the United States Team hosted Team Europe and various VIPs, including our own NRA president John Sigler.

Tomorrow will be the team matches. 4-man teams will vie for honors in both open class as well as TR class. In conjunction with these teams there will be an International team match with the USA matched against the European team in both Open and TR categories. The Open teams will be 8-man while the TR teams will be 4-man teams. Distances fired will be 600 and 1000 yards.

The European contingent consists of 10 Republic of Ireland and 9 British shooters. They are all seasoned F-class shooters and will present team USA with a formidable challenge.

Awards were presented for the three stage aggregate match with two members of the North State Shooting Club placing first and second respectively. Nick Taylor, current president of the out of Butner, North Carolina, took high honors at 1200 Yards after firing a range record of 146-7xs."

Check back tomorrow for additional updates and photos.

*Photo courtesy of Mr. Walters.