2005 celebrated the 15th year that the NYSRPA has been holding Small Arms Firing Schools in the Spring. Created by SGM Joseph Considine USA SF, Retired, the program was originally held at the Peconic River Sportsman’s Club on Long Island and continues to be held there as well as at Camp Smith in Peekskill, NY for the past 10 years. Fondly known as the “SAFS,” the NYSRPA program annually runs a total of from 225-275 participants through the two events each spring. The program is open to all and approximately one-third of the participants are juniors. The mix of participants in attendance for the two-day events include people of all ages and occupations, with the common bond being the desire to learn about highpower rifle competition, in particular highpower civilian service rifle competition. Every year in April, members of the NYSRPA Service Rifle Team, local highpower competitors and select others unselfishly give up one or two of their weekends to help make these events the success they are. The highpower competitor is a special breed of shooter and can often be found helping others find their way in the sport of highpower.
The NYSRPA SAFS focuses solely on Service Rifle Competition and includes instruction on the M16/AR15, M14/M1A and M1 Garand. While many competitors brought their own rifles, loaner rifles were made available for those who needed them.
In 2005, the NYSRPA SAFS were held April 9-10 at Camp Smith and April 30-May 1 at Peconic River Sportsman’s Club. Participants are instructed to arrive between 0645 and 0745 for a prompt start of the classroom portion of the program at 0800. After signing in, they were directed to find a seat and settle in for the start of what will be a busy day. Promptly at 0800 the full house was told to rise for the playing of the National Anthem and the education began.
Following an introduction, over the next eight hours (plenty of breaks provided!) students received an in-depth education on what highpower competition is and how and where to compete. Specific topics included:
- An introduction to Highpower Competition
- Safety
- Building proper Highpower shooting positions
- Aiming
- Breathing
- Trigger Control
- Proper use of Sights
- Sight Alignment
- Range and Pit Operations
Yes, a lunch break was included, right after the section on Trigger Control. For the afternoon segment, participants were divided into two groups, with half moving outdoors to the field for the first portion of the afternoon to work on dry-fire exercises under the close instruction of volunteers and half remaining in the classroom. The groups were rotated after about two hours and then brought together again in the classroom for a quick recap before departing for the day.
This may seem like a lot of material to cover in a short time, but it was presented in well laid out Power Point presentations with numerous breaks provided. The presenters for the event included top competitors from the NYSRPA team, most of whom are Distinguished Riflemen. The use of a variety of presenters and styles helped the classroom portion to flow smoothly and keep it interesting. In addition, also included were numerous props such as actual targets for demonstrating pit operations and live demonstrators and photos for demonstrating positions. Should the participants be concerned about sitting through and absorbing all this material in one day, we do constantly remind them that this is only an introduction to highpower competition and be it at the event’s live-fire portion or at future matches, experienced competitors will ALWAYS be willing to help them to continue their education and reinforce what they have learned at the SAFS.
On Sunday morning, again promptly at 7:00AM, participants arrive, this time at the 200 yard line on the rifle range, and received their squadding for the live-fire portion of the SAFS. With one-to-one instruction, participants are run through a basic National Match Highpower course of fire, preceded by 10 sighting shots. The live-fire begins with prone slow-fire, then prone rapid-fire, sitting rapid fire and finishes with 10 shots from the standing position. While at a typical highpower match competitors will shoot the rapid-fire segment by going from a standing to prone or standing to sitting position, for safety reasons ALL participants at the SAFS remain in position. Only a few couldn’t properly handle sitting and/or standing and they were kept in prone to complete the course.
For the 2005 event, all participants were able to complete the course and following the end of firing received a certificate acknowledging their successful participation. With this certificate in hand they now not only had the knowledge to compete in highpower, but they also are now eligible to purchase M1 and other rifles from the Civilian Marksmanship Program. Additional pictures from the 2005 NYSAFS can be viewed at http://www.odcmp.com/Photos/05/NYSAFS/index.htm.
While the dates are not set yet for 2006, if you live in the northeast, are interested in highpower rifle competition, either with a service or match rifle, have competed in the past and want a reintroduction to the sport, or just want to increase your skills, please set aside a weekend in April and try and attend one of the NYSRPA Small Arms Firing Schools. Information on the NYSRPA programs are posted and updated regularly at http://www.nyhighpower.com or if you have any specific questions please feel free to email us at iruderman@nysrpa.org. |
