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Even High Winds Can’t Keep Shooters from Rimfire Sporter Success!

By Dale Miles, CMP Staff Writer
20-30 mph nor’easter winds made the 3rd National Rimfire Sporter Match at Camp Perry especially challenging to all 143 competitors.
For shooters new to the competition world, coming to Camp Perry can be daunting. Many think that you have to be a potential national champion to compete there. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. To foster more smallbore rifle shooting and to encourage new participants in the National Matches, the CMP created the Rimfire Sporter Match in 2002. The 3rd National Rimfire Sporter Match took place on July 24th. 143 participants experienced just why Camp Perry is considered one of the most challenging places to shoot in the United States – wind!

With a 20 to 30 miles per hour nor’easter coming in from Lake Erie, competition began with the hopes that as the day progressed and warmed, the wind would die. This was not to be. Shooters resigned themselves to the fact that the wind was there to stay and settled in to shoot.

Two Rimfire Sporter competitors fire in the standing position. The shooter on the left is firing an open-sighted rifle in the O-Class. The second shooter is firing a scope sighted rifle, which placed him in the T-Class.
One of the interesting aspects of this ever-growing match is the variety of rifles found on the firing line. Shooters brought everything from semi-custom rifles by Kimber and Cooper, to the ever popular Ruger 10-22 and Marlin Model 60 to the Romanian military surplus .22s now being imported into this country. There also were several CZ 452s and even a couple of Marlin Model 39A lever actions. It is this wide variety of commonly-owned rifles that can be successfully used in this match that makes it attractive to new shooters. They truly can shoot the old squirrel rifle that was stored in the closet.

 

Ron Springsteen from Otsego, Michigan fired the high score in the 2004 Rimfire Sporter Match. He compiled his 583 total while shooting with a Thompson-Center 22 Classic.
Once scores began to come in after the first relay, it was evident to Match Director and Director of Civilian Marksmanship, Gary Anderson, that the wind was having a significant effect on the scores. To compensate for the lower scores being fired, Anderson made the decision to lower medal cutoff scores to reflect the difficulty the shooters were having. Still, at day’s end there were some outstanding scores fired – scores that would have been excellent on a calm day! Ronald Springsteen of Otsego, Michigan sat high atop the leader board in the telescopic sight class with his score of 583. Mr. Springsteen placed second in the Rimfire Sporter Match here at Camp Perry last year and was one of the first two shooters to shoot a score higher than 590 in the match. In the open sight category of the match, Robert Elka of Willis, Michigan fired a 567 to better the next highest score by 22 points. In the junior divisions, Clint Sejkora of Burchard, Nebraska was the top junior firing a scoped rifle with a score of 561. In the O-Class junior competition, Nicholas Meekins of Lusby, Maryland fired a 533 to best all other juniors with open sights.

It is encouraging to see such scores on a day that was more suited to kite flying than to firing a rifle match. It was more encouraging still to see the number of participants that turned out for the event. In 2002 when the inaugural Rimfire Sporter Match was held during the National Matches, 43 shooters participated. In 2003, that number reached 100. This year’s event continued this trend of growth with 143 competitors trying their hand at this fun and challenging event. For more information on the Rimfire Sporter Matches, or to find out how to hold a Rimfire Sporter Match, download the CMP Guide to Rimfire Sporter Shooting at http://www.odcmp.com/Competitions/rimfire.pdf. To see complete results of this year’s National Rimfire Sporter Match at Camp Perry, go to http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=273.

 
A full relay of Rimfire Sporter competitors fires at 50 yard targets in the prone position on the vast Camp Perry ranges.

 

CMP Armorer Scott Woody and Range Officer John Hoffman tape a variable power scope to restrict magnification to no more than 6X as part of the pre-match rifle inspection.  Triggers are weighed and must lift three pounds.   Safe gun handling is stressed in all CMP competition events.  Rifle actions must be open at all times except during actual firing on the line.  Open bolt indicators must be inserted to demonstrate that the action is open and the chamber empty.  Shooters always carry rifles on the range with muzzles up.

 

34 Juniors participated in the 2004 National Rimfire Sporter Match.   Rimfire Sporter competitors fire a rapid fire series in the sitting position.  Shooters can elect to fire in either sitting or kneeling, but most choose the sitting position.

Rimfire Sporter shooters move up to the 25 yard line to fire standing slow and rapid fire stages. After Rimfire Sporter T-shirts and achievement medals were passed out, the match ended with a bratwurst and hotdog cook-out for everyone.