PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Having passed muster at the 2010 CMP Eastern and Western Games, the Vintage Sniper Match has been approved as the newest match and will be sponsored by Hornady Manufacturing at the 2011 CMP National Trophy and CMP Games Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio.
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With targets 600 yards in the distance, shooters of vintage military rifles must rely on their observer/coaches and knowledge of shooting conditions to give themselves an opportunity to score well in the new Vintage Sniper Match.
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The match is a challenging prone slow-fire, two-person team event, fired at 300 and 600 yards using scoped vintage military rifles of the Korean War era and earlier. After firing sighters at the 300-yard line, both team members get an opportunity to fire 10 shots at a target that is exposed for only 20 seconds per shot. Targets are pulled and marked after each shot and the target rises again after a 20-second period. The team’s observer/coach may call out sight adjustments or “Kentucky Windage” corrections as needed prior to the following shot until firing is complete.
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Teammates in the Vintage Sniper Test Match prepare to switch places from shooter to observer in an event which requires good communication and marksmanship in order to score well.
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After the first 10 shots are fired the shooter and the observer/coach are given time to switch positions, make ready and repeat the same sequence. Upon completion of fire at 300, teams move back to the 600 yard line and fire the course again.
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Noble Hathaway, president of the Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association, prepares to take aim from 600 yards with his vintage Springfield military rifle using a ladder sight. Though non-scoped rifles will be permitted at the 2011 National Vintage Sniper Match, priority for squadding will be given to competitors with scoped rifles first. |
Wind conditions, with gusts of 10 miles per hour or more, falling off to nothing at times at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility made for challenging shooting at 600 yards.
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Marc Mustafa, 57, of Littleton, Colorado said he enjoyed the Vintage Sniper Test Match because “he likes to move.” Used to shooting elk across the canyons in his home state, Mustafa said the new match format is right up his alley. “It’s the bomb,” he said.
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Because the match was a test event, each team member was given 15 shots for record at the Western Games but that total will be reduced to 10 (20 total) in the official match in 2011 for expediency.
Achievement awards were not presented following the test match, but the top three teams were acknowledged for their efforts. A total of 14 teams participated and their results may be found on CMP’s Competition Tracker online.
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Dave Emary, left, Chief Ballistic Scientist at Hornady Manufacturing, and his teammate Bob Schanen were the unofficial winners of the CMP Western Games Vintage Sniper Test Match at Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix.
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The team of Dave Emary, 52, of St. Paul, Nebraska and Bob Schanen, 62, of Brookfield, Wisconsin placed first with a total aggregate score of 559-11X out of 600 possible. Emary fired 141-2X and Schanen 148-4X at 300 yards and the tandem fired matching 135’s at 600 yards with Emary scoring five Xs.
Glendale “Don” Rutherford, 58 of Tallapoosa, Georgia and Brad Donoho, 26, of Sandusky, Ohio fired a team aggregate score of 547-7X for second place. Rutherford fired 142-1X and Donoho 137-1X at 300 and Rutherford shot another 142 at 600 with 4X and Donoho fired a 126-1X at 600.
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David Van Bramer prepares to send a round down range at the 2010 Vintage Sniper Test Match. Van Bramer and his teammate David Tehan placed third in the test match.
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David Tehan, 52, of Cohasset, California and teammate David Van Bramer, 50, of Friendswood, Texas scored 534-1X for third place. Tehan fired 145-1X at 300 and 131-2X at 600 yards and his partner; Van Bramer, fired a 140-1X and 115-0X at 300 and 600 yards, respectively.
Emary, chief ballistic scientist at Hornady Manufacturing, said he proposed the idea for the match several years ago as a way to include many of the vintage sniper rifles that are in circulation but have no official format for shooting them, he said.
For complete results of the Vintage Sniper Test Match and all matches fired at the 2010 CMP Western Games Matches, log onto
http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=6118.
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