The first official CMP National Match Air Rifle competition will take place at the new Camp Perry Marksmanship Center on 10 January 2009.

The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is developing an exciting new adult air rifle event that promises to open the doors for lots of new shooters to participate in air rifle shooting competition. If you live in the Upper Midwest and are interested in trying this new recreation-oriented target air rifle game or are a highpower rifle enthusiast who wants an off-season event to further test and improve your position shooting skills, the CMP invites you to participate in a test match for a new rifle shooting sports game called “National Match Air Rifle.” This Test Match will take place at Camp Perry, Ohio on Saturday, 10 January.

The CMP is developing National Match Air Rifle to provide an affordable, accessible form of air rifle competition that can be practiced by recreational target shooters as well as by serious competitive highpower, smallbore or air rifle shooters who seek the benefits of off-season practice and competition. Experimental work on the National Match Air Rifle events began last summer when the new Camp Perry Competition Center offered sporter and precision air rifle standing re-entry events that were contested by several hundred competitors during the 2008 National Matches Air Gun Events. The CMP Board of Directors recently approved the full implementation of this promising new air rifle game.

The 10 January test match is the first official National Match Air Rifle competition. The one-day program features courses of fire that will be familiar to National Match highpower rifle competitors. There will be 20-shot standing as well as 30- and 60-shot prone, sitting and standing events. Both will be fired on highpower rifle targets reduced for firing at 10 meters. Shooters will have the option of firing either 1) sporter class air rifles (loaner air rifles will be available), 2) precision class air rifles or 3) competition air rifles built on AR-type platforms. Two shooting sports equipment suppliers, Pilkington Competition Equipment and Creedmoor Sports, inc., are currently working on air rifles that use AR-type platforms.

This inaugural match will be held at the CMP’s new Camp Perry Marksmanship Center that offers 80 firing points equipped with state-of-the-art electronic targets and an electronic display system that allows spectators to instantly see the scores and shots of all competitors. During this match, the new provisional courses of fire and rules will be tested and evaluated. Competitors will be invited to participate in feedback sessions so that 2009 National Match Air Rifle Rules can be finalized. This is your opportunity to participate directly in the creation of a new and exciting shooting game.

The objectives of the National Match Air Rifle Program are to provide an air rifle shooting game that:

• Takes full advantage of air rifle shooting’s low cost rifles and ammunition and easily constructed ranges to make a rifle competition event that is accessible to maximum numbers of shooters.

• Is readily adaptable to indoor and wintertime shooting.

• Offers recreation-oriented sporter class competition that anyone can afford and in which inexperienced shooters can readily participate.

• Offers a competition that provides off-season training and development opportunities for highpower service rifle shooters.

• Offers an adult competition game for graduates of the popular and fast-growing junior three-position air rifle program.

• Offers an alternative adult competition for shooters who find that the costs and training demands of high performance competitive air rifle and smallbore programs conflict with the demands of their jobs and families.

In short, CMP National Match Air Rifle seeks to apply the advantages of air rifle shooting to the challenge of creating a shooting game that can attract and keep large numbers of adult competitors involved in the shooting sports.

The CMP also intends to implement an optional handicap system in conjunction with the National Match Air Rifle Program that match and league sponsors can use to equalize competitions between shooters of unequal ability; handicap systems rank match performances according to how well each competitor does in relation to his/her established average.

The official program for the 10 January National Match Air Rifle Test Match is posted on the CMP website at http://www.odcmp.com/Competitions/10Jan_New%20Program.pdf.

Register online to be part of this test event at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/matchInvRegistration.cgi?matchID=4045.

Links to the official program and online registration can also be found on the CMP homepage at http://www.odcmp.com/.