Loufish
Active member
2025 National 50 Summer Season Wrapped Up
Another solid season is in the books! We welcomed a good handful of new clubs and a bunch of fresh shooters—though we did lose a few along the way. And the Raton Championship never disappoints.
In our 4th year as a relatively new organization, we've had some growing pains, but the progress has been incredible. I'm always amazed at how quickly rimfires, air rifles and shooters have advanced, maxing out scores in several classes.
N50 Rule Changes Ahead…
Since N50's inception, factory slug guns have been virtually absent from Sportsman Class, which has long been dominated by dedicated target rimfire rifles. This past summer, we opened Sportsman to custom air slug rifles—and the results were eye-opening. Slug guns injected serious competition into the .22 LR target rifle field. Maybe "too" much. We heard your feedback, so to level the playing field:
1) Rimfires may now use “barrel devices” (tuners and mid-barrel weights).
2) Sportsman Class is now restricted to .22 caliber only (both rimfire and air slugs).
“Line Lickers” are out too. The old "reshoot if the miss touches a target box line" rule is eliminated across all classes. We've been hearing about this one since Day 1. From now on, a shot in the white (outside the bull) scores a 5.
We'll run these changes through the Winter Season as a trial, then possibly lock in a permanent rule set for Summer 2026. We are considering making .224 scoring plug the rule for Sportsman class. We'll monitor that idea.
Onward to the N50 Winter Season – good luck!
N50 BODs
Another solid season is in the books! We welcomed a good handful of new clubs and a bunch of fresh shooters—though we did lose a few along the way. And the Raton Championship never disappoints.
In our 4th year as a relatively new organization, we've had some growing pains, but the progress has been incredible. I'm always amazed at how quickly rimfires, air rifles and shooters have advanced, maxing out scores in several classes.
N50 Rule Changes Ahead…
Since N50's inception, factory slug guns have been virtually absent from Sportsman Class, which has long been dominated by dedicated target rimfire rifles. This past summer, we opened Sportsman to custom air slug rifles—and the results were eye-opening. Slug guns injected serious competition into the .22 LR target rifle field. Maybe "too" much. We heard your feedback, so to level the playing field:
1) Rimfires may now use “barrel devices” (tuners and mid-barrel weights).
2) Sportsman Class is now restricted to .22 caliber only (both rimfire and air slugs).
“Line Lickers” are out too. The old "reshoot if the miss touches a target box line" rule is eliminated across all classes. We've been hearing about this one since Day 1. From now on, a shot in the white (outside the bull) scores a 5.
We'll run these changes through the Winter Season as a trial, then possibly lock in a permanent rule set for Summer 2026. We are considering making .224 scoring plug the rule for Sportsman class. We'll monitor that idea.
Onward to the N50 Winter Season – good luck!
N50 BODs