USARB Nationals Results

[Renegade]

Man, what a weekend! Mother Nature threw the book at us, with 10-15mph sustained winds gusting to 20+ mph with temps in the low 60's on Friday for Open Class, then a beautiful late summer day Saturday with light but switchy winds and temps starting out at 32 degrees for LV class but warming up nicely to 70 degrees by the start of HV class in the afternoon, followed by a cold, rainy day in the low 50's for Springer class on Sunday.

We had shooters from Florida, Texas, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine in attendance, and I think most of the shooters enjoyed the experience of shooting the first fairly contested USARB Nationals. It was the first Nationals that each shooter shot every target from a different bench, and we pulled it off pretty well, if I do say so myself. 20 minutes to shoot, 20 minutes to move equipment and get set at the bench, and it went like clockwork. We shot 12 relays on Sat., starting at 8:15am and finishing by 4:30pm with an hour lunch break with protest period and awards for the LV match before starting the HV match.

All targets were scored by our very experienced Rimfire BR Match Director, Pete Roberson, with help from John French the first day and Marti Hicks, Ken’s wife, on days two and three. John was delivering his homemade chili to the range in the front trunk of his Can Am Spider motorcycle on Thursday morning when he hit a deer, destroying the front of the bike and spreading our chili for 150 yards down the road. He’s ok but sore, and his wife whipped up another batch for us that was a hit with everyone who tried it. A big THANKS!!! to all of them for their help!

I would also like to thank Rick Ingraham, who decided last week to buy an Omega Supercharger from Airguns of Arizona, and they were kind enough to pay the overnight shipping so we could have it in time for the Nationals. It worked great and saved us from having to rent tanks from the nearest dive shop, 30 miles from the range. My friend Ray Primeau was kind enough to stop by and cook lunch for us on Saturday. He’s not even a member of the club. Thanks Ray!!!

We gave away some great prizes by random drawing after the HV match on Saturday. John Eroh walked away with a brand new Sightron Siii 10-50x60 scope, complete with illuminated FT reticle, side wheel, eye cup and neoprene scope cover, total value well over $1500. Chas DiCapua scored a $400 Aztec Emerald 5.5-25X scope donated by AOA, who also send three sets of Sportsmatch scope rings and a scope level, as well as some other smaller prizes. Paul Bendix donated $100 that Chris Peet won. Chris decided to attend the match last Monday and drove from Texas, arriving at the range by mid day Wed!
Other prize donors were BKL, who sent 14 sets of rings, half of which we gave away at the NE Regional and half at this event, Predator International sent 2 sleeves of JSB 8.4gr pellets, and Pyramyd Air donated 10 tins of JSB Monsters. Thanks to all of our sponsors, and please consider them for future purchases!

I wish I had time to take pictures, hopefully some folks will post some of the ones they took. Here is a link to a video montage that Dan Carpenter put together for his Youtube channel- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NNyZrYc0QQ

Here are the complete results in the order the matches were shot

Open Class
1-Paul Bendix- (Sumo .22) 244-8X, 242-5X, 245-9X= 731-22X
2- Chris Sloan- (Thomas .177) 246-5X, 245-10X, 239-7X=730-22X
3- Todd Banks-(RAW TM-1000X, 18fpe) 236-7X, 243-4X, 243-6X= 722-17X
4- Rick Ingraham- (Sumo .22) 237-7X, 242-2X, 240-7X=719-16X
5- Chas DiCapua- (RAW .177) 237-10X, 239-3X, 243X-2X=719-15X
6- Chris Peet-(RAW .177) 237-5X, 238-9X, 243-6X=718-20X
7- Steve Brookhouse- (RAW TM-1000X) 243-10X, 232-5X, 243-4X =718-19X
8- Dave Shattuck- (RAW .22) 236-6X, 243-10X, 238-5X=717-21X
9- Gerry Beaudoin- (Thomas .177) 236-2X, 237-6X, 240-8X =713-16X
10- Frank Mendola- (Thomas .177) 231-3X, 240-9X, 242-4X = 713-16X
11- Mark Marini- (Thomas .177) 237-5X, 238-6X, 237-3X =712-14X
12- Howard Williams- (Steyr) 236-8X, 231-2X, 223-2X =690-12X
13- Ken Hicks- (RAW .177) 223-1X, 233-4X, 232-3X = 688-8X
14- Dan Carpenter (RAW .177) 227-6X, 214-2X, 237-3X = 678-11X

Light Varmint
1-Mark Marini- (Thomas) 248-11X, 246-9X, 246-8X =740-28X
2- Todd Banks- (RAW) 247-6X, 246-8X, 241-8X = 734-22X
3- Ken Hicks- (RAW) 245-3X, 241-6X, 247-6X =733-15X
4- Pete Wass- (EV-2) 241-4X, 246-9X, 237-4X =724-17X
5- Paul Bendix- (Thomas) 246-9X, 237-3X, 236-6X = 719-18X
6- Chris Sloan- (Thomas) 239-5X, 239-7X, 237-7X =715-19X
7- Nathan Thomas- (FWB 800?) 236-3X, 238-2X, 240-9X = 714-14X
8- Dave Shattuck- (Thomas) 237-2X, 235-6X, 239-8X = 711-16X
9- John Eroh (AA?) 238-5X, 235-4X, 238-4X = 711-13X
10- Steve Brookhouse (CZ200S) 231-4X, 240-3X, 236-3X = 707-10X
11- Roody Joseph (RAW) 237-7X, 237-4X, 229-3X = 703-14X
12- Chas DiCapua ( ?) 238-3X, 236-2X, 229-6X = 703- 11X
13- Brian Van Liew (Hammerli) 238-4X, 234-2X, 224- 3X = 696-9X
14- Frank Mendola (Thomas) 241-3X, 234-3X, 221-2X = 696-8X
15- Rick Ingraham (Dawson) 225-1X, 231-2X, 231-1X = 687-4X

Heavy Varmint
1-Paul Bendix- (Thomas) 248-11X, 245-12X, 246-14X = 739-37X
2-Ken Hicks- (RAW) 244-9X, 246-11X, 247-17X = 737-37X
3-Steve Brookhouse (RAW) 245-6X, 246-10X, 246-11X = 737-27X
4-Todd Banks (RAW) 243-7X, 245-8X, 247-5X = 735-20X
5-Chris Peet- (RAW) 244-7X, 245-11X, 244-15X = 733-33X
6-Chas DiCapua- (RAW) 239-10X, 243-10X, 249-14X = 731-34X
7-Mark Marini- (Thomas) 239-13X, 245-8X, 247-12X = 731-33X
8-Gerry Beaudoin-(Thomas) 241-10X, 244-9X, 243-6X = 728-25X
9-Frank Mendola - (Thomas) 246-7X, 242-10X, 240-7X = 728-24X
10-Chris Sloan- (Thomas) 243-11X, 242-8X, 240-5X = 725-24X
11-Rick Ingraham – (Rapid?) 244-5X, 239-7X, 234-2X = 717-14X
12-Brian Van Liew- (FX400FT) 236-5X, 238-2X, 242-6X = 716-13X
13-Bill Day- (Thomas) 240-10X, 236-6X, 235-5X = 711-21X
14-John Eroh- (AA) 240-3X, 234-7X, 232-5X = 706-15X
15-Dave Shattuck- (Thomas) 237-7X, 228-4X, 237-4X = 702-15X
16-Nathan Thomas- (FWB800) 232-5X, 234-5X, 235-3X = 701-13X
17-Howard Williams- (Steyr) 230-1X, 225-4X, 230-5X = 685- 10X
18-Roody Joseph- (Dawson) 225-4X, 237-3X, 221-2X = 683-9X

Springer (all shooters shot FWB300’s)
1-Chris Sloan- 233 -2X, 234-7X, 234-1X = 701-10X
2-Ken Hicks- 229-4X, 234-3X, 230-2X = 693-9X
3-Nathan Thomas- 238-5X, 224-3X, 230-6X = 692-14X
4-Bill Day- 226-3X, 228-1X, 233-2X = 687-6X
5-Pete Wass- 218-1X, 225-4X, 223-7X = 666-12X

Besides the official USARB classes, we also awarded trophies for the overall LV, HV, and Open agg. Here are the top five ( I was tired, didn't bother adding up the X's)

1-Todd Banks- 2191
2-Paul Bendix- 2189
3-Mark Marini- 2183
4-Chris Sloan- 2170
5-Steve Brookhouse- 2162

 

[RIng]

I had a great time , making new friends and seeing old ones . After 5 years of not shooting nether me or my equipment was ready . Thanks to Tod and all who helped . It was a very well rune shoot . Hope to see you all at a range some time soon .

 

[chks]

Thanks Todd for a well run match, interesting weather, and a fun time! Hope to get back to Salem for more matches!

 

[John in Ma]

Thanks again

Ihad a great time at what I will consider one of the best run matches I've been to. Thank you Todd and the rest of the crew for making it happen. I would also like to thank Sightron for the great scope as well.

 

[KimZ]

"first fairly contested USARB Nationals"

I don't agree that this is a fair generalization. In fact it is an over-simplification.

The international matches rotate. Presumably the rationale for changing benches between cards is that some benches have a persistent advantage (less wind, more predictable wind) over others. While this may be true on average for some ranges, it certainly isn't true for all ranges under all conditions. In fact, moving benches could - by chance - help shooters who happen to sequentially draw the easiest benches as the wind changes during a match.

I shoot at Open Grove (Oxnard), which has 14 benches. During the year I shoot from benches on the extreme left side of the range, the extreme right, and the middle. I have noticed no persistent advantage to any position, and that match wins for me and others are shot from various positions without a clear advantage. (eg at last year's Nationals, which had tough wind conditions, I was 1st in HV from near the middle of the range - which if anything was more wind-exposed)

One way to test this would be to average many scores shot from different benches and do statistical analysis to check for differences in mean score. What if you did this and found (say) three benches that historically out-perform. And how fair is it if one shooter draws those three benches for a match?

The point is that true empirical fairness (in a shooting match...or anything for that matter) is difficult to determine, and "equalization" is a slippery slope.

The recent Nationals looks to have been a great event with lots of great shooting. But nothing should be taken away from the fairness of prior matches and all the great competitive effort that went into them.

Kim

 

[blades]

yep what might be the best spot a 8am can be the worst an hour later- thermals, light changes, wind shifts, mirrage all change on a minute by minute basis. That said Kudos to everyone that shot and double for those that put on the match and helped in running it. I personally know how difficult it is. The particular venue not withstanding as it is a universal stress factor across the board. Chris

 

[Salticon]

Kim Z

Im all for the bench rotation, I get sick of shooters crying after the match saying they didn't have a fair opportunity to shoot at a good area in the range. Or saying that another shooter beat them because they were in a better part of the range. It's a very petty but unfortunately we hear it we hear it too much. If anything it brings out the better shooter in you being able to adapt to any condition and yes it does make a difference where you sit on the range.. and I have talked to many shooters they have shot at your range and yes there is different conditions at your range in a makes a difference where they are appointed to . Apparently some shooters are not able to adapt to the conditions that are given to them obviously you are a shooter that is able to do that as I am . And bench rotation is in the rulebook know whether the range master wants to follow it is up to them but if you follow it nobody can cry ..

 

[Pete Wass]

I can tell you all this

Trying to compare one range to another is folly. Until one has experienced the boxes in the woods most of the ranges we shoot on in the Northeast, they are in no position to make any judgment of fairness. I have shot at Open Grove and a number of times @ Salem. No comparison can be made. There is no question, in the case of Salem that there aren't better places to shoot on it, from my experience, which is over a number of years. The only fair way is rotation, without any doubt, from my experience.

Not to take anything away from any other matches or ranges, people decide how they wish to proceed but I will opine that over the 20 some years I have been shooting Benchrest, I have only shot on two ranges that I believed to be were "Fair" or "Honest". That is to say, conditions were equal everywhere on the range. Both of them were absolutely open, without any hedge rows or structures to channel wind. Now, there are a lot of ranges I haven't shot on but just sayin, from my experience.

Pete