Michigan Rifle and Pistol Association - Juniors

On August 21, match Director Bob Lorenz conducted a fun match he dubbed the “Effing” match. It was a 600 yard mid range match shot on the F class target. Normal range capacity is 40 competitors. It ended up that there were 46 competitors using 5 relays. It was challenging and a lot of fun competing for the awards that Bob came up with.

Samatha Huhtala from Sault Ste Marie ended up high junior using a F Open rifle. This was her first time competing at 600 yards.

Samantha with her trophy

Bob Lorenz and Michelle Gallagher

Camp Perry Continued

We wrapped up CMP week with our juniors competing in the NTIT Rattle battle match. We had 2 new juniors firing the match for the first time. While the Michigan Junior team did not score as high as we hoped, they gained valuable experience. And they had a lot of fun. We had one extra junior that was able to team up with the Washington State junior team.

Michigan Junior Rattle Battle Team

For NRA Across the Course, we had Hannah and Jed Gaddie compete using their service rifles.

For the NRA Long Range portion, we had Hannah and Jed along with Taylor Grissom competing.

Hannah fired her personal best at the 800 yard line during the individual Palma match. She scored a 150-13x. Hannah was also on the winning Master team in the Herrick Team Match, Palma rifle, and Open Club division.

Palma Rifle, Open club, USA U25 National - Doney Team. From left to right team members, Ethan Dow, Frazier Bronston,Andy Doney, Hannah Gaddie, Haley Rettmer.

Taylor ended up as High Junior in the Remington Band of Brothers match, and he was 2^nd or 3^rd junior in two or three other matches. Taylor was also on the High Master team that took 3rd in the Herrick team match, Palma rifle, Open Club division.

Palma Rifle, Open club, USA U25 National - Liebetrau Team. From left to right team members,Taylor Grissom, Brianna Rachinski, Kyle Liebetrau, Kyle Doney, and Waylon Burbach.

Congratulations to our juniors!

We have had our juniors participate in the US Marine Corp Junior Clinic and the US Army Small Arms Firing School. They have fired in the President 100 and the National Trophy Individual match. We had five junior teams in the CMP Freedoms Fire junior match.

I think they are getting tired.

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Taylor Grissom is ranked #69 among the juniors in the Presidents match and Hannah Gaddie is ranked #55 among the juniors in the NTI.

Here is a picture of our juniors at the Camp Perry Retired Marines, Junior Benefit dinner.

I will post more latter.

On Thursday, July 27th, we arrived at Camp Perry with 10 juniors. There were 7 that attended the Marine Corp Jr Clinic and 3 that attended  the Small Arms Firing School. Right now all ten are competing in the Presidents 100 match. Our juniors are having fun and gaining valuable experience! I will post more info and pictures latter.

Midland Registered Full bore Match

On July 2^nd, there was a registered Full Bore match at the Midland County Sportsman’s Club, near Midland, Michigan. 17 year old Taylor Grissom had a good day dropping only 3 points. He came in third over all.

Looking over the NRA National Full Bore records, it looks like Taylor has established new junior records for 10 shots, metallic sights, at 300 yards with a score of 98 5x, 500 yards with a score of 100-5x, 600 yards with a score 100-6x,  and a new junior record for 15 shots, metallic sights, at 600 yards with a score of 149-8x. His final score was a 447-24x.

Taylor was using the Sierra #2156 Palma Bullet with Varget powder and Wolf Large rifle primers in Lapua Brass. The picture is of Taylor being congratulated by Match Director Leo Cebula.

Mid West Palma Championship

We had 3 Michigan Juniors attend the Mid West Palma Championship. They were Hannah Gaddie, Jed Gaddie and Taylor Grissom. Hannah and Taylor shot on the U25 National Development team during the 4 person team match. The team came in third in the master class.

On Thursday, the rain came and the match was called off for the day. For the most part, the weather cooperated with warm temperature and the occasional confounding wind.

The juniors shot in there class with Taylor ending up 32^nd overall. He also was 6^th HM in Fridays Palma rifle 1000 yard match. His score was 197-12x.

Hannah and Jed stayed for the Wisconsin State LR Championship which took place on Saturday and Sunday following the Mid West Palma. Hannah qualified for the US Palma Promotions Junior achievement award with a score of 149-4x at 900 yards. Hannah was also 1^st Expert in Saturdays 1000 yard match with a score of 143-3x. Hannah was second Expert overall for the weekend.

Congratulations to our juniors!

Hannah and Jed Gaddie at the Mid West Palma Championship

Thanks to Jim Stewart, Mark O Donnel, and Steve Slee, there is a junior High Power instruction program at the Chief Okemos Sportsman’s Club. The program seems to be growing in popularity. On Monday, June 13^th, the first Monday after school was out for the summer, there were 9 juniors that showed up to participate.

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This is the most juniors they have ever had at one time. At this rate of increased interest, the club may have to look into buying more equipment and ammo for the juniors!

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It seems that one of biggest hurdles to recruiting new participants is to get someone out to try the sport of competitive shooting. It seems that Jim, Mark and Steve have come up with a quality program that is attracting new juniors to the sport. It would be great if similar programs could do the same through out Michigan. Well done Jim, Mark and Steve!

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New Junior Peter Berney

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Getting ready!

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Juniors waiting for their turn on the line.

For Saturday June 11, 2011, there were Michigan Juniors participating in XTC matches at two different clubs.

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At the Cadillac Sportsman’s club, Juniors Jack Brooks, Tony Henderson, and Ken Ebel were part of the 22 competitors. Match Director Bob Lorenz stated that it was the most competitors the club has had in June with in the past six years.

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What is even more surprising is the fact that the weather was pouring down rain before nine a.m. which may have kept some competitors from showing up. However the rain quit at about nine a.m. and the match started at nine thirty a.m. and we never had a drop of rain the rest of the day.  The wind stayed calm for the day also.

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First in the Junior Class was John Brooks with a score of 654-6X.

Second in the Junior Class was Tony Henderson with a score of 643-3x.

Third Place Junior was Kenny Ebel with a score of 605-0X.

This was Tony Henderson’s first time shooting XTC.

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Ken Ebel, Jack Brooks, and Tony Henderson

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At the Capitol City Sportsman’s Club, there were 7 Michigan juniors participating. They were part of the group of 32 competitors that made it out for the Lansing area match. Two of these juniors were young ladies that seem to really enjoy competing with the AR15. And Hannah Gaddie took honors as High Junior.  It also was Peter Berney’s first time shooting XTC.

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Attendance seems to be up at rifle matches in Michigan and junior participation seems to be on the up swing.

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Hannah Gaddie

Grayling Long Range June 2011

There was a good turnout for our Michigan Long Range Championships that was held on June 4 and 5. There were 35 competitors which included 4 juniors on Saturday and two juniors on Sunday. It was junior Tony Henderson’s first time at Long Range. He used a rifle that was put together from parts and labor donated by half –a-dozen of the club’s shooters.  He also did a creditable job.

The weather was some what hot for the weekend with temperatures reaching into the 90’s. Saturday’s competition included a Palma match with bonus 1000 yard match.   Sunday was an any-sights 3×1000. Wind was typical Grayling. It started out calm and went to a tricky fish tail wind which confounded and confused a number of our competitors.   

Our Aggregate Conventional (sling) Rifle winners were Peter Church followed by USA Development team member Eryk Grycza. Closely followed by Michigan junior and USA Development team member Taylor Grissom.

Taylor again quailied for the US Pamla Junior Achievement Award with a score of 198 7x at 1000yards. Taylor will be competing at the Mid West Palma Championship along with Hannah Gaddie and Jed Gaddie. It will be another opportunity to shoot a clean for these juniors.

Taylor Grissom and Tony Henderson

NRA Convention

On April 30^th  and May 1^st, Michigan Junior Tony Henderson, attended the NRA convention in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

Tony stopped by several booths including Hodgdon and Sierra. He thanked each of them for the junior support they have provided.

Here are a few pictures of the event.

Tony had a good time seeing all the exhibits and recommends that everyone take the time to attend the next convention.