Washington's Birthday Highpower Rifle Match 2006
In its 114th year without a break, the Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Associations annual Washingtons Birthday Highpower Rifle Match is the longest running highpower match in the country. This year it was held at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility on Sunday 12 February 2006.
The course of fire is teams of four shooters firing the standard 50-shot National Match Course from 200 yards using reduced targets to simulate the 300 and 600 yard stages.
For every year in recent memory the match has been filled to capacity weeks in advance. Forty-five teams totaling 180 shooters were entered this year. Four of the teams wore the red and gold shirts of Tucson Rifle Club:
TRC Red Jim Denovchek, Karl Kasarda, Bob Pirisky (captain), and Pete Wolf
TRC Black John Emery, Bob Harper, Cecil Rico (captain), and Darryl Smith
TRC Gold Maury Krupp (captain), Ron Mendez, Bill Orzechowski, and Don Travers
TRC White Lynn Heffren, Phil and Stacy McGrath, and Rick Smart (captain)
Roughly half of our shooters were tyros. This was a first time appearance at a Washingtons Birthday match for Karl, Bob H, Lynn, and Cecil; the first team match ever for John, Darryl, Phil and Stacy.
Despite this seeming lack of experience the preliminary results had all TRC teams finishing in the top one-third overall:
TRC Red placed as Third Civilian Team with a total score of 1839-20X out of a possible 2000-200X.
TRC Black came in as 4th Civilian team with a score of 1819-27X.
TRC Gold finished as 8th Civilian team. They posted a score of 1702-25X with each team member shooting a big .30 caliber rifle (2 M1s and 2 M14s).
TRC White finished strong as 14th Civilian with a combined score of 1560-10X.
There was no lack of TRC shooters stepping up when the individual awards were handed out either:
Cecil Ricos score of 470-9X placed him as the 6th Civilian and earned him a spot in the post-match shoot-off. All shooters with a score of 470 or higher returned to the firing line to fire single shots from the Standing position. After each shot was scored the shooter with the lowest score was eliminated. All of the other eight shooters on the line were classed as at least Experts with most being Master or High Master; Cecils current highpower classification is Sharpshooter. Nevertheless, he hung tough until the final four when a nine took him out of the competition.
Other scores and place awards were:
Karl Kasarda 465-6X 10th Civilian
Bob Harper 463-9X 13th Civilian
Rick Smart 463-6X 14th Civilian
Pete Wolf 463-5X 15th Civilian
Bob Pirisky 460-7X 16th Civilian
John Emery 451-5X
Jim Denovchek 451-2X
Ron Mendez 442-8X
Maury Krupp 438-3X
Darryl Smith 435-4X
Bill Orzechowski 430-2X
Lynn Heffern 421-2X
Tyler Rico 412-3X (shooting for the ASR&PA Juniors Blue Team)
Don Travers 392-12X
Phil McGrath 374-1X
Stacy McGrath 302-1X
Other regular TRC shooters at the match were Ike Smith, Dan Rodriguez, and Emil Yerhart; all shooting for the Arizona Air National Guards 162nd Fighter Wing team which placed first in the Service Team category.
--Maury Krupp--
