NEWS This week on Shooting USAThis week's episode of Shooting USA on the Outdoor Channel features a profile on Allan Zitta who founded ZM Weapons when he couldn't buy the AR he wanted to shoot, an update on the Scholastic Clay Target Programs and Bill Davison's precision rifle lesson from the Tac Pro Shooting Center in Texas. Cowboy Action Shooters Reach Milestone MembershipThe list of aliases continues to grow as the membership of the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) expanded to over 75,000, continuing to make Cowboy Action ShootingTM the fastest growing outdoor shooting sport in the country. To highlight the milestone, SASS auctioned badge number 75,000 as a fund raiser for Founders Ranch, the organization's headquarters near Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Cobb Manufacturing Announces Release of MCR 400 Semi-Auto in .338 LapuaCobb Manufacturing, producers of the Multi Caliber Rifle series of AR platforms, announces their MCR 400 semi-automatic chambered in .338 Lapua. The rifle has concluded testing and evaluation by the military and has produced sub-MOA groups out to 1800 meters. MCR rifles are capable of changing calibers within one minute without any tools.  End Of Trail, The World Championship Of Cowboy Action Shooting Celerates Its 26th AnniveraryEnd of Trail, the Single Action Shooting Society's World Championship of Cowboy Action Shooting will hold it's 26th Anniversary in Edgewood, New Mexico, June 21-24, 2007. This year's celebration will be based on a tribute to Gunfights of the Wild West, featuring some of the most famous gunfights ever recorded. More than 1000 authentically dressed competitors are expected for the event with a living history encampment spread across 100 acres of the Founders Ranch east of Albuquerque. FEATUREThe Newest Shooting Sport Takes Off to a Spectacular StartThe Ruger Rimfire Challenge, a two-gun sport using inexpensive .22 Long Rifle guns and ammo, rolls out its inaugural World Championships in Morro Bay, CA, to rave reviews.
"This was an extremely successful match," says Ken Jorgensen, media relations and shooting sports coordinator for Strum, Ruger, who joined 80 other competitors at the Hogue Action Pistol Range, hosted by the Take-5 shooting club, in the scenic fishing down of Morrow Bay, CA, for last Saturday's match. "We had a record number of young people shooting the match, as well as a record number of families competing together in the match, and that's really important not just for the Rimfire Challenge, but for all the shooting sports." Basically, the RRC is a handgun and rifle .22 match, using all new stages designed not just to test shooting skills, but to guarantee a high "fun quotient." And yes, pigs did fly, on a elaborate moving target stage designed by Match Director Lisa Farrell, herself a six-time revolver world champion, and veteran stage designer Tom Schiller. "Yes, it's a lot of hard work to pull together a new shooting sport on 90 days notice," says Farrell. "But we're lucky to have one of the best match teams in the country here with Take-5, and the payoff is when you see so many shooters having a great time." The best time of all was had by television producer Eric Katzenberg of legion Productions, who drove up from Los Angeles to shoot the match even though he hadn't shot a rifle since he was young and, as an IDPA shooter, had always worked with iron sights. At the RRC, however, his "focus on the basics" philosophy gave him his first high overall win, the very first Ruger Rimfire Challenge World Champion. "It was just great to pull the .22s out of the closet and remind myself how much fun they are to shoot," says Katzenberg. "This just reminds me how much fun shooting can be, and it totally brings you back to the fundamentals." Katzenberg took home a spectacular trophy and a top-of-the-line Leupold scope for next precision rifle project. The scope was only part of a $25,000 prize table that included 25 guns, with match sponsor Ruger peppering the prize table with 10/22s and Mark IIIs. Ruger was joined by custom candy-caned colored .22 manufacturer Tactical Solutions, Leupold, Hogue Grips, Henry Rifles, Advanced Tactical Supply, Action Targets and many others. "Any event that helps us bring in new shooters is the direction we need to be going," says Dan Person, President of Tactical Solutions, whose custom 10/22 rifle and Buckmark pistol barrels were much in evidence and who, along with R&D Director Tom Hines turned out to shot the match. "We need to get the soccer moms and kids into the shooting sports, and that's what we see here today. Overall, a great match." The RRC came about after a year-long series of conversations between Jorgensen, SHOOTING GALLERY/DOWN RANGE TELEVISION host and longtime competitor Michael Bane and Virginia's Dave Arnold, himself a founder of the United States Practical Shooting Association. The event really took off when Match Director Farrell and Take 5, the home club at the Hogue Action Pistol Range in Morro Bay, stepped up and began work translating the pages of notes and rough ideas into an actual competition. Farrell and Schiller created a spectacular series of stages, using both elaborate props — the aforementioned flying steel pigs — and the most common material — a complete stage, for example, of clay pigeons. "The idea," says Farrell was to be both fun and challenging; accessible to total newcomers and still able to push the serious competitors we have her in central California." "From the beginning Ken Jorgensen and I believed that what has been missing in competition shooting is a dedicated .22 match," says Bane. "We also thought it was important that a .22 competition include both handguns and rifles and offer enough classes that anyone could step up and compete." The RRC includes and open class where anything goes, a limited class for iron sights, a mechanically operated class for bolt-action, pump and lever action rifles paired with double-action revolvers and, of course, a cowboy class for two single action revolvers and a lever action rifle. "You've always got to have something for guys with hats," says Bane The hot ticket for the open division, where most of the shooters chose to compete, was of course the Ruger 10/22 rifle with some type of red-dot optic. Many of the 10/22s were outfitted with aftermarket barrels and trigger jobs of some sort. A couple were amazingly elaborate, including custom stocks, custom forends, custom trigger groups, custom sights…often in matching colors. On the other hand, one father/son pair competed with an ancient bolt-action rifle with no rear sight; another shooter used one of the original "plastic" Remington Nylon .22 from the 1960s. The handguns were more of a mixed lot, with the classic Ruger Mark IIIs barely edging out Browning Buckmarks and a scattering of Smith & Wesson M-41 target pistols. Among the practical competitors, the handgun of choice was the some sort of .22 conversion unit on a 1911 frame. "The key is that this is a sport that's not expensive to get started in," says Jorgensen. "It's not intimidating for new shooters and it's still challenging for the veteran competitor." What's next for the Ruger Rimfire Challenge? "An East Coast version is next, probably this fall near Atlanta," says Jorgensen. "We think you're going to see Rimfire Challenge matches popping up all over, because this is a really grassroots sport. People like to compete, and they like the chance to get together with other shooters in a fun environment." According to Bane, video from the RRC will be up on DOWN RANGE TELEVISION, www.downrange.tv, later this week. For more information: Ruger http://www.ruger-firearms.com/ Ruger Rimfire Challenge page http://www.take-5rimfire.com/Ruger-Rimfire-Challenge-Home-new-r1.htm Complete Match results http://www.take-5rimfire.com/Ruger-Rimfire-Challenge-Match-Results-1.htm |
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