Cal Jr. rifle team first civilians to win NTIT in 79 years..

[f1reverb]

This is the National Trophy Infantry Team match at the National Shooting Championship at Camp Perry, Ohio. They (which included boys and a girl) beat all the miltary teams and by state law can't even train properly. The properly motivated teenagers should be instructing our military on how to shoot properly . . .

http://www.odcmp.org/0809/default.asp?page=RIFLENTIT

History Made in 2009 National Trophy Infantry Team Match

"If you were trying to predict the winner of the 2009 National Trophy Infantry Team Match (NTIT), odds are your discussion centered around the top military teams in the event. This makes sense; especially considering that the last time a civilian team won the NTIT was in 1930. That is until a group of juniors from California stepped up to the firing line at Camp Perry on 7 August and made history.

California Grizzlies O’Connell shot a 1284 to win the NTIT, becoming the first junior team to ever win the event and the first civilian team to win in 79-years. In fact the top three teams in the NTIT were civilian, in what became a very historic and bizarre day at Camp Perry. Forbes Rifle and Pistol Club finished second with a 1275 and Oklahoma Rifle Association finished third with a 1250. USAMU (United States Army Marksmanship Unit) Praslick, who won the National Trophy Team Match (NTT) the day before, finished in a distant forth with a 1211, and was only one of two military teams to even make the top 10 in the NTIT.

The California Grizzlies O’Connell team was named for team coach Jim O’Connell. The team captain was Anthony Henderson, and firing team members were Cheyanne Acebo, David Bahten, Matthew Chezem, Chad Kurgan, Joshua Lehn and Jim Minturn. The team is based out of the Yosemite area in central California, but team members come from all over the state. "

"The group’s accomplishments are particularly impressive considering that California State Law prohibits juniors from handling rifles with a removable magazine. In California the team can only practice with a fixed 10-round clip that can only be removed using a tool. This makes training for rapid fire difficult, and the only time the team gets to practice with standard removable clips is when they arrive to Camp Perry for the National Matches. This does not mean that the group is not putting in a lot of training time.

The team’s season starts in March and goes through September, but with the group spread out over a 700-mile span, they can only get together as a whole team a few times during the year. One of those team meetings comes in the summer, when the team attends Camp O’Connell, lead by the team’s coach Jim O’Connell. The eight-day camp is held at the remote Coalinga Rifle Club in Central California, where team members sleep in tents and do range maintenance projects in addition to their training."

[JackF]

Do you suppose the top Military guys are deployed? I used to shoot hi-power. Never at the Camp Perry level, but it was good. Finally couldn't afford to feed the Garand so went to small bore.

[f1reverb]

Do you suppose the top Military guys are deployed? I used to shoot hi-power. Never at the Camp Perry level, but it was good. Finally couldn't afford to feed the Garand so went to small bore.

I'd fire my Garand once in a while for service-rifle (the norm was an AR), but normally used bolt guns and shot match-rifle with .223 as the ranges around here are reduced course so wind wasn't much of a factor even when doing a 200/300yd course. Before Lockheed closed their employees range here in Burbank in the late '90s, we had a .22 rimfire version of the high-power course at 50ft. It was a lot of fun and cheap to do and really required precision. We'd use the club's Remington 513t rifles as they were repeaters with interchangeable mags, Winchester 52c or sometimes I'd get to use my dad's custom Anschutz repeater. We'd run the exact same course of fire including rapids with a mag change. We used normal 50ft NRA prone targets, and then some different ISU targets for rapids and offhand. You could do the same at any smallbore range. The biggest problem is having a .22 rimfire repeater for the rapids that allows a mag change. Biathlon rifles would do the trick, or old Remingtons and Winchesters like I said.

Usually they send 'em to war after they win at Camp Perry or that is their normal military job, being on the MTU. Carlos Hathcock did the former. The great thing about competitive shooting is that civilians, women and teenagers are not at any disadvantage to the military. I always like shooting against military and police as it's fun to remind them that they don't have a lock on shooting skill.

I had a woman national champ, Noma Zinsmaster, nagging me at the line about ten years ago at a local match while shooting the slow-fire prone at 600 yds (and I was using a .223 with only 52gr match bullets). You have 20 minutes for 20 shots and I always use the full 20 minutes. She was done in about 12 minutes and I was the only one still shooting for about the last six minutes, and she stood next to me yelling at me to hurry up. I stopped shooting and yelled for the rangemaster and told him to tell her to shut her trap and get off the line, which he did. She might be a great shot but she had a rotten attitude with other competitors.

[JackF]

I started shooting a Mini 14. Hardly a target rifle but if I did my part it would pretty much shoot the same hole all day long. With all of these I was and remain the weak link. I did very little with the Garand really. I was at a DCM shoot and there was an old timer who just could no longer see. He said it was time to give it up and I bought his NM Garand. I quickly ran out of the time and money to support hi power and so sold it for an Anschutz Super Match with the 20X Unertl. I then joined a club for 50 ft indoor. There were several clubs within a couple hrs drive so I had a lot of fun with that. BTW, I've turned into that old timer who can no longer pick up iron sights. Damn!

I also used to shoot the 22 Silhouettes. I ended up with a buch of 1/4" plate so I got some templates and cut out about 40 sets of targets. I finally moved to air rifle with a Feinwerkbau 300 and today have the Feinwerbeau 124. That was back when Beeman's was in San Rafael and close by.

All that shooting was when I lived up in Calistoga. Since moving east I've hardly pulled the trigger on anything but the air rifle.