The 79th annual Sniper King and Sam Wilson Memorial match was held on July 1-3, 2023. The Sniper King event is the oldest continuously awarded trophy in Benchrest, awarded annually since 1944. The winner receives the trophy based on the smallest 10-shot group shot at 200 yards. Shooters had 15 opportunities to shoot that one small group. There is list of incredible benchrest shooters on that trophy.
The course of fire was 100yd/200yd 10-shot groups on Saturday and Sunday was 200yd 10-shot groups. Monday was 200yd/100yd 5-shot groups. The temperature all three days was consistently cool in the morning with afternoon highs reaching warm temperatures. Regardless of the warmer afternoons, Gary Ockock (from Arizona) was observed wearing a sweatshirt and coat all day. The wind was persistent throughout most of the days and varied in intensity and frequency of switches. Periodically, there were let ups. Two days of 10-shot matches and then a day of 5-shot matches tested the endurance of shooters! Some shooters engaged in desperate measures to shoot the smallest group…many switched bullets, barrels, powders, etc. Joe Stanovich was seen passing out $100 bills in attempts to bribe shooters to throw matches. Well, there was one shooter who could not be bought and that was Eric Stanton.
Eric Stanton shot the smallest with a .294" 10-shot group at 200yds which earned him the 2023 Sniper King trophy! He also had a couple other amazingly small groups. In fact, he won the Agg King trophy with a .1936" 10-shot agg at 200yds.
The other agg wins went to:
Steve Kostanich, Paul Weaver, Larry Boers, Gary Ocock, Duke Rovarino, Jim Lynn, Ken Parsons, Mustafa Bilal, Bryan Zolnikov, Super Jeff Crose (the smallest group of the 5-shot matchs with a .038!! This is a range record for unlimited and possible NBRSA record!!), Eric Stanton, and Mark Walker.
We had a great potluck dinner on Sunday night. A huge thank you to all who pitched in to make the great food happen. Another huge thanks goes to the people running the match behind the scenes: Geoff Hallett, Robin Blanchard, and Mark
The course of fire was 100yd/200yd 10-shot groups on Saturday and Sunday was 200yd 10-shot groups. Monday was 200yd/100yd 5-shot groups. The temperature all three days was consistently cool in the morning with afternoon highs reaching warm temperatures. Regardless of the warmer afternoons, Gary Ockock (from Arizona) was observed wearing a sweatshirt and coat all day. The wind was persistent throughout most of the days and varied in intensity and frequency of switches. Periodically, there were let ups. Two days of 10-shot matches and then a day of 5-shot matches tested the endurance of shooters! Some shooters engaged in desperate measures to shoot the smallest group…many switched bullets, barrels, powders, etc. Joe Stanovich was seen passing out $100 bills in attempts to bribe shooters to throw matches. Well, there was one shooter who could not be bought and that was Eric Stanton.
Eric Stanton shot the smallest with a .294" 10-shot group at 200yds which earned him the 2023 Sniper King trophy! He also had a couple other amazingly small groups. In fact, he won the Agg King trophy with a .1936" 10-shot agg at 200yds.
The other agg wins went to:
- The Sam Wilson Trophy was won by Eric Stanton, shooting an incredible 2-gun agg of .1848".
- Jeff Crose won the 10-shot unlimited grand agg with a .2034".
- Eric Stanton won the Double 200 10-shot unlimited grand agg with a .2150".
- Eric Stanton shot an incredible 100 yard 5-shot agg of .1506" Sunday afternoon.
- Eric Stanton won the 200 yd 5-shot agg with an amazing .1434" agg
- Eric Stanton won the 5-shot unlimited grand agg on Sunday with a 1470".
Steve Kostanich, Paul Weaver, Larry Boers, Gary Ocock, Duke Rovarino, Jim Lynn, Ken Parsons, Mustafa Bilal, Bryan Zolnikov, Super Jeff Crose (the smallest group of the 5-shot matchs with a .038!! This is a range record for unlimited and possible NBRSA record!!), Eric Stanton, and Mark Walker.
We had a great potluck dinner on Sunday night. A huge thank you to all who pitched in to make the great food happen. Another huge thanks goes to the people running the match behind the scenes: Geoff Hallett, Robin Blanchard, and Mark
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