The F-class portion of the Northern Rockies was held this past weekend, as Jay noted in a previous thread. This is the 7th year of this tournament and due to the steady growth since its inception, we split it into two weekends a few years ago to accommodate all the shooters. The tournament has been sold out most years and this year has not been different for both the sling and F-class weekends.
The F-class tournament hosted 60 different shooters and 11 teams. We had shooters from all over the world including Ireland, Canada and Pakistan and many US points from Florida to the West coast. This year, the tournament was a little more biased towards F-Open shooters vs F-TR. Whereas typically, there are more F-TR shooters in attendance. This year we also added another unofficial division: F-Field Rifle (more on that below).
Although conditions were fun and challenging, there were 10% of the competitors firing scores well above their classification average, including 4 F-open masters firing high master scores.
Team Match
The team matches have always been well attended in Missoula, but this year there was additional incentive to participate. We began a "first round counts" raffle, where the first shot down range during the individual matches at each yard line earns you 1 raffle ticket for a "10" and 2 raffle tickets for a "X". This certainly resulted in more shooters anxious to get their cold bore, dirty bore zeros nailed down! We would like to thank Bartlein Barrels for supplying the barrel for this award!
The weekend started off with the team match, with 4 teams in F-TR, 4 teams in F-Open and 3 teams in the Field rifle division. The F-Open division was won by Wheeler Accuracy. Alex and his crew out paced the Badlanders by 5 points to take the division win. In the F-TR division, the top two teams surpassed the listed NRA team national record as currently listed by the NRA. Team Washington F-TR came out on top with a 1749-58X and they were coached by Monte Milanuk. We are going to submit the paperwork for this potential NRA national record and we will see if it stands. Great shooting guys!
Individual Matches
F-Open: The first stage of the Palma match started out with good conditions and the scores showed it. 18 of the 28 F-Open shooters fired a 150/150, and there was a five way tie that needed to be broken. The Palma match was won by Robert Hoppe who shot a 449-34X, and was just one inch wide on that nine! After the Palma matches, the remaining 3 matches were all fired at the 1000yd line. High masters Jay Christopherson, Robert Hoppe and master Tod Hendricks all took match wins. In the end it was the top 2 high masters, Christopherson and Hoppe and the the top master shooter, Hendricks taking the Gold, Silver and Bronze, respectively.
F-TR: There were a total of 7 matches/stages in this tournament and it was interesting that only 2 of those matches/stages were won by the masters in the F-TR division. The remaining 5 wins were taken by sharpshooters and experts, who fired outstanding scores. Expert Randell Vansant took the Palma match win with a 443-21X, out X'ing Pakistani national champion Mohsin Nawaz. Milanuk won 2 of the remaining 1000yd matches and sharpshooter Kari Frisbey took the other 100yard match and she also fired the highest score in F-TR on the 1000yd line - 196-6X with her .223! Gold, Silver and Bronze went to LTC Erpenbach, Covey and Milanuk. Interestingly, Covey was using Erpenbach's rifle and ammo in his first match.
F-Field Rifle: This division is intended to include rifles that you would utilize in a hunting or tactical situation. It requires the use of a folding bipod and you need to be able to carry it from the pits to the 1000yd line
This was a well contested unofficial division with 11 shooters made up of PRS shooters, hunters, ARNG snipers out of the upper midwest and the Officers from the All National Guard marksmanship Team in Little Rock, AR. This division was a tight race until the last match when Kreyenhagen pulled ahead of Bales and Stroh to take the division win. SSG McCain took top ARNG honors outpacing his fellow soldiers which all fired very close scores using their M2010's and M110's.
Montana State Champions: LTC Donald Erpenbach earned the F-TR state champion trophy and Jim Williams took the F-Open trophy.
After the state champions were announced and the gold, silver and bronze medallions awarded, the drawing took place for the first shot down range award. SGT Mitchell earned the chance at the prize and drew the lucky raffle for the Bartlein barrel.
I want to thank again everyone that helped make this match a success, you know who you are. I also want to wish those attending the F-class nationals good luck and same to the guys attending the International Sniper Competition.
Team and Individual Results are uploaded to this post.
The F-class tournament hosted 60 different shooters and 11 teams. We had shooters from all over the world including Ireland, Canada and Pakistan and many US points from Florida to the West coast. This year, the tournament was a little more biased towards F-Open shooters vs F-TR. Whereas typically, there are more F-TR shooters in attendance. This year we also added another unofficial division: F-Field Rifle (more on that below).
Although conditions were fun and challenging, there were 10% of the competitors firing scores well above their classification average, including 4 F-open masters firing high master scores.
Team Match
The team matches have always been well attended in Missoula, but this year there was additional incentive to participate. We began a "first round counts" raffle, where the first shot down range during the individual matches at each yard line earns you 1 raffle ticket for a "10" and 2 raffle tickets for a "X". This certainly resulted in more shooters anxious to get their cold bore, dirty bore zeros nailed down! We would like to thank Bartlein Barrels for supplying the barrel for this award!
The weekend started off with the team match, with 4 teams in F-TR, 4 teams in F-Open and 3 teams in the Field rifle division. The F-Open division was won by Wheeler Accuracy. Alex and his crew out paced the Badlanders by 5 points to take the division win. In the F-TR division, the top two teams surpassed the listed NRA team national record as currently listed by the NRA. Team Washington F-TR came out on top with a 1749-58X and they were coached by Monte Milanuk. We are going to submit the paperwork for this potential NRA national record and we will see if it stands. Great shooting guys!
Individual Matches
F-Open: The first stage of the Palma match started out with good conditions and the scores showed it. 18 of the 28 F-Open shooters fired a 150/150, and there was a five way tie that needed to be broken. The Palma match was won by Robert Hoppe who shot a 449-34X, and was just one inch wide on that nine! After the Palma matches, the remaining 3 matches were all fired at the 1000yd line. High masters Jay Christopherson, Robert Hoppe and master Tod Hendricks all took match wins. In the end it was the top 2 high masters, Christopherson and Hoppe and the the top master shooter, Hendricks taking the Gold, Silver and Bronze, respectively.
F-TR: There were a total of 7 matches/stages in this tournament and it was interesting that only 2 of those matches/stages were won by the masters in the F-TR division. The remaining 5 wins were taken by sharpshooters and experts, who fired outstanding scores. Expert Randell Vansant took the Palma match win with a 443-21X, out X'ing Pakistani national champion Mohsin Nawaz. Milanuk won 2 of the remaining 1000yd matches and sharpshooter Kari Frisbey took the other 100yard match and she also fired the highest score in F-TR on the 1000yd line - 196-6X with her .223! Gold, Silver and Bronze went to LTC Erpenbach, Covey and Milanuk. Interestingly, Covey was using Erpenbach's rifle and ammo in his first match.
F-Field Rifle: This division is intended to include rifles that you would utilize in a hunting or tactical situation. It requires the use of a folding bipod and you need to be able to carry it from the pits to the 1000yd line
This was a well contested unofficial division with 11 shooters made up of PRS shooters, hunters, ARNG snipers out of the upper midwest and the Officers from the All National Guard marksmanship Team in Little Rock, AR. This division was a tight race until the last match when Kreyenhagen pulled ahead of Bales and Stroh to take the division win. SSG McCain took top ARNG honors outpacing his fellow soldiers which all fired very close scores using their M2010's and M110's.Montana State Champions: LTC Donald Erpenbach earned the F-TR state champion trophy and Jim Williams took the F-Open trophy.
After the state champions were announced and the gold, silver and bronze medallions awarded, the drawing took place for the first shot down range award. SGT Mitchell earned the chance at the prize and drew the lucky raffle for the Bartlein barrel.
I want to thank again everyone that helped make this match a success, you know who you are. I also want to wish those attending the F-class nationals good luck and same to the guys attending the International Sniper Competition.
Team and Individual Results are uploaded to this post.
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