What is March Madness in the Southwest?

Here in Phoenix, Arizona we enjoy near perfect shooting weather year round. This allows us to pursue a number of rifle shooting disciplines to include, across the course, smallbore prone, highpower prone mid and long range as well as Palma. Last year the idea was hatched to run our own version of "March Madness" for our smallbore prone shooters. Counting the two matches in the last two weeks of February, the Roadrunner 3200 Prone Regional and the Arizona State Senior Olympics, we were able to string six major smallbore matches together in a six week period! The first week of March brought us the 1st Annual Javelina Metric Prone 6400. Four days of shooting the challenging A-50 and A-33 targets was embraced by the field comprised of several of the best smallbore shooters in the southwest. See some photo's of the event here;

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42911&id=100000387025113&l=699d21b967

I might add that over twelve National Records were broken at the Javelina! I would be remiss in not pointing out that our host range at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club http://phoenixrodandgun.org/ was in fantastic condition thanks to the tireless efforts of their Smallbore Division Director, Mr. Mick Walker. Thanks Mick!

 

The second weekend saw the smallbore crowd move north to one of this country's finest shooting complex's, the Ben Avery Shooting Facility, for yet another inaugural event the Diamondback Prone 3200 which I covered in my previous post. I would like to point out that both the Javelina and the Diamondback were greatly assisted by National and World Champion, Mr. Middleton Tompkins. His statistical help coupled with his scoring software program were instrumental in the success enjoyed by both events.

 

Next up in the "Madness" will be the longest running 6400 prone championship in America, the Western Wildcat, which will start tomorrow with Two-Person Team Matches. Armed with my brand new Nikon I hope to capture many photo's of this storied event. Click on the link below in my previous post for the match bulletin. The last weekend of March will once again see the smallbore shooters headed back to the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club for the Arizona State Conventional Prone Championship. Click here for entry and match program info; http://phoenixrodandgun.org/Divisions/Smallbore/ASRPA%202011%20AZ%20State%20Match%20SmBore.pdf

 

March would not be complete if there wasn't at least one highpower event and this year the folks at Berger Bullets http://www.bergerbullets.com/ did not disappoint. Starting on March 31st with a day of prone shooting at 600 yards the Berger Bullet's Southwest Nationals kicks off five straight days of across the course competiton, (ok maybe we need seven weeks for the month of March!) Click here for the match program and entry info; http://www.desertsharpshooters.com/champ/2010-2011/SWNATIONALS11.pdf

 

You can rest assured this neophyte blogger will be all over the action like Imperial sizing wax on a .308 case!

Stay tuned for a lot of pictures and video interviews with some of the greatest shooters of our time.

 

RCurtis