Irish Success at Firearms Industry Super Shoot XXXIX - USA

Sparks

Some good news for a change:

Irish Success at Firearms Industry Super Shoot XXXIX - USA

Jack Neary (Team Lapua USA & Hall of Famer) presenting the winning “Top 2 Gun New Shooter” trophy.

An Irish shooter & long time Boards.ie member recently travelled to Ohio to compete in the biggest group event in the world. Now in its 39th year, the Super Shoot is the biggest short-range benchrest competition on the planet, drawing upwards of 400 competitors each year. The Super Shoot attracts the top 100-yard/200-yard Benchrest shooters from throughout the world. Along with Americans, we see competitors from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, New Zealand, Japan, Norway, South Africa, United Kingdom and this year, Ireland.

Here’s how it works: Using the most accurate rifles in the world, competitors shoot from benches using specially made bench-rest guns at targets that are located at 100 and 200 yards. The idea is not necessarily to hit the bull’s eye (score shooting), but to group all five shots as close together as possible in the seven-minute window. The competition is shot over four days. Day 1 - 10.5lb (Light Varmint - LV) at 100 yards, Day 2 - 13.5lb (Heavy Varmint - HV) at 100 yards, Day 3 - 13.5lb (HV) at 200 yards & Day 4 - 10.5lb (LV) at 200 yards. Each day consists of 6 matches, the first being a warm-up followed by 5 matches "on the record". The aggregate group size from all 4 days competition counts towards the final overall 2 gun grand aggregate. That's 5 matches each day - 5 groups of 5 shots so 100 shots in total.

It is understood that this was the first time an Irish shooter has competed in this event. His total 2 gun Grand Agg was a fabulous 0.2881, an average of little over a quarter of an inch for all 20 matches (100 shots) over 4 days of competition. To put that in context, that's all groups of 5 shots each, averaging less than the size of a single .308 calibre bullet hole.

Conditions were very challenging this year with tornado sirens sounding at the range one evening sending shooters scrambling for cover. That evening 2.5 inches of rain fell during a most spectacular thunderstorm. Incessant lightning bolts accompanied by huge hail lasted for several hours.

With a great group of 0.173” in match 4 on day one putting him in 5th place for that match, our shooter finished out that day in the top 20 with a 100 yard LV agg of 0.2340. Leading for much of the competition in the "New Shooter" category, he was bumped back to 2nd place in match 19 by experienced shooter Dean Ekstrom (USA) who won that match with an outstanding 0.232" group (200 yards). With nearly 30 shooters competing in this class from many countries, the pressure was certainly on for the final match as the Irishman attempted to retake 1st place. As the wind howled he drilled his first 2 shots into the same hole before the wind direction changed, stopping him in his tracks. Sitting & waiting for the conditions to "come back", the clock was ticking as range officer Ian Kelbly announced........”half time”......then….. “2 minutes”..... With little more than a minute to go & no apparent change in wind direction & strength imminent, he decided to adjust for the conditions & fired his final 3 rounds. His final group measured 0.254 MOA giving him the win.

Finishing just outside the top 20 in the overall 2 gun "Grand Agg"competition, amongst international competitors (outside of North America) he finished 2nd only to world benchrest shooter Peter Rasch from Germany, placing Ireland 2nd. With shooters from so many countries competing, this was a remarkable achievement. With his overall 2-gun grand agg of .2881 & finishing in the top 12% of the world’s best benchrest shooters, he was just 1/100 of an inch off an overall top 20 finish & 2/100s off the top 10.

The equipment: He was shooting a 10.5lb Light Varmint 6PPC benchrest rifle built by renowned US gunsmith Dave Bruno of Pennsylvania . It had a Bat action, carbon composite stock by Bob Scofield, Jewel 2oz trigger & 20” Krieger barrel with a 13.5” twist & .262 neck. It was topped by a 45x Leupold Competition scope.

Some pictures of groups he shot during the week in Ohio with a 1 cent coin included for scale (all 5 shot groups BTW).

Links:

• 2010 Super Shoot picture album (flavour of scale of shoot)
• Article from PA re shoot

Kryten

Remarkable stuff and really good news. Now if I could get the .303 to do that :D:D:D. Seriously though! Bloody good shooting.

clivej

Great shooting and well done.

Shane.sf

That's unbelievable shooting well done!!!