NRA Cowboy Lever Action Silhouette National Championships
29 June - 2 July 2009
During the past 10 to 15 years, in the United States, a new style of Metallic Silhouette shooting has evolved. Eager folk made use of Handgun Metallic Silhouette ranges holding matches using open-sighted or peep-sighted lever-actions rifles. So enthusiastic has been the interest that seven years ago, the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) Silhouette Department held the first NRA Nationals for Cowboy Lever Action Silhouette. The new matches have been gaining momentum ever since, with annual national championships seeing as many as 160 shooters competing.
In Australia, Cowboy Lever Action Silhouette Rifle started at club level little more than three years ago, but the first national championships were held in Canberra in 2008. From this match, a team was selected to represent the SSAA at the 2009 NRA Cowboy Lever Action Silhouette National Championships in New Mexico.
Dave McCarthy and Mick Hutton from South Australia and Robert Tobler from New South Wales made the journey in late June to the US. The team arrived at the NRA Whittington Center Shooting Complex just outside the small town of Raton in New Mexico a few days before the matches commenced to get rifles sighted-in and to acclimatise to the 6500ft (2000m) altitude and the warm summer temperatures. NRA Whittington Center is a 33,000-acre shooting facility with more than a dozen ranges for a variety of disciplines. Various levels of accommodation are also available for competitors and hunters alike. Deer and antelope can be seen every day, as well as black bear. It’s a marvellous place to stay and compete.
June 29 saw the action start with the Cowboy Lever Action Silhouette Rifle event. It is an 80-shot match, but due to competitor numbers and the number of available targets, it is shot over two days. These matches are shot with lever-action rifles chambered for such cartridges as .30-30, .38-55, .44-40 and .45-70. Australia’s Dave McCarthy shot a 37/40 with his Marlin .30-30 Winchester for the first match. Tied for match winner, Dave won the shoot-off to claim the match - a great result!
June 30 brought on the second match with stiff competition at the top. Match two was won by a junior, young Benton Warren with a 38/40, which is very good shooting. A shoot-off was held for overall first place in the rifle match, as our Dave McCarthy and Benton Warren both finished on 72/80. Shooting-off on turkey targets, Dave won the National Championship hitting 4/5 turkeys - an outstanding result for both Dave and the SSAA. 127 competitors contested that event.
July 1 saw a change in venue to another range for the Pistol Cartridge Lever Action Silhouette matches. Again, there was a very good roll-up, with 131 competitors taking to the firing line. This match is shot with lever-action rifles chambered for pistol-type cartridges such as .32-30, .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, .44-40 and to our surprise, many of the Americans were using .22 Magnum lever-action rifles. With double-banked targets, the 80 shots are completed in one day’s shooting. Good weather conditions prevailed and some very good scores were put down. Glen Kapitzke won the day with a combined score of 75/80, which was a new national record. Lon Pennington came second with 73/80 and Australia’s Dave McCarthy came in third overall with 70/80 with his Marlin .32-20. The Pistol Cartridge Open Teams event went well with Team Australia coming in second.
July 2 saw the Smallbore Cowboy Lever Action Silhouette matches completed again in good weather conditions. This event is contested with tube magazine .22LR rifles, generally Marlin and Winchester lever-actions. Competition was fierce from the beginning, as this match would decide the overall national champion. As the dust settled after 80 targets, Lon Pennington claimed the Smallbore with 72/80, Preston Gibson came in second with 71/80 and Tony Tello came third on a count-back also on 71/80. The Australian team fared well, with Dave McCarthy winning Master Class with 69/80 and Mick Hutton winning AAA Class with 68/80. In the teams event, Team Australia came in second in the AAA teams with 184/240.
After four days of intense shooting competition, only a handful of targets separated the top runners in the 3-Gun Aggregate for National Champion. Lon Pennington from Colorado won the Outright Match Aggregate with a 215/240, Australia’s Dave McCarthy upset the locals by taking second with 211/240 and third place National Champion went to Glen Kapitzke from Montana with 209/240.
The Australian Team did very well and apart from the shooting itself, we learned a great deal about how the NRA runs matches and makes use of a rather extensive rule book.
Dave McCarthy, Mick Hutton and Robert Tobler would very much like to thank the SSAA for their generous support, Whittington Center for all the facilities and help given to them during their stay and finally, to NRA stalwarts Greg Connor and John Leighton for putting up with their many questions and ‘hard-to-understand’ accents.