What a fantastic day it was for the 120th consecutive Washington's Birthday Rifle match. It was cool and crisp in the Phoenix desert for the opening of this longest running rifle match in America, but by late morning it was sunny 75 deg with just a nice SE breeze to keep it interesting.
50 Rifle Teams competed for honors, and that means 200 shooters were enjoying the day trying to shoot 10s and Xs on tough targets. Each shooter fired the standard 50 shot National Match Course for Service Rifles, all at 200 yds, and using those challenging reduced targets to simulate longer ranges. There were teams of Springfield '03s, Teams of M-1s, and of course lots of AR-15s, even a few M-4s with optics were on the line to try and shoot them in the 10 ring.
This was my 13th year at the B-day match, but I was watching from the center of the line and not shooting on the Accuracy Speaks team this year. The Accuracy Speaks team is now history, but the 14 winning team and individual plaques residing on my walls represent a lot of great memories,-- memories of great team matches shooting with top service rifle shooters-- Derrick Martin, Phil Hayes, and Tom Albinito. Some one else would win today, but who knows, maybe next year we could get the old team together for one more try.
Washington's Birthday Match -- 2012
Prone Rapid Fire -- 10 shots in 70 sec with a magazine change Video
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