On Saturday, September 10, five Marines and support personnel from Camp Pendleton’s Wounded Warriors Battalion participated in a 600 yard, Mid-Range Shooting Match at the Wilcox Range Complex (R103) aboard Base.

The Match, conducted by the Santa Margarita Gun Club Inc. (SMGC), was arranged so that the Wounded Warrior participants would shoot with, and be coached by, nationally recognized Mid and Long Range Competitors.

Rifles and ammunition were provided by SMGC to the Wounded Warriors. In addition, SMGC hosted several Active Duty Marines at their first Mid-Range Match ever, with rifles and ammo provided by Accu-Grip.net.

On Sunday, a Long Range Match (1000 yards) was held at Range 117 with one of the Wounded Warriors from the previous day joining us for that event. He was shooting 308 Winchester and 284 Winchester rifles at 1000 yards, no easy feat! This event required the same discipline and control as the Air-Rifle events they typically participate in, with the the added complexity of the particularly vexing wind calls at 1000 yards; sometimes as much as 50” left or right of the Target to allow for the wind, with the Bull’s Eye being a 5” circle!

As Marines, the ability to participate in a Precision Rifle Match was particularly rewarding for them as it allowed them to feel the recoil, hear the report, and smell the powder burning again. The group included: Coach Phil Bryant, Mike Rios, Jenae Piper, John Flores and Ron Gomez (Battalon Physical Therapist). The Wounded Warrior squad was composed of the Wounded Warrior Regiment, Battalion West Camp Pendleton’s, Air Rifle and Pistol Team members and coaches.

Based on the enthusiasm of the participants and coaches, further Mid-Range Matches, including a potential Three Gun Match, are being evaluated.

For further information please contact: Mr. John Hermsen, President/CRSO via the SMGC Contact Form.

The match results for the June 25th Mid-Range match are now available on the Match Results page.

The top three scores were:

• Match Winner – Julianne Roth – 579-21
• Second Place – Marc Mittry – 579-16
• Third Place – James Minturn Sgt, USMCR – 579-10

Thanks to the very large group of participants at this months match.

Saturday we had 24 shooters, including seven Marines and one Naval Special Warfare trainee as guests at the range. We also had 2 women shooting with us and one baby tarantula that kept try to climb onto to my shooting mat, thankfully, it was gently removed and relocated by Jessica who is working on a Masters in Biology.

Sunday was down to 14 shooters in very gloomy and wet conditions.

Thank you to Mark Roth, Walter Lange, Duane Fitzgerald, John Hermsen, Van Texas, Rich Elliott, and Mike Jones for bringing and extra rifle and ammunition for Saturday’s 1000 yard match. Accu-Grip.net donated 308 Federal Gold Medal Match ammo for the Marines that brought rifles to the range. I think it was helpful for the guys to have the opportunity to try an number of different guns that are setup for this particular style of shooting. They had the opportunity to shoot bolt actions in 308 Win, 260 Remington, 6.5X47, 6mm BR and 284 Win and could see the difference in wind deflection amongst the calibers.

Multiple Marksmanship pins were earned! Some of you need to claim them at the next match.

• Robert Sullivan – Gold
• William Tusch – Gold
• Charlie Wallace – Silver
• Duane Fitzgerald – Silver
• John Encarnacion – Silver
• Julianne Roth – Bronze
• Janusz Dabrowski – Bronze
• Kamran Sadaghiani – Bronze
• William Baston – Bronze

High Scores for Saturday:

• 1st – Duane Fitzgerald 576-8
• 2nd – Charlie Wallace 568-14
• 3rd – John Encarnacion 559-11 (Mark Roth’s rifle and ammo)

High Scores for Sunday

• 1st – Duane Fitzgerald 582-14
• 2nd – Mark Roth 581-19
• 3rd – Rich Elliott 563-5

Overall Match (Saturday and Sunday)

• 1st – Duane Fitzgerld – 1158-22
• 2nd – Bill Baston – 1108-23
• 3rd – William Tusch – 1081-17

Congratulations and Great Shooting guys!

Thanks to Van Texas and Rich Elliott for the necessary Medic services, John Hermsen as OIC, and Dave Ellis as RSO on Sunday.

We will continue to meet and stage from the Range 116 Parking Lot for all future shoots. This seemed to work fairly well Saturday as we were still able to get the range set up, Safety Brief completed, squadding and the first round down range at 9:15! It was going so well, I want to note, that Van did not even have the opportunity to provide encouragement to “hurry up and get shooting!” Thank you to our Marine pit pullers for the help in getting the pits set up and torn down. Sunday we were torn down and cleared off the range and parking by 1:15 or 1315 for the military folk.

Mike Jones
SMGC Long Range Director

Twenty-six shooters showed up and a woman’s category was realized too!

Match one was TIGHT.

Three shooters had a 273, two had 273.3, but Jim Ritchie had a 273.4 for the win!

Match two was won with by Vadim Israilevich with a 277.

Aggregate over all winner was Ralph Maggio with a 548.

Top woman was Veronica Vasquez.

Thanks for rolling with the match range change to NSW, pitching in with the work, and helping it run smoothly.

Semper Fi,
Jeff Lovat

Full match results are available in the Match Results section.