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National Air Gun Championships held at UA


Zipsrifle

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I guess I didn't even know this was going on. IMO, this is HUGE for the rifle team. It really exposes the top shooting talent in the nation to the Great Facilities UA has to offer! Hopefully this is a regular thing! I know Coach Engle has been building a great program for years, and they are on the cusp of breaking into the National Championship match. This may help snag some of that top talent! Great job to those who worked to get this landed in Akron. Hopefully this becomes an annual thing!!

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this won't be an annual thing because this particular match the nra has it bounce from west coast to east coast every other year to allow for people who might not have enough money to travel to this years event make the one the following year when it is closer to them. however, maybe a few years down the road newt can put in another bid. there have been talks for years about building us a new range, and the original stadium plans had us in there. if we could get the right dimensions (a 50m by 50ft range with an air range upstairs) we could easily be hosting other national matches, maybe even world cups quite regularly. i hope this match shows the administration that newt's not joking when he says that. yes this is great for recruiting not only because it shows off the facilities, but because it also shows that the university is pro-rifle team, and with the recent losses of programs across the country that kind of security is hard to come by.

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I expect things will go well, and with such great facilities, the NRA may ask to come back. I haven't been to the range in Schrank for a while, but Coach was doing a pretty good job of upgrading it as much as possible. The problem with the Schrank range is that it is so cramped during a match, no room to move around or have any spectators (yes, there are a few that show up). I hope a new range would be built, but I see a scheduling conflict with putting it in the stadium. If the stadium is going to be used for Football and Soccer, as well as other events, then it might be in use quite a bit in the fall. Matches are ususally on Saturday, and I for one would not want to try to shoot under a stadium with 35,000+ people cheering above me. Maybe if there is an annex connecting the fieldhouse with the stadium, something could be built there. Also, if they upgrade the JAR, that might be a spot. I wonder if the NRA would support part of the construction costs in return for a spot for National Matches?

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Marginally related: I tuned into ESPNU this afternoon just before the USA-Brazil U-20 World Cup match, and they were showing the NCAA Clay Target Riflery Championships! Looked like skeet shooting to me -- as little as I know about the subject. Most of the shooters they showed were from Big-12 schools, Missouri and TX A&M, and one from ColoState. I never heard of this being an NCAA sport. Anyone else catch this? It will probably replay, and they only showed the qualifying preliminaries before it was over, so must be a Pt II later.BTW -- ZR: As you can see from the thread on the Soccer board, the new stadium will not be used by UA Futbol.

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ZIP: Yea, I saw that there was a planned UA Soccer Stadium. But I also thought there was something in the stadium proposal to make it multiple use. I know little about soccer, but seems to me the fields are about the same size, and so making the new stadium fit both needs shouldn't be to hard. Also allows for any future MLS team to have a stadium. On the other hand, Soccer doesn't draw as many as football, so even a huge crowd for a UA Soccer match would probably feel tiny.

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shotgun shooting is not ncaa, nor is pistol. both of those collegiate championships are governed by other shooting organizations. the pistol is run by the nra and shotgun is alcu (i believe). we just went over this in the classes yesterday (that are part of the championships).

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they in the sporter category, which means they shoot simpler rifles without the fancy jackets and stuff. they wear street clothes and shoes. while i'm not trying to take anything away from their accomplishment, they'd need to switch over to precision classification to really get looked at (precision rifles are what we shoot in college).

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true but there is still a big difference between shooting smallbore or precision with minimal gear and sporter air rifle with no gear. yes it can improve your scores when you make the switch, but you still need to make the switch or you won't even be looked at by collegiate coaches. i know what you are saying zipsrifle because all shooters started out with next to nothing.

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Below are some pics from the match. I have to say that is quite impressive. For those of you who haven't been to a match, usually we are burried somewhere in the bowels of a building far away from natural light. As I said before, I think coach really hit a homerun getting this at UA!http://uaim.dyndns.info:16080/photo_galler...800&SPSID=47843

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Below are some pics from the match.  I have to say that is quite impressive.  For those of you who haven't been to a match, usually we are burried somewhere in the bowels of a building far away from natural light.  As I said before, I think coach really hit a homerun getting this at UA!http://uaim.dyndns.info:16080/photo_galler...800&SPSID=47843
Nice pics. From the silly questions dept.:1) Why so many shooters at one time? Couldn't they do it in "flights"?2) What exactly do these air rifles shoot...BB's/pellets/bullets? How much more powerful are they than a kid's BB/pellet gun? Is there more to the backstops than just the curtains?3) Does the target distance vary by type of rifle and/or level of competition?Yes, I think the U. is getting very good at hosting all kinds of athletic events. We were the center of the basketball world recently thanks to LeBron and don't forget we held the Big East track championships. That, if nothing else, familiarizes the BE with U. of Akron.
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1) Why so many shooters at one time? Couldn't they do it in "flights"?
They could, and might have shot in different "Lines", but a match takes a long time to shoot. In my days, a "Full Course" was 40 shots in each position. Standing, Kneeling, Prone. With setup and changeover time, you're looking at 2-2.5 hours per line. Also, this is where the "Competiton" comes in. Shooting is VERY mental. The reactions of the people around you can affect your performance. If the person next to you is frustrated, you can infer that they are doing badly. You can also look at the other targets of those around you, if you want, to gauge how you are doing. You could also, as I typically did, use every last minute of clock to keep the other shooters waiting which might get their mind off shooting, which can throw them off.
2) What exactly do these air rifles shoot...BB's/pellets/bullets? How much more powerful are they than a kid's BB/pellet gun? Is there more to the backstops than just the curtains?
These air rifles shoot pellets simiar to what a BB gun would shoot except that the pellets are of a much higher quality for precision air rifles. I would imagne that all of the rifles here used compressed air or CO2 at maybe 3000 psi. In my day you had to pump the air rifles before each shot, which made you get out of position and also raised your heart rate. These kids have it so easy! As for the backstop, I don't know exactly what it was, but pellets require much less of a backstop than smallbore bullets require. I'm sure the sheets you see are simply to match up with the color of the targets and there was probably something else behind the sheets to stop the pellets.
3) Does the target distance vary by type of rifle and/or level of competition?
Yes, you can shoot many different distances. I believe the high power shooters have a 1000 yard match. When I was shooting indoor, we shot .22's at 50 feet and air rifles at 10m. With indoor matches, windage is not an issue and the targets are pretty small. As the distances incease, the targets get larger. There are a lot of differnet types of shooting and I only know about the indoor shooting that is done at UA.Hope this info helps.
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1) Why so many shooters at one time? Couldn't they do it in "flights"?2) What exactly do these air rifles shoot...BB's/pellets/bullets? How much more powerful are they than a kid's BB/pellet gun? Is there more to the backstops than just the curtains?3) Does the target distance vary by type of rifle and/or level of competition?
1) this particular match was a national level match, so you have hundreds of kids shooting. there were 3 "flights" (we call them relays) each about as full as the other. they make the lines large to hold more shooters so they can allow more people the opportunity to shoot at a national match. 2) these air rifle shoot flat nosed pellets. they can be shot through other air guns, but as zipsrifle said, the kind we shoot are much higher quality than what you can buy down at dicks. i can also answer the backstop question. if you look at their targets you see that it's just a little box that shows one bull (individual target). there were 60 bulls on a roll and those boxes were designed to let the shooter scroll through their bulls to shoot without having to get up and go change it. also inside those boxes is a steel plate and that is what is preventing the pellets from going everywhere. the curtain was a tarp material and was there more to even out the background (as far as color goes) than to stop any stray pellets. that's what's so nice about air rifle shooting is that it can go anywhere and all you need is a pellet trap. if akron decides to give us the space for a new range that my coach is asking for, we could be hosting world cup matches very easily. and i'm talking about international matches!3) yes. air rifle will always be at 10m (33ft). for .22 we shoot 50 ft because we have to shoot indoors, but at an international level you would be shooting 50m outdoor. some high power matches go as far as 1000 yards.
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