In Sling competition Howard Pitts won the 50-meter match shooting a near perfect 399-34X. Eric Uptagrafft, whose name has been all over the prone matches, took the Dewar Match firing a 397-25X. In the final individual match, Shawn Carpenter handily won the 100-yard match, three points ahead of his nearest competitor, with a 398-23X and a 200-12X on his final target.
Pitts and Nancy Tompkins went down to the Xs to decide the daily winner and the Any Sight Championship with Pitts emerging on top, 1187-79X to 1187-74X. Carpenter was third with an 1185-62X.
Eric Uptagrafft, again shooting irons the whole way, doubled down, and added the metric title to the conventional title he won earlier with an aggregate score of 2367-142X. Pitts was second, 2359-136X, with Kevin Nevius, 2356-137X, pulling into third.
F-Class finished a successful inaugural event. William Treder winning 50 meters with a 400-32X was a highlight. The Dewar Match went to Michigan State alumni Steve Kern who posted 399-31X. David Pessall shot a clean with 31X score at 100 yards to win that match and use it as a spring board to win the day with a score of 1195-99X.
Pessall won the Metric Championship, firing a 2390-198X. Kern placed second, 2381-174X, edging out Jim Murphy, 2381-168X. However, Murphy bested the field with a 4755-314X to become the first NRA Smallbore F-Class Champion. Pessall, 4750-357X, and Jeff Huehn, 4735-296X were second and third respectively.
Match operations were efficient, with seamless transitions, due to a hard working and dedicated group of NRA staff and volunteers who started early and ended late in to insure the competitors were able to focus on performance.
2018 NRA Smallbore Rifle Championships Iron Man Trophy Leaderboard
- Winner Elizabeth Gratz, 11799-698X
- Second William Marcinak, 11769-659X
- Third Jaden Thompson, 11756-700X
- Fourth Lisette Grunwell-Lacey, 11742-643X
- Fifth Malori Brown, 11728-608X
- Sixth Josette Peters, 11651-580X
- Seventh Martina Gratz, 11650-566X
- Eighth Joseph Graf, 11617-601X
- Ninth Michelle Bohren, 11617-589X
- Tenth M’Leah Lambdin, 11561-466X
A more detailed report on the entire 2018 National Smallbore Championship will be featured in an upcoming edition of Shooting Sports USA.
More 2018 NRA Smallbore Nationals coverage:
- Metric and Grand Aggregate Position Round Up
- Gallery: 2018 Smallbore Conventional 3-Position Championships
- NRA Junior Smallbore Camp Helps Shooters Reach New Personal Best Scores
- Teenage Competitor Displays Extraordinary Act Of Sportsmanship
- Prone Conventional Metallic Sights, Day 1
- Smallbore Nationals: Metallic Sights Aggregate, Day 2
- Smallbore Nationals: Prone Conventional Concludes, Metric Metallic Sights Day 1
- Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun Side Match At 2018 Smallbore Nationals
- Smallbore Nationals: Inaugural F-Class Match, U.S. Dewar & Randle Teams