Copicut cops another R.I. Rifle title
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Straight shooting has earned the Copicut
High Power Rifle Team four league championships in the past five years. The
team, based out of the Copicut Rifle Assoc. in
The team started out a little slow this summer, then came from
behind to establish a 15-point lead going into the last match and held that
lead to win the championship.
"We all concentrated and shot our best that day," said
team member John Beaumont of
Shooters fire the National High Power Rifle Course, a 50-round
aggregate match with a possible score of 500. The first string is 10 shots
offhand (standing) at 200 yards. Next is sitting -- rapid fire at 200 yards,
where shooters have 60 seconds to go from standing to a sitting position and
fire 10 shots, reloading once.
Timed fire -- prone is next, but at 300 yards. Shooters have 70
seconds to go from standing into the prone position and fire 10 more rounds,
reloading once. The last stage of the national course is 20 shots slow fire
from the prone position at a distance of 600 yards.
Most shooting facilities in the area don't have 600-yard ranges, so
shooters are allowed to shoot the final stage at 300 yards at a scaled-down
version of the 600-yard target, which offers the same difficulty factor as
shooting the larger target at the greater distance.
Shooting is done with precision centerfire
rifles, many of them capable of grouping all shots within three inches at 600
yards and some as accurate as being able to shoot four- or five-inch groups at
1,000 yards.
Beaumont, who's been competing in the league for the past eight
years, shoots a custom AR-15 in 6mm Remington caliber and tailors his own handloads to derive optimum accuracy from his rifle, which
weighs 16 pounds. All competition rifles are outfitted with peep sights, not
scopes.
"Some of the rifles have may look like some sort of plumber's
experiment, but boy, can they shoot," he said.
He also said that teamwork is what pays off for the Copicut team. The top five scores from each team are the
only ones that count for a match, no matter how many shooters are on the team.
And while some clubs may have brilliant shooters in their first three spots,
their fourth and fifth positions may not be as strong.
"That's where we make up some points,"
"Competing against the national champion is only intimidating
if you let it be," said
Houle, who lives
in West Warwick and has been shooting for the past 22 years, has set records
within the national high power rifle course at
This summer at
Houle, who
shoots a Tubbs 2000 rifle in 6mmXC caliber, says that winning championships is
all a matter of focus and concentration.
"There are no secrets," he says. "Just stay focused.
There's no gadget you can buy that's going to win you a championship. It's got
to come from inside you. And when you get to that level of competition, you
need a rifle that's capable of shooting up to your ability. Being able to shoot
better than your equipment can, defeats the purpose. But a rifle is only as
good as the person behind it."
It may seem odd that Copicut is the only
team from
EGG SHOOT WINNERS
Here are the winners of the Ray Piche
Memorial Egg Shoot held recently at the Woodcock Road Rifle Range, listed in
order of first through third places.
Custom rifle (200 yards) -- Joe Manning of
Raynham, Jonathan Wong of
Factory rifle (200 yards) -- Bob Lis of
Custom rifle (300 yards) --
Factory rifle (300 yards) -- Ron Maciel of
Hunting rifle (100 yards) -- Steven Guillette, Antonio Dias and William Andrews, all of
Handgun (100 yards) -- Dave Nuttall
of
Winners of the previous shoot were: Custom rifle (200 yards) --
George Harrison, Gary Maciel and Steve Sylvia of
Factory rifle (200 yards) --
Custom rifle (300 yards) -- Alphonse Mattia of
Factory rifle (300 yards) -- Roy Bertalotto and Bob Lis.
Hunting rifle (100 yards) -- Steve Guillette and Stever Carreiro of
Handgun (100 yards) -- Dave Nuttall and
Ron Maciel.
Marc Folco is The
Standard-Times' outdoor writer. E-mail him at openseason1988@aol.com