Sauer wins national shooting title

Andrew Towne
Posted 8/10/18

– Cole Sauer, an 11-year-old who lives near Veteran, recently won the Top Junior award at the 2018 22BPCRA National Championship Match held at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, N.M.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Sauer wins national shooting title

Posted

Special to the Telegram

RATON, N.M. – Cole Sauer, an 11-year-old who lives near Veteran, recently won the Top Junior award at the 2018 22BPCRA National Championship Match held at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, N.M.

For this competition, the Junior class is for all shooters 16-years-old and under.  The two-day match was held July 28-29 with 60 targets being attempted each day.

Each day, shooters attempted 15 chicken silhouettes, 15 pig silhouettes, 15 turkey silhouettes and 15 ram silhouettes. Shooters are allowed only one shot at each target.

Of 120 possible targets for the two days, Sauer successfully knocked down 90 silhouettes.

22BPCR is a rapidly growing sport that is patterned after Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Silhouette rifle matches. In general, it follows the same theme and rules of shooting knock down steel silhouettes with antique design single shot rifles at long distance. The game has simply been scaled down for .22LR caliber rifles.

The steel targets are shaped to resemble the silhouette of different animals.  The targets are made from 1/4-inch thick mild steel plate. The ram silhouettes are shot at a distance of 200 meters, turkeys at 150 meters, pigs at 100 meters and chickens at 50 meters.

Rams, turkeys, and pigs are shot from the prone position, while the chickens are shot “offhand”.  Offhand means the shooter is standing and neither the shooter nor the gun is supported by any rest. The chickens have proven to be the most challenging targets because of the position they are shot from. Sauer would agree with this, as he has successfully knocked down all 15 on the other animals, but his best score is four hits out of the 15 attempts on the chickens.

When Sauer was asked about his win at Raton, he said, ”I thank God for the opportunity to compete and am grateful to live in a country where it is possible. I have fun shooting together with my dad. I just try to do my best on every target, and then see how my score comes out.”

Sauer and his family regularly shoot and compete in various contests at the Goshen County Sportsman’s Club and Smithmoor Range in Carpenter.

Cody and Coralee Smith at Carpenter introduced them to the 22BPCR game and have made Smithmoor an inviting place for the whole family.