STATE CHAMPIONSHIP POSTAL COMPETITION
SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
SPONSORED BY THE U. S. ARMY

You are invited to participate in the 2010 U.S. Army Junior Open Air Rifle Championship!

¥   Championship Objectives:  The U. S. Army sponsors the Annual U. S. Army Open Air Rifle Championship to 1) promote rifle practice and firearm safety, 2) to foster junior participation in prestigious state and national rifle competitions, and 3) to connect with American youth by making U. S. Army marksmanship expertise available to them. Participation by as many teams and clubs as possible in the state championship postal competitions is encouraged.

¥  U. S. Army Sponsorship. The U. S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) and the U. S. Army Recruiting Command provide direct support for the state and national competitions. USAMU will conduct the national championship at its Pool Range Complex at Fort Benning, Georgia. The world-renowned Army International Rifle Team with its many international champions and great tradition will provide an instructional clinic and conduct the competitions that are part of the National Championship. The U. S. Army Recruiting Command will assign Army Recruiters to travel to schools, JROTC units and clubs to present state championship team and individual awards.

The 2010 U. S. Army National Championship Competition will take place at Fort Benning, Georgia’s Pool Range Complex, the home range of the Army Marksmanship Unit’s International Rifle Team.

¥   Civilian Marksmanship Program.  The CMP supports the U. S. Army Junior Open Air Rifle Championship by providing event promotion, issuing target sets to competing organizations, scoring postal targets and conducting results operations for the State Postal and National Championship competitions. The CMP also provides funding assistance to National Championship qualifiers.

¥  Open Junior Competition.  The U. S. Army Junior Open Air Rifle Championship is open to all junior shooting organizations that have school-age juniors as members or enrollees (high school seniors or below). Participating organizations can be junior clubs, school teams, 4-H clubs, JROTC units (Army, Air Force, Marine Corps or Navy) or other organizations with eligible junior members. 

¥   2010 National Championship Expanding.  In 2010, in addition to inviting the top 10 sporter and top 10 precision teams to the National Championship at Fort Benning, the top 10 sporter and top 10 precision at-large individuals (competitors who are not on a top 10 team) will again be invited to the championship at Fort Benning. Teams that do not qualify a team still have the possibility of qualifying an individual shooter. This should give all organizations with junior shooters even more reason to enter this year’s competition.

Entering and Competing

¥  Competition Phases.  The annual U. S. Army Junior Open Air Rifle Championship has two phases of competition, a State Championship postal phase and a National Championship shoulder-to-shoulder phase. State Championship postals give sporter and precision class position junior shooters of all levels of ability an opportunity to test their marksmanship skills against other junior shooters in their home states during a nation-wide postal competition. The best state championship teams then are invited to compete against the top junior teams and shooters in the nation during the National Championship at Fort Benning.

¥  Competition Events.  The 2010 U. S. Army Junior Open Air Rifle Championship features two separate air rifle events, a sporter class three-position event and a precision class standing event. Because these are different types of events, all competitors may fire the State Championship postal competition in either or both events. Teams may compete in the National Championship in only one class, however.

¥   Entries.  Entries or requests for official targets may be submitted to the CMP anytime between 2 November 2009 and 8 January 2010. Entries must be made on-line at CMP. No entries may be postmarked later than 8 January 2010.

¥  Entry Fee.  Entry fees for the 2010 competition are $5.00 per competitor, with no additional charge for team entries. The low entry fee is intended to encourage more junior clubs and teams to enter more juniors in the postal phase of this competition. Participating clubs and teams are urged to encourage as many junior shooters as possible to participate.

¥  On-Line Team Registration.  The CMP utilizes an on-line team registration in its Competitor Tracker system to take team entries. When you enter the 2010 U. S. Army Postal, you will be asked to use this on-line entry system to provide the names, addresses and CMP competitor numbers (if available) for all of the juniors you are entering in this competition. It is important that the home addresses of individual shooters be used to fill in the contact information and not their club/school addresses, as this is how awards will be distributed. If your organization is entering both sporter and precision teams, you will need to enter your sporter team once and then enter your precision class juniors in a second team entry. After your entries are submitted, the CMP will print your competitors’ names and numbers on the official postal targets (Krüger targets will be used again this year) and forward them to you. Detailed instructions for completing your on-line entries are posted at the end of this program. Be sure to read those instructions before entering.

¥  2010 State Championship Postal Competition.  Firing the 2010 U. S. Army State Championship postal targets may be done anytime between 2 November and 22 January 2010. Postal targets must be fired and forwarded to the CMP, postmarked not later than 22 January 2010. Note that the entry and target firing deadlines are one month earlier this year. This is to make it possible to conduct the National Championship at Fort Benning in late March, just ahead of the JROTC Nationals.

¥  U. S. Army National Junior Air Rifle Championship.  The championship will take place at the U. S. Army Marksmanship Unit, Fort Benning, Georgia on 20-24 March 2010. Teams that have qualified for the Army Championship at Fort Benning and the JROTC Nationals that also qualified for the National JROTC Championship that will take place on 25-27 March at Anniston, Alabama will be able to compete in both championships on one trip. The Army National Championship at Fort Benning will begin with a special training clinic taught by the Army International Rifle Team. That will be followed by two days of individual and team competition firing. To qualify for the Army Championship, your team must rank in the 10 highest sporter or 10 highest precision state championship teams in the state championship postal phase. Only the highest ranking sporter and precision teams in each state championship will advance to Fort Benning. In addition, the ten highest ranking at-large individual competitors in the sporter and precision classes will be invited to the National Championship at Fort Benning. All at-large invitations will be issued according to scores fired by individuals who are not members of qualifying teams. The 2009 sporter and precision class team champions will also be invited to enter teams of eligible shooters if those organizations enter teams and participate in the 2010 State Championship Postal competition.

Rules

The 2008-2010 National Standard Three-Position Air Rifle Rules (7th V2 edition) and this Official Program govern the State and National Championship phases of this competition. Additional program details concerning the National Championship will be provided at the time qualifying teams are notified. Rulebooks may be ordered from the CMP, http://odcmp.com/Programs/publications.htm  tel. 419-635-2141, ext. 1102, or downloaded from the CMP web site at http://www.odcmp.com/3P/Rules.pdf.

Who May Compete

Team Entries:  Teams must represent a club, school or other organization that complies with Rule 3.2.1, School Age Teams, in the National Standard Three-Position Air Rifle Rules. All team members must be members of or enrolled in the club, team, school or other organization, reside in the geographic proximity of the city where the club, team, school or other organization is based and regularly participate in its activities (All-star teams with shooters from more than one club are not permitted). Teams may fire as many shooters as they wish in the State Championship postal phase in either the sporter three-position or precision standing events. The scores of each team's top four shooters in the sporter and/or precision classes count are the official team score(s). The individual scores of all competitors will be listed in State Championship individual rankings.

Individual Entries:  Individual junior shooters who are not members of a team, but who comply with Rule 3.1.1, School Age Competitors, are eligible to compete in the State Championship postal competition. Individual shooters’ results will be ranked in the State Championship individual rankings and will be eligible to earn at-large invitations to the National Championship. This will give individual juniors who do not have a full four-person team to compete with an opportunity to participate in the State Championship postal. When entering individuals, use the on-line team entry and be sure to show the club or organizational affiliation of the shooters who are entered even if there are only one or two entries from that organization.

Age Limits:  All participants in the state championship postal competition must be enrolled in high school or middle school or the equivalent (i.e. home school) or be mid-term graduates during the 2009-2010 school year.  The School-Age eligibility rule in the National Standard Three-Position Air Rifle Rules (Rule 3.1.1) applies.  There is no minimum age.

Courses of Fire

State Championship Postal Phase:  In the postal phase, each shooter in the sporter class event will fire a 3x10 course of fire (10 shots in each position, prone, standing, and kneeling, fired in that order).  Each shooter in the precision air rifle event will fire 40 shots standing (4x10 or 2x20 standing). 

National Championship Phase:  The National Championship competition is a shoulder-to-shoulder match with one full day of instruction and training followed by two days of competition and an impressive awards banquet.  In individual sporter class competition, competitors will fire two 3x20 courses of fire (one each day), with the top eight individual scorers each day firing a 10-shot final (one each day).  Team scores will be the totals of the two 3x20 scores for each day fired by the four team members.  In individual precision class competition, competitors will fire two 40-shot standing courses of fire (one each day), with the top eight individual scorers each day firing a 10-shot final (one each day).  Team scores will be the totals of the two 40-shot standing scores fired by the four team members.  Final round scores do not count in team totals. The average of the two finals will be added to competitors’ individual scores (If a shooter is in only one final, that score is his/her average) for all competitors who qualify for one or more finals (top eight individual scores each day).  

Shooting Positions:  The prone, standing and kneeling positions as described in Rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2 and 5.1.3 must be used.  Three-position firing must be done in that order.

Postal Targets

Official 12 bulls-eye 10-meter air rifle targets, designated as 10-meter NC-AR10 targets will be used for the postal phase.  Targets printed by the Krüger company (Germany) will be issued to all participating organizations.  Targets will be scored electronically with Orion Visual Image Scoring (VIS) software.  Official postal targets with competitor names and numbers printed on them will be forwarded by the CMP to participating individuals/teams as soon as possible after teams register online.  Any State Championship postal scores fired on targets other than targets provided by the CMP will be disqualified. 

Rifles, Clothing and Equipment

Sporter class participants must use air rifles and equipment defined in Rule 4.2 (Sporter Air Rifle) and Rule 4.3 (Sporter Clothing and Accessories) in the National Standard Three-Position Air Rifle Rules. Precision class participants must use air rifles and equipment as defined in Rules 4.4 and 4.5 (Precision Air Rifle) and Rule 4.6 (Precision Clothing and Accessories).  Shooting jackets, pants or special shooting boots may be used only in the precision class.  A sporter class air rifle may be used in the precision standing event, but no precision air rifle may be used in the sporter 3x20 event.  Anyone with questions about equipment for the sporter or precision classes is encouraged to contact the National Three-Position Air Rifle Council Rules Hotline, 419-635-2141, ext. 1102 or competitions@odcmp.com.

Team Competition

Sporter and Precision Team Entries:  Each participating organization may enter as many individuals as they wish in the State Championship postal phase.  Shooters in the U. S. Army Junior Open Championship can shoot in both the sporter three-position and precision standing events.  Participating organizations may have one or more individual shooters fire in the sporter class and may also have the same or other individual shooters fire in the precision class.  Participating organizations thus may have team scores in either the sporter or precision classes or in both classes.  The organization's team score for the sporter and/or precision classes will be the total of the four highest scores fired by individuals representing that organization in that class.  If your team qualifies for the National Championship, the four team members who represent your organization in the National Championship do not have to be the four high scoring members on your team in the State Championship, but they must be selected from shooters who participated in the State Championship in either sporter or precision class.

Only shooters who fire in the State Championship Postal Phase may represent your organization in the National Championship.

Individual Competition:

One organization may enter an unlimited number of competitors in the State Championship postal phase in either or both of the sporter three-position or precision standing events.  Individual juniors who represent organizations that do not enter a full team of four shooters may also fire in the State Championships in either class.  Individual competitors may not represent more than one organization, however.  Each individual competitor may fire only one set of “official match targets” during the State Championship sporter class phase and one set of targets during the State Championship precision phase.  Individual champions in a State Championship may advance to the National Championship as at-large individual competitors or as members of a state champion team that qualifies for the National Championship.

How to Enter