The 2008 Western CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches will take place at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility North of Phoenix, Arizona on October 11-19. Shooters who want detailed information about the events on the program should examine the match program Read Here . Shooters can now register on-line Register Here.
The 2008 Western CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches are the fifth in a series that started at Camp Pendleton, California in 2005. The fourth Western Games Matches were moved to the Ben Avery Shooting Facility near Phoenix, Arizona in October 2007. This year’s matches will be the second Western CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches to be held at Phoenix. Together with the Eastern CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches that now take place at Camp Butner, North Carolina, these competitions were established to give the nation’s best highpower rifle shooters two prestigious national-level competitions and to give recreation-oriented riflemen in other areas of the country more opportunities to experience the kind of competitions that competitors in the National CMP Games Matches at Camp Perry regard so highly.
There are some schedule changes this year that will give competitors in the Western CMP Games three more events that they can fire. The 5th Western CMP Games will kick off with a New Shooter Clinic on Saturday, October 11. This year the clinic will be held in the morning so that a 200-yard Garand-Springfield-Vintage Military Rifle Match can be fired that afternoon.
On Sunday, October 12, there will be a Garand-Springfield-Vintage Military Rifle Match in the morning. That afternoon, there will be a new event on the schedule, a Rimfire Sporter Match. This should give other shooters in the Southwest a chance to try the steadily growing Rimfire Sporter game. That afternoon, the CMP government-surplus rifle and ammunition sales will open, followed by a barbecue for all attendees.
Shooting opportunities on the third day, Monday, October 13, have also been expanded. There will be a third Garand-Springfield-Vintage Military Rifle Match that morning followed by an M1 Carbine Match that afternoon. With three days of Garand-Springfield-Vintage Military Rifle Matches, shooters will be able to fire all three events. This year, there will be awards for the top shooters in a special aggregate of all three As-Issued Military Rifle Matches. The new Carbine Match will give shooters in that part of the country an opportunity to fire that challenging and relatively new event.
The Western CMP Games Matches conclude on Tuesday, October 14, with an As-Issued M1 Garand Special EIC Match where shooters who do not have any EIC points can earn introductory “4-point legs.” As a further incentive to participation in this match, Bushmaster will provide a Bushmaster DCM-XR competition service rifle to be awarded to the highest ranking shooter who is eligible to win the 4-point legs (no previous EIC points).
The 2008 Western Creedmoor Cup Matches begin with a highpower rifle clinic on Wednesday, October 15, and then offer four days of matches for service rifles and match rifles on October 16-19. Members of the U. S. Army and U. S. Marine Corps Service Rifle Teams and Team Bushmaster will be on hand to assist with the clinic and subsequently compete in the matches. The matches include a 50-shot National Match Course practice match on Thursday, a 4-person team match on Friday, the 80-shot Creedmoor Cup Match on Saturday and a 50-shot EIC/Match Rifle course on Sunday. Creedmoor Sports will host a barbecue and prize drawing with many thousands of dollars worth of prizes on Saturday, October 18.
The CMP and Creedmoor Sports of Oceanside, California, together with the Arizona State Rifle & Pistol Association, will host the 2008 Western CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches.
The Ben Avery Shooting Facility (formerly Black Canyon Range) was selected as the venue for the CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches because of its size, location near a major western city and interest in hosting this fast-growing major rifle competition. The Ben Avery Range hosted the 1970 World Shooting Championship and several national championships. It continues to host numerous regional and local competitions in a variety of shooting disciplines every year. The Arizona Game and Fish Department now operates the facility; it is the largest public shooting facility in the country.
On-line registration for both the CMP and Creedmoor Matches is now open. Click Here to register. The official match program is posted Here.
An extensive collection of photos taken at the 2007 Western CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Match can be viewed Here and Here.
More information about Creedmoor Sports, Inc. is available from their website at www.CreedmoorSports.com.
Information about the Ben Avery Shooting Facility is available at Ben Avery Shooting Facility.
