Starting this Fall, the National Air Rifle League will adopt the new firing order of Kneeling, Prone and then Standing positions for all Sporter class competitors. Precision class competitors in the League will still fire a 60 Shot standing course of fire.
The National Three-Position Air Rifle Council authorized this change in the latest revision of the rulebook and the CMP has adopted this change for their 3P Air Rifle Nationals this summer at Camp Perry, OH. We firmly believe this better reflects the sport as a whole for consistency across events from the air rifle three-position Finals, smallbore rifle, NCAA Rifle, and even the Olympic games.
While some may initially recoil in fear over anything change-related, it should be a change for the better for your athletes.
In addition to the consistency for a spectator to view various events, the athlete (and therefore the coach!) will benefit in efficiency as there is now only one sling change from kneeling to prone, unlike the previous off and then back on during those precious changeover times. Otherwise the times are exactly the same and as follows:
3 Position Air Rifle in K-P-S order
8 Minute Prep & Sighters in Kneeling
20 Minutes (10 Min for a 3x10) Record Shots
5 Minutes changeover
5 Minutes Sighting in Prone
20 Minutes (10 Min for a 3x10) Record Shots
5 Minutes changeover
5 Minutes Sighting in Standing
25 Minutes (15 Min for a 3x10) Record Shots
Those especially familiar with ISSF or NCAA matches will notice this varies ever so slightly in that we can not adopt a block time format like those matches have. This is due to the fact that not every venue has electronic scoring targets and must make a cold range to change out targets between stages. This is impractical and unsafe when multiple athletes are shooting at different paces.
We look forward to the League starting back up later in the summer and wish you a successful summer match schedule or break from school.
