The 9th annual Safari Rifle Challenge is in the books. Here is a recap of this year’s event made by Jay Sheffield. Jay is the Match Director of the Safari Rifle Challenge World Championships:
Well, the 2019 Safari Rifle Challenge is in the books and Lance Brewer of Snohomish, Washington is the reigning champ. He used a Colt Sauer in .375 H&H to finish 26 points ahead of second place finisher Tor Carter. Gene Gordner and Dennis Wehling tied for third place. Great shooting and congratulations to all who participated and to our top shooters!
A HUGE THANKS to all of our sponsors, particularly Shawn Joyce
of DIIZCHE SAFARI ADVENTURES, Dan and Andy from Skinner Sights, Wayne at
American Hunting Rifles, Champion Targets and our new supporter Bradley Cheek
Rest!
Below, Jay Sheffield (Match Director) with Lance and his first place trophy provided by Shawn Joyce, owner of DIIZCHE SAFARI
ADVENTURES.
We had a full house with shooters from 11 states and 3
Canadian provinces.
The weather was threatening but happily we (and our guns)
stayed dry for the entire day. Below are a few pictures and our course of fire. I took a
lot more video than photos and will try to get them down loaded.
Wayne Jacobson (below) of American Hunting Rifles putting the smackdown
on some wild warthogs with one of his custom .600 OK rifles firing a 900 gr
bullet!
Mike Dettorre lining up on a motor driven charging hippo.
Taking a shot at the crossing 7' Crocodile........
A safe event and fun time was had by all!
A few items after the event that are ready for shipment back to Santa's
Island for broken toys.
2019 Safari Rifle Challenge Course of Fire
Main Range Events
1. Checking Zero---Four shooters on the line. Starting
position will be two rounds in rifle, safety on. On the signal you will fire
two rounds at the 45 yard paper target then load and fire one round at the 100 yard
steel plate. Open action, show clear, muzzle up during scoring and return to
the gun rack.
2. Shoot and Move---Load 1 round, safety on, low ready
position. On the signal, shoot the 60 yard steel plate, move to next spot, load
1 round and shoot 80 yard steel plate. Move to next spot, load 1 round and shoot the 70
yard plate. Open action, show clear, muzzle up, return to gun rack when done.
3. Charging Hippo---Rifle loaded with two rounds, safety
on. On the signal, shoot the 60 yard steel plate kill zone. Reload and take one
shot at the charging Hippo. (Kill zones will be faintly marked for scoring
purposes; you must evaluate the angle then shoot at the heart/lung area). Open
action, show clear, muzzle up, return to gun rack when done.
4. Long Range Shot---Load 1 round, safety on, low ready
position. On the signal, shoot the 110 yard steel plate for 10 points. If you
hit it then you have the option to shoot one round at the 130 yard plate. If
you try the far plate, score will be “DOUBLE OR NOTHING”! Open action, show
clear, muzzle up when done.
5. Charging Water Jugs---Two shooters, two rounds in
rifle, safety on. The cart will start towards you on “standby” and you will
then be given the shoot command. You must shoot the jug on your side then race
to shoot the middle jug. Open action, show clear, muzzle up, return to gun rack
when done.
Shooting Bay Events
1. Crocodile Hunting---Two rounds in rifle, safety on,
low ready. On the signal fire one round at the hanging 2’’ orange DuraSeal
“croc brain” target. A hit equals 20 points and you are done. If you miss, the
crocodile will immediately charge forward, and you must shoot him on the point
of the near shoulder (10 points) before he escapes to the water. Open action,
show clear, muzzle up when done.
2. Warthog Rodeo---Starting position will be low ready
with 2 rounds in the rifle, safety on. On the signal, shoot one round at either
of the two rapidly crossing warthogs. On your shot a third warthog will rise up
facing you for approx. 3 seconds. Shoot him before he disappears. Only hits
that break the clay target vital zone will receive a 10-point score. Open
action, show clear, muzzle up, return to gun rack.
3. Zip Line---Two rounds in the rifle, safety on, low ready.
On the signal the sliding gallon water jug will start towards you. You must
shoot at the small water bottle on the stump in the corner of range BEFORE you
shoot at the sliding jug. Go fast or get wet! Open action, show clear, muzzle
up, return to gun rack.
4. Charging Rhino---Two rounds in rifle, safety on, low
ready. On the signal, shoot at the 4” black hanging DuraSeal diamond target. On
your shot, the rhino will charge forward. (Kill zones will be faintly marked
for scoring purposes; you must evaluate the angle then shoot one round at the
heart/lung area). Open action, show clear, muzzle up, return to gun rack.
As I told the participants, we have recently acquired an
additional 5 acres for our range and construction of an additional 3 dirt berm
enclosed shooting bays (one 100 yards and two 50 yards) is due to start this
summer. If they are ready by next June we will be able to expand our number of
shooters and switch to a format of five stages running at the same time. You
would just need to stroll around and shoot them all before the lunch/raffle
break and then five new stages would be ready for the afternoon.
Looking forward to seeing you all next year, our 10th annual event, for an even
bigger and better Safari Rifle Challenge World Championships! JCS (Jay Sheffield).
Below, Shawn Joyce of DIIZCHE SAFARI ADVENTURES, on a recent wild boar hunt in Northern California. An Elite
Series cheek rest (in MultiCam Black), which Shawn personally uses can be seen in the image. The cheek rest is made by our new
supporter Bradley Cheek Rest.
It was great to see and share a few pictures and hear about everyone having a great time at the annual Safari Rifle Challenge World Championships. I hope to see you all next year!
Next year, the 2020 Safari Rifle
Challenge World Championships will again be held in Libby, Montana at the Libby
Rod and Gun Club. The event is always held in June to assure cooler weather.
If you have not had the opportunity to attend one of the
shoots, then we hope you will make plans to do so in 2020. The shooting event fills-up
very quickly after Jay sends notices to the participants through their participant
notification email group.
If you want to sign up, request more
information, or get on their notification email group send Jay an email and he will
get you squared away. To be added to the (confidential) email group, just contact Jay at safaririflechallenge@yahoo.com .
We hope to see you next year! I will add any additional event day videos or images to this article as they become available. Please check
back for more!
