SSG Cooper Leads High Power into Second Day
NRAblog 08.08.12
The first day officially over, the United States Army Marksmanship Unit’s Staff Sergeant Tyrel Cooper has taken the lead in the NRA’s National High Power Rifle Championships. After outshooting Carl Bernosky and USAMU teammate Sergeant Sherri Gallagher in the Coast Artillery Trophy Match, Cooper finished with a top score of 598-30x.
SSG Cooper leads Gallagher by just two X’s and is a scoring point ahead of Bernosky. And he better keep that one scoring point lead as 2011 High Power Rifle champ Bernosky is sporting 39Xs. That means he will take back the lead in the event of tie.
High Power Rifle Championship — Match 400
Place/Competitor/Score
- Tyrel Cooper 398-30x
- Sherri Gallagher 398-28x
- Carl Bernosky 397-39x
- Brandon Keith Green 396-34x
- Rodrigo Rosa 396-32x
One thing to note is that SSG Cooper is shooting a Service Rifle. SGT Gallagher and Bernosky, on the other hand, are shooting Match Rifles. Match Rifles are more customized the individual needs and wants of the competitor while Service Rifles are more of a standard, no frills version of the firearm. That might not sound like much, but there is a huge difference. That’s why no Service Rifle shooter has bested the Match Rifle competitor in the NRA High Power Rifle Championships since 1987. That’s when Army Staff Sergeant Greg A. Strom posted a 2356-79x to beat out Patrick M. McCann’s 2352-99x.
SSG Cooper is a two-time NRA Service Rifle champion, winning the DuPont Trophy (pdf) in 2008 and again in 2011. His reputation as a strong shooter means that we might be witnessing one of those rare occurrences seldom seen in the High Power Rifle Championships. How will SSG Cooper fare against the other competitors today? You never know.
Here’s what’s in store for the firing line:
- Navy Cup:
- Slow fire match shot in the standing position from 200 yards.
- Coast Guard Cup:
- Rapid fire match shot from the sitting/kneeling position from 200 yards.
- Army Cup:
- Slow fire match shot prone from 600 yards.
Weather forecasts suggests we’ll be seeing the same thing we saw yesterday – temperature in the 80s with little chance of rain – but at Camp Perry you never know when a storm will be suddenly thrown you way.
To view a slideshow of the event, visit the original post on NRABlog here.
NRAblog covers the 178 programs of the National Rifle Association. Whether it's the Youth Hunter Education Challenge, Women On Target, Hunters Rights, our National Competitions or a look at one of the thousands of guns in the National Firearms Museum, NRAblog is there to provide you an inside look to how it all happens at the NRA.
