Chip Mate Wins NRA Black Powder Position Title

Takes fifth NRA Black Powder Target Rifle Position Championship.

Raton, New Mexico – After calmer weather on the second of the two-day championship, Chip Mate won his fifth Schaffer Trophy with a score of 552-10x.

“This is the best run match I’ve ever shot in,” Mate said. “It’s a shooter’s match.”

Tuesday saw near-perfect shooting conditions for much of the day, with little wind in the afternoon and a firing line that stayed dry – more than can be said about Monday.

Starting the day a point down and an X up, Mate sat in third behind tied leaders Rick Moritz and Doc Lay. After the standing relay at 200 yards, Mate leaped Lay after shooting an 89 to Doc’s 83. Moritz, on the other hand, would not be usurped yet, firing an 89-1x to lead by a point.

Once the match moved to 300 yards, Moritz would be undone. Mate would go on to shoot a perfect 100-3x to Moritz’s 98-1x and the two swapped positions with Mate now up one.

In the last relay, at 600 yards, Moritz had ten shots to retake the lead, and the championship, but it was not to be. Firing an 85, Moritz couldn’t catch Mate, who extended his lead and won the NRA’s most unique trophy after posting a 91-2x.

What makes the Schaffer Trophy so unique, you ask? Mate is holding it in the photo above. It’s a gun. A Schuetzen Rifle, to be specific.

The engraved single shot 7.7mm rifle was made in Germany in early 1900. It’s namesake is for the man who donated, LTC C.J. Shaffer, a former NRA Competition Division Staff Manager, Director of Civilian Marksmanship and Executive Officer at Camp Perry while with the Army.

This morning the Prone Championship started, also a two-day match shot at distances of 200, 300 and 600 yards. We’ll see a lot more high scores with prone shooting and the weather’s supposed to hold up as well. Will Mate repeat at the NRA Black Powder Championships? We’ll find out tomorrow.

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