The Southern National Smallbore Rifle Silhouette Championship was in the news last week -- and for good reason. The Championship, held June 3 - 6, 2010 in Winnsboro, Louisiana, just celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Tune in here to listen to both David McLemore, President of the Winnsboro Gun Club, and competitor Carol Rosenqvist, pictured at left, who is also a Women On Target® clinic director.

“I can’t stop doing it,” Rosenqvist said of silhouette competition. “I encourage everyone, even women – especially women – to come out and try it. It’s a load of fun.”

"[The other participants] aren't competitors, they’re my family," Rosenqvist said. "I travel all over the country competing, and it’s just a very friendly, safe atmosphere."

"It’s a family-oriented sport."

Watch the entire myarklamiss.com video interview! 

The following is excerpted from the Competitive Shooting Division's E-Newsletter:

Notes from Competitive Shooting Division Director Mike Krei 

Added Awards for the NRA Silhouette Championships We are spending a great deal of time looking at our National Championships awards schedules and making changes where we think changes are needed. NRA Competitive Shooting Staff members have recommended that our National Silhouette Championships need to be provided more in the way of awards.

We will initiate a new Visa Gift Card program for our 2010 National Silhouette Championships. Starting this year we will provide a $400.00 Visa Gift Card to the Champion of each Silhouette Championship, $200.00 Visa Gift Card for 2nd place and a $100.00 Visa Gift Card for our 3rd place winners. This will mean a $10,000.00 increase in the National Silhouette Championship award schedule. NRA Visa Gift Cards will be added to the current award schedules.

Two New Trophies to be Awarded at Camp Perry Two new trophies have been presented to the NRA as awards for the National High Power Long Range Championships. 2010 will be the inaugural year for the new Bert Rollins Trophy and the "Band of Brothers" Trophy.

Remington Arms Company donated the new "Band of Brothers" Trophy to be awarded to the winner of the shoot-off in Match 532, the 1000 yard Any Sight match held the first day of the Long Range Championships. This trophy is a beautiful bronze statue of four servicemen in a Jeep traveling across the battlefield. This is a limited edition bronze by sculptor James Muir. Only 50 of these beautiful bronzes have bee produced. The NRA would like to thank Remington Arms Company and Ken Roxburgh for donating this masterpiece.

Team members and Friends of Bert Rollins donated the resources to provide the new Bert Rollins Memorial Trophy to the NRA for the winner of the National Long Range Championship using a Palma Rifle. The new Match 502 will consist of the aggregate of matches 531, 532, 536 and 540. This trophy is supported by the Bert Rollins Memorial Trophy Fund and donations can be made through Palma Promotions, Inc in Mineral, Virginia.

Would you like to receive this monthly newsletter? Sign up here! (And a special thanks to both John Parker and Woody Arenas of the Competitive Shooting Division for passing this to us!)

John Parker tells us the new NRA Silhouette Competition brochure is now available. 

For everything from the proper shooting equipment to the origin of silhouette competition, check out this publication!

To order the brochure, call the NRA Program Materials Center at 1-800-336-7402 and request item CS17620, or click here to order your copy online.

Australian David McCarthy became the first international competitor to win the title at this year’s Cowboy Action Championship in Raton, New Mexico. McCarthy is pictured above with Australian teammates Mick Hutton and Robert Tobler.

McCarthy received his first rifle, a Daisy BB lever action, when he was just two years old. He became a member of the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia by age eleven and competed in his first Lever Action National Championships in 1994. Just 13 years old, he won all five junior events.

Over the next 15 years, McCarthy shot in many competitions, including the Muzzleloading National Championships, Lever Action National Championships, Field Rifle & 3-Positional Championships, and the U.S. National Matches at Camp Perry. Winning many medals and setting national records along the way, McCarthy has also won the Lever Action Nationals numerous times, and became the first person to win back-to-back championships.

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After three days of incredible shooting, Laura Goetsch now holds not one, but two National Champion titles following the 2009 NRA National High Power Silhouette Championships. Goetsch out-shot the competition, winning both the High Power Rifle and High Power Hunting Rifle Silhouette Championships. In addition to being a two-time National Champion, Goetsch was also named Woman Champion for both events. Here are your top competitors from both Championships:

High Power Rifle Championship:

• First Place: Laura Goetsch: 92
• Second Place: Derek Greenaway: 91
• Third Place: Agustin Sanchez, Jr.: 91
• High Sub-Junior: Jorge Velasquez: 75
• High Intermediate Junior: Kolby Rasmussen: 70
• High Junior: P.J. Snider: 78
• High Senior: Lee O'Neil: 85
• High Super Senior: Wayne Weems: 53
• High Woman: Laura Goetsch: 92

High Power Hunting Rifle Championship:

• First Place: Laura Goetsch: 78
• Second Place: Eric Boos: 72
• Third Place: Enrique Kuess, Jr.: 70
• High Sub-Junior: Rachel Rayment: 34
• High Intermediate Junior: Kolby Rasmussen: 59
• High Junior: Kyler Monares: 52
• High Senior: Lee O'Neil: 63
• High Super Senior: Wayne Weems: 50
• High Woman: Laura Goetsch: 78

Congratulations to the 2009 NRA National High Power Silhouette Championship winners!

It's the final day of competition for the High Power Silhouette Championships, and the National Champion titles are still anyone's game at this point. Several top ranked competitors are neck-and-neck going into this afternoon's final match which could make or break a shooter. High winds are still an issue here in Northern New Mexico, leaving no room for error when setting up a shot.

The results from this morning's match still aren't back, and rumor has it that there may be a shoot-off this afternoon to break some ties for top rankings. However, NRAblog does have the results from yesterday afternoon's High Power Hunting Rifle Match 2, which contained extra shots for competitors after the first day of competition was called off for winds. Here are your top three finishers from yesterday afternoon:

• First Place: Laura Goetsch: 41
• Second Place: Agustin Sanchez, Jr.: 36
• Third Place: Eric Boos: 35

Laura Goetsch (pictured above) has been shooting very well over the past three days, but will it be enough to take the National Championship title from last year's Champion Agustin Sanchez, Jr.? NRAblog will have final results from the 2009 NRA High Power Silhouette Championships later tonight, so don't go away.

The second day of the High Power Silhouette Championships is now halfway complete, with competitors having shot Match 3 this morning. Derek Greenaway, who has been shooting consistently well this week took first place with a score of 31 out of 40. Veteran competitor Dennis Martinen and familiar name Laura Goetsch both scored a 29, but Martinen's eight turkey targets to Goetsch's six turkeys broke the tie, with Goetsch settling for a third place finish.

Yesterday's afternoon match came to a halt due to high wind, so competitors have a lot of ground to cover today during the High Power Hunting Rifle Match 4. Shooters must fire an extra 20 shots both today and tomorrow to compensate for yesterday's wind conditions.

Check out NRAblog later today for more news and photos from the 2009 NRA High Power Silhouette Championships.

Just as we did for Smallbore Silhouette, here are some statistics about our High Power Silhouette competitors:

High Power Rifle Championship

• Number of High Power Rifle competitors: 98
• Number of states represented: 18
• Number of countries represented: 5
• Number of Junior shooters: 5
• Number of women competing: 10
• Number of Senior shooters: 28

High Power Hunting Rifle Championship

• Number of High Power Hunting Rifle competitors: 93
• Number of states represented: 17
• Number of countries represented: 5
• Number of Junior shooters: 3
• Number of women competing: 10
• Number of Senior shooters: 26

High winds brought today's High Power Hunting Rifle Match 2 to a stop by blowing silhouette targets off the rails before being shot. That means the remaining two High Power Hunting Rifle matches over the next two days will jump to 60 shots rather than 40 to close the gap.

Despite this setback, NRAblog has your top three scorers from today's High Power Rifle Match 1. The match was very close going into the last bank of targets, and a tie for second place was broken by the number of turkey targets:

• First Place: Joy Cox - 35
• Second Place: Angustin Sanchez, Jr. - 34 (9 turkey hits)
• Third Place: Laura Goetsch - 34 (8 turkey hits)

The High Power Silhouette Championships at the NRA Whittington Center started this morning with many Smallbore Silhouette competitors taking to their big guns for High Power.

The High Power Silhouette Championships are similar in format to the Smallbore Silhouette Championships held earlier this week. Standard High Power Rifle matches are shot in the morning and High Power Hunting Rifle is shot in the afternoon. The main differences between the disciplines are obviously the type of rifle (High Power vs. Silhouette) and the distances. Targets are set at 200 meters (chickens), 300 meters (pigs), 385 meters (turkeys), and 500 meters (rams) for High Power as compared to the 40, 60, 77, and 100 meters for Smallbore.

The race for Match 1 is tightening up with just one bank of targets left to shoot. Joy Cox, Bill Motl, and returning Champion Agustin Sanchez, Jr. (pictured above) are practically neck and neck going into the last string.

We'll have results from Match 1 and 2 later this afternoon, so keep NRAblog bookmarked for fast access to your news and photos from the 2009 High Power Silhouette Championships.

NRAblog has been bringing you live coverage from events at the NRA Whittington Center, including the Youth Hunter Education Challenge and the Smallbore Silhouette Championships. Beginning tomorrow, we'll be reporting from another two competitions here in Raton, New Mexico.

Both the JP Rocky Mountain 3-Gun Competition and the High Power Silhouette Championships will be held August 6-8 in the foothills of the beautiful Sangre de Cristo Mountains. These two competitions may be going on at the same time, but they’re quite different.

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As promised, NRAblog has all the photos from last night's awards ceremony. The collection includes your top three finishers from Matches 5 and 6 as well as the special awards winners from both the Smallbore Rifle and Smallbore Hunting Rifle Championships. 

These Silhouette competitors love to have fun and, as the photos show, they went with a Hawaiian theme for the awards ceremony.

The 2009 NRA National Smallbore Silhouette Championships have come to a close, and Cathy Winstead-Severin clinched both Championship titles, as well as the High Woman title for both Championships. Here are your winners from both Championships:

Smallbore Rifle Championship:

• First Place: Cathy Winstead-Severin: 111
• Second Place: William Motl: 108
• Third Place: Derek Greenaway: 107
• High Sub-Junior: Jorge Velasquez: 87
• High Intermediate Junior: Kolby Rasmussen: 100
• High Junior: Tyler Kamp: 104
• High Senior: Loren Peter: 96
• High Super Senior: Wayne Weems: 70
• High Woman: Cathy Winstead-Severin: 111
• Team Champions: Texas State Gold: 214

Smallbore Hunting Rifle Championship:

• First Place: Cathy Winstead-Severin: 108
• Second Place: William Zander: 105
• Third Place: Laura Goetsch: 104
• High Sub-Junior: Rachel Rayment: 81
• High Intermediate Junior: Elisabeth Steiger: 97
• High Junior: Tyler Kamp: 98
• High Senior: Bob Snyder: 85
• High Super Senior: Wayne Weems: 57
• High Woman: Cathy Winstead-Severin: 108
• Team Champions: Belgrade Air Shooting Sports: 205

Congratulations to the 2009 Champions! A photo slideshow from the awards ceremony will be posted tomorrow. We’ll see you in Ridgeway, Pennsylvania for the 2010 Championships.

The Smallbore Hunting Rifle Match 6 has concluded, and Junior shooter Kolby Rasmussen shot his way to first place with a score of 35 out of 40. Enrique Kuess, Jr. also scored a 35, but Rasmussen won the shoot-off, and Kuess, Jr. would have to settle for second place.

Coming in third is Laura Goetsch, who shot a 34. Fellow female shooters Cathy Winstead-Severin and Joy Cox also scored a 34, but a shoot-off determined the tiebreaker.

The matches comprising the Smallbore Silhouette Championships have concluded, so we’ll have Championships results for you very soon, as well as photos from the awards ceremony.

Female shooters were on the top of the leader board at this morning's Smallbore Rifle Silhouette Match 5. Susan Peery took top honors with a score of 38, and familiar name Cathy Winstead-Severin shot a 37 to secure a second place standing.

Coming in third was Paul Davis with a score of 35. Davis was tied with William Zander, Mark Pharr, and Enrique Kues, Jr., but Davis knocked down a perfect 10 turkeys, breaking the tie for third place.

Rumor has it that Winstead-Severin shot her way to the title of Smallbore Rifle Silhouette Champion, but we'll have to wait until final results are posted to confirm.

The competitors are gearing up for this afternoon's Smallbore Hunting Rifle Match 6, so stay close for results from that match, as well as your 2009 Champions.