2015 Illinois Service Rifle Championship

Click on the thumbnail for a larger image

2015 Sherwood Coul Trophy Cliff Adams

2015 Illinois Bliss Trophy Clifford Got Into Some Bad Mexican Kim Dobbs, Ken Cramberg, Cliff Adams, Tim Klauer

After a wet spring and a mild summer, the heat descended on this year's IL Service Rifle Championship. It was accompanied by high humidity and all 39 competitors were feeling the oppressive heat index.

Starting out the day with the standing win was SSG Jacob Probst USAR with his 196. Just behind were Cliff Adams with a 194 and Mark Aussieker and his 193.

Both Lee Wells and Alex Vitous were able to clean their sitting. Wells with 11x and Vitous with 5x. Six shooters fired 199's led by Jeff Marienthal's 13x.

Adams was one of the shooters with the 199 in sitting so he was leading the pack at this point, but only on X-count. Probst had the same number of points but was 5 X's behind. Three points behind these two were SFC Richard Hartley and John Roth.

There was no shade at the 300 yard line to hide from the sun. It didn't matter to Mike James as he was the only shooter to clean rapid prone and he did it with a 50% X-count. Antonio Medina had a 199 including a 7X clean on his second string. Probst, Jim Vaughn, LTC Jon Casillas, and Kim Dobbs all fired 198's.

Now Probst was able to eek out a one point lead on Adams. In third and fourth place, 7 points behind the leader were Liam McKenna and Dobbs. It looked like Probst and Adams were pulling away and would decide the day between them at the 600 yard line.

Winning in slow prone was John Holliger's 198. But that was only on X's since Mike James and Tim Klauer shot the same score. Konrad Powers fired a 196 and both McKenna and Dobbs had 195's.

While Adams' 600 yard score was probably not up to his standards, it was enough for the high aggregate score and his first Sherwood Coul trophy as this year's state Service Rifle Champion. Four points behind him were 8-time champion John Holliger, Liam McKenna, and Kim Dobbs.

Ensuring a smooth day were Mike James, Mark Aussieker, and Tim Klauer on the radio. Also thanks to Ken Mahl for providing a cooler of water for the pits where it was much appreciated.