2020 Illinois Service Rifle Championship

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2020 Sherwood Coul Trophy Liam McKenna

2020 Bliss Trophy The Jim Vaughn Experience Jim Vaughn, Mark Aussieker, John Holliger, Konrad Powers

The skies were clear and blue as the Illinois State Rifle Association conducted the 2020 Illinois Service Rifle Championship. Perfect weather greeted the 37 competitors who came from four different states to shoot at the well manicured facilities of Milan Rifle Club's 600 yard rifle range.

Things got started in the standing position at the 200 yard firing line. Six time Service Rifle champion Konrad Powers led the field with his score of 198 for the 20 shots. But that was only a single point better than Liam McKenna's 197. Hoosier Alex Vitous had a 195 and Jim Appleby fired a 194.

The competitors remained at the 200 yard line for the second stage fired from the sitting position as two rapid fire strings. Four separate shooters fired perfect scores of 200 in this event but it was McKenna's 13 tie-breaking X's that got him the win in this stage. Just behind were three time Service Rifle champion Tim Klauer's 11X, Jim Vaughn's 8X, and Vitous with a 7X.

After dropping a point in sitting, Powers still led McKenna for the overall lead but it was only by the razor thin margin of a single X. Vitous remained in third place two points behind and Appleby was five points down in fourth.

The action now moved to the 300 yard line and the rapid fire prone stage. Three shooters managed perfect scores of 200 for their 20 shots. Jim Vaughn led with 11 X's while Appleby and Pat Boyle each fired a 9X. McKenna and Vitous both fired 199's here.

There was now a shakeup in the standings with McKenna rocketing to the top and Vitous two points behind him. Powers sunk to third and three points back. Appleby was in fourth while Boyle now moved into fifth.

Time was running out to catch McKenna as we moved to 600 yards and the final stage of slow fire prone. But a few points here or there could make the difference between adding a repeat champion or crowning a new one. Showing his prowess at the long line, John Lowe outsmarted the conditions and came away with the winning score of 198. Three shooters were just behind with 197's including Powers' 13X, eight time champion John Holliger's 6X, and Boyle's 4X.

With Powers firing a 197 at 600 yards and being three points behind, McKenna would need to shoot at least a 194 in slow prone to force a tie for the overall lead. His 194-7X did just that with him and Powers tying with identical aggregate scores of 790. Not only that, but Vitous also finished with a 790. A three-way tie for the lead that had to be broken by total X-count.

In the end, McKenna's 38 total X's just edged out Powers' 37 and Vitous' 29 to win the Sherwood "Woody" Coul trophy. A single X made the difference in the tightest Service Rifle championship win since Klauer's 2014 winning margin of 2 X's.