High Power Shooter Wins Smallbore Regional with Innovative Tube Gun

The five-decade tradition of smallbore rifle competition in Manassas, VA at the Fairfax Rod and Gun Club continues. Thirty-four competitors duked it out at this year’s conventional smallbore prone regional, held Labor Day weekend this past September.

High power rifle shooter (and high master) John Sylvester from Green Lane, PA showed that he can shoot smallbore, too. He dominated the match, placing in seven of the eight fired matches and winning both the Metallic (1599-114X) and Any Sight (1599-130X) aggregates and the Grand Aggregate (3198-244X) as well.

John Sylvester shot an unusual rifle: a “tube gun,” consisting of (pictured above) an Anschutz M54 action in a Gary Eliseo AN1 stock. He shot it very well—and very quickly, too, sometimes finishing a 20 shot string in less than six minutes.

Expert class shooter David Bay of Slidell, LA came to see the clubs baffled range. While he was inspecting the range, he managed to finish second in the Grand Aggregate with a 3194-236X. In third place was former Any Sight National Champion Bill Neff of Parsippany, NJ, with a 3192-225X.

Nicholas Kanellis of Burke, VA was the high expert with a 3192-218X, and second expert was Dan Gray with 3182-198X. Junior shooter James Fees was high sharpshooter, also placing in seven of eight fired matches, with 3187-205X and Bob Gehret of Hampstead, MD was second sharpshooter with 3182-198X. Charles Hazy of Staunton, VA was high marksman with a score of 3096-107X.

You can learn more about NRA smallbore rifle competition here.