FX Airguns were honored to be a title sponsor of this years Rocky Mountain Airgun Challenge (RMAC for short) held at the Garth Killpack Shooting Range in Springville, Utah in June. There were over 160 registered shooters competing for their share of the $50,000 worth of cash and prizes. Shooters came from diverse countries such as Chile, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Germany and more. The RMAC has quickly gained ground and become the premier airgun shooting event for air gunners worldwide to test their skills.
There was an intensely competitive spirit in the air at this year’s RMAC, as it was clear to everyone that the level of competition had been raised. Past benchrest champions were present, including Fredrik Axelsson, Alvaro Lopez, Ted Bier, Shane Kellar, and Claudio Flores. The shifting winds racing down Hobble Creek Canyon during the bench events, and the grit and skill needed to tackle the precision and speed challenge courses, really highlighted the incredible talent the shooters were bringing to this event.
Praise was generously given to the staff of Utah Airguns for running such a well-organized and exciting event. Even with the competition being fierce (particularly with so much prize money set to be won), there were large smiles on shooters faces everywhere as the RMAC was really a joy to be a part of (even if you didn’t make it to the winners platform).
All in all, FX Airguns shined at the event, winning a majority of the top honors. The FX Impact and FX Crown in particular showed why they are such coveted rifles. Both the Professional Class winners and the Sportsman Class winners really did well with their FX Airguns.
Precision Marksman Challenge Event
The Precision Marksman Challenge is a PRS styled shooting event that has become very popular in recent years. Shooters have a limited number of shots and time, as well as facing unique shooting positions and obstacles. Speed and accuracy, with a dash of physical demands combine in this elite event. Matt Dubber of the well-known AirArmsHuntingSA YouTube channel, took top honors in the Pro Class, while John Tafoya took the Sportsman Class with a score just one point less than Matt’s. Clearly the gap between the pros and those newer to the sport is quickly closing!
Speed Challenge Event
The Speed Challenge courses at the Rocky Mountain Airgun Challenge is certainly the most intense competition of the week. The preliminaries find squads of 8-10 shooters competing against each other through 10 stages. Clear the course to gain a point but beat out your competitor to gain four points and build up a hefty total to be one of the twenty shooters moving on to the finals in this fun event.
The finals of the Speed Challenge was a highlight of this years RMAC. The tension built up in a knock-out bracket styled final as the twenty shooters were whittled down to the four finalists. Matt Dubber and his FX Impact, fought off some extreme competition to defend his 2018 RMAC Speed Challenge win. He defeated John Bagakis with his modified Daystate Redwolf by the narrowest of margins in a “best two out of three” final that saw the crowd going wild, cheering both shooters on. Look for video coverage on YouTube of this thrilling event.
Matt’s fellow South African Gerhard Slabbert took third place in his first RMAC. As mentioned before, the high level of professionals joining the airgun community is staggering and Gerhard and his fellow Airgun Hunter Roelf Vorster showed why their YouTube channel Airgun Hunters has grown so quickly since its inception in June of 2018. Their marksman skills were clearly up to the task.
25 Meter Benchrest Event
The wind was wreaking havoc in the 25 Meter bench event, which happened to be the first event to take place at this years RMAC. The event was won by Tim Gillingham using a .22 caliber FX Impact shooting the heavy 25.39 grain JSB Monster Redesign pellets that seemed to buck the wind. Tim’s also a professional archer and part of the national shooting staff for Gold Tip Inc. The discipline and patience Tim learned in archery seemed to carry over to the focus needed at the three card, 75 targets in total, 25 Meter event.
1st and 2nd place was initially a tie score, which results in the winner being decided by which shooter has the most bullseyes (or X’s). Tim just narrowed out Estaban Figueroa (owner of Field Target Chile), who was also shooting a .22 caliber FX Impact.
100 Yard Benchrest Event
The main draw and focus of any airgun competition is the 100 yard benchrest event. No event tests the limits of both shooter and their rifle more than this event. This year’s qualifying rounds were held at 100 yards per the new ASA 100-Yard benchrest rules (whereas previous years have had qualifying rounds at 75 yards). This change certainly forced competitors to battle the wind and the limits of their rifles right away as there was no easy path to gain entrance to the finals.
The winner of the 100-yard benchrest was Alvaro Lopez (of Sun City Airguns Mexico). Alvaro won the 100-yard benchrest and it’s $10,000 prize money using a brand-new FX Impact MKII that he picked up the day before the event! Alvaro is now the only two-time winner of the Benchrest (previously winning the Extreme Benchrest event in Arizona in 2013 using an FX Bobcat in .30 caliber.)
The second-place winner has quite the special story. Todd Blanchard entered his first ever benchrest airgun event last year at the 2018 RMAC. Todd decided he wanted to enter as a Pro in 2018 so that he could go up against the best. Though Todd didn’t place well in the 2018 RMAC, he spent his time talking to professionals like Matt Dubber and Ted Bier, gleaning all the info he could. He then spent all of last year prepping for this year’s 2019 RMAC. The time, studying and effort practicing paid off as Todd took second with an impressive score of 219 with his FX Impact. That also won him $3,000 in prize money!
Showing that it was definitely his year to shine and coming in third place in the 100 Yard benchrest was Matt Dubber. Matt seemed to be dialed in with all the events as he also took third place in the new RMAC Slug Challenge standard power (also called the small-bore division). The small bore and big bore divisions of the RMAC will be ones to watch as it seems this is a highly growing area of the airgun world.
Congratulations to all who entered and participated in the event. FX Airguns was proud to be one of the many sponsors of this event (which totaled 30 sponsors!).
For a complete list of scores and winners go to www.rockymountainairgunchallenge.com . We look forward to next year’s RMAC with great anticipation. If you haven’t already heard, RMAC just announced that the 1st prize for the 100-yard bench-rest in 2020 will be $20,000! Time to start practicing! We will meet again at next year’s Rocky Mountain Airgun Challenge.
Look for a post later this week with lot's of images from these events.
There was an intensely competitive spirit in the air at this year’s RMAC, as it was clear to everyone that the level of competition had been raised. Past benchrest champions were present, including Fredrik Axelsson, Alvaro Lopez, Ted Bier, Shane Kellar, and Claudio Flores. The shifting winds racing down Hobble Creek Canyon during the bench events, and the grit and skill needed to tackle the precision and speed challenge courses, really highlighted the incredible talent the shooters were bringing to this event.
Praise was generously given to the staff of Utah Airguns for running such a well-organized and exciting event. Even with the competition being fierce (particularly with so much prize money set to be won), there were large smiles on shooters faces everywhere as the RMAC was really a joy to be a part of (even if you didn’t make it to the winners platform).
All in all, FX Airguns shined at the event, winning a majority of the top honors. The FX Impact and FX Crown in particular showed why they are such coveted rifles. Both the Professional Class winners and the Sportsman Class winners really did well with their FX Airguns.
Precision Marksman Challenge Event
The Precision Marksman Challenge is a PRS styled shooting event that has become very popular in recent years. Shooters have a limited number of shots and time, as well as facing unique shooting positions and obstacles. Speed and accuracy, with a dash of physical demands combine in this elite event. Matt Dubber of the well-known AirArmsHuntingSA YouTube channel, took top honors in the Pro Class, while John Tafoya took the Sportsman Class with a score just one point less than Matt’s. Clearly the gap between the pros and those newer to the sport is quickly closing!
Speed Challenge Event
The Speed Challenge courses at the Rocky Mountain Airgun Challenge is certainly the most intense competition of the week. The preliminaries find squads of 8-10 shooters competing against each other through 10 stages. Clear the course to gain a point but beat out your competitor to gain four points and build up a hefty total to be one of the twenty shooters moving on to the finals in this fun event.
The finals of the Speed Challenge was a highlight of this years RMAC. The tension built up in a knock-out bracket styled final as the twenty shooters were whittled down to the four finalists. Matt Dubber and his FX Impact, fought off some extreme competition to defend his 2018 RMAC Speed Challenge win. He defeated John Bagakis with his modified Daystate Redwolf by the narrowest of margins in a “best two out of three” final that saw the crowd going wild, cheering both shooters on. Look for video coverage on YouTube of this thrilling event.
Matt’s fellow South African Gerhard Slabbert took third place in his first RMAC. As mentioned before, the high level of professionals joining the airgun community is staggering and Gerhard and his fellow Airgun Hunter Roelf Vorster showed why their YouTube channel Airgun Hunters has grown so quickly since its inception in June of 2018. Their marksman skills were clearly up to the task.
25 Meter Benchrest Event
The wind was wreaking havoc in the 25 Meter bench event, which happened to be the first event to take place at this years RMAC. The event was won by Tim Gillingham using a .22 caliber FX Impact shooting the heavy 25.39 grain JSB Monster Redesign pellets that seemed to buck the wind. Tim’s also a professional archer and part of the national shooting staff for Gold Tip Inc. The discipline and patience Tim learned in archery seemed to carry over to the focus needed at the three card, 75 targets in total, 25 Meter event.
1st and 2nd place was initially a tie score, which results in the winner being decided by which shooter has the most bullseyes (or X’s). Tim just narrowed out Estaban Figueroa (owner of Field Target Chile), who was also shooting a .22 caliber FX Impact.
100 Yard Benchrest Event
The main draw and focus of any airgun competition is the 100 yard benchrest event. No event tests the limits of both shooter and their rifle more than this event. This year’s qualifying rounds were held at 100 yards per the new ASA 100-Yard benchrest rules (whereas previous years have had qualifying rounds at 75 yards). This change certainly forced competitors to battle the wind and the limits of their rifles right away as there was no easy path to gain entrance to the finals.
The winner of the 100-yard benchrest was Alvaro Lopez (of Sun City Airguns Mexico). Alvaro won the 100-yard benchrest and it’s $10,000 prize money using a brand-new FX Impact MKII that he picked up the day before the event! Alvaro is now the only two-time winner of the Benchrest (previously winning the Extreme Benchrest event in Arizona in 2013 using an FX Bobcat in .30 caliber.)
The second-place winner has quite the special story. Todd Blanchard entered his first ever benchrest airgun event last year at the 2018 RMAC. Todd decided he wanted to enter as a Pro in 2018 so that he could go up against the best. Though Todd didn’t place well in the 2018 RMAC, he spent his time talking to professionals like Matt Dubber and Ted Bier, gleaning all the info he could. He then spent all of last year prepping for this year’s 2019 RMAC. The time, studying and effort practicing paid off as Todd took second with an impressive score of 219 with his FX Impact. That also won him $3,000 in prize money!
Showing that it was definitely his year to shine and coming in third place in the 100 Yard benchrest was Matt Dubber. Matt seemed to be dialed in with all the events as he also took third place in the new RMAC Slug Challenge standard power (also called the small-bore division). The small bore and big bore divisions of the RMAC will be ones to watch as it seems this is a highly growing area of the airgun world.
Congratulations to all who entered and participated in the event. FX Airguns was proud to be one of the many sponsors of this event (which totaled 30 sponsors!).
For a complete list of scores and winners go to www.rockymountainairgunchallenge.com . We look forward to next year’s RMAC with great anticipation. If you haven’t already heard, RMAC just announced that the 1st prize for the 100-yard bench-rest in 2020 will be $20,000! Time to start practicing! We will meet again at next year’s Rocky Mountain Airgun Challenge.
Look for a post later this week with lot's of images from these events.
