AAR: 3rd Annual Marty Brown Memorial Invitational

The 3rd Annual Marty Brown Memorial Invitational was held the weekend of Nov. 16-17, 2019 on Range 5 at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center near Edinburgh, IN. Seventeen participants were greeted with exceptionally good weather for mid-November in Indiana and were able to get right to zeroing their rifles Saturday morning as Phil Brown (Marty Brown Memorial Invitational Event Director) and Bruce Williams (Revere’s Riders President) spent the day on Friday cleaning target backer boards, applying backing paper and targets to the backer boards and mounting the targets to the frames.

The first order of business on Saturday morning was dividing participants into two relays; one relay would man the target pits while the other shot in the morning with a switch in the afternoon. Once the target relay was safely behind the target berm, the shooting relay were allowed to  confirm their zero at 25 yards. Once zeroes were confirmed, shooters proceeded to the 100 yard berm and were allowed to fire 3 sighters. Then it was “Game On!” with the 100 yard standing stage of the Revere’s Riders Rifle Qualification Test.

After the 100 yard standing stage was complete, shooters were given the option of buying into a skills contest. At the 100 yard berm, the skills contest consisted of 30 seconds of calisthenics (shooter’s choice; rifle grounded and safe during this time) followed by 30 seconds to fire 3 rounds at a separate skills challenge 9″ bullseye target. Closest to the bullseye wins a chance to compete in a “shoot-off” between the 4 winners of the morning skills challenges, the winner of which will participate in another “shoot-off” with the afternoon skills challenges winner for the Saturday skills challenge prize (a LWRC AR-15 upper receiver).

Shooters then proceeded to the 200 yard berm where they again were allowed 3 sighters. After the 200 yard transition to seated stage of the Revere’s Riders Rifle Qualification Test, shooters were given another skills challenge opportunity. This time, the challenge consisted of a shortened version of the 200 yard stage: 20 seconds to fire 3 shots.

After the 200 yard skills challenge was complete, it was “Rifles Up!” and a move to the 300 yard berm. Yet another 3 sighters and the 300 yard transition to prone stage of the Revere’s Riders Rifle Qualification Test. The skills challenge at 300 yards required shooters to walk/jog/run from the 400 yard berm back to the 300 yard berm and fire 3 shots prone in 90 seconds. That 9″ bullseye is now only 3 MOA in diameter.

At 400 yards, the Revere’s Riders Rifle Qualification Test is slow-fire prone. Shooters get another 3 sighters as well. For the skills challenge, the previous 3 skills challenge winners engage in a “shoot-off” using 4 teal and 1 white balloons attached to the target backer. Shooters get 7 rounds and 30 seconds to hit as many balloons as possible; the white balloon counts for 3 points while the teal balloons are 1 point each.

Once the skills competition was complete, the Revere’s Riders Rifle Qualification Test was shot again beginning at 400 yards and progressing to 100 yards. No sighters or skills contests this time, though. Once the final stage of the qualification was complete, it was time for lunch. After lunch, the target and shooting relays switch places and those that manned the target pits in the morning go through the same shooting progression. On Sunday, those that shot in the morning switch to shooting in the afternoon and vice-versa. The Sunday skills competition prize was a Rock River Arms AR-15 upper receiver and build kit.

Darrell Hammer showed all of us what an excellent marksman can accomplish by winning BOTH the Saturday and Sunday skills competition. To that accomplishment he added the overall high score for the weekend with a 39-14V (the highest score yet at the Marty Brown Memorial Invitational).

Congratulations Darrell!

Bradley Settle was awarded the “Tactifail” trophy for his custom teal AR-15 (with underbarrel grenade launcher) on Saturday and “tactical leopard” print footgear and Russian Ushanka to go with his AK-47 (definitely a “tactifail” rifle choice for >300 yard ranges).

Over 50 companies generously donated items to be included in the silent auction, give-aways and skills contest. A short time after the event, Marty’s husband and Marty Brown Memorial Invitational event director, Phil Brown, along with Revere’s Riders President, Bruce Williams, presented Robin Jackson, Ovar’coming Together Executive Director, and Bob Hunter, Ovar’coming Together President, a check in the amount of  $11,950 (total of $7,340 from the Inaugural Marty Brown Memorial Open plus $4,610 from the 3rd Annual Marty Brown Memorial Invitational).

Additional photos can be found in the 2019 Marty Brown Memorial Invitational photo gallery.