AAR: 4th Annual Marty Brown Memorial Invitational

The 4th Annual Marty Brown Memorial Invitational rifle match was held Nov. 7-8, 2021 on Range 5 of Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh, IN. Fourteen participants were treated to fantastic weather in the 60s for the entire weekend; it was hard to believe that it was November in Indiana.

Participants rallied at 0730 at Camp Atterbury Range Control and headed as a caravan to Range 5. Once at the range and after the obligatory safety briefing, participants retrieved their rifles and gear and proceeded to the 100 yard berm to confirm their 25 yard zero. Once zeroes were confirmed, the group was split in two with one half proceeding to the target pits and the other remaining at the 100 yard berm.

Competitors were allowed as many 3-round sighters as necessary (within reason) before shooting the 100 yard stage of the Revere’s Riders Rifle Qualification Test (“R3QT”): 10 rounds from a single magazine, shot from the standing position with a 120 second time limit.

Upon completion of Stage 1 of the R3QT, competitors were allowed to buy into the 100 yard “skills challenge”. This challenge consisted of doing 30 seconds of calisthenics of the competitor’s choice, followed by firing 3 rounds from the standing position. Closest to the center of the target wins.

Once the 100 yard R3QT and skills challenge were completed, competitors transported their rifle and gear to the 200 yard berm. There, they were again allowed 3-round sighters and subsequently fired Stage 2 of the R3QT: two magazines with 2 rounds and 8 rounds, shot transitioning from standing to seated with a 60 second time limit.

At the 200 yard berm, the skills challenge posed to the competitors consisted of firing 3 rounds in 20 seconds transitioning from standing to seated. As with the 100 yard skills challenge, closest to the center of the target wins.

Competitors then proceeded to the 300 yard range, shot 3-round sighters followed by Stage 3 of the R3QT: two magazines with 2 rounds and 8 rounds, shot transitioning from standing to prone with a 70 second time limit.

The skills challenge at 300 yards again introduced physical stress for the competitors similar to the skills challenge at 100 yards. Competitors start from the 400 yard berm, proceed to the 300 yard berm (at whatever pace they choose) where they fire 3 rounds from the prone position within a 90 second time limit. Closest to the center of the target wins.

Finally, the competitors reach the 400 yard berm where they fire Stage 4 of the R3QT: single magazine of 10 rounds, shot from prone with a time limit of 600 seconds (10 minutes). This stage rewards careful acquisition of NPOA and precision marksmanship techniques.

At 400 yards, the skills challenge consists of firing 3 rounds from the prone position within a 120 second time limit. The smallest group size wins (in other words, this challenge rewards precision over accuracy).

After the 400 yard skills challenge is complete, each skills challenge winner participates in a “shoot-off” to determine the overall winner for that relay. This challenge consists of 5 balloons stapled to the target backer; 4 teal balloons approximately 12″ in diameter and 1 white balloon approximately 8″ in diameter. Teal balloons are worth 1 point while the white balloon is worth 3 points. Shooters are given 30 seconds and 7 rounds to shoot as many balloons as possible from the prone position. Winner is whichever shooter accumulates the most points.

Once the skills challenge champion for the relay is determined, competitors proceed to fire another R3QT but this time beginning at the 400 yard berm (Stage 4) and moving forward to the 100 yard berm (Stage 1). At this point, it is normally time for lunch and the half of the participants in the target pits tasked with scoring targets emerge and join the shooting half on the range for lunch.

Unfortunately, this year several downrange fires were ignited by machine gun fire on a range to our southeast. This forced our range to go into a “check fire” (i.e., a cease fire) while the fires were being extinguished. This happened twice on Saturday and we consequently lost around 2 hours of range time. Lunch was later than usual and the 2nd relay of competitors who manned the target pits in the morning were only able to complete one R3QT.

Once both relays had completed their R3QTs and associated skills challenges, a “shoot-off” to determine the grand champion of the skills challenges for the day occurs between the morning and afternoon champions. The two shooters have 1 round and closest to center of the target wins.

To the end the day, Phil Brown randomly called for participants to read the contents of an envelope they received at the beginning of the day. Each envelope contained a short description of an important event in Marty Brown’s life as well as the participant’s door prize. After the reading of the envelope contents, everyone packed up and proceeded to dinner at the base “All Ranks Club“.

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday but, thankfully, without the frustrating “check fire” for downrange fires. The Saturday afternoon relay shot two R3QTs in the morning and the Saturday morning relay only shot one R3QT so everyone ended up shooting three R3QTs.

Once R3QTs and skills challenges were complete on Sunday, Bradley Settle setup his .50 BMG Barrett M82A1 for participants to shoot at a cost of $10/round with the proceeds going to Ovar’coming Together. Hornady kindly supplied the ammunition used.

At the end of the day, Phil Brown called for the remainder of envelopes to be opened with participants reading a short description of an event from Marty Brown’s life. The final door prizes and silent auction items were handed out.

The presentation of the 4th Annual Marty Brown Memorial Invitational trophies ended the event. Recipients were:

• High Score–James Rose (40-11V; the first perfect score of 40 at the Marty Brown Memorial Invitational)
• “Tactifail”–Dirk Dudeck (for the 45° offset iron sets on his rifle; he never used them)

More photos are available in the 2020 Marty Brown Memorial Invitational photo gallery.

We look forward to seeing everyone back next year and welcome new participants to this fun and enjoyable weekend of casual competition.