In a move that will most likely resonate deeply around the entire NRA precision and rifle competition folks if fully approved in January of 2017, the NRA sponsored Civilian Marksmanship Program High Power matches will be moved from their traditional location in Camp Perry, Ohio where they have been held since 1907, to Camp Atterbury in southern Indiana. The move was apparently prompted by the director of NRA Competitive Shooting, and will face final approval by the NRA Board of Directors in January 2017. If enough support is garnered among the competition community by then, it could be feasible that it would be reversed, but we doubt that is the case. It appears that the decision had alot to do with location, in that shooters at the Smallbore Prone Championships in Bristol, Indiana would have more time getting to the High Power competition.

In an effort to keep the National High Power Rifle Championships up to the high standards that competitors have enjoyed for over one-hundred years, the NRA will move the Championship from its historic home at Camp Perry, OH, to Camp Atterbury, IN. This change in venue will take effect during the 2017 National Matches, pending approval by the NRA Board of Directors in January 2017.

Dennis Willing, director of NRA Competitive Shooting explained the decision.

“The NRA High Power Rifle Committee met and determined it would be beneficial to all competitors if we moved the Championship from Camp Perry to another site. After much discussion, the range at Camp Atterbury, IN, was selected as the new home of the NRA National High Power Rifle Championships.”

The proposed match schedule (subject to change) is below:

-First Shot Ceremony – July 7
-Welcome BBQ (afternoon) – July 7
-Across the Course – July 8-13
-Mid-Range – July 14-17
-Long-Range – July 18-22

Willing added, “I intend to change the face of High Power Rifle as a discipline, and will be presenting matches that are better than competitors have ever seen before.”

Since Across the Course is scheduled to end on July 13th, there will be sufficient time for competitors to attend the CMP National Trophy Matches.

The NRA Smallbore Prone Championship is scheduled to end with sufficient time for competitors to leave Bristol, IN, and come to Camp Atterbury to compete in Mid-Range Prone and Long-Range Prone. The NRA National Pistol Championship will remain at Camp Perry but will be held July 9-14, 2017, following previous year’s practice.

The article on Shooting Sports USA is somewhat vague in describing Camp Atterbury. The article mentions that there are over 34,000 acres of land available to NRA on the base. Although there is this much land on the base, most of this is either forest, buildings, or taken up by military units in training. Certainly not conducive to High Power competitions. Compared to the facilities at Camp Perry (Only from what I have seen, as I haven’t been there), I don’t see how Atterbury would offer an improvement in actual range facilities. Instead it would just offer a closer location to Bristol, and would probably be cheaper for CMP and NRA to hold the High Power matches at.

In case you wanted to see what Camp Atterbury has to offer, this is the TFBTV video we made while qualifying with a Marine Reserve unit.