Gary Hamilton of Farmingdale, Maine shot a perfect target during a rimfire ammunition benchrest sporter class .22 caliber rifle event at Capital City Rifle & Pistol Club. It has now been revealed he used ELEY tenex to help him secure the once in a lifetime feat.
Hamilton, who is the owner of Farmingdale’s Neilson’s Sporting Goods, shot the target in June 2018 and it is the first perfect target for sporter class of its kind at a shoot in Augusta.
Sporter class is a division of benchrest shooting where the rifle used cannot have a total weight in excess of 7.5 pounds. It involves shooting five targets of five shot groups. All of which must be fired within 30 minutes.
Hamilton, 68, shot an official score of 250 25x, meaning he hit the quarter-inch-wide center ring 25 times. What’s more, each bullet made contact with the bullseye.
Hamilton said he is the only person ever to do it with a sporter class rifle. Rifles must be lighter than 7 1/2 pounds, outfitted with a six-power scope, which magnifies the target six times, in the same game. It was noted that another competitor had shot the same score, but he was using a scope that magnified the target 50 times.
The judge of the competition, Donna Grant, said it was a world record and the first of its kind. The target was sent to the league so they could verify it and confirmed that it was a record. Hamilton said the perfect score came down to a combination of good equipment, perfect weather and his own skill.
“I say it’s a lot of luck, but you’ve got to have the talent,” he said. “Everything has to fall into place.”
He felt no different before the competition than any other shoot except he knew that he was shooting good ammunition. Showing a box of ELEY tenex ammunition, Hamilton explained. Through a number on the box, I can tell which machine at the factory manufactured it and when. If he finds a good batch he buys as much of it as he can find.
Check out the full article on the Central Maine news website.