For the first time in several years the University of Idaho Naval ROTC Rifle team will host a nationally sanctioned intercollegiate indoor rifle match Saturday.
The University of Washington and Oregon State University will compete against UI in a three position sectional match.
“The prone position which is lying down, there’s the off-end position which is standing, and then there’s the kneeling position,” said Asst. Marine Officer Instructor Sgt. Ira Wilkie.
The sectional match is one of several taking place across the nation, after which the top 10 teams in the nation will qualify for nationals in March in Fort Benning, Ga.
Wilkie, the team’s mentor, said he expects great results from his shooters.
“The shooters will fire 20 shots in each position score for a total of 60 rounds,” Wilkie said. “Last year’s national champion in the ROTC category shot a 503 out of 600. We have a few shooters on our team that are well within that range so we’re expecting great things. We’re hoping for the best and looking forward to some friendly competition.”
Wilkie said the team consists of naval ROTC students who are both navy and marine options. Eight students will compete Saturday, four in the individual category and four in the team category.
“Based off of the scores from last year, we are expecting great things from the University of Idaho Navy ROTC. I am confident we have some of the top shooters in the ROTC category.”
Wilkie said it takes a lot of commitment and dedication to be a part of the Rifle team.
“The students work hard,” Wilkie said. “They’re dedicated, a lot of our students are engineering majors that are taking 16 to 18 credits plus they find time to go and shoot the rifle twice a week for a couple hours.”
Team captain Roger Iveson said the team has been working hard to prepare for the competition.
“We’ve been shooting twice a week, four hours a week since September,” Iveson said. “Rain, snow, shine, tidal wave, whatever.”
Shooters line up 50 feet from 10 targets. Each target is approximately one inch in diameter with point values based on the distance the shooter hits from the center of the target. Shooters will have 10 minutes from the prone position, 20 minutes from the standing position, and 15 minutes from the kneeling position to hit each of the targets.
“There’s very little about it that’s similar to shooting tin cans and that’s always the first thing anyone thinks of,” Iveson said. “You’re trying to hit right in the frickin’ dead-center.”
The team shoots Remington 40-x target rifles, many of which have been in the university’s armory for several years.
“We’re dealing with antiquated equipment for the most part,” Iveson said. “We ran the serial number on one of them last year and it’s been in this armory since like 1966.”
Iveson said there is some strategy involved in determining when a rifle will shoot the most accurately.
“You want to shoot a little bit of a dirty barrel,” Iveson said. “Generally about 200 round through the weapon and then you hit your most accurate period of time up to about 1500 rounds.”
Iveson said the team is “a little cold” coming into the match-up after winter break, but the equipment will be within the target range for rounds fired.
“We’re coming into this right about perfect,” Iveson said. “All of the equipment is about the best it can be given the constraints we have to work with financially. Improvise, adapt, overcome, right? We’ve got high hopes.”
Commanding officer in the Naval Science Department Greg Eaton said the match-up will not be a spectator event for safety reasons, but he hopes students will support the team.
“We’re looking forward to it and I know the two teams coming out from out on the coast are thinking they’re gonna take us down, but we’re gonna hold up the better shot for the University of Idaho, or at least we hope to,” Eaton said.
The UI team beat UW and OSU in a friendly match-up last year known as the Norwest Navy Competition.
“It’s a friendly competition between Oregon State University, University of Washington and Utah. We usually get together once a year and compete in a variety of military events as well as basketball, football, things like that,” Wilkie said.
Wilkie said the team has dominated the rifle category as well as many of the military specific competitions.
“I’ve been in the Marine Corps 15 years and I am just thoroughly impressed with the caliber of students we have,” Wilkie said.
The team will find out how it ranks nationally at the end of the month, Wilkie said.
“This is the future of the military,” Wilkie said. “These are the future executive of the military. I have the upmost trust and confidence that they’re going to go on to do good things for their sailors and marines and the country.”