New Mexico club focuses on military surplus firearms

Patrick Hernandez of the New Mexico Military Surplus Rifles and Pistols Shooters club sent us the following report on the competitions they hold out in Albuquerque:

Shooting Surplus Military Firearms at Long Distances

There is a shooting club based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico that shoots a variety of as issued configured Military Surplus Firearms such as the Springfield 1903, Mauser, Mosin-Nagant, Lee-Enfield, SKS, M1 Garand, FN FAL, CETME, Colt 1911, and many others in competition. These are not the usual guns you see at most NRA or CMP Competitions.

New Mexico Military Surplus Rifles Pistols Shooters, or simply NM MILSURPS, was formed by three members, Rob Summerhill, Ron Duncan, Sr. and me (Patrick Hernandez) back in 2005 after a match where we competed with military surplus rifles. We discussed what the guns were capable of at distances beyond 200 yards and just how accurate can they be at even longer distances. It was then we decided to form a shooting club that focused on using these firearms at longer ranges.

The basic rule we was that our guns must be original configured surplus military firearms that were issued to ordinary soldier at one time or another. The iron sights must be the original style with no aftermarket, target or match adjustable sights allowed. Scoped rifles are acceptable as long as they are period appropriate.

We secured the 4^th Sunday of every month at the Albuquerque Shooting Range Park for our matches. The competitions are shot at different targets (steel or paper) at distances from 10 to 500 meters or 300 yards to 1000 yards. Our targets are stationary, pop-up and moving which are fired upon from off-hand, sitting, knelling, prone, supported or un-supported positions.

Our matches are always changing. We’ve had moving steel round 30 inch targets that runs the length of the shooting banks at a walking pace; Carbine and Pistol combination match; Matches shot at 200, 300, 385 and 500 meters; Training Rifle .22LR Match and my favorite ‘The Guns of August’ in which competitors must use firearms that were used during The Great War (WWI).

Our primary purposes is to promote the safe shooting of surplus military rifles, pistols and shotguns and to learn about the firearms used in our competitions. At every match, we encourage members to teach people about their guns including where they were manufactured, when they were used, their length of service, etc. My specialty are the French firearms used in The Great War as they comprise the majority of my collection.

If you happen to live in New Mexico and would like to check out our club or would like advice about setting up your own surplus firearms club, please contact the President, Rob Summerhill at offnrollin@yahoo.com, Vice-President, Ron Duncan Sr. at ducanronsr@gmail.com or me at ordnancesgt@yahoo.com

NM MILSURPS is an active shooting club with both the NRA Clubs & Associations and New Mexico Shooting Sports Association (NMSSA).

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