Accuracy's a blast for elite shooters: Target rifle championship draws more than 130 to local gun club

SUMMERVILLE -- The precision is astounding. The target is the size of a quarter, nearly half a football field away. The perfect score-ring isn't any bigger than a capital "O."

The firearm might surprise you -- an air rifle. Yep, a high-tech cousin of a BB gun. The world championship for the shooting event is now under way this week, drawing more than 130 competitors from countries as far away as Australia. They're sighting in their scopes just outside Summerville.

The second World Rimfire & Air Rifle Benchrest Federation Championships sounds like a hoot, but this is serious competition.

The Australian team brought along the maximum 15 shooters. They flew 36 hours in six different planes to get to the Palmetto Gun Club in rural Dorchester County. They paid to get in the tournament, each of them investing a few thousand dollars for a rifle and likely a few thousand more in ammunition by the time he or she climbs aboard the plane to go home.

Oh, and they had to be in the top 5 or 10 percent of the shooters in their country just to qualify. It's so demanding that nobody from South Carolina did, despite any number of shooters at clubs around the state.

The prize? A big trophy that looks like a bullet or an air rifle pellet.

"For benchrest (shooting) this is a pinnacle for us," said Bill Collaros, the Australian team captain and president of the federation. This is shooting so precise that its organizers are pushing to compete in the worldwide Commonwealth Games with an eye toward eventually being accepted as an Olympic sport.

"It's an honor just to get to shoot in it. I'd love to (be able) to shoot in it," said Malcolm Drennon, of the gun club. Drennon missed that top 10 percent by two or three shooters. But he's out there this week, helping run the event for the club.

The private club was chosen for the second championship of the event because it's one of the largest in the country and easily the largest on the East Coast. Its secluded location back in the pines and the caliber of its range meant it could handle the event, Collaros said.

"This is it. This is the coolest range on the East Coast, bar none," said Craig Young, match director and a former champion.

The event is not open to the public.

The competitors are meticulous to the point of obsession. They mount spotting scopes next to their rifle sights to make sure of their hits. A 10 score shot in that tiny middle ring is "best edge." Most of the bullet hole has to be inside the ring.

They mount their rifles on individually designed stands that look like clamps, vises, coffee urns or Christmas tree stands. Each competitor sets up his or her own collection of weather vanes down the line to the target, to show the variation and strength of breezes along the way.

The air rifles don't shoot BBs. They shoot specially designed pellets in a variety of small calibers, including .22, that look like tiny chess rooks. The rimfire rifles are so esoteric that even some veteran shooters have not heard of them. "Rimfire" means the firing pin strikes the rim of the end of the cartridge casing to ignite the gunpowder rather than the center. The design allows a lighter rifle to be used. And when it comes to target shooting, lighter means pinpoint.

"You change the barrel, lighter trigger, and it reduces vibration," said Robert Williams, of the gun club. "It becomes more accurate."

It takes a delicate touch. The average rifle trigger squeezes with about 6 pounds of pressure. The triggers in this tournament squeeze with an ounce of pressure, barely a feathering of the trigger finger.

The sportsmanship, too, is fine. John Patzwald of the Australian team had his rifle jam during the first round. It would have cooked him for the competition. But the club stepped in and found him another one, a new high-tech model -- a step up so good that he has to re-learn the touch.

"It's shooting very well. It's shooting better than mine," he said. "I just need to learn how to shoot."

Reach Bo Petersen at 937-5744 or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bopete.