ICORE Canadian Regional Championship 2017

The Canadian ICORE Championship was held on August 4/5 at the Peterborough Fish And Game Association (PFGA), in Peterborough,
Ontario. By any standard of measurement, it was a great success.

ICORE in Canada has become even more popular in the last 12 months and we currently enjoy regular matches at 5 very active clubs. This time last year we had three affiliated clubs. With the growth we have seen our membership roll expand and this in turn was reflected in the attendance at our event. In 2016 we had 39 members on the line and this year we welcomed 54 shooters including four special visitors from the USA.

To support the match, the host club kindly invested in some range improvements. These were greatly appreciated and they will serve asa legacy at their facility for the coming years. Furthermore, with two additional bays allocated for our use the competition comprised of 10stages having a round count over 200.

Adam Carl and Phil Ferguson did an outstanding job with the stage design and managed to incorporate all the things that we love to see. There was a blend of speed shoots, a steel challenge stage, a few longer target arrays where the X counted and some good old fashioned run and gun challenges. Sadly we lost "The Carnival" stage due inconsistencies and complications with some of the moving targets. Such is life and we just shot this one for fun in a static version, without it counting for the overall score.

In addition to the usual divisions we added another one with a uniquely Canadian twist. In 1994 our government prohibited the import of new guns with a barrel length under 107 mm. Owners who already had such guns retained them and they were grandfathered with a special 12-6 designation added to their firearms license. So we are promoting a 12-6 division, to keep these older guns in use.

Larry Carl capably handled the match administration and we owe our gratitude to him and the many members who helped with the match setup and tear down. We were also fortunate to have a crew from the local Lions Club who brought their event trailer with the necessary equipment to provide us with an endless supply of burgers and sausages for lunch.

The positive feedback from the participants was very gratifying and everyone agreed that PFGA had put on very successful event.

One other group of participants that deserves recognition is our event sponsors who collectively provided the goods that made up a nice prize table.

The match sponsors were as follows:

Peterborough Fish and Game Association
ICORE
A-Hits Inc.
Ranch Products
Canadian Welding Skills
Absolute Accuracy Targets/PK Custom Design
Mavrick Enterprises
Limestone Bullets
Aztech Armory
ITS - International Truckload services Inc.

So congratulations to our host club, the workers and volunteers, the sponsors and last but not least the competitors. Let's hope that we can
look forward to an even bigger event in 2018.

Click here to view the match picture gallery

Hugh Black
ICORE Match Series Director