Courtesy photo The Bark River Precision rifle shooting team, which won the 2019 Michigan State Long Range Team Match championship last Friday, from left to right: Toby Kuivinen, Al Larson, Jeff Gohl, “Coach” and Brett Sullivan.

ESCANABA — A local team won its third straight state rifle shooting championship last Friday in downstate Lake City as Bark River Precision won the 2019 Michigan State Long Range Team Match championship.

The long-range team match is a four-person, 1,000-yard rifle shooting competition.

“You have four shooters, so most teams have five or six guys – we only have four,” Toby Kuivinen, one of the BRP team members said. “So, the other two guys are usually the spotters, mirage readers, coaches, and moving gear.”

The matches are broken up into sections where each shooter fires a set amount of rounds.

“We shot three relays per guy,” Kuivinen said.

“So, we shoot 20 rounds per guy per relay, so we shot 80 rounds in the first relay, 80 in the second and 80 in the third. It’s a lot of squeezing the trigger.”

Winning the state title means BRP will be moving on to national competition in September.

“People come from not just Michigan, but all over the place to shoot in the Michigan tournament,” Kuivinen said.

“For the nationals, we’ll be shooting (against piecemeal teams). They can pick members from all over the country, but we’re just local boys shooting.”

Despite being ‘just local boys shooting’, the ‘Precision’ in Bark River Precision is there for a reason. Long-range precision rifle shooting is a complicated and multi-faceted sport.

“It’s a very unique sport,” Kuivinen said. “It’s very expensive and time consuming, and you have to be very knowledgeable.

“We use different calibers, but they’re all highly machined, precise and accurized. Both the guns and ammunition. Everything’s all custom rifles and all custom ammunition. We’re basically trying to shoot a five-inch group at 1000 yards.”

Kuivinen expanded on the difficulty of the preparation for matches.

“Ten-thousandth of an inch of length on your bullet is going to drop approximately 25 more inches at 1000 yards with a 184-grain bullet,” he said. “So, everything’s (measured) and machined and checked and checked again. The grains of powder are measured through the powder distribution system, and we take them to a jeweler’s scale. Then, we take a set of tweezers and take one grain out or put one in depending on what we have. There’s a lot of work that goes into making a hundred rounds.

“(Our bullets) drop approximately 16 feet over 1000 yards. 16 feet to hit a five-inch (target) and taking into consideration wind, mirage, weather and bullet speed – there’s a lot of variables. It’s a passion and an art, and I’m just fortunate to be part of the team.”

BRP will travel to the F-Class national competition in New Mexico starting Sept. 19 for the top spot called the gold.