ViMBAR / ViMSAR SHOOTING MATCHES

Vintage Military Bolt Action Rifle
Vintage Military Semi-Automatic Rifle
PLUS ViMBAR Sniper, USAR, and F-Class matches

NEW! 2011 Schedules have been posted! Also, please check our sister site for the Golden Spike Range to get information on the Buffalo/Creedmore, Long Range Lever Action, and NEW Hunting Rifle matches.

Why the Weather Link has been removed:
We ran our first Hunter Rifle match last weekend; however, despite the interest expressed in the match, we had relatively few participants. The weather forecast predicted rain, thunderstorms and cold weather along the Wasatch Front, and it must have scared the lightweights off. The weather actually turned out to be OK. It was breezy and a bit cool, but mostly sunny with broken clouds during the entire match. That's why they call meteorologists "weather guessers", and we've learned over the years that you can't expect the weather along the Wasatch to match what's going on out at Promontory. So, in the future, if you have any doubts about what the weather conditions actually are, give us a call out at the range. I'll give you our cell phone numbers if you want them.

THE HISTORY BEHIND THESE EVENTS

The development and use of the military bolt action rifles using metallic cartridges spans from circa mid eighteen sixties to 1936 when the last newly developed military bolt action rifle was adopted. During this time many guns were produced to supply the armies of the world. Of course, these guns provided excellent service in WWII and long after. The idea of shooting ViMBAR is to experience the capabilities these old military rifles had on the battlefield. Some were better then the others, but most had capabilities that are amazing still today.

Vintage Military Bolt-action Rifle (ViMBAR) and Vintage Military Semi-auto Rifle (ViMSAR) are concepts that were developed so that collectors of the myriad of inexpensive military surplus rifles available today can have an opportunity to use them in a fun shooting match environment. You can go out and buy a $100 surplus Mauser, some inexpensive surplus ammunition, and be “in the game” and as competitive as the next guy. The idea behind the ViMBAR/ViMSAR match is to experience the capabilities these rifles had on the battlefield, and the service they provided to soldiers all over the world in conflicts spanning the past century and a quarter. ViMBAR/ViMSAR matches are not intended to be “precision accuracy” or High Power Service Rifle competitions. On the contrary, we encourage the use of life-size or large targets, and specifically prohibit the use on the line of High Power equipment, range finders, wind flags, or other such items as deemed “prohibited” by the match designers. In that vein, we often invoke “Spirit of the Game”, the original adage of the ever popular Cowboy Action Shooting™ game.

This website is devoted to distributing information about ViMBAR/ViMSAR shooting matches — to advise participants where they can attend events in their local area or provide help in setting up and conducting matches. Our match schedule information primarily concerns the ViMBAR/ViMSAR matches held at the Golden Spike Buffalo Range in Promontory, Utah; however, we will list matches elsewhere if the information is emailed to us in advance of the event.