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Whitehorse shooters peg off top finishes at nationals

Whitehorse rifle shooters put their steady hands and eagle eyes to the test against the best in the country recently.

Whitehorse rifle shooters put their steady hands and eagle eyes to the test against the best in the country recently.

Four members of the Whitehorse Rifle and Pistol Club took podium finishes at the Canadian National Rifle Silhouette Championships held at the Prince George Rod and Gun Club in B.C. earlier this month.

Leading the way for the Yukon team was multi-time Canadian champ Nicholas Rittel of Whitehorse.

The 24-year-old finished as the top Canadian in the small-bore hunter rifle class and in the high-power standard rifle class. He also placed first in the master class for small-bore standard and second in the AAA division for high-power hunter rifle at the metallic silhouette shooting championship - a form of target shooting in which marksmen aim at metal cutouts of game animals.

“I did really well in the hunter .22,” said Rittel. “In my last score I got 37 out of 40, which was pretty good for the whole competition. It was the best score shot. I tied another guy with it, but I beat him in a shoot off.”

The other Yukon shooters were juniors Liam Macinnis and Amber Wally, as well as adult Dave Buchanan.

Macinnis shot his way to first place in the small-bore hunter A class and third in small-bore standard A class.

Wally notched a second place result in the small-bore standard A class and a third place in the small-bore hunter AA class.

Buchanan took third in AAA for the small-bore standard rifle division.

“It was good. It was a fun time. I brought a bunch of juniors with me and they had a fun time,” said Rittel.

Rittel’s national titles are his latest on a lengthy list. In addition to winning one at last year’s nationals, Rittel set two Canadian shooting records and won three divisions at the 2012 Canadian Rifle Silhouette Championships in Kamloops, B.C. He also pegged off two seventh-place finishes en route to placing 10th overall out of about 100 shooters at the U.S.‘s 2012 Silhouette National Championships in New Mexico.

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com