What is a "Regional Championship"?

What exactly is a Precision Pistol Regional Championship, and what makes it different than any other match? Tried searching, no luck. Thanks.

Bigger than a State Championship, smaller than a National Championship.

Although if you live in a state with 40 million people and 160K square miles of territory, your State Championship might cover more than many Regionals... 

Should be in the rule book, 1.6.d.

And why then do they sanction “regionals” in states that are adjacent or two or more “regionals” that are within a few hundred miles of each other. Indiana has 2 and the Pennsylvania West Virginia Canton OH are within 4 hours or so of each other.

Dunno. I could shoot 3 or 4 Regionals within a 5-hour drive of my hometown, but the second closest State match or Regional to me now is probably either Phoenix or Oregon, both more than 10 hours.

I’m sure glad I’m not still chasing pistol leg points out here.

200 miles is my limit for a regional, except for Canton and that benefits from my trip o Perry. VA has not had a pistol Regional in many years. NC has one for rifle at Butner, but not Pistol. MD doesn’t have one. WV does but it’s 5 hours of travel for me. So I decided to run one in VA. It will be a 2700 Saturday June 2 along with DR, and EIC matches, followed by a Service Pistol 900 on Sunday June 3 with more leg matches. Currently I have a full line (36) for Saturday, next year I hope to run a Friday 2700 as well. 

The Keefer Memorial Regional will likely not be as large as the Virginia State Match, this year. But it may be larger than the WV Regional and about as large as the very well run NC state match. The consensus of shooters was that they wanted to shoot the 2700 in one day. That precludes 2 weekend relays at our club due to a Sunday hard stop of 15:00.

Regionals used to be 3day events...like Canton. So most exist in name only. Thats my understanding fwiw. Regards

Sadly many people don’t want a three day event, even with free camping, a stocked lake, and a good range, They want to shoot and get home or perhaps to work. Many Matine Corps shooters from the Big Team remember VA State Championships at Cavalier in the 80s and 90s.  Two day event, two or more relays and team matches. 

I'm looking forward to my first trip to Canton.

I'm glad to see another venue may explore including a Friday relay.  We changed from Sat/Sun to Fri/Sat for our matches a couple years ago for two reasons:  First, we didn't like closing the range to our main membership for a full two weekends during our summer months, and second, we found a lot of interest from retirees who can shoot the Friday relay and still have the weekend.

I'd like to clear up a misconception.  NRA has nothing to do with de-conflicting matches.  They simply manage the paperwork for the program.  They do require consent from a state authority to sanction a state match, but not much further is involved from their point of view.  A regional is really a way to have a major type 2700 with CMP matches, without making it a state match.  It can be as big or small a "region" as desired.  I did miss the Chesapeake Bay Regional I shot when I was first starting out, when it finally dwindled and ended.

Speaking of first starting out, back then the move to two day events was well underway, with .22 and CF (individual & team) on Saturday and .45 (individual & team) on Sunday, with the CMP EIC after the .45.  Many of these matches had two relays per day.  At that time you could not have the EIC on two separate days and combine them.  If you had an EIC on Saturday and another on Sunday, they were two separate matches.  I like the moves that have been made which allow one relay per day and combining of scores, although for match directors it has added a bit of work.  The downside is that the awards are still on the second day, but the first day competitors are not there.  Conversely, an upside is that if you happen to be in a match rich location, you might be able to catch two matches in a weekend.  I used to enjoy those days.

Wobbley wrote:And why then do they sanction “regionals” in states that are adjacent or two or more “regionals” that are within a few hundred miles of each other.  Indiana has 2 and the Pennsylvania West Virginia Canton OH are within 4 hours or so of each other.

Based on a rough estimate, 8 of those Regional Matches are closer to Canton, Ohio, than the closest Regional is to me.

Ed Hall wrote:Conversely, an upside is that if you happen to be in a match rich location, you might be able to catch two matches in a weekend.  I used to enjoy those days.

We used to have a Regional in Sacramento the first weekend of September. When the calendar worked out juuuuust right, I could shoot a 2700 plus 2 NMCs (EIC and revolver) on the weekend, another 2700 at Sunnyvale on Labor Day (Monday), and a 1200 (60 shots .22, 60 CF) league that Wednesday at Sunnyvale, for a total of 720 rounds in 4 or 5 days. It was damn near Canton/Perry-esque.

jmdavis wrote:I'm looking forward to my first trip to Canton.

I guarantee you will enjoy it. I don’t know of a match anywhere in the world where people work harder to ensure that the competitors have a good experience.

Greetings,

A trip down Memory Lane...

My first match was the Regional at Paul Bunyon in Washington State in 1976. It was three relays over two days.

We shot the 50 yard Slow Fire portion on the rifle range, moving to the Pistol Range with the turning targets for the 25 yard events.

Oh yes, we had several Teams firing as well,

Ahhhhh, I long for the "good 'ol days".

Cheers,

Dave