The Marty Brown Memorial™ Invitational, now in its 8th year, honors one of Revere’s Riders rifle instructors that fought a 40-month battle with ovarian cancer before succumbing. Of course, that rifle instructor is Marty Brown and she was a 2nd Amendment supporter and shooting sports aficionado that loved going to the rifle ranges of Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh, IN. Marty even insisted that she have a port for delivery of chemotherapy placed in her left shoulder instead of her right so she could keep shooting a rifle.
This year, 26 event attendees, including 4 women, were greeted with picture perfect weather for a weekend outdoors. The informal competition involves shooting a rifle in “3-positions”: standing, seated, and prone. The competitor begins with slow-fire standing with 10 rounds at 100 yards, then moves back to 200 yards for fast-fire seated with 10 rounds, followed by fast-fire prone at 300 yards with 10 rounds, and finally slow-fire prone at 400 yards with 10 rounds. The target is roughly 24 inches wide by 18 inches tall. Scoring is by “hits” on the black area with hits on the central “V” counted as well in case of ties. A perfect score would be 40-40V.
This year, the Marty Brown Memorial™ Invitational had its first ever tie. Two competitors shot a 40-14V; the tie was broken by aggregate score of the four total competition rounds fired. Jeannie Redicker won the tiebreaker by virtue of shooting a perfect 40 each round of competition. It is not surprising that Jeannie won as she was the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s (CMP) Rimfire Sporter National Champion in 2018, 2019, and 2021 as well as the holder of the prestigious CMP Distinguished Rifleman Badge. Jeannie is one of only 2,632 persons to earn the Distinguished Rifleman Badge since its inception in 1884, of which only 92 are civilians.
The Marty Brown Memorial™ series of events began in 2019 and has raised more than $80,000 in donations to Ovar’coming Together, Ovarian Cancer Connection, and Ascension St. Vincent Hospital to support women diagnosed with ovarian cancer.