A few years back I had gotten into shooting ARA, which is held in Boerne Texas just about 30 minutes up the road from us. I immediately fell in love with the range, and enjoyed the competition of ARA.  We had been holding informal matches at our local gun range in Bandera, Texas for several years. It started out with just a few people and most was family. Over several years we grew from a few to over 30 competitors, but we were still not shooting anything that was sanctioned. 

After looking at what was happening in the ARA world, it gave me and idea of turning our local match into a sanctioned shoot that could draw more competitors from other cities and states.  We came up with Auto Bench Rest Association. Most of us have 10/22 semi –autos in our closet but had no real place to compete with them.  We developed a specific target that we felt would be easier than some but not so easy that you could score top scores right out of the gate.

I, my wife and our partner Luke Restivo did a lot of leg work and research into the development of the targets, how they would be scored, time limits, and what kind of classes we would have to compete in. Another aspect of the sanction was affordability for the average person with a budget.  We developed a Factory Class and an Unlimited Class to encompass all types of shooters.