Club De Tiro Y Caza Cananea, located near the city of Cananea (Sonora, Mexico), celebrated its 85th Anniversary by hosting a two-day festive match on May 18-19, 2024. Daniel Salazar, Lapua Monarch Cup Board President and Chris Cawthorne, Lapua Monarch Cup Board Member & Co-Founder of the North American Silhouette Shooting Association (NASSA), traveled from South Texas to Cananea to participate in this historic match and celebration!
Daniel Salazar was born and grew up in Cananera, so for Daniel it was a chance to once again meet old friends and shoot at his home silhouette range. For Chris, it was a chance to join Daniel and enjoy the experience. While in Cananea, both David Salazar and Chris Cawthorne also had a chance to conduct some Lapua Monarch Cup and NASSA business while they were there!
Lapua Monarch Cup
With regards to Lapua Monarch Cup, business included:
- A chance for the Lapua Monarch Cup Board to acknowledge and show appreciation for Club De Tiro Y Caza Cananea submitting a proposal to host a 2024 Lapua Monarch Cup Series Match.
- To better understand the potential of Cananea and other silhouette clubs in the Northwest Mexico States to host future Lapua Monarch Cup Series Matches.
For a little background, the Lapua Monarch Cup (LMC) Board of Directors formalized a LMC Match Series Proposal Solicitation Process in 2024 for silhouette clubs that desired to host a LMC Series Match. Four clubs submitted proposals for 2024; Ridgway Rifle Club (USA), Rosebud Silhouette & Benchrest Club (Canada), Club Cinegetico Saltillo Safari (Mexico) and Club De Tiro Y Caza Cananea (Mexico).
The LMC Board voted to go to a two-series LMC format in 2024 and selected Ridgway Rifle Club (by default due to hosting the NRA National SB Silhouette Championship) and Club Cinegetico Saltillo Safari due to the strength of its submitted proposal.
For all clubs in Mexico and Canada interested in submitting a 2025 LMC series proposal, please refer to the LMC Proposal Solicitation documents listed below:
For more information about the Lapua Monarch Cup, click on the link below:
North American Silhouette Shooting Association (NASSA)
Since November, 2023, NASSA has been working with Silueteros.com (Ricardo Arellano) on an international alliance between the two organizations . Ricardo Arellano is also on the NASSA Implementation Team as the NASSA Mexico Integration Director.
Being at the 85th Anniversary Celebration also allowed NASSA to set up a table and interface with silhouette shooters from Mexican states such as Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa and Chihuahua. Northwest Mexico has one of the highest concentration of silhouette shooters in North America, so it was a great chance to discuss NASSA and distribute NASSA handouts such as shown in the image to the far right.
Ricardo Arellano also arranged for a meeting with Edmundo Almeida (right in image) and Enrique Almeida (middle of image) to discuss them joining the NASSA Team in Northeast Mexico.
Further discussions also revolved around Edmundo and Enrique participating in a Joint Junior Training Project with the NASSA Northeast Mexico and USA South Central Regions. More will be reported on this endeavor as it unfolds….
Club De Tiro Y Caza Cananea 85th Anniversary Match & Celebration
Saturday late morning kicked off with a 40-shot silhouette highpower match as shown in the image above on the left with about 50 highpower shooters participating.
On Sunday, a 40-shot smallbore open sight rifle match (maxis) and a 40-shot smallbore rifle match (minis) were shot in parallel on the firing line. The Sunday matches were also well attended with about 108 maxis and 100 minis participants.
During and after the silhouette matches on both Saturday and Sunday, both Daniel and Chris were impressed with the festivities and great family atmosphere! Grilled chicken was served on Saturday and a band played after the Saturday highpower silhouette match was concluded. On Sunday, a roasted pork was served and the the final awards ceremonies were conducted. For both Daniel and Chris, this 85th Anniversary celebration embraced the true spirit of what our silhouette sport is all about!
Club De Tiro Y Caza Cananea’s Gift to Ridgway Rifle Club
Club De Tiro Y Caza Cananea has a special place in the early history of our silhouette sport. For those of you present at the 2021 NRA National Smallbore Silhouette Championships in Ridgway, PA, you may remember the special presentation made by Daniel Salazar (Lapua Monarch Cup Board President) to the Ridgway Rifle Club as shown below. Club De Tiro Y Caza Cananea gifted the hornless ram (ewe) as shown below to Ridgway Rifle Club. This is now proudly displayed in the Ridgway Rifle Club Clubhouse.
The letter from Club De Tiro Y Caza Cananea to Ridgway Rifle Club shown above on the right states:
Dear Club Members,
History and special memories are forged through time and great moments.
In the early 50’s at the beginning our our shooting sport, our club created the first silhouettes for high power rifle shooting in Mexico. In those early days our club members decided that at 500 meters distance the silhouette target was going to be a “YU”….After a few years later our club decided to change it to be a “Ram”….Although still to date, occasionally and just for fun we shoot a “YU” target in our matches (4 rams and one YU).
Also, as special piece of our sport history is the story of how the 300 meter target “Pig” was created. The first pattern of the silhouette was created in a piece of cloth in a tailor shop owned by still an active member of our club, Mr. Aurturo Ledezma. That cloth pattern was used to cut the first metallic silhouette pig at the Cananea Consolidated Copper Company welding shop.
It’s with great respect and admiration, that our Club: Club de Tiro, Caza y Pensa A.C. “Fernanndo Hage” located at Can nea, Sonora, Mexico has taken one of the original “YU” silhouettes and offer it as a special recognition to Ridgway Rifle Club to honor this club for being the club that has promoted the most our beloved sport in the United States of America.
May our sport live forever to continue creating beautiful memories and a wonderful history of this magnificent sport that has unified shooters of several nations around the world.
Truly Yours,
…your friends from Mexico.
This gift as given by Club De Tiro Y Caza Cananea to Ridgway Rifle Club represents everything that shooters love about our silhouette sport!
Historic Cananea, Sonora, Mexico
The historic Cananea Copper Mine (now known as the Buenavista Mine) is a very large open pit copper mine located in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico. This copper mine is located adjacent to the city of Cananea 35 km (22 mi) south of the international border near Nogales, Arizona and has some of the largest copper reserves in the world.
The modern development of the Cananea copper mine reaches back all the way back to the 19th century during the time General Ignacio Pesqueira was fighting Apaches in the mountains around Cananera. While on expeditions to hunt down raiding Apaches, General Pesqueira discovered the old Spanish mines that were long abandoned. General Pesqueira retired to Cananera and revitalized the mining of copper in the old Spanish mines.
In 1889, William Cornell Greeene purchased the mine from General Pesqueira and founded the Cananea Consolidated Copper Company. In 1906, the population of Cananea had grown to over 23,000 including 7,000 Americans and 5,000 Chinese. Greene, fueled by mine profits, contributed to much of Cananea’s infrastructure including the building of churches, schools, miner’s housing, a sports stadium which is why there is a unique American architectural presence in the older parts of the city.
