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Shooters prepare for the 24th Annual Bianchi Cup
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Shooters from around the world prepare for the 24th Annual NRA Bianchi Cup
Mid-May brings with it the first of NRA's Open Championship Tournaments for the year 2002. The 24th Annual NRA-Bianchi Cup National Action Pistol Tournament (NAPT) will be held at the Green Valley Rifle & Pistol Club ranges near Columbia, Missouri, from May 22 to 25. As in the past, the NAPT has attracted contestants from across the nation and from around the world. The total prize purse for the four-day tournament stands at nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
Among the competitors already registered to attend are several former champions. Last year's winner, Doug Koenig, of Alburtis, Pennsylvania, will be back to defend his title. For 2002, Koenig will attempt to become only the second champion in the history of the tournament to post three consecutive victories.
He is expected to be joined by a number of former champions, among them Brian Enos, of Apache Junction, Arizona; Mickey Fowler of LeGrand, California; Riley Gilmore of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Rob Leatham, of Mesa, Arizona; Bruce Piatt of Montvale, New Jersey; and John Pride of LaVerne, California.
In the women's category, Vera Koo of Atherton, California, will almost certainly return to defend her 2001 title. She will compete against a host of other women from around the nation and around the world.
The tournament is a family affair. This year's contest looks forward to the return of several husband and wife duos, father-daughter pair Mark and Chelsea Mukon, from Amston, Connecticut, and an Australian father-son team, Gary and 15-year-old Josh Sweeny.
NRA Action Shooting is a highly visible sport. It differs from other NRA pistol disciplines in that all firing is done within stringent time limits and all firing begins with the shooter's pistol loaded and holstered. Much firing is done from non-traditional positions. Ranges are short - generally less than 25 yards. Targets are active, turning to begin or end a string of fire, moving during the string, or falling when hit.
Contestants in the Bianchi Cup Tournament compete in either of two categories, Open and Stock, the difference being in allowable modifications to a shooter's pistol. Open category guns are nearly free from limitations on competitive modifications - within the bounds of safety. A Stock firearm must be part of a production run of at least 1000 guns, must be fitted with metallic sights, and free of external modifications.
NAPT scores are based on the aggregate of four 480-point matches: the Practical Event, the Barricade Event, the Moving Target Event, and the Falling Plate Event. The shooter with the "highest four" match score will be named the National Action Pistol Champion for the year 2002, and claim the $10,000 top prize. For the past 10 years, the champion has posted a perfect 1920-point aggregate and placed more than 80 percent of his record shots inside the central tie-breaking ring. The current championship record score, 1920-185X, is co-held by two shooters.
In addition to the main NAPT matches, side matches will be fired throughout the week, open to all contestants: the "Jackpot Shoot," sponsored by Winchester; and the "Speedload Challenge," sponsored by Hogue Grips.
The Bianchi International Speed Event, open to the top-scoring 16 finishers in the Action Pistol Championship, will be fired on Saturday, May 26. The Speed Event requires that contestants fire on and knock down five steel silhouette targets. Time and hits count. Following an elimination round, the eight fastest shooters compete in a double elimination contest to determine the winner of the Speed Event trophy and the $2500 first prize. In the past winning shooters have averaged about 2? seconds to repeatedly knock down all five targets.
Headquarters for the NRA Bianchi Cup Tournament will open in Columbia, Missouri, on Sunday, May 19. The range facility will open for a practice match on Tuesday, May 21.
http://www.nra.org/display_content/show_content.cfm?mod_id=51&id=3035
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
By J.B. Roberts, Jr.
NRA Communications Editor
In July and August, the National Rifle Association of America will conduct its annual National Shooting Championships - the National Matches - for high power and smallbore rifles, pistols, and muzzleloading firearms. This year's contests also mark the 95th anniversary of the establishment of Camp Perry, a marksmanship training base, located on Lake Erie near Port Clinton, Ohio, that, since its founding, has been the home of the National Matches.
"The National Matches are among the largest and most prestigious shooting championships in the world," explained NRA Director of Competitive Shooting, M.S. Gilchrist. "This year we expect between 3,000 and 4,000 participants of all skill levels to visit Camp Perry and to shoot with, and learn from, the finest rifle and pistol shots in the country.
"Many competitors attend with their families, not only to compete but also to participate in other activities offered at Camp Perry and in the surrounding area," Gilchrist continued. "Some of our most interesting input comes from the mixture of shooting enthusiasts; from youngsters eager to learn about the sport, to seniors who contribute their valuable experience."
Among the champions expected to return to Camp Perry this summer are defending champions in nearly a dozen competitive disciplines and categories.
Muzzleloading
Indications are that muzzleloading enthusiasts will be able to watch Chad Cleland and Marnie McCausland in action again this year.
Cleland has the distinction of having won both the predominant rifle shooting aggregates, The Offhand Championship and The Hunter Championship in each of the last five years. Cleland, who is part of a family-owned sporting goods retail operation in Swanton, Ohio, is a former member of the Army's Marksmanship Unit and a Distinguished Marksman with the rifle. He has maintained his distinguished status through the entire history of NRA Muzzleloading Rifle National Championships.
Like Cleland, Marnie McCausland is an Ohioan, from Cincinnati. And, like Cleland, her visits to Camp Perry have, for the most part, resulted in visits to the winner's circle. After 1996, the first year in which she shot her way to the women's high score for the pistol aggregate and won women's honors in one rifle aggregate, McCausland switched to a rifle full time. She has never looked back and in the last five years has placed first in every women's category aggregate and every women's championship she entered, save two-one in 1997 and one in 2000, when a number of ill effects combined to keep her shooting below par. She was back in 2001, however, with convincing wins in the women's category of both the offhand and hunter aggregates and a one-point win over Birdy Luma in the Women's Championship. Also like Cleland, Marnie has spent part of her career as a consultant to muzzleloading armsmakers, first to Thompson/Center and most recently to Savage Arms.
Pistol
Pistol shooters will be watching for a rematch between Brian Zins and Steve Reiter.
Zins, the current National Pistol Champion, is a career Marine, presently assigned to the Marine Corps Shooting Team at Quantico, Va. He first came to national prominence in 1996, when he won his first of three national titles and a meritorious promotion to Staff Sergeant. Following the 1996 matches, Zins was reassigned, to a tour in his primary military specialty, then to recruiting duty. It was from the latter assignment that he paid his own way to Camp Perry in 1998, joined his former Marine teammates and won his second championship. Most recently, Gunnery Sergeant Zins transferred from recruiting duty back to the Marine Corps team, arriving at Quantico just in time to draw his equipment and make the trip to Perry for the 2001 championships. He won his third national pistol crown.
Before and during Zins' on-and-off years, an Army Reservist, Master Sergeant Steve Reiter has held sway among pistol competitors. From Sparks, Nevada, Reiter is the holder of Distinguished badges for conventional pistol and rifle shooting and for International competition. He has been a member of the Army Reserve pistol team for more than two decades. As it stands now, Reiter, who recently retired from Army Reserve service, needs one more championship to join pistol shooting legends Harry Reeves, "Joe" Benner, and Bill Blankenship as six-time national champions.
Smallbore Rifle
On the Smallbore scene, the Army's is the team to watch. The Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning, Georgia, has, in recent years fielded consistent winners in both Three-position and Prone individual and team competition. Major Steve Goff is the reigning champ in Prone competition and his former teammate Troy Bassham holds the Three-position crown. Bassham, the son of 1972 Olympic gold medallist Lanny Bassham, separated from the Army shortly before the 2001 National Championships, but is expected to return to Perry to defend his championship. Goff, too, will be at the matches along with his team, including Shane Barnhart, Mike Anti, Trevor Gathman, and Lance Hopper. It should be something to see.
High Power Rifle
G. David Tubb, of Canadian, Texas, is the middle of three generations of national championship-level rifle competitors, and possibly the most continuously successful rifle marksman in U.S. history. He is a nine-time national high power rifle champion, a member of several U.S. Palma rifle teams, and a former smallbore junior champion. His dad, George Tubb was a nationally-ranked high power competitor and his mom was an NRA Women's high power champ. Tubb's son Taylor is following his father's lead and already has junior high power victories to his credit.
Along with David Tubb, and his family will be another family of near-legendary shooters, the Tompkins-Gallaghers - Mid (short for Middleton), and wife Nancy Tompkins-Gallagher and her daughters, Michelle and Sherri. Mid Tompkins has been a top-notch competitive shooter for over four decades and has among other credits, national championships as both a junior and a senior. In between he won six national High Power Rifle crowns. Tompkins was recruited by the U.S. Air Force to shoot on their marksmanship teams in the 1950s and won the first of his National High Power Rifle Championships as a member of the Air Force Team. He has been a shooter on, and the captain of, more than one U.S. Palma team. He is the defending senior high power rifle champ. Wife Nancy has been a champion since before she won the first award of the Tompkins Trophy for the Long Range Championship in 1977. Lately, she and her daughter Michelle have traded national titles in Long Range competition, Michelle being the reigning Long Range champion - her second such crown. In 1998, Nancy became the first (and only) woman to win the overall National High Power Rifle championship. With Sherri as the fourth team member, the Tompkins/Gallagher team is the foursome to beat in NRA rifle competition, both high power and at long range.
The wide variety of firearms used at Camp Perry is sure to satisfy many people interested in a particular type of pistol or rifle. Competitors shoot rifles and pistols ranging from those that were used to win World Wars I and II to the latest versions of our standard military arms and to the most up to date target guns. At stake are victories in matches sponsored by NRA and by the Civilian Marksmanship Program, a not-for-profit, civilian-run program that strives to maintain Americans' familiarity with military small arms. For the collector and historian, the muzzleloading championship should hold some fascination. Camp Perry also provides visitors a chance to see some of the finest marksmen in the United States in action. The National Matches are an excellent opportunity for spectators to learn about championship shooting. Highlights during this year's championships include several days of competition using the caplock and flintlock arms of our frontier forefathers, team competition in international pistol shooting matches, and shoulder to shoulder elimination contests in the 1000-yard rifle championships.
See www.nrahq.org/compete/nm_campperry.asp for more information about the National Matches.
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878