A new perspective on the Bianchi Cup

[rednichols]

Without 'being there' one wouldn't realize that this holster was the cause of professional shooting competitions. Not because of what it does, but because of how it came to be.

Introduced in the '79 Bianchi catalog

Everyone knows the legend of how Jeff Cooper organized the Columbia Conference in 1976. But events there immediately conspired to thwart Jeff's ambitious plans.

As Chief Gopher I was sent to find out about this new kind of competition that was sprouting from the leatherslaps; and to enlist Jeff's cooperation in creating new Bianchi gunleather for it. But Jeff and John Bianchi just didn't like each other, perhaps relating to the old Cooper Combat holster that JB produced during the mid-'60s.

From Bianchi's 1963 catalog.

And Jeff was understandably not impressed with being sent a mere underling to have this discussion; those of you who knew Jeff will 'get' this immediately. So he handed me off to Ray Chapman, himself a real champion and a fellow Californian, too. Ray was interested and together we created the Chapman holster.

This is not about the holster.

Because Ray having decided to build his shooting school in Columbia where the conference was held, he also decided with his new connections to interest JB in holding a pistol tournament there. JB had the name and money and Ray had neither.

JB is/was quite the promoter and hit on the idea of having industry pay for it all, and making it a pro event with big money. Twenty grand that first year, 1979, cash and prizes; with a high entry fee and by invitation only. Truth be known we invited anybody and everybody, one chap wandered in with a pair of Colt Police Positives in a Myres western set but no invite; he had the entry fee.



Fast forward a bit, and Jeff was wanting IPSC to become NRA's proposed Action Shooting program. Jeff, Ray, Bill Jordan, and I were amongst its members. And eager to rid himself of the financial constraints of operating the event, JB's next assignment for me was to persuade NRA to make the course of fire into its Action event with the BCIPT as its championship. Easy.



And to this very day 'it is so'. Jeff wrote me a letter early-on about the 'balkanization' of the shooting sports but, as Scottie Carnahan pointed out once, I was merely JB's point man; so the plea fell on JB's deaf ears. Then Bill Rogers made his own contribution by working (according to a 2014 interview called "Forrest Gump" in Recoil) to create IDPA out of the Florida chapter within just a couple of years. Eventually Jeff himself resigned from IPSC!

And all because he diverted the development of Bianchi's new holster for IPSC away from himself and to Ray Chapman. None of this is to suggest any gaming by the players; it just turned out that 'for lack of a nail the kingdom was lost', if you know that tale.

The sources and footnoting for all this is in Holstory -- Gunleather of the 20th Century:

HOLSTORY IS HERE!

 

[Protocall_Design]

I have shot the Bianchi Cup from 1993 to the present, but had not heard that story. Very interesting!

 

[S&WIowegan]

Interesting history

I started shooting USPSA matches in 1989 here in Iowa with no training at all and was making a poor show. I saw an advert for Chapman Academy(not far from my Iowa home) and signed up for his first 4 1/2 day class of 1991. Only 4 shooters in the class: a liquor store owner from Little Rock, a young man hoping to become a personal bodyguard, a mature man who was in the Air Force and me(a nearly 50yo former investment banker). Ray spoke to us the first morning and his partner John? taught us for the rest of the week.

The class was basically learning to shoot by doing the Bianchi stages. Lots of fun .....the liquor store guy was shooting box stock Colt Commanders which ate his hand up mercilessly. The bodyguard was shooting lead 9mm reloads in his Glock which were spraying all over the range; we convinced him to buy factory hardball and solved his problem. I had brought 4 guns(all I had) with ammo for each. I don't remember all of them but a Gold Cup and a Python 4" were two of the four. Some of us broke our guns during the week so Ray sent us to Ed Brown's shop one evening for repairs(EB was grumpy but happy to take our money).

Suffice it to say, I learned to shoot handguns. I shot a USPSA match the Sunday of that same week and shot so well people asked me what happened.

Red's post above confirms my impression of Jeff Cooper. How did he fit that massive ego into one body?

 

[rednichols]

A long-ago friend, Greg Moats, and I renewed acquaintance relatively recently; and he's been kind enough to post an article about our early connections with the Bianchi Cup that is NRA's championship for today's Action Shooting:

Shooting Wire (notice the link has changed because the site 'archived' the article; prior it was correct, then the link automatically changed to a more current story; so I've replaced the original with the archived version).

The holster of his that he shows, in basketweave with the Bianchi star, is a significant rarity. We made them for Ray Chapman that way but only in black; and none were available to the general public. Special people only.