Strike Eagle
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- Joined
- Oct 25, 2000
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I just returned from competing in my fifth NRA Bianchi Cup National Action Pistol Championship held each year since its inception in 1979 in Columbia MO.
This years cup had over 240 competitors from the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany firing in three competitive divisions, Open, Metallic Sights and Production. The Bianchi Cup has the largest purse in the handgun shooting sports and it attracts the worlds best professional and amateur handgunners. The NRA does a great job putting on this match and there were lots of door prizes awarded on banquet night. Glock gave away 10 pistols, Colt gave away 10 pistols, along with FN, CZ, and SIG.
The "human benchrest"-- Doug Koenig of Team S&W won his 14th Bianchi Cup with a perfect score of 1920 and 182 X's (For the entire match of 192 shots Koenig only had 10 shots leave the 4 inch diameter X ring--incredible!) , Rob Vadasz of the US Border Patrol won the Metallic Sights Division with a score of 1878-135 X and Vance Schmid put together a fantastic 1887-118 X (more points than Vadasz in Metallic!) to win the Production Division.
There were about 75 Production Division shooters registered--I was one of them. Competing in the Expert classification, I used a new S&W M-686 Pro Series revolver with 5 inch barrel. My load was .38 Special with 158 grain Rainier Ballistics Plated bullet at approx 800 FPS.
My personal goal was to crack the "1800" barrier--something I haven't done at the Bianchi Cup. I was close-- finished with a 1781-98 X good for 15th among the Production Division Shooters. The Falling Plate match was tough--I was doing OK going into the 25 yard stage then the misses started and finished with a respectable 43 plates hit for a 430-43X. Two more plates hit would have put me over the "1800" barrier--but Bianchi Cup is not your ordinary type weekend club match. Its a whole different experience!
NRA Action Pistol is my favorite handgun shooting sport. All courses of fire are "revolver neutral" and shooting "problems" are solved with no greater than six rounds -- its not about how quick you can reload and move to another spot. Its about accuracy coupled with reasonable and achievable time standards. It is not an easy thing to do--if it was everybody would be doing it!
This years cup had over 240 competitors from the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany firing in three competitive divisions, Open, Metallic Sights and Production. The Bianchi Cup has the largest purse in the handgun shooting sports and it attracts the worlds best professional and amateur handgunners. The NRA does a great job putting on this match and there were lots of door prizes awarded on banquet night. Glock gave away 10 pistols, Colt gave away 10 pistols, along with FN, CZ, and SIG.
The "human benchrest"-- Doug Koenig of Team S&W won his 14th Bianchi Cup with a perfect score of 1920 and 182 X's (For the entire match of 192 shots Koenig only had 10 shots leave the 4 inch diameter X ring--incredible!) , Rob Vadasz of the US Border Patrol won the Metallic Sights Division with a score of 1878-135 X and Vance Schmid put together a fantastic 1887-118 X (more points than Vadasz in Metallic!) to win the Production Division.
There were about 75 Production Division shooters registered--I was one of them. Competing in the Expert classification, I used a new S&W M-686 Pro Series revolver with 5 inch barrel. My load was .38 Special with 158 grain Rainier Ballistics Plated bullet at approx 800 FPS.
My personal goal was to crack the "1800" barrier--something I haven't done at the Bianchi Cup. I was close-- finished with a 1781-98 X good for 15th among the Production Division Shooters. The Falling Plate match was tough--I was doing OK going into the 25 yard stage then the misses started and finished with a respectable 43 plates hit for a 430-43X. Two more plates hit would have put me over the "1800" barrier--but Bianchi Cup is not your ordinary type weekend club match. Its a whole different experience!
NRA Action Pistol is my favorite handgun shooting sport. All courses of fire are "revolver neutral" and shooting "problems" are solved with no greater than six rounds -- its not about how quick you can reload and move to another spot. Its about accuracy coupled with reasonable and achievable time standards. It is not an easy thing to do--if it was everybody would be doing it!
