Competitors’ Corner: July 2019

By the time you read this, the final NRA National Pistol Championship at Camp Perry will be ready to commence, with match staff and shooters arriving in Ohio beginning Sunday, July 7. Although this is a new chapter in the exciting history of the NRA National Matches, with Pistol, Smallbore Rifle and High Power Rifle to be reunited at Camp Atterbury in 2020—no one will ever forget the over 100 years of excellence in marksmanship on display on its hallowed grounds—that is always going to be remembered.

This month’s cover and feature story showcases the one and only Bruce Piatt, who won the 2019 Bianchi Cup by the slimmest of margins—one X—over the runner-up and defending champion, SFC Adam Sokolowski of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit. Both shooters, along with the venerable Carl Bernosky, earned perfect 1920 scores at this year’s match. Piatt returned to Green Valley after taking 2018 off to recover from shoulder surgery. We’d say the time was well spent! Read the full story.

Field Editor Art Merrill ventured to the Lapua Ammo Test Center in Arizona for July’s Product Focus. He says, “If you’re serious about smallbore competition, Lapua will test its line of match ammo in your rifle, and you don’t have to ship it to its home base in Finland.” Read his firsthand account of using the facility. 

What’s all the clamor about 6.5 Creedmoor? Author John Haviland answers this question and more in his latest article, where he examines the popular round, and also performs accuracy tests on nine factory loads. Read more about this target cartridge that has become appealing to recoil-weary hunters.

The rapid growth of the rimfire division in Steel Challenge is no big surprise, because this sport has addictive qualities with the ringing of steel that is often music to a shooter’s ears. In his latest article, Field Editor Chris Christian reviews the fundamentals of the sports as well as a few equipment recommendations. Read his rimfire treatise.

Regular readers need no introduction to Team Ruger pro shooter Doug Koenig. Recently, the 18-time Bianchi Cup champion has ventured into Production Rifle Series Production class competition, already bringing home class titles. Even more impressive, at one of his most-recent matches, Koenig finished in the top 20 overall, competing against Open class shooters who have equipment which far exceeds the $4,000 limit that Koenig faces in Production class. Read more about what is going on with the captain of Team Ruger.

Finally, some notes about last month’s feature “Conquering Cataracts” from none other than our favorite optometrist, Dr. Norman Wong. Last month, Dr. Wong emailed me and said: “‘Conquering Cataracts’ by Chris Christian in the June issue of SSUSA was a nice article. Please note that his experience on page 30 was exactly what I described in my article, ‘The Appearance of Target Size,’ on page 45 of the March 2019 issue.”

I suggest reading both articles for a better understanding of vision and cataracts, and how they relate to competitive shooting as we age.

Good luck and good shooting to all this summer!

—John Parker
Managing Editor, Shooting Sports USA

Reporters Welcome
In our efforts to recruit more reporters, we frequently hear the comment: “But I’m not a writer.” What people overlook is that they are on the scene, hearing and seeing the action first-hand. Editing and completing the article is our job, so if you’d like to try your hand at sharing draft reports and photographs from national-level matches or interviews with key people in the shooting sports, please email us at shootingsportsusa@nrahq.org.