John C. Bickar

[fc60]

Greetings All,

Pleased to report that Mr. Bickar is now distinguished, via the ODCMP, in several events...

International Distinguished
Pistol Distinguished
Rifle Distinguished
22lr Distinguished

Congratulations!!! Not too many shooters in the USA are Quadruple Distinguished.

Cheers,

Dave

[Rover]

Good on ya, Johnnie!

[Mark Freedman]

He is also NRA Distinguished Revolver. That would make him quintuple distinguished.

[ChipEck]

Wow. Way to go.

Chip

[john bickar]

Who??? Never heard of ‘im!




(Thanks, Dave)

[Mike M.]

Ave! Now...have you ever considered muzzle-loading? :-)

[john bickar]

Ave! Now...have you ever considered muzzle-loading? :-)

LOL. I’ll let you talk to Mrs. Bickar about that. Good luck!

[john bickar]

Not too many shooters in the USA are Quadruple Distinguished.

3, by my reckoning: Steve Reiter and Ben Amonette before me. (Two of my heroes.)

When I started my journey to Distinguished Rifle, only one person had accomplished all legs of the traditional “Triple Distinguished” as a civilian: Darius “Doc” Young. As I understand it, he earned Pistol, Rifle, and International before joining the USAR. So I think I’m the second civilian to do so.

(.22 EIC came along in the middle of my quest for Distinguished Rifle. It was right in my wheelhouse; I’ve fired hundreds of thousands of rounds of international rapid fire and standard pistol. If you look at the CMP list of multiple Distinguished, you’ll see that Keith Sanderson has Pistol, Rifle, and International. The only reason I got Quadruple Distinguished before him is that he’s been winning World Cups and competing in the Olympics rather than shooting.22 EIC matches; if I was still competitive at that level, I’d be doing the same.)

Distinguished Rifle was a long, hard road for me (10 years and 4 “first leathers”, among other trials and tribulations). I’m proud of the accomplishment, but moreso I’m grateful for all of the help I’ve had along the way. As I said in another thread, it’s been more than 25 years from my first leg points in pistol, to legging out in rifle. So many people have helped me so much over the past quarter-century.

It’s cool, to me, to be a link between people like Doc Young, Ruby Fox, John McNally, and Erich Buljung, and then people like Jim O’Connell, Bob Gill, and Jared Perry. I’ve been extremely fortunate to shoot alongside all of those legends, and many more.

[Marc Orvin]

Awesome accomplishments John. Congratulations. Proud to know you.

[fc60]

Greetings,

I believe Melvin Makin earned his Rifle badge as a Civilian. He already had International and Pistol badges.

Cheers,

Dave

[john bickar]

Greetings,

I believe Melvin Makin earned his Rifle badge as a Civilian. He already had International and Pistol badges.

Cheers,

Dave

I think Mel also broke 2650 with each hand. Hard holder.

[Will Hart]

Pretty damn amazing, John!

Congratulations!

Will

[Misny]

As one who struggled to get just one, I am in awe of your achievements. You dad would have been very proud.

[PaulB]

I would have to say that John is a pretty awesome "distinguished" person as well, with degrees from UVa and Harvard and working at Stanford!!!

As far as additional shooting "firsts" John is one of two people to be a 12 time (4 free, 4 standard, 4 air) First Team NRA Collegiate Pistol Team All American, the other being Chris Alvarez at the Naval Academy.

And another one, in 2002 at USA Shooting Nationals John won Air, Standard, Centerfire and Rapid. Don't think anyone else has ever done that. Probably could have won Free too, but he claims to not like free pistol, even though he still holds the collegiate 50ft record in the event.

For an interesting read here is a link to a paper John wrote ( http://thegoodproject.org/pdf/47-Olympic-Sports.pdf )

A question for John (or whomever), who was the youngest to earn their pistol distinguished, John, Chris Alvarez, Jimmie Marsh, or someone else?

[john bickar]

Paul,

Your check is in the mail, and my publicist is fired. Thanks for the kind words.

[john bickar]

A question for John (or whomever), who was the youngest to earn their pistol distinguished, John, Chris Alvarez, Jimmie Marsh, or someone else?

I believe that’s me, at 16 years and a little over two months. I posted a fun anecdote about my Distinguished Pistol journey (wayyyyyy shorter than my Distinguished Rifle journey) on the Bullseye Forum: http://www.bullseyeforum.net/t9748p25-n ... eman#84143

[j-team]

Congtatulations John, impressive!

But, for the non US audience, can someone post a brief "distinguished for dummies" please?

[Hap Rocketto]

J-Team,

The ultimate achievement for a service rifle or pistol shooter is to earn Distinguished designation. The Distinguished Rifleman, Distinguished Marksman, and Distinguished Pistol Shot Badges are awarded to members of the Armed Forces, or civilians, in recognition of “a preeminent degree of achievement in target practice with the service rifle or pistol.” The United States Distinguished International Shooter Badge awarded for excellence in international competition with the rifle, pistol, and shotgun is the ultimate recognition of success for the shooter who toils in the world wide arena.

Distinguished with the service arm is earned by a point system requiring one to accumulate 30 leg points through participation in Excellence-In-Competition (EIC) matches sponsored by the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) and the various military services. The top ten percent of non-Distinguished shooters in an EIC match a divided into three groups. The highest one-sixth of the top ten percent are "Gold medal" or 10 points. Next highest two-sixths of top 10 percent are "Silver medal' or eight points. The remaining 50 percent of top 10 percent are 'Bronze medal' or six points awardees.

It is somewhat similar for International but the matches are ISSF events.

Recently the CMP added a 22 caliber pistol badge.

Earning 30 points can take as little as three matches for the gifted and fortunate or a lifetime for the most persistent. For most it is somewhere in between.


If you are intersted in more detail go tohttp://thecmp.org/wp-content/uploads/Distinguished_History.pdf

Best,

Hap

[Christopher Miceli]

First Australian to Earn Distinguished Rifleman Badge

http://www.odcmp.org/1208/default.asp?page=WATERS

http://www.aihpa.com/