Collegiate Pistol Championships

[proneshooter]

Looking for live targets or results from the Collegiate Pistol Championships starting today at Ft. Benning.

[Gwhite]

All they've shot so far is Women's Air Pistol.

MIT took Gold, followed by NDSU & Texas A&M. In the finals, Helen Oh from Coast Guard took first, Alana Townsend from NDSU took 2nd, and Julie Kim (a sophomore & first year shooter) from MIT took the bronze.

[shaky hands]

I guess congratulations are in order, my friend, great job. (If you don't mind me jinxing the rest of your matches.) More good luck!

[Gwhite]

I don't have details of the standings, but the MIT didn't fare very well in free pistols this afternoon. Apparently the wind was nasty, and none of MIT's shooters broke 500, which is unusual. Hard to say if everyone else struggled as well.

[shaky hands]

Have them read Skanaker's own account of him beating the Soviet team of Melentiev and co in free pistol in Caracas in the early '80s on a windy day. That might inspire them next time.

[alex235689]

Have them read Skanaker's own account of him beating the Soviet team

Where is it possible to find it (Skanaker's own account)?

[shaky hands]

Where is it possible to find it (Skanaker's own account)?

Hopefully, Skanaker finally either updates and republishes his book with Antal, or recognizes that he is not going to do that and allows other shooters to scan it and post on the net. For the time being here is the relevant excerpt.

"In the World Championship held in Caracas in 1982 there were different problems. During the free pistol match there were intermittent but strong gusts of wind interspersed with periods of relative calm. Ragnar Skanaker spotted this and decided to play a waiting game. His main rivals the Russian shooters, preferred to shoot fast, and one by one they came unstuck. Ragnar bided his time and shot patiently in the calm periods. He came perilously close to the time limit and had only a few minutes to spare at the end. But the correct assessment of the conditions and the application of the correct tactics gave him victory."

Below are the results from that match. With a single point advantage over the second place I would doubt Skanaker's claim that the Russian "came unstuck." If I am not mistaken, that was the only gold that Russians surrendered in pistol at that Championship.

1 SKANAKER Ragnar SWE 568
2 MELENTIEV Alexsander URS 567
3 EGRISHCHIN Anatoly URS 563
4 D LIMA CARRILLO Hector VEN 563
5 SUMATOKHIN Sergei URS 563
6 WANG Yifu CHN 561
7 FERRARIS Roberto ITA 560
8 POTTECK Uwe GDR 560

[proneshooter]

Free Pistol results?

[Gwhite]

Ohio State came in first, averaging a bit over 500, with a team total of 2019

Army came in 2nd with a couple of scores above 510, but also two below 480. Team score was 1973

Third was North Dakota, with a team score of 1967, followed by Navy at 1960, and MIT at 1944.

I don't have the individual results, but going into the finals, Alana Townsend from NDSU had first with a 525, followed by two Army shooters with a 515 and a 513.

The MIT women won the Sport Pistol event and the overall Women's National Championship.

They had Men's Sport Pistol this year, and two MIT shooters took the Gold & Silver.

I should have the results for Standard pistol some time this evening. Thursday is the open Air Pistol (60 Shot) event.

[proneshooter]

Air Results? Thanks

[Gwhite]

Nothing so far.

[adair]

Full results are posted here: http://www.competitions.nra.org/documen ... -champ.pdf

Congratulations to both OSU and the MIT Women's Team for their three-peat victories!

[john bickar]

Same thought I've had every year since my freshman year in high school: dang, those are some low scores.

It would be nice if the US could incentivize college pistol shooters the way we do college rifle shooters. I'll be damned if I know how.

[Gwhite]

One problem is that nobody specializes. The best shooters from a collegiate perspective are the ones who are moderately good at ALL the events. That's how you win matches with limited budgets & range time.

[john bickar]

Gwhite, there are a lot of problems.

My post was in no way intended to slam the work that you coaches do, or the hard work that these athletes do. I know very well how much that is.

I'm more griping that collegiate pistol is, and always has been, a neglected stepchild of the NGB for international pistol.

Some support from USAS would be nice. When was the last time one of your shooters got a phone call from the National Team coach?

[IPshooter]

Same thought I've had every year since my freshman year in high school: dang, those are some low scores.

It would be nice if the US could incentivize college pistol shooters the way we do college rifle shooters. I'll be damned if I know how.

Hi John,

I think the problem is collegiate pistol is not a NCAA sport. Therefore, most schools will not support it.

I even contacted the NCAA several years ago and pitched adding pistol to go along with rifle, for both men and women. Obviously, that went nowhere.

Stan

[jmdavis]

It seems to me that part of the problem is getting people interested in a shooting sport that is extremely difficult to master and seems to offer no return on the investment. These days its hard to get them involved in rifle even with the offer of scholarships.

I often wonder what specifically attracts the young European shooters to take up the sport. But I have no contacts to find out.

I do know that when I was growing up, I knew no one who competed and few people who shot anything other than shotguns or rifles for hunting. I was in my 30's before I met anyone who competed with Pistol or Rifle and in my 40's before I began to compete.

When I read the MEC Rifle and Pistol books I was astounded at the amount of competititive shooting in Germany. These days I can shoot multiple matches per month with rifle and pistol, but Airgun requires a minimum 100 mile trip each way and is only practiced during the winter. The same for free pistol.

[jmdavis]

double post.

[SamEEE]

Men's Rapid Fire was not shot? Why is that?

Looks like a pretty good turnout - I don't think you have to be so stressed for numbers coming into the sport.

Also: University champs acts as a conduit to feed into seniors. Feeding into high performance could be the kicker at the moment, NRA vs Shooting USA could be a pinch-point as an outsider looking in.
JMDavis: most Europeans do not have much of a choice when it comes to guns, if they want to shoot they typically have to join a club unless they own land and/or a primary producer.
Same in Aus and NZ with Pistol - the only legitimate use of a Pistol is for sporting use, and by law they can only be shot on a certified range.

In Australia ISSF is a big deal. NZ ISSF is steadily growing with a decent National circuit now.

Congratulations to Mr. White - looks like your crew shot well!

[adair]

Men's Rapid Fire was not shot? Why is that?

While the USAMU range at Ft. Benning certainly can be used for rapid fire pistol, the indoor collegiate ranges cannot. At the very least, it would be a safety liability (bullets not being fired straight down range). In any case, rapid fire is not an event shot at collegiate matches (which include standard, free, women’s sport, open air, and women’s air pistol) and therefore not at nationals either. However, perhaps there could be some sort clinic at nationals to introduce shooters to rapid fire since currently there are very few people competing in it (mostly since there are hardly any ranges that support it).

Looks like a pretty good turnout - I don't think you have to be so stressed for numbers coming into the sport.

I would disagree. From my experience, very few collegiate shooters continue shooting international pistol after college. I think this has to do more with the relative appeal of international pistol in the US. It’s not as “cool” as other options like action/practical shooting (IDPA, USPSA, 3-gun, etc.) which seem to be grabbing the interest of younger shooters. Look at the results from the most recent USA Shooting National Championships: there were only 30 free pistol shooters and 40 in each men’s and women’s air pistol—not a very strong showing. Also, most collegiate shooters use school equipment and likely can’t afford to invest in proper shooting gear until after their interest has waned or moved onto other things. Further, there are very few clubs that shoot international in the US making it difficult to continue competing even for those who stay interested. Ideally, USA Shooting would do more to increase interest at the local level by sponsoring air/free/sport pistol matches. Currently there are only a handful of locations with regular, organized matches recognized by USA Shooting (at least in comparison to number of clubs that shoot NRA bullseye events).