NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
Incorporated 1871
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USA Captures World Black Powder Rifle Championship
Americans win Individual and Team Titles in South Africa
Cape Town, South Africa- The members of the National Rifle Association of America team won the 4th World Long Range Historical Rifle Championship at the Good Hope Range Complex in Cape Town, South Africa, held this year from April 10 to 15. Shooters from six countries (U.S., Germany, Great Britain, South Africa, Switzerland, and Belgium) competed at the championship, which started in 1997 and will be held every four years from now on.
American Dave Gullo from Ponderay, ID, took the world individual championship title for the second time with a score of 329-17V out of a possible 375-16V. Fellow team member Frank Monikowski from Hope Valley, RI, came in second with a score of 326-14V, while third place went to Colin Buck of Great Britain with a score of 320. The V scores are center hits used for tie breakers and similar to the X-ring in U.S. competition.
In team competition the U.S. took the championship title back from Germany with a score of 1043-43V out of a possible 1350 with South Africa in second place at 1034-49V and Germany in third with a score of 994-44V. The world championship cup will be on display at NRA Headquarters for the next four years.
“The high winds were especially challenging and so strong that I had to hold my spotting scope down in order to use it,” said George Harris, NRA Team Captain. “It was quite an experience for the team, we had to fly with empty cases and load all of our ammo onsite, but the South Africans were outstanding hosts and really made us feel at home,” he added.
Competitors must use 1880-era rifles (either cartridge or muzzleloaders) using black powder and lead bullets with metallic sights and weighing no more than 13 pounds. All firing (15 shots at each distance for each shooter) is done from the prone position and slings and rests are allowed. Distances for individuals were 300, 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900 meters while in team competition the distances were 700, 800 and 900 meters. Each team was allowed to send up to 12 shooters and the top eight from individual competition made up each final team. The scores of the top six shooters on each team counted for score.
The NRA is the primary sponsor of the U.S. team for this championship. The American shooters were selected at a special tryout after the National Championship at Raton, NM in August 2005. The team of 11 shooters, plus Captain, Coach and Adjutant worked together, including shooting the Phoenix Regional in February 2006.
National Rifle Association of America
Team Roster
Steve Baldwin
Daniel Joe Boyle
Francis G. Crisler
Dave Gullo
Lige Harris
Davis Hicks
Attila Chip Mate
Frank Monikowski
John A. Pumphrey
Michael Rix
Dennis Wiley
George Harris - Team Captain
Jack Stoner - Coach
Dana Forslund - Adjutant

May/June 2006 Editorial

Attitude - it is something we display every day in how we talk, how we act, and the posture of our body. It is shown in how we view life and the choices we make as we move through life. It is even something that can become contagious and certainly affects others. It can make people mad and upset, or happy and a joy to be around.

Think about your day. When you woke up this morning were you excited about the day? Were you ready to tackle it or were your thoughts and feelings down and you felt like you didn’t even want to go into work? You control how you feel and how you look at the world. A positive attitude is taught in the Karate class my grandson takes and he has learned much from the emphasis placed on such an attitude. When he is tired, grumpy, sad, or just plain not feeling good, we talk about how he can change his attitude to a positive one so everyone can have a good time and he can accomplish more.

The same thing can be said for shooting. If we sit around talking about the negative aspects of the match and what problems there were, how it wasn’t run right, that the stages weren’t to our liking, that we did poorly, what are we emphasizing? You got it - a negative attitude! All of sudden we are starting to affect what should have been an enjoyable shooting experience with an aura of negativism. This is especially bad if we are doing this around youngsters and new shooters. It is unfortunate, but I see this happen much too often.

What to do about it? We all need to take a more aggressive approach to having a positive attitude about our shooting and our lives. Think about how much fun shooting the match with your friends was, or how to improve and learn from your shooting errors. Instead of thinking or talking about how the targets were too close or too far and not set up right, take a more positive approach. Talk about the hits and not the misses.

Remember when you first started in the sport and how much fun you had? You weren’t knowledgeable enough to know if the match or stage was poorly run, you were just there to learn, do your best, and have fun. All of us would like to do well, some of us are more competitive than others and that is certainly appropriate whether it is competing at the top level, or against your buddy, or just yourself. However, when it becomes too competitive that we lose the fun part and complain about how bad it was, I think we also start losing our perspective of the sport and the fun starts to fade.

I am really concerned about this. Western-action shooting sports continue to grow very rapidly, but there are also people leaving the sports that shouldn’t. Some go on to other shooting sports, some quit entirely. Why is this? I believe one reason is they become jaded by the negative attitude of others and the fighting that goes on within many shooting clubs. Another reason is that sometimes shooting clubs make monthly matches too serious. What we say and how we act can just as easily drive new shooters away as bring them into the sport.

People are human and we all have our down days. But, each and every one of us can have an impact - let’s have fun and let our attitude be positive!

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