The "Quiet Man" Beats "Baby Face" By One!

Legendary Rifleman, Peter “Quiet Man”Church is arguably considered by many to be one of America’s greatest shooting talents. Equally skilled and accomplished in a number of shooting disciplines, mid-range, long range and smallbore to name just a few, the Quiet Man brought his entire repertoire of shooting skills to bear at Sundays smallbore prone match. Thankfully the brutal four day winter that had seized our desert arena in its icy grasp last week was replaced instead by an early spring like warmth, with temperatures nearing 80 degrees. Most pleasant indeed and of course was heartily welcomed by the fourteen men who participated in the third installment of the Jack Greenleaf Memorial Smallbore Prone Match. Here then is the story of those who came to test themselves in the searing crucible of head to head competition.

Right from the start Ken “Baby Face”Nelson of Canada made it clear, as illustrated by his perfect 20X clean first target in the Dewar Match, that he was a force to be reckoned with. Rick “Jarhead”Curtis, riding in on a 2-love lead in the series, responded with a noteworthy 18X target of his own. This however was to be Curtis’ first and last hoorah of the day as he seemed incapable of dealing with the ever increasing intensity of the shifting winds. Entering the fray with a great 17X clean Church’s resolve to take the day truly became clear after the second target as he alone in the sling division had cleaned the Dewar course with a nifty 400-31X. The F-Class division had but one competitor, John “Cool Hand” Andres, and took the overall with a handy 400-35X total in the Dewar.

 

Following the first break, the shooters took their positions for the 100 Yard Match. While shooting the two 20 shot stages the wind, which had been nibbling at the shooters psyche in the Dewar, grew even more tempestuous as the groans up and down the line underscored. But when the lead dust had settled Nelson not only emerged as the Match Two winner he also had a two X lead over Church. Mick “Texas Ranger” Walker made his presence known with a great 397-21X; creedmooring Church for second in the 100. As the competitors brought their target frames back to the 50 meter line the wind velocity finally began to decrease. The second break of the day was punctuated by a hopeful mindset by all that the wind would continue to lay down for the ever challenging 50 Meter target.

 

The 50 Meter Match can either make or break a competitors chance for success and Baby Face clearly opted for the former as his 400-32X effort was the only clean in the sling division. Andres in F-Class took the overall with a stellar 400-33X effort. At this point Church’s 399-29X effort had him now down a point and a handful of X’s with only the 50 Yard match to go! Believe me this was no enviable spot as the wind continued to drop and Nelson had only the relatively easy, or so he thought, pair of 50 yard targets to go.

 

When the NRA decided to drop the 50 yard match from its National Smallbore Prone Championships at Camp Perry a few years ago it was said that one of the reasons was that the 50 was of no consequence in determining the winners. Nothing could be further from the truth in yesterday’s match as Baby Face Nelson not only let Church catch him after the first target by losing a point; he gaped in helpless horror as yet another nine showed up on the second go at 50 handing Church the victory in the sling aggregate! Andres put up another great score at the 50 to take both the overall for the yard line and the overall high score for the match. Congratulations to Pete and John on your outstanding shooting! Click here for Full results  and click below for a video pictorial of the days shooting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtIFq6jAGMc&feature=youtu.be

In closing I want to thank everyone for coming out to shoot in our match. I also want to thank Sinclair’s for donating over $800.00 in gift Certificates. I also want to let you know that Ray Del Rio, Executive Officer at the Los Angeles Rifle and Revolver Club in El Monte, California is trying very hard to get smallbore F-Class recognized by the NRA. At his own expense he worked with the ALCO Target Company to produce a new F class target for all three distances in smallbore and will be submitting them for the committees review and hopefully their approval. We all know what F class has done for high power and I can only hope that the smallbore committee will see fit to recognize it for smallbore as well. I would urge all shooters to contact the Smallbore Committe and voice your support for F-Class smallbore.

 

The last Jack Greenleaf Memorial Match will be a 1200 agg and is scheduled for 9:00 am February 3^rd. Following this last match the series champion will be awarded a beautiful Whitneyville Walker Colt firearm in presentation case. So if you are in the neighborhood, drop by for the exciting finish. The current series leaderboard after three rounds is as follows;

 

Rick Curtis 4783-339X
Peter Church4778-351X
Ken Nelson 4774-363X

 

See you on the line,

© Richard S. Curtis 2012

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