I want to thank Jeff for posting the Shooters News info for me as I can’t shoot and chew gum at the same time.
For what it’s worth info:
I will give you my small input on the start of the pistol benchrest category. John Gammuto (then the editor of the Shooters News) and I think some assistance form George Kelbly started the birth of a new class in our NBRSA group shooting world. It really seemed like something that would be fun and different at the same time. I think the timing was great as it seemed that a lot of benchrest shooters were looking for (different).
We started without to much in Rules as it was new territory, so let’s shoot a match or two to see what will be fair. It did have to fall under the legal pistol with a pistol action and I believe a barrel not longer than 18 inches. I am not sure about the first match on the pistol actions but there were at least 3 of us that had the new Stolle Cub action to use. So I am not sure about the XP 100 which most shot, if it was/is a pistol action.
You had to shoot with the same set up as we do with the benchrest rifle, front rest, rear bag etc. It took a while to get use to how to hold it and get something in the way of getting a rhythm going for a group. I was awkward for me shooting a left bolt and a left port, which I needed to still hold the pistol and open the bolt and take out the case and put the next round in.
The next thing to try and do is to get enough interest in the benchrest community to have some ranges and shooters for this category to take off.
WELL: for my input only here is at least one reason it got stuck in the mud before you even went to the tire shop to get the mud tires on the thing. We had to set up hopefully a set of simple RULES for it. Problem I saw was one of the rules were a weight limit on the pistol (not that should not be) but we already had several shooters that were shooting a pistol that weighed more than the new 13 ½ lb weight limit set in the new rule. And they were in the top 5 winners at the match we held. Also at this time there were several benchrest shooters that were in the middle or almost done putting together a pistol to shoot this new class that were heavier stocks etc. The NEW RULES quickly put a short fuse to the new pistol sport. Now that being said I am not sure if we had or would have had enough ranges or shooters to continue this class at our matches. ALL I Know is it was a Hell of a lot of FUN.
So that is my input for whatever you want to do with it. HOPE this is some ok info for some of you. Thanks for listening to me ramble on.
Tom