Americans Finish Strong at 6th NRA
World Action Pistol Championships
Hamilton Pistol Club, Hamilton, New Zealand- hosted the 6th NRA World Action Pistol Championships on November 5th to 8th, 2008. It is the second time the club has hosted the event, which has also been held twice in the USA and twice in Australia.
Defending champion Bruce Piatt was part of a 13 strong contingent from the USA. One shooter from South Africa, and 33 from Australia completed the field that included 5 shooting teams from New Zealand, along with many other local shooters.
The World Championships held the Metallic Sights program first over one and a half days, and then the Open program which featured a greater number of shooters over two half days and one full day. All Metallic Sights competitors shot 3 of the match events on the first day, followed by one on the morning of the second day. Open shooters then started with one match on the second day, two on the third, and one of the final morning of competition.
In the Metallic Sights match, US shooter Kevin Angstadt shot a “clean” Falling Plates match, scoring a perfect 480-48X. Two other US shooters, Vance Schmid and Robert Vadasz shot 480 on the Moving Target event also, which is the first time this has been done in a match in New Zealand. Robert Vadasz also shot 480 points on the Barricade event.
The top 5 in Metallic Sights are:
Vance Schmid (USA), 1902-133X
Jerry Miculek (USA), 1886-139X
Robert Vadasz (USA), 1884-140X
Tony Drabsch (AUS), 1854-118X
Andrew Torrington (NZL), 1841-108X
As the Open event unfolded, some of the highlights of the first afternoon were 14 shooters clean on the plates event with perfect 480-48X scores. A further 6 competitors shot 480 on the Barricade event, and 2 more shot 480 on Practical. Twenty two shooters would start the next day on a “possible” score, having dropped no points in the match.
With only one Open event remaining on the last morning of competition, 8 shooters could still achieve the “possible” of 1920 points, having not dropped any points in their first 3 events. The final event for most of them was the challenging Moving Target event.
The top five in Open are:
Doug Koenig (USA), 1920-181X
Carl Bernosky (USA), 1920-175X
Craig Ginger (AUS), 1920-169X
Bruce Piatt (USA), 1918-171X
Brent Millard (NZL), 1918-168X
Major award winners were:
Metallic Sights Champion: Vance Schmid (USA), 1902-133X
Metallic Sights Team Champion: USA Metallic A
(Robert Vadasz, Jerry Miculek)
Iron Man Champion: Bruce Piatt (USA)
Open Champion: Doug Koenig (USA), 1920-181X
Open Junior Champion: Matthew Harriman (AUS), 1906-155X
Open Ladies Champion: Helen Jeavons (USA), 1892-147X
Open Senior Champion: Mike Flagler (USA), 1909-147X
Open Team Champion: USA Open A
(Doug Koenig, Bruce Piatt, Carl Bernosky)
Open Ladies Team Champion: New Zealand
(Georgina Torrington, Tiffany Piper)
The World Champs in Hamilton were a great success, thanks to the support of a number of generous sponsors, which included Ruger, Trijicon, Zero Bullets, Hornady, Tasco, Serious Shooters Auckland, Lion Foundation and many others. Full results of the matches, and the full list of sponsors, along with a photo gallery are on the event website at www.wapc2008.com
— David Tomlinson
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