The Latest News:

Bruce Piatt Wins Bianchi Cup
Koenig down on X-Count on the Mover.
Rob Leatham repeats as Metallic Sight Champ.
New Trigger Rule produces unexpected results.

Bruce Piatt with his fourth Bianchi Cup. Director of Marketing for Bianchi International, Mike Shire, and NRA Board Member, Dwight Van Horn, made the presentation. Bruce Piatt shoots the Mover stage after the target system has been repaired. His performance on the Mover stage would claim the Bianchi Cup.

Columbia, MO:  Montvale, NJ police officer, Bruce Piatt broke through to claim the annual Bianchi Cup Championship after a six-year streak of finishing second to Doug Koenig.  As is always the case, the National Title in NRA Action Pistol was decided on the mover stage. It may have been the closest set of scores going into the deciding series of 48 shots for each competitor.  Both Koenig and Piatt were “clean” through the Barricades, the Practical and the Falling Plates.  Each had put all their shots inside the 8 inch ten-ring. Their “X-Count” of shots inside the 4 inch “X-Ring” was one “X” apart, with Koenig leading before the mover stage.  The X-Count would flip the other way by the conclusion of the match.

Bruce shot first on the Mover and again this year sustained a malfunction that threatened to break his concentration and focus. Last year his gun broke. This year the mover targets repeatedly malfunctioned causing a 15 minute delay in completing his course of fire. Another competitor might have been rattled by the difficulty, but Piatt told us he used the time to regain his composure and was ready to proceed when the referee and range officers had repaired the target system and tested it for smooth presentation.

Bruce shot clean on the mover with 40 of his 48 shots scoring X’s, inside the 4 inch center ring of the Tombstone targets.

Doug Koenig shoots the Mover from the 20 yard position, surrounded by photographers. Everyone expected Koenig to claim his 10th Bianchi Cup, but it didn’t happen.

Doug Koenig was next to shoot and those of us watching his targets though binoculars were surprised to see groups of shots that were not at all like his usual performance. Koenig shot the mover clean, but with at least one shot on the line dividing the 10 ring from the 8 ring. His X-Count, that would decide the match, was well below Piatt’s. Koenig finished with 36 X ring hits on the Mover, giving Piatt the victory by a margin of 3-X ring hits out of a total of 192 shots fired on the four stages of the Bianchi Cup Championship.

An obviously disappointed Koenig, who had been trying for his 10^th Bianchi Cup, had only one comment after the match, that his performance was all he could do for that day.  However, earlier in the competition, Koenig told us the new trigger pull weight rule, mandating a minimum two-pound trigger on all Bianchi Cup guns, would likely affect his performance on the Mover Stage. As is typical of Doug Koenig, he did not find fault with the new rule. He laid the blame for the loss on his own performance.

Overall Open Class Scores (unofficial):

BRUCE PIATT  1920 – 177X
DOUG KOENIG 1920 – 174X
JENS BORK 1920 – 163X
MICHAEL VOIGT – 1916 – 166X

Bruce Piatt also defended his Aggregate Match title, shooting to the highest combined score for both his Open Gun and with Metallic Sights.

Rob Leatham shooting clean on the Falling Plates as Greg Simmons shoots video for Shooting USA. Leatham would complete the match defending the Metallic Sight Championship for the fourth time.

Rob Leatham defended the Metallic Sight Title for the fourth year in a row with an unofficial score of 1902 – 145X. 

Vera Koo shooting the Mover from the 15 yard position on her way to claiming her seventh Women’s Title.

Vera Koo claimed the Women’s Title for the 7^th time, and the 6^th year in a row.  Her score on the four match stages: 1897 – 143X.

None of this year’s championship scores were record highs for the 28 year history of the Bianchi Cup Championship of NRA Action Pistol, a likely result of the new two-pound trigger rule.

Shooting USA will present exclusive Television coverage of the 28^th Bianchi Cup Championship later this fall.