Benchrest Featu re

by Lt. Col. Rick HornbeckR.D.2, Box220

Pine Bush, New York 12566

COVER STORY

lnternational Postal Match History

History reveals a total of eight years ofpostal match activity. lt was first estab-lished in 1970. Mike Walker of tBS andHarry l. Madden of SSAA Benchrest inAustralia formulated the basic groundrules for these matches. These twocountries held the first postal matches.The teams were but for one class, thelight varmint class, and each country en-tered ten competitors. Total average ag-gregates were used for team placement.From this small beginning thesematches have expanded over the yearssi nce.

Gathering information from postalmatch files and back issues ol PrecisionShooting magazine provides a history ofthese activities. The records indicatethat there were growing pains, to be ex-pected in such a undertaking. Due to thededication of Walker and Madden thesematches were expanded to include, inaddition to the light varmint class, theheavy varmint class and the heavy benchrifle. The average competitor has noidea of the amount of time and effort thathas gone into the postal matches. Therecords on file hold copies of allthe cor-respondence that has been exchangedbetween the countries taking part inpostal matches for these eight years.These activities have led to a coordi-nated effort which has been instrumen-tal in the standardization of rules andequipment. Efforts to maintain the samerules and rifle specifications have con-tinued between the postal match com-mittee members as well as the leader-ship of the organizations in each coun-try.

The rather limited interest demon-strated by most competitors concerningpostal matches is somewhat surprising.When a competitor is selected as a teammember, he receives an award that onlya handf u I of the total number ofbenchshooters has ever qualified for. To

6

receive this award more than one time isan indication of outstanding perfor-mance among all the competitorsthroughout the world and is an indica-tion of outstanding performance over anextended period of time. ln the U.S., P. J.Hart holds the record at this point for thenumber of wins. Six times Hart has en-tered this honored group.

At the request of then IBS PresidentCarl Lynn I took overthe postal matchesfor IBS in 1972. The committee wasmade up of Harry Madden of Australia,George Wachmann ol the CanadianBench Rest Shooters and myself. During1 971 and 1 972 these three countries heldpostal matches for the light varmint andheavy varmint classes. ln 1973, theheavy bench rifle was added. The sameyear the committee, with the help of IBSleadership, helped and welcomed thebenchrest group in England and theyentered the postal matches that year.Australia and Canada, along with IBS inthe U.S., did everything possible to helpthis new group become active. During1975 the sad news that the group in Eng-

land was forced to disband came fromPeter Wm. Taylor the English IBS Direc-tor. They simply could not overcome theanti-gun laws of England. They wereunable to import barrels, actions,powder or primers to improve theirequipment to the level currenily estab-lished in other countries. ln addition,restrictions and regulations for theoperating of ranges and holdingmatches were a never ending battle forthis small group of dedicated shooters.Their experiences should be a fair warn-ing to others of the state of affairs thatcan come about with unnecessary lawsand regulations. I might add that Pete'sfinal letter informing us that the BritishBenchrest Shooters were disbanding in-dicated that the growth of crime was asbad in England as in many other coun-tries and he encouraged us all to fightfor our right to bear arms.

During the years following Australia,Canada and the U.S.A. continued withthe matches for three classes. ln 1977the benchrest shooters in ltaly took partin the postal matches for the first time in

Match History 1970-1977TEAM SCORES - Place & Score

Year &Class Australia1971 L.V. 2 .5f.45

H.V. 2 .5502B.R,

1972 L.V. 3 .5225H.V. 3 .5/57B.R,

1973 L.V. 2 .4570H.V. 2 .3707B.R. 2.4170

1974 L.V. 2 .4835H.V. 2 .4192B.R. 1 .4031

1975 L.V. 3 .393SH.V. 3 .4548B.R. 3 .4827

1976 L.V. 3 .510.1

H.V. 3 .4656B.R. 1 .4670

1977 L.V. 3 .4188H.V. 4 .5240B.R. 2 .5240

U.S.A. England ttaty1 .39341 .3906

1 .38661 .3605

1 .3741 4 .88071 .3125+ 4 Disq.1 .41371 .34711 .38942 .47732 .37061 .36591 .44021 .29681 .32232 .48001 .299+ 4 .46371 .3199 3 .39781 .3825+

agg. of ten compe+irars.

Canada3 .67453 6470

2 .48702 .4218

3 .47683 .45153 .62933 .s338

3 .5598.1 .3621

? .42562 .47372 .43562 .41763 .61442 .35752 .32673 .5246

1970 - Between Australia & U.S.A.; Total

" Best team scores per class to date.

PRICtStON SHOOTTNC MAY, 1978

the light varmint and heavy varmintclasses.

Here in the U.S. Mal Barron became

chairman of the postal match commitieein 1974. During the period he served as

chairman he had a really top qr,aiity'

medallion made up. This has rema -ec

our award to this date.ln 1975, Fred Sinclair, oi lBS. beca-e

chairman and continued the aci vities

Fred held this responsibility until Ja""-ary 1978 at which time I again beca.lechairman. The current commitiee s

made up of Nev Madden of Australra s

SSAA BR, WaYne Tubman ol the Ca^a-

dian Bench Rest Shooters Alberto \4rdrll

ol ltaly and myself .

With the exception ol 1975, the pclici'of IBS in the U.S. has been that a com-petitor can only be on one U.S. :eam

each year. A lack of ProPerlY filedground rules as guidance during l975caused this error. A check back indi-cates that the outcome in team place-ment would not have been effected by

this error.USA competitors maY become a mem-

ber of one of these teams by placing in

the upper levels in any of the light var-mint, heavy varmint or heavy bench rifleclass IBS championships. lf a competi-tor ends up in the top ten Places at achampionship, he may be selected as ateam member. A{ter all championshipsare completed for the year, the resultsare reviewed and the top per{ormers areselected on their scores. Placing highenough lor a team member slot is possi-ble because only one competitor can be

on one postal team. Often someshooters will place in the top five of twoor three classes.

The current postal match teamrecords are as follows:Light varmint team score -.2954" USA 1977

Heavy varmint team score -.3125" USA 1973Heavy Bench Ri{le team score -.3825" USA 1977

The top performers for the IBS teamsare a limited group indeed. Only six peo-ple have made the team more than twice.J. Stekl, the late R.W. Hart, P.J" Hart, C.

Lynn, L. Euber and J. Deming havereached this honored position. There isonly one way that this can be done:Consistent top performance over a longperiod of years. When you see that oneand one half inch medallion on a

shooter's jacket, you are looking at a topmarksman in the benchrest garne

From the start of these activities until1973 all targets of each team member in

each country weret,ent to the IBS chair-man and these targets were measured

PRECISION SHOOTING - MAY, 1978

by the IBS Records Committee. This wastound to be very costly and unnecessary.When these team scores were comparedwith the measurements made in each

country. there was so little difterencethat it was felt unimportant. ln fact, thevery worst error found between the twosets of f igures was .004". Based on years

of experience in handling record targets,r: is well known that grouP measure-inents become larger due to Papersireiching. vibration and handling.Thereiore. this practice was dropped.Targets are now measured in accor-ciance with IBS rules in each country.

The postal match representative formul-ates this information for his teams andsubmits it to the postal match chairman.The chairman formulateS team stand-ings, publishes the results and sends outthe awards.

ln the U.S. these awards are presented

to the team members the followingshooting season at the IBS champion-ship shoots. The data and awards are

completed for the ''1977 shooting season'lf you attend one of the IBS champion-ships this year, keep in mind that you

may be selected as a team member if you

can finish in the top ten. Good Luck!

Postal Match History 1970-1977

U.S. Cornpelitors lhat have made a Poslal Team more than once:]{arneJ. SteklR.W. HartF. SinclairP.J. HartC. LynnE. PazienzaP. KempferL. EuberJ. MatyasJ. HollisterJ. DemingA. EuberJ. EatonB. AdamowiczB. WhiteW. HartA. Blensinger

NO. ol l6ams Year4 '71, ',74, '75, ',77

3 ',72,'.73,',742 '74,'756 '70, ',71,

J

22

2252 '76,',772 '76,'772 ',73,'762 ',73,',762 '70,'762 '72,'73

'71, '74,'74,',75'72,'74'75,',76,'77'73,'75'73,',75'70,'71, '73,'76, ',77

'74,'75, ',75,',76'77

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