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Rob shot his first competition in either 1978 or 79, he
doesn't remember for sure now. It was at the Mesa Police
Department range and it was a night shoot. He shot a Smith &
Wesson M-27 revolver with a 6-inch barrel loaded with 200-grain round-nose bullets he bought
from the Mini-Gun shop and loaded himself. The custom holster was made
by a local leather worker, Jess Bird, who had built holsters for
Rob's dad for many years. Every pistol the Leatham's owned
had a Bird holster. That first match, Rob finished third revolver
behind Mike Henry and Charlie Mills. Rob was now addicted!
He would play hookie from church to go to matches on Sundays at the
Cactus Combat Match League in Phoenix. Rob remembers riding up with his
friend Guy Hammond, who built Rob's first pin gun, for the Monthly match
and soon Rob was threatening to win
every category he entered. At those events you
could shoot Auto, Revolver, Snubby, Rifle and Shotgun. The Cactus
League also had a
best-of-the-day competition, pitting the top revolver against the top auto shooter in a man-on-man type shoot-off.
This could be where Rob came
to love, and excel at, shoot-offs.
Rob met Brian Enos some time in the 1980-1981 period and they started a close
friendship that endures to this day. The two fed off each other, and
their love of firearms and desire to learn drove them to performance
levels not previously seen in the sport of action shooting. They began
questioning everything they had been taught about shooting and developed
techniques that worked specifically for them, discarding fad and
traditional methods. Their results speak
for themselves. Never content to leave good enough alone, Rob and Brian
started trends that, to this day, are considered state-of- the-art. Neither
consider themselves "form shooters" and Rob really dislikes the concept
of "do it this way because I do" that he was taught when beginning
practical competition.
Rob shot many, many local and state level matches, sharing wins with
Brian regularly. Rob was beginning to get the picture, and knew he had
things to learn to get to the next level.
"So many times when we were in the formative stages we would ask a
shooter why he did something, only to find he had been told 'that was
the way to do it'. 'By who?' we would ask, only to be given some
guru du jour's name. Only thing is, we could not find any sensible reason many of these
techniques were effective. Often we could not do as well with these
techniques, and simply discarded what seemed irrelevant. Maybe we were not
skilled enough to employ these tricks successfully. In the end, how you shot, not how
you looked while shooting, was our focus. The paramount object
was to hit the targets quickly. Those that followed one
master or another blindly, never seemed to be much of a threat at the
higher levels."
In 1981, Brian went to the Steel Challenge and did quite well.
When he returned, Rob asked him about the match and Brian said that he
thought Rob would not do too well, as it was a lot more of an accuracy
match than the IPSC stuff they had been shooting. At this time,
Rob was definitely renowned for speed more than the accuracy. "This kind
of p***ed me off. I remember that being a turning point for me,
since I now wanted to prove Brian wrong". Rob And Brian then
practiced heavily all year long and went to the 1981 IPSC U.S.
Nationals. "That was my first big match. I met all the big
name shooters and had a great time. Brian and I stayed in a
campground with his Mom and Dad, and man, it was hot. It was in
Virginia in the summer and we were sweating our butts off from the
humidity". Rob finished 10th at his first Nationals; Brian
finished right behind at 11th. Rob has attended every U.S.
National since, rain, shine, sleet or humidity.
Rob first fired the the Steel Challenge and the Bianchi
Cup in 1982. These two events, plus the IPSC US Nationals, were the pinnacle of the action shooting game. The IPSC principles of DVC
(diligentia, vis and celeritas, Latin for Accuracy, Power
and Speed) had been equally represented in practical shooting. The Cup
and the Steel Challenge did not follow these guidelines. Bianchi is all accuracy with
comparatively little speed. The Steel Challenge is speed with some accuracy, and
neither has the power equation factored in. Together, the three
are a good test of everything an action pistol shooter should be.
Over the next couple of years, Rob shot these three majors and a slew of
local events. In 1985, he won the triple crown: the IPSC U.S. Nationals,
the Bianchi Cup and the Steel Challenge. Rob is still the only
competitor to
have achieved this amazing accomplishment in the same year!
Many shooters have come and gone over the years, but Rob is still going
strong! Most of the established shooters from the 70s have since
retired, along with the majority of those who started when Rob, now age
43, did. "The 80s were a magical time for pistol shooters.
The sport of practical pistol was in its infancy, but growing rapidly.
Specialty events, what Brian and I started calling 'carnival shots,'
were popping up all over the place and industry support was growing.
I was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time and make a
living at my hobby."
"There is so much history I would like to give you
here, but there is just no room. Maybe my upcoming books can fill in all
the holes." Rob is still training, still winning and still
learning. In September of 2003, he won his fourth straight USPSA
Limited National title in an epic battle with Phil Strader and Teran
Butler. "I haven't learned so much, or fought so hard, since my
battles with Jerry Barnhart." Those two are sure to be forces to
be reckoned with and Rob looks forward to many more battles to come.
He says "Bring it on". |
