Rob Leatham’s Official Shooting Blog

Last week, Rob Leatham won the 30th-Annual NRA Bianchi Cup’s Metallic Sight Division!  The event was held in Columbia, Missouri May 18 through May 23, 2009 at the Green Valley Rifle & Pistol Club.  This is the 8th time Rob has won this match in two categories combined, metallic and open.  He shot a score of 1909 (out of 1920 possible) with a 145 X-count.

Wednesday, the first day of the match, Rob shot a decent score on the Practical Event - 476 with 32 Xs.   On Thursday,  he shot the Mover and dropped 7 points … Not a good score for this event.  He also only shot 29 Xs.  This is a bit unusual for Rob, as he typically cleans the mover and has a much higher X-count.

Having already dropped eleven points in the two events, he knew that if he could clean the last two stages, he would probably win the match, as it wouldn’t come down to X-count.

Later Thursday afternoon, Rob nervously cleaned the barricade with a 480.36, tying the all-time Barricade record (with Jerry Miculek).

As always, the “Metallic” match was resting on the plates.  Four men were in contention to win.  If any one of them (Rob, Robert Vadaz, Phil Strader or Mark Owensby) missed a plate, they would lose the match.  If Rob could clean the plates, though, he would win, as he was 2 points ahead of Robert Vadaz’s next best score, 5 points ahead of Phil, and 8 points ahead of Mark.

For those of you that have never been to the match, shooting the plates is extremely stressful.  Unlike the other three events, if you have a bad shot, you lose 10 points; not just an X, 2 points, or 5 points.  And the moment you have a bad shot, you and everyone else immediately knows it.

Amazingly enough, Rob cleaned the plates on Friday morning.  He reported that it was not any fun at all (until it was over) and that the pressure was unlike none he had experienced.  He also finished 16th overall and went on to win the metallic shoot-off.

I know it meant a lot to my father to regain his title from Robert Vadaz, who won the match in 2008.  Congratulations, Dad!  You’re back on top again!  How about a record score next year?

Congratulations also to Bruce Piatt, Julie Golob, and Dave Sevigny for winning their divisions!

Go to the NRA Blog for the complete match results.

-Tom