GUNS Magazine March 1956 - Jeffersonian

Friction-tape wrapping of Chappel's Springfield sporter
. minimizes barrel vibrations and contributes to accuracy.
Venerable sharpshooter's gun collection is strictly
functional, from Camp Perry Colt to old Smith & Wesson.
100 yards is practically "every day" on the home ranch
where Will Chappel lives, east of Pueblo, Colorado.
I was present when a shooter visiting Chappel visibly
doubted the tall tales that were being told by the "regular
members." To settle the argument Chappel offered to light a
match at 70 yards with his Model 70 K Hornet and the 8X
Fecker scope. The fellow just scoffed at the idea. The little
Hornet bullet touched off the match and the flame jetted
back onto a sheet of white paper located behind it. The
astonished witness gawped for an instant and then exclaimed:
"Chapp, I want that match. I'm going to keep it."
Recently when local rifle enthusiast Jim Barker was delivering
gasoline to the "home ranch," the conversation drifted
to rifle shooting. Chappel made the crack that he could hit
a green grape at 100 yards with his .30-06. As usual with
all the uninitiated, Barker only laughed, that kind of a laugh
that insinuates somebody isn't telling the truth. A green
grape was selected from the vine and glued to a white piece
of paper, and installed at the 100 yard target butt. The
bullet hit a trifle high. That is, it wasn't a pinwheel, but the
grape vanished and the paper was smeared with grape juice.
Barker just couldn't believe what he had seen with his own
eyes. "I told him that barrel is as good as they make,"
Chappel later told me. "And it is, too."
Chappel talked to me about these 100-yard "impossible"
shots. He said in all seriousness: "No man alive can time
after time split a card at 100 yards with any gun. Heck, I
have a cigar box full of results of shots made on small objects
such as a Hornet or a .38 Special case. They were
glued to a piece of cardboard and were hit. And I have
fired any number of other shots that just missed." As an
example of what he calls a miss, he showed me a card with
an ordinary wooden match stuck to (Continued on page 38)
Chappel's remarkable shooting with ordinary sporting rifles
is well attested to by many targets such as five-shot 100-
yard Springfield group (lower left) kept on display board.
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