American Handgunner Nov/Dec 1981

Following the 1980 Bianchi InvitationalPistol Tournament, which MickeyFowler won handily with a SC0re of 1878­85X, I prognosticated in my AmericanHandgunner report, that Fowler's impressivescore was "likely to stand as the targetscore for future participants as long as the'Tournament employs the same set of fourindividual matches." Well, the tournamentformat is unchanged and the winner in1981 once again was Mickey Fowler, buthis 1980 score would have gotten him nobetter than third this year. That stillwouldn't be so bad, in this, the richestshooting match going. However, my onlyprediction regarding scores for upcominganniversaries of the Bianchi shootout isthat the perfect score of 1920 is not onlypossible, but likely. I would not be surprisedto see ties at the perfect score,settled, of course, only by the X-count. .Fowler's winning score in the 1981Bianchi Tournament was '1890-88, only 30points shy of the perfect 1920.Because of his win last year, and alsobecause it is simply a pleasure, as well asan education, just to watch him shoot,Fowler attracted a gallery at every event.That gallery got its only disappointment atMatch No: 4 when Mickey left but oneplate standing at the completion of the 48­plate string. Not to take a thing away fromFowler's accomplishments, since he needsno apologies whatsoever for his performance,but had he cleaned the FallingPlate event, he would have thrown the 1981tournament into turmoil.First of. all, the additional 10 pointswould have made him the first shooter tojoin the 1900 club and receive the one-timecash award of $5000 from John Bianchi.This was the first year that the award wasposted, and Fowler is odds-o!! favorite tobe the first to win it. It wasn't to be in the1981 tournament, though.36Secondly, had Fowler knocked over all48 plates, it wouldn't have been known atthe time, but it would have thrown thatevent into a four-way tie. The three supershooters who starred in the drama wereMark Duncan who finished 2nd overall;Mike Dalton, 3n1; and Nick Pruitt, whofinished 4th.Ray Chapman, whose Chapman Academyis location for the shoot, envisions adifferent method of determining the win-By Jim WoodsAmerica's premier money shoot producedfew surprises, but a lot of hard competitiveaction by a gathering of today's best gunners.ner ofthe plate event next year. Ifa shootercleans all 48 in the regulation match, he'llkeep shooting until he misses one. Thisway, a record for the event automaticallywill be set for future shooters to pursueand there will be less likelihood of a tie.The shooter will still record 480 pointstoward his aggregate score. The total numberof plates shot, over 48, will determineonly the winner of that event.Other top finishers are tabulatedelsewhere in this report but some of themajor winners include Paul Liebenberg ofSo. Africa, the International winner whofinished 8th overall as well; and EdithAlmeida, winner-of the Ladies Event witha 1652-45X also of So. Africa, and whotook the· same prize last year.The firm of Mike Dalton, Mike Fichman,Mickey Fowler, and Graig Giffordtook team honors. This is a new award withthis just past tournament, and like otherspecial awards, does not require shooting aseparate match. It is required that a teambe registered as such at application time tobe eligible for the team award. The totalscore of all four team numbers was 7433­323X out of a possible 7680 (4 x 1920).Another award, new this 1981 Tournament,was the Median Award presented tothe man (or woman) in the middle of thelist ofscorers. The award, $500 in cash plusa silver tray, sponsored by THE AMER­ICAN HANDGUNNER, was presentedto Mike Carmean; whose 1605-4X placedhim 119th out of 238 competitors.. Just to prove that all the recognition,and prizes, don't have to go to the very topAMERICAN HANDGUNNER· NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1981