Daily Bulletin » Senior

88-Year-Old Former All-American Still Competes at Camp Perry

Editor — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:57:44 +0000

by Danielle Sturgis, The NRA Blog

A collegiate All-American in the 1940s, Mr. Fred Cole is now 88 years old and still a Camp Perry competitor. At Thursday night’s NRA Awards Ceremony, where smallbore prone champions were awarded their medals, Match Director H.Q. Moody was excited to introduce him to the audience before the official ceremony began. “He’s been our senior perennial champion forever,” Moody said, “and he’s one of our sport’s fine gentleman.”

As Cole stood and waved at the audience, the entire auditorium joined him in a thundering standing ovation. Cole competed in both the 2010 smallbore 3-position competition and the smallbore prone competition. He ended the week with a comprehensive score of 4714-216x. Cole’s pictured above (left) shooting in the prone position from 100 yards.

“I started shooting in 1937 at Xavier High School Rifle Team,” Cole told NRAblog. “That’s 73 years of shooting. I shoot mostly smallbore position. That’s my first love.”

The Stonybrook, New York, resident reports winning a total of 6 intermediate senior championships throughout his Camp Perry career.

Why has he devoted so much of his time to competitive shooting? “It’s the greatest sport in the world,” Cole proclaimed. “It’s a character builder. It demands personal discipline. It’s a challenging sport, and one can participate individually or as a team member.”

80 Years Young and Still Bustin' Records

Editor — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:58:30 +0000

Maybe, like fine wine, good shooters get better with age. This weekend, at the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center, 80-year-old Ken Schroeder shot a brilliant 50 (4X) at 600 yards. Pending approval, this will be a new, NBRSA 600-yard, single-target Light Gun score record. The group was a very small 1.680″, well-centered.

Ken was shooting the standard (unimproved) 6mmbr cartridge, with Lapua brass, Hodgdon Varget powder and Sierra 107gr MatchKing bullets. Ken’s tack-driving rifle was built by California smith Stu Harvey. The gun features a BAT action, Bartlein cut-rifled barrel, and a McMillan stock.

Forum member Ron Tilley was also competing in Sacramento on 11/23/2008 when Ken shot the pending record. Ron reports: “Ken is the kindest gentleman you will meet AND one of the toughest competitors. He is 80 years young and still kickin butt! Ken is always at the top when the dust clears and he can be hard to catch. All of us at Sac Valley are honored to shoot with Ken and support his accomplishments. I personally hope to be able to do what he does at his age.” For the match, Ken earned many honors. The record group was also Light Gun single target small group for the day. Ken won the two-gun, 6-target score Agg. with a 420 (10X), and Ken placed second in Heavy Gun score Agg. with a 282 (5X).

Congrats to Ken! He proves that we better watch out for those sharp-shootin’ octogenarians!