June 28th, 2009
The underdog Australians came and conquered at the 10th World Benchrest Championship just concluded in South Africa. In Team competition, the Australia “A” squad took the Two-Gun Gold. Finishing second was the USA “A” Team, while Team Italy took third place. Congratulations to Australia’s winning team: Brendan Atkinson, Stuart Elliott, Paul Sullivan, and Craig Whittleton. James Kelbly has posted: “Australia has been knocking on the door for many championships. Just got off phone with Roland Thomsen in South Africa and he told me conditions were as tough as he has seen. I would like to congratulate the organizers from South Africa for putting on a great match.”
In individual competition, Gene Bukys is the new Two-gun Grand Agg World Champion. Gene shot great throughout the match to finish at the top with a 0.2798 MOA Two-gun Agg. Second in the Two-gun was legendary Tony Boyer, and Australian Brendan Atkinson finished third. Bukys also won the LV Grand Agg.
You can download all the individual and team scores at the WBC10 website. Despite superb performances by Bukys and Boyer, the Aussies beat the favored Americans by more consistent shooting in very challenging conditions at 200m. If the Americans wish to get back on top, it may be time to experiment with higher-BC bullets for the 200m events, something Lester Bruno and other western-states Benchresters have been doing recently. Team USA was leading through Day 3, but the Aussies took the lead on Day 4 with superior team shooting in the HV 200m stage. Congrats to the winning Australian team!
Ten Tips for Benchrest Shooters
Australian Brendan Atkinson has authored an excellent article, Ten Tips for Benchrest Shooters. Tip Number 10 is “Never, Ever, Give Up”. This positive attitude surely helped Brendan and his teammates achieve a come-from-behind victory at WBC10:
“You are only as good as your last group/aggregate. In 1980, I once started a 100-yard aggregate with a 1.026 group and then went on to win the overall match. I took the attitude that now that the A target was out of the way I was going to shoot nine very small groups. It was a very rough day, and took a lot of concentration to put shots together. In looking back, it was one of my most enjoyable wins. One should never give up –- even if a disastrous group does happen. Every shoot should teach you something –- even when you lose, don’t lose the lesson. Once a shot is fired on the business target, it is up there forever. There is nothing you can do about it, except get on with it. Do your very best, and curse about the lost shot later, in private.”
Bartlein Barrels leads the way among companies supporting American competitors at the 2011 World Benchrest Championships in France. Bartlein Barrels has made a significant donation to this year’s American team — over $14,000.00 worth of match barrels. In dollar value, this is the single largest donation to the team from any source. Each Team USA member will receive four (4) barrels in their set-up of choice. We commend the folks at Bartlein Barrels for generously supporting the United States Benchrest Shooting Team.
