The Worlds Greatest Competitive Shotgunners Part 1: Competitors 20 to 11 --------------------------------------------------------------- Foreword The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners Competitive shotgun shooting has been conducted from the middle of the nineteenth century therefore making comparisons between then and now very difficult. The competitions have evolved from live pigeon shooting to glass balls to clay targets and the like. Shotguns and ammunition have gone from ball bearings and a muzzle loaded black powder blunderbuss to the state of the art shot shells and shot guns available today. When somebody starts scoring then a competition commences. When the results are recorded then comparisons are inevitable. What I have tried to do is to compare the best of the best. From the original competitions involving live birds to the domestic and international disciplines of trap and skeet and incorporating the relative new sporting clay events that are rapidly growing in popularity. I originally narrowed my list down to 243 names after starting with thousands. Finally I cut it to 100 and I have published the 80 “most notable” shotgunners that did not make my Top 20 list at the end of this book. The final list of twenty of course is based solely on my subjective opinion. Don’t take my thoughts and writings too personally. We all have favourites and feelings that influence our decisions. I have tried to be as unbiased as possible. Some shotgun disciplines record their results better than others. From the records available and the stories that I have been told hopefully I have done these twenty competitors justice. No matter what I trust it will create constructive debate and discussion and at the very least some of our sport’s history will be recorded. ---------------------------------------------------------- INDEX Page 4 #20 Shan Zhang - China - International Skeet 6 #19 AJ Smith - England - Sporting 8 #18 Miroslav Bednarik - Czechoslovakia - International Trap 11 #17 Homer Clark Jnr - USA - Flyers / American Trap / Int Trap 14 #16 Jury Tsuranov - USSR - International Skeet 17 #15 James Graves - USA - Int. Skeet / Int. Trap / Double Trap 20 #14 Susan Nattrass - Canada - Int. / American Trap / Double Trap 23 #13 Rudy Etchen - USA - American Trap / Flyers 26 #12 Ennio Falco - Italy - International Skeet 29 #11 Dan Bonillas - USA - American Trap / Flyers 32 #10 Ray Stafford - USA - American Trap / International Trap 35 #9 Michel Carrega - France - International Trap 39 #8 Wayne Mayes - USA - American Skeet 42 #7 Giovanni Pellielo - Italy - International Trap 45 #6 Richard Faulds - England - Sporting / Double Trap 49 #5 Matthew Dryke - USA - International Skeet 54 #4 Leo Harrison lll - USA - American Trap 58 #3 Kimberly Rhode - USA - Int. Skeet / Double Trap / Amer. Skeet 62 #2 Michael Diamond - Australia - International Trap / Double Trap 68 #1 George Digweed - England - Sporting Clays / Double Trap 75 The complete Top 20 list 76 The “best of the rest” 21st to 100th 80 more “most notable” great Shotgunners (in alphabetical order) 78 Epilogue -------------------------------------------------------------- The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners: #20 Shan Zhang - China - International Skeet Whilst other competitors may have more medals, Shan Zhang in 1992 did something that no other shooter on earth can claim. She won the Olympic Games against men. In 1992 the Barcelona Olympic Skeet event was an “open” competition. As a token gesture the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) together with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed a total of six females to compete. It was a complicated procedure as to how the half dozen females were selected, but in the end, with all due respect, nobody seriously thought any of the six would be a medal contender. China didn’t send the quiet unassuming 24 year old Shan Zhang to the 1992 as a “token gesture”. They sent her there to win. They knew she was something special. Zhang shot a perfect 200 straight over the three days of competition to lead going into the final against her five male competitors. After the first three stations Shan had surrendered her lead and had dropped out of medal contention, but one by one she caught back up and took the lead back again after Matt Dryke from the USA missed on station 6. She ended with a total of 223/225. Despite contrary belief the ISSF had decided prior to the 1992 Olympics that this would be the last occasion that women would be given the “token” gesture of competing with the men and as of 1996 there would be no female trap or skeet shooters at all. Zhang’s result no doubt caused the ISSF and the IOC much embarrassment. I remember running into Shan at the 1993 ISSF World Championship, the year after her famous victory. She was immaculately dressed, with perfect makeup and hair. It was great to see that an Olympic Gold Medal in China could offer such as transformation in a lifestyle. Shan Zhang was also uniquely the first Asian to win an Olympic Shotgun Gold Medal. Zhang was also the Female World Champion in 1989 and twice a World Cup Gold Medallist. These days Shan still competes for her province, Sichuan, in China, but she has diversified into a television presenter and a national coach. Her 1992 victory remains one of the greatest accomplishments in Olympic history. Shan Zhang was born in 1968. --------------------------------------------------------------- The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners: #19 Anthony Jon Smith - England - Sporting Anthony Jon Smith or “AJ” Smith or “Smoker” Smith, whichever name you knew him under you would have had total respect for his all round ability to use a shotgun. AJ Smith is widely credited as being one of the “fathers” of Sporting Clays. He had a tremendous following in both the United Kingdom and in the United States where he had a great influence in introducing this discipline of shooting. A huge personality with the ability to match “AJ”, amongst many other major titles, won three European FITASC crowns and two World FITASC Sporting Championships in 1987 and 1989. He was affectionately known as “smoker” due to his ability to turn the clays he was shooting at to dust. There are several other competitors that may have better sporting records than AJ, especially at English Sporting where he strangely didn’t dominate, but the ease and speed that AJ could shoot the most difficult of targets put him in another league. Anyone who had the privilege of watching him at his prime would lay testament to this. He was one of the first to try and teach the art of Sporting Clays through literature and his books were widely read worldwide. As a coach he was very straightforward in his approach. He was very critical of getting “over technical” preferring a very basic technique often based simply on gun speed. AJ Smith’s gun of choice for many years was a Winchester Model 6500 under and over with 32” barrels. He was one of the very first big name shooters to convert to the longer barrels. He gave major competition shooting away for several years, but decided to make a “comeback” as a veteran and promptly won the World Veteran’s FITASC Title at Minnesota in the United States in 2006. AJ Smith passed away in January 2010. He was 63 years of age. --------------------------------------------------------------- The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners: #18 Miroslav Bednarik - Czechoslovakia - International Trap You hear of people having the “X” factor. Miroslav Bednarik was the first competitor I ever met that had it. He initially attracted international attention in 1981 when he competed as a sixteen year old junior (under 21 years of age) in the European Championships at Antibes, France where he won the silver medal. Three years later he won gold and the following year in 1985 at the Europeans, again in France, he repeated the effort and created a new Junior World Record with a score of 195. The World Championships were the following month in Italy and the Czechoslovakians knew they had somebody special in their midst so they nominated Miroslav to compete in the open category. This was unheard of at the time as it denied him a chance to add the junior world prize to his European Title because it was not possible to enter both divisions. In 1985 the Montecatini club in Italy was in its prime and was renowned as the “mecca” of international clay target shooting, but it had a reputation of being one of the most difficult ranges on the planet. It had a tricky background and yellow coloured clay targets were used which drew plenty of criticism. It didn’t bother Bednarik who broke 197 out of 200 to win the title of World “Senior” Champion denying Italy’s champion Danielle Cioni the crown. It remains the only time in the history of the ISSF a junior shooter has won the open world trap title. The following year at Suhl in East Germany Bednarik did it again by shooting 199/200 in the qualifying rounds and a perfect 25 in the final (this was the first year of ISSF ‘Finals). His score remained a world record as it was never broken. Interestingly he chose to shoot a standard “out of the box” Beretta 682. With all the high grade prestigious shotguns Beretta offered him the lowest base model was his choice. His success with it was largely responsible for the guns worldwide popularity in years to come. In Suhl it was nearly impossible to get close enough to the range to watch Bednarik shoot such was the respect spectators and his rivals had for him when he competed. Everyone was captivated by his unique technique of starting the gun virtually parallel to the ground and simply cutting all the clay targets off before they travelled too far or rose too high. Although it is not officially recorded, but it was widely spoken about at the time, Bednarik reportedly hit 223 out of his 224 kills on the first barrel. Not surprisingly after his win in 1986 many of his opponents tried to emulate his shooting style. At the Seoul Olympics in 1988 Bednarik lost a “sudden death” shoot off for the Gold Medal to Dmytro Monakov of the Soviet Union after the pair tied on 197/200 and a perfect 25 in the Final. The following month at the World Cup Final in Munich Bednarik shot one better by hitting 223 to win gold. Nobody knew it at the time, but that was to be his last ever competition. On Friday morning June 16th, 1989 the shooting world was rocked to its foundations when it learned that Miroslav Bednarik, the sports brightest young talent, was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident not far from his home near Brno. He was only 24 years old. Miroslav was well on his way to becoming the greatest trap shooter in ISSF history. His legacy no doubt paved the way for two other Czech Trap Olympic Gold Medallists with Petr Hrdlicka winning in 1992 and David Kostelecky in 2008. The “Bednarik Memorial” competition remains one of the most prestigious trap events in Europe. Through my association with Beretta I got to know Miroslav and his father quite well. I enjoyed two days with them at the Beretta factory in Italy in 1988 before the Olympics getting a new stock made for my gun. I spent more time playing with his shotgun looking for any clues than I did my own. Miroslav was quite shy, but he would always be happy and very friendly. He had big bright red cheeks and a baby face. I always had the feeling he had no real idea how talented he was and how everyone was in total awe of him when he competed. We were the same age and he was everything in the sport that I wanted to be. I think of Miroslav quite often to this day and his story and its heart breaking ending still brings a tear to my eye. A truly amazing competitor and a very humble champion taken from us many years before his prime. --------------------------------------------------------------- The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners: #17 Homer Clark Jnr - USA - Flyers / American Trap / International Trap Several distinguished American shooters competed successfully in Europe on the circuit in the “golden era” of live bird shooting after the Second World War winning many Grand Prix events. Some of these included Rudy Etchen, Billy Perdue and Joe Devers. The latter two won the Cup of Europe back in the early 1950’s. Quite a few United States competitors have won the World Flyer event once. Charlie Miller being the last coming up to four decades ago in 1976, but Homer Clark Jnr was the only American to win the world event for a second time. Interestingly American women have been far more successful in the World Championship over the years with Loral I Delalany notably being a four-time winner. Homer Clark Jnr was actually the second competitor to win the World Live Pigeon Shooting (Flyer) Championship twice. Italian Guilio Calestani (1940 & 1948) was the first to achieve multiple wins. After Clark two more Italians, Carlo Giorgetti (1960 & 1962) and the legendary pigeon shooter Bruno Pardini (1974 & 1978) and more recently Spaniard Julio Lopez Breton (2002 & 2005) achieved dual success. Clark’s first victory came in 1949 at Madrid and again two years later in Monte Carlo. Nobody to this day has ever won the World Flyer Championship title for a third time. Clark was part of several winning USA Teams at the World Flyer Championship, but also one famous losing team. The Americans had won the World Teams event in 1958 and 1959 and had fully intended on making it a trifecta in 1960 at Milan, Italy. Homer Clark, Billy Purdue and John Downes from Texas shot 53/60 to go down to the Italians by two birds. The win did a lot to restore some Italian pride on home soil, as they had not won the event for several years. It was to be the start of a remarkable period in Italian Flyer Shooting as they were to win 18 of the next 26 team titles. With shooters like Giorgetti, Pardini and the Bodini brothers they were a hard team to beat in Europe as the Americans found out. The USA team would only taste victory once again in the next 34 years. Clark travelled extensively through Europe for decades competing on the Flyer circuit and achieved success, besides the World Titles, in major Grand Prix events in Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium and Italy. When he was in Europe as part of his training in the 1960’s he often was invited to shoot a new event called “ZZ” birds (Helices), which was said to provide a competitor great preparation and speed for pigeons. He was never a big supporter of this event, but agreed that the later model ZZ bird machines were getting better to practice on. Homer Clark Jnr had a reputation of being a very fast shot, maybe the fastest. In Europe the pigeon boxes just “fall apart” when the bird is released as opposed to the “Barnabee” system used in the USA, which launches the pigeon in the air several feet. The release system used on the Continent suited him and often Homer could shoot the bird fast enough to leave it stone dead inside the box. In the latter part of his career Clark used a beautifully finished Beretta SO3 EELL under and over that had three sets of barrels. His favourite was a 30” barrel choked half in the bottom barrel and full in the top. However the shotgun that Homer made his name with by winning his first world title in Spain was a far more modest Ithaca 28” barrel side by side. (Homer is holding that shotgun in the main photo). This gun was on display for many years in the ATA Hall of Fame Museum. To make this Top 20 Shotgunners list Homer needed to be more than just a great flyer shooter even with two World Titles to his credit. He had an impressive record on clay targets also. At the Grand American Tournament in 1948 he won the National Doubles Title and twenty-two years later he tied for the Clay Target Championship with a perfect 200/200. Despite often being overseas during the North American Trapshooting season Clark was named in the All American Trap Team on two occasions. Homer Clark Jnr proved his all round shotgun versatility in 1958 when he tried out for the USA International Trap Team that was to compete at the World ISSF Championships at Moscow in the Soviet Union. Unbelievably the Americans had never won an ISSF World Team Medal of any colour and Homer was keen to change this. He not only made the team, Clark was declared the team captain and helped the USA create history by winning a Bronze Medal. On a side note Homer Clark Jnr is widely attributed as the individual who introducing reloading for competition trap shooters in the United States. His company “Alcan” imported all the componentry and made the products available along with all the ballistic data so that countless thousands could participate in the sport because the cost of new shot shells post World War II was prohibitive. Clark was inducted into the ATA Hall of Fame in 1991 uniquely joining his father, also named Homer, who was one of the original Hall of Fame inductees. Homer Clark Jnr passed away in 1998 aged 78. --------------------------------------------------------------- The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners: #16 Jury Tsuranov - USSR - International Skeet Many people would not know this, but the Soviet Union’s Jury Tsuranov is the most prolific male World Championship Medallist of any shotgun discipline in the history of the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF). He was also involved in an era where the Russians led technological changes to shotguns that raised a lot of eyebrows in the shooting world. From 1959 to 1975 Jury competed in twelve consecutive ISSF World Skeet Championship events. Incredibly he medalled in nine of them. Jury stood on top of the dais on three occasions, was runner up five times and finished third once. Three male competitors have won 7 World Championship ISSF Medals, but as yet nobody has overtaken Tsuranov. Tsuranov is a case study in consistency and perseverance as it took him a decade of competitions from when he won his first silver medal in 1959 at Cairo until he finally was crowned World Champion with his win in 1969 at San Sebastian. In 1971 at Bologna in Italy, Jury won his second World Championship with a perfect 200 out of 200. Jury Tsuranov must have been a strong man as he used 36-gram (1 ¼ oz.) shot loads to achieve most of his success. The ISSF did not introduce a maximum load of 32 grams (1 1/8 oz.) until 1974. 32 grams remained until the end of 1988 when a 28-gram (1oz) maximum was introduced and four years later on January 1st 1993 the maximum load was reduced to 24 grams (7/8 oz.). I cannot imagine shooting 36 gram shot shells at 200 targets, but this is exactly what Jury used in competition and trained with for the majority of his career. When it was announced in the early 1960’s that International Skeet event was to be included at the Olympics for the first time in 1968 there was much more research and development of skeet shooting equipment. An interesting story happened at a competition in Scandinavia in the mid 1960’s where the Americans and Russians were both attending. At the end of the event the Russian coach at the time was very keen to buy one of the Americans shotguns. Enough money was exchanged and an hour or so later the Russians returned the American shooters gun minus the last few inches of his barrel. They were obviously very keen to see how western shotguns were choked. A couple of years later the Russians unveiled their new Skeet Shotgun the Baikal MU-8. It had a cylinder bore that went into an expansion chamber and then some constriction. These days it was referred to as “Tula” (trombone) choke tube. They allegedly worked particularly well with the wads that were used in the 36-gram loads at the time. Never the less everyone thought that the Russians were using something different than everybody else that gave them an advantage. (Some people still think this today!) The Russians had tremendous success with this shotgun and later the same with the trap version. Whether it was through a technological advantage or plain hard work is a matter of opinion, but it is common knowledge that some manufacturers are now making similar changes to their barrel tubes some fifty years later. All it did comprehensively prove is that the “cold war” was not just restricted to politics in the 1960’s. In 1968 the Soviets turned up at the Mexico Olympic Games with their new shotguns where Tsuranov hit 196 / 200 to finish fourth. His teammate, Yevgeny Petrov, won a three-way shoot off to take the gold medal after finishing on 198. Tsuranov shot scores of 192 at the 1972 Munich Olympics and 193 at the Montreal Games in 1976, but sadly never added an Olympic Medal to his collection of World Medals. There are quite a few ISSF competitors that were dominant at World Championship level, but never managed to stand on any level of the dais at the Olympic Games and unfortunately Tsuranov was one of them. As a side note, between 1968 and 1973, the Soviets won every individual International Skeet event on offer except the 1972 Olympics where Konrad Wirnhier from West Germany edged out Petrov for the gold. If it wasn’t Tsuranov or Petrov winning it was their third shooter, Vladimir Andreyev. All with the Baikal MU-8. Jury Tsuranov also won a Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal from the European Championships. Tsuranov’s son, Konstantin, is following in his father’s footsteps and won a World Cup Silver Skeet Medal in Beijing in 2008 and then participated in his first Olympics a few months later. I am unsure of the exact date Jury Tsuranov passed away, but one of his former teammates recently told me he believed it was around 2007. --------------------------------------------------------------- The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners: #15 James Graves - USA - International Skeet / International Trap / Double Trap Since the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) started their World Cup competitions back in 1986 quite a few competitors have tasted success in two of the three events on offer. Only one person has made it to the dais in all three disciplines of Trap, Skeet and Double Trap. James Graves, better known as Todd or “Fuzz” to his close friends, was based at the famous Fort Benning Marksmanship Unit in Georgia during his shooting career and could quite easily lay claim to being the ISSF’s greatest ever all round competitor. When Graves started at Fort Benning he was in the company of Dan Carlisle for two years who at that time would be the worlds best multi discipline ISSF shooter at both International Trap and International Skeet having won an Olympic Trap Bronze Medal in Los Angeles in 1984 and a World International Skeet Title in Caracas, Venezuela in 1982. Carlisle no doubt would have been a great influence on Graves. It would be fair to say Todd was best known for his Skeet shooting skills having won a medal in this discipline at all four of the ISSF’s major competitions being the Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup Final and World Cup. In 2002 Graves twice shot 149/150 to win Skeet Gold Medals at the World Cup at Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic and the World Cup Final in Lonato, Italy. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000 Graves took home the Bronze Medal with a score of 147. To illustrate his all round ability Graves within the space of four years he held the World Record for Trap after he won the World Cup at Mexico City in 1989. He won his first Skeet World Cup Gold Medal at Germany in 1992 and when he captured the Bronze Medal in the Double Trap event at the Los Angeles World Cup in 1993 he completed the trifecta as the ISSF’s only World Cup Medallist in all three events. He remains the sole person to do this to this day. It is unforeseeable that we will see another shooter win a medal at this level in all three ISSF disciplines. There are very few competitors shooting more than one event these days and the only current competitor still competitive in two of the three events would be Kuwait’s champion shooter Fehaid Al Deehani who has won an Olympic Medal in both Double Trap (Sydney 2000) and Trap (London 2012). In London he shot off for the Bronze Medal in both the Trap and Double Trap events. Todd and his teammate, Bret Erickson, continued the Marksmanship Unit tradition of providing thousands of shooting supporters with a fabulous “trick” shooting exhibition. Anyone that was lucky enough to witness their show would be left with no doubt as to why Todd is named in my top 20 list. Fortunately another tremendous American Army shooter in World Champion Josh Richmond has now taken on the trick shooting responsibilities within the Unit. Todd was renowned for his exceptional gun pointing ability and smooth technique. His calm demeanor under pressure was nearly intimidating to his opponents. He was one of the most popular competitors amongst his peers during his career. These attributes no doubt made his appointment as the main coach in the United States Shotgun Team very logical. The continued success that his team achieves under his guidance lays testament to his ability not only as a competitor, but also now also as a coach and mentor to many of the up and coming talented young competitors that the USA enjoys. Todd Graves was born in 1963 at Ruston, Louisiana. --------------------------------------------------------------- The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners #14 Susan Nattrass - Canada - International Trap / American Trap / Double Trap In 1971 at Bologna, Italy Canadian Susan Nattrass finished second in the World Women’s Trap Championship. Three years later at Berne in Switzerland Nattrass officially won her first International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Title. She repeated this effort at the next five ISSF World Championships. In 1978 in Seoul, South Korea she set a new female world record of 195/200. This score would have tied her for the Bronze Medal in the Men’s competition. Amazingly thirty-two years after she first collected a world crown and twenty-five years from her last victory, Nattrass won her seventh World Individual Title in 2006 at Zagreb, Croatia. This World Championship would have been very special to Susan. It was her first World Title under the “ ISSF Finals” system and there was an Olympic Games Quota (starting) position on the line. Nattrass hit 69 from 75 in the three qualification rounds to qualify for the final in equal second position with three other competitors who where all one behind the Russian Champion, Elena Tkach. The ISSF rule change of 2005 meant that all Trap Finals were now “single barrel” only which was going to add to the already immense pressure of the event. Nattrass hit 21 in the final round which was enough to hold off the fast finishing Li Chen from China by a point after the Russian crashed out with only 16 hits. The history books were re-written. A World Champion at 55 years of age. The time span between victories in an officially sanctioned World Championship recognized by the International Olympic Committee is a record for any current event of all the 28 sports on the Olympic program. It is unforeseeable that this record could be broken any time soon. This was not the last world-class performance from the Canadian legend. The following year the 2007 Pan American Games were held at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Nattrass was given the honour as the reigning World Champion to be the Flag Bearer for the Canadian Team in front of 100,000 people at the Opening Ceremony in the Maracana Stadium. She did not disappoint her team by winning the Trap Gold Medal several days later. To date at World Championship level Susan has collected a total of 14 individual ISSF medals. 7 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze. This is twice the amount of the number two ranked athlete, Russian Skeet shooter Larisa Gurvich. The leading male, Jury Tsuranov, has collected 9 medals. Nattrass’s 14 medals is a record for ALL World Championship Shooting events on the current Olympic Program. Nattrass is a dual World Cup Gold Medallist in Women’s Double Trap and at one stage was the World Record holder in this event. Her talent is not limited to ISSF competition as she is an Amateur Trap Association (ATA) Hall of Fame member also. She was inducted in 1988. A 14 time All American Team member, five times Singles yearly average winner, twice in Doubles and twice All Around average winner. As well as a legendary competitor Susan Nattrass has been, and still is, the leading voice worldwide for continued equality for females in the sport of Shooting. Her ability to generate positive initiatives and motivate administrators to achieve a level playing field for females has been outstanding. She was pivotal in lobbying support to have women compete in their own Trap and Skeet events at the Olympic Games. Finally this happened at the Sydney Games in 2000. Susan represented Canada as an “open” competitor at the Olympic Games in 1976 (where she was the solitary female participant),1988 and 1992. She competed in the female Olympic events in 2000, 2004 and 2008. Susan Nattrass has a Masters in Physical Education and gained her doctorate in 1987. A highly intelligent, attractive and articulate lady, Dr Susan Nattrass is considered one of the sports greatest role models as evident in 1981 when she won the Canadian Sportsperson of the Year and was honoured by being made an “Officer of the Order of Canada”. In August 2007 the ISSF further honoured Susan Nattrass by naming her one of their four greatest shotgun shooters of all time. Nattrass has been a long time Perazzi shotgun user. Susan still competes on the ISSF world circuit and at ATA events. Until recently her mother Marie has made many of the trips around the globe with her daughter. Together they have formed one of the strongest and longest parent / child relationships in the sport. Susan’s deceased father, Floyd, was an Olympian also having competed for Canada at Tokyo in 1964 where he finished 12th with a very respectable score of 190. Incredibly this summer Susan Nattrass will contest her 35th consecutive World Championship in Spain. Every competitor in the sport of Shooting, male and female, will owe her a great legacy when she eventually retires. Susan Nattrass was born in 1950. She is a resident on Vashon Island, near Seattle in Washington State. --------------------------------------------------------------- The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners: #13 Rudy Etchen - USA - American Trap / Flyers There is an old saying that “nobody is as big as the sport itself”, but Rudy Etchen came close. Anyone that ever met him felt better for the experience. His close friends referred to him as “The Rude”. He was one of worlds great all round shotgun shooters. Whether it was in Vandalia at the Grand American Tournament, at the luxurious live pigeon clubs of Europe or in a field shooting quail Rudy Etchen was competitive. Rudy was the son of 1924 Olympic Gold Medallist Fred Etchen who won his medal as part of the USA’s Trap Team in Paris. In 1936 a young Rudy turned up for the Grand American and promptly won the Sub Juniors in the Clay Target Championship. He did it again in 1937 then twice more in the Junior category in the following years. Rudy’s pet Amateur Trap Association (ATA) event was Doubles. He will remembered in history as forever being the first person to ever break 100 straight in Doubles at the Grand American Tournament. He did this in 1950 with a brand new Remington model 870 pump action shotgun. Uniquely 32 years later he did this again at the Louisiana State Shoot with the same pump gun. Rudy used this shotgun for the remainder of his trap career. He was known as “Mr Pumpgun”. Rudy single handedly was responsible for the popularity of this model Remington. It would turn out to be one of their biggest selling shotguns of all time with sales of the 870, as of 2014, approaching nearly ten and one half million units. Etchen was the National Doubles Champion in 1942, 1943 and 1945. He was runner up in 1944. He was classed as an industry shooter for many years and his High Overall (HOA) Score at the Grand in 1950 of 980/100 won the Industry Section. This remained the highest ever HOA score in any category until the great Dan Orlich shot 982 in 1966. Rudy contested the Grand American in 1952 as an amateur and won the Clay Target Championship, All Around and HOA titles. He went on to win the Veterans crown in the Clay Target Title in 1989 and Senior Veterans in the same event in 1993 thus clean sweeping every category he could over his entire career. His victories at State level were impressive, but most notably in 1952 and 1957 he won all four of the main championships at the Idaho State shoot. As an amateur he was named in the All American Open Team on 6 occasions and twice led the yearly averages in Doubles and Singles. Rudy was inducted into the ATA Hall of Fame in 1980. Rudy Etchen was more than an average American Skeet shooter as well. He won over 20 State and Regional Titles throughout his career. North America was not big enough for Rudy and the lure of the live pigeon (flyer) circuit was too much for him to resist. From the mid 1950’s to the late 1960’s Rudy won some major silverware throughout Europe, Africa and Mexico. He won Grand Prix events on flyers in Monte Carlo, Madrid, Paris and Guadalajara. In 1955 Rudy was part of the American Team that won the World Flyer Teams Title (his teammate Bill Isetts won the individual crown). In 1966 in Mexico City Rudy was runner up for the World Championship. Etchen was an exceptional shot at the columbaire (hand thrown birds) event. He won titles in this discipline at Seville, Cairo and Madrid. As good and as quick as Rudy was he didn’t tempt fate by using his Remington pump gun on flyers. On the box birds he used a Purdey 30” barrel side by side which patterned 76% at 40 yards on the right barrel and 93% on the left. That’s another way of saying a full choke and a “fuller” choke. For columbaire he used a 28” barrel Parker which was choked improved cylinder on the first barrel and full on the second. Etchen was as famous for his personality as he was for his shooting ability. People gravitated towards him. It is no wonder some of his friends were ‘A’ list Hollywood celebrities that included Robert Stack, Roy Rogers. Ward Bond and even the Australian born star Errol Flynn. Rudy’s legacy lives on with his youngest son Joel, who is an excellent competitor himself and a gun shop owner in Pennsylvania. In 1993 Rudy and Joel won the Parent / Child event at the Grand American with a score of 399/400. Rudy was 70 years of age at the time. Rudy’s granddaughter Rebecca and grandson Alex both have won trophies at National and State level. I was at the centennial Grand American in 1999 at Vandalia on behalf of Beretta, but only for a couple of days. My late father, Brian, met Rudy several times when they competed on the live bird circuit in Europe. Brian had many great stories about him and asked me to say hello. Sadly time slipped away and I never had the chance to meet Rudy Etchen. I am sure if I had have had the pleasure of his company, like so many others before me, I would have been vastly better for the experience. Rudy Etchen was a legend in every sense of the word. The “Rude” passed away on August 28th, 2001. He was 78 years of age. --------------------------------------------------------------- The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners: #12 Ennio Falco - Italy - International Skeet In early 1996 Ennio Falco thought his luck had ran out. He was driving in southern Italy when his BMW was ambushed and car jacked by thugs. He had no hesitation on giving up the vehicle because he knew that was replaceable, but his life wouldn’t be. His biggest concern was the item lying in the car’s trunk. It was his favourite Beretta skeet gun. The Olympics were only a few months away and he was never to see the shotgun again. History will show that Falco urgently had another shotgun made and he would go on to shoot 149/150 in Atlanta to take the Olympic Gold Medal with a record score. Falco leads the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cup medal tally with a total of twenty-three medals, ten of them gold. He is second on the World Cup Final Medal list with ten, five of them gold. He nearly owned the European Championship at the start of the century winning it on five out of six occasions from 2001. The statistic that is astonishing regarding Ennio Falco is this; the ISSF rank their medallists in order from gold to silver to bronze. One gold medal will put you higher on their tally list than two silver medals. Falco has the second highest total of male ISSF World Championship Medals in history yet he is ranked eighty-ninth on the list. Eight medals in total, zero gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze. The World Championship is the only event that denies him a complete set of gold medals from all four of the ISSF’s major titles. Falco’s teammate for many years, Andrea Benelli, remains the sole Italian clay target shooter in their rich history to achieve this honour. Falco has had some heart breaking losses at the World Championship. He lost a “sudden death” shoot-off in 2010 at Munich after he tied with the Russian champion Valeriy Shomin on a score of 149/150. In 2013 he battled his way into the last spot into the final in Peru. After the semi final he again won a sudden death tiebreaker to gain entry to the Gold Medal Duel. Unfortunately for Falco he then lost the final match to Denmark’s Jesper Hansen who shot a perfect 16 from 16 to once more push Falco onto the lower level of the podium. Purists of Skeet regard Ennio Falco as one of the most technically perfect shooters of all time. He has a very natural erect stance and he seems to require little effort to mount the shotgun from the starting position on his hip to his shoulder. His consistency from his first international competition as a seventeen year old in 1985 until today has been remarkable. Together with Benelli the pair have formed the backbone of the Italian Skeet team for nearly thirty years winning countless team medals, many of them gold. Falco’s first major open individual victory was the World Cup at Osijek, Yugoslavia in 1988. He was still eligible to shoot as a junior competitor at this time. His last title was the World Cup Final at Izmir, Turkey in 2010. Uniquely after this win he could claim to have won a major title in four consecutive decades. The ‘80’s, ‘90’s, ‘00’s and the ‘10’s. No other male ISSF shotgun competitor can claim this feat. Canada’s Susan Nattrass won World Championships in the 70’s, 80’s and the ‘00’s and two World Cups in the ‘90’s. Apart from the 1996 Olympics Falco’s most famous international victory came at the 1997 World Cup in his native Italy at the Lonato range. He shot the perfect competition shooting 125/125 in the qualifying rounds followed by a clean 25 in the final to give him 150/150 and a world record score. At 46 years of age it appears Ennio Falco, the most decorated male skeet shooter in history, is winding down his career as he has just recently taken a position as contract coach with the Indian Skeet Team. Interestingly it was reported that The Sultan of Brunei offered Falco a considerable sum of money after the 1996 Olympics to change countries. He obviously declined the offer. Ennio Falco was born in 1968. He lives at Capua in southern Italy with his wife and daughter. --------------------------------------------------------------- The World’s Greatest Competitive Shotgunners: #11 Dan Bonillas - USA - American Trap / Flyers There was a period of time that if you nominated in an American Trap competition that Dan Bonillas had entered then it was accepted that you were shooting for second place at best. That was the perceived dominance of the man. Some of Bonillas’s statistics are nearly to the point of unbelievable, but the one that impresses the most was his average score for Doubles in 1997. He won the Amateur Trap Association (ATA) annual Average Award for this event with a record percentage at the time. It is no secret that a few ATA shooters protect their yearly average by shooting at the absolute minimum of registered targets (1,000) and will not shoot in bad weather. In 1997 Dan shot at 10,300 targets and hit 10,220 of them or 99.22%. To even shoot at that many competition pairs is incredible, but to hit this amount in all weather conditions is even more staggering. Bonillas obviously does not worry about protecting his average. To the contrary Bonillas had a reputation as one of the greatest shooters of all time in the wind. To this day only Sean Hawley has a record close to Dan’s on Doubles. In 1992 Bonillas entered a 500-target Doubles competition and broke the lot. The first person in history to do so. He has won the yearly ATA Doubles Average Award more than any other competitor. Dan wasn’t too bad on Singles either. At the 1980 Grand American he ran 994 targets in a row without missing. His personal best was 1600 straight in 1975. Remember that is single barrel shooting only. Up until 2005 Bonillas had 27 years where he averaged above 99% on Singles. He made 22 consecutive All American Teams. He had seven major victories at the Grand American Tournament with one of his most notable being the 398/400 to win the All Around Title (Singles, Doubles and Handicap) in 1982. That total was a record at the time. In 1975 Dan was the first competitor to shoot 100 straight from 27 yards in any event at the Grand American Tournament. In the shooting world you know you have made the big time when one of the world’s biggest firearm companies names a gun after you. Perazzi did just this for Dan Bonallis in 1981. The model “DB 81” was twenty years ahead of its time. Dan helped design the shotgun that had a raised rib above the barrels. It was an insight into the many trap guns that we see today produced by virtually every major gun manufacturer. The shotgun was quite popular and many of his competitors used it including the late Frank Little who was one of the greatest Singles shooters in ATA history. Dan Bonillas was also an accomplished shot on flyers although he was not as well known for it. He made a podium finish twice at the World Championships. You can count on your fingers the amount of competitors that were good enough to do that. The famous Italian range at Montecatini was holding its last ever live pigeon competition in 1984, which was the World Championship. Dan finished a very credible 3rd. The following year the World Titles were held in Mexico at Guadalajara. The World Championship for Flyers is conducted over 25 birds or your third miss, whichever comes first. If there are perfect scores then the shoot-off is the best of ten birds. The 1985 event had just on 600 entries and by the end of the competition nine competitors had downed all 25 pigeons within the 16-yard boundary fence. One of the nine was Dan Bonillas. The ten-bird tiebreaker commenced and one by one each finalist missed. After nine birds Dan was the only one still perfect. He proved he was human and missed the tenth and then lost a sudden death miss and out for the World Title. I was there in Mexico in 1985 to witness that shoot off in person. My father always told me if you were going to copy somebody’s style of shooting then copy Bonillas. I watched him shoot for days on end. I loved his technique of closing the gun and having it just slightly off his shoulder and with one small movement the gun was mounted. The great shooters make it look easy and Dan Bonillas made shooting look effortless. Dan was a champion high school football player. His school, near Oakdale in California, won the State Championship with Dan playing quarterback. Before his time as a professional shooter and a representative for Perazzi, Dan was a juvenile parole officer. He is still a native of California coaching clinic and is still an active competitor and coach. Dan Bonillas was born in 1947 and was inducted into the ATA Hall of Fame in 1994.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:21:28 +0000
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