All American Smallbore and Air Rifle Shooters and Olympic Gold
The National Rifle Association first distributed “Golden Bullets” to honor All-Americans in the sport of rifle shooting in 1936…
Author Archive for Hap Rocketto
Hap Rocketto is a Distinguished Rifleman with service and smallbore rifle, member of The Presidents Hundred, and the National Guard’s Chief’s 50. He is a National Smallbore Record holder, a member of the 1600 Club and the Connecticut Shooters’ Hall Of fame. He was the 2002 Intermediate Senior Three Position National Smallbore Rifle Champion, a member of the 2007 National Four Position Indoor Championship team, coach and captain of the US Drew Cup Team, and adjutant of the 2009 Robert Team. Rocketto is very active in coaching juniors. A historian of the shooting sports, his work regularly appears in Shooting Sports USA, Precision Shooting, The Outdoor Message, the American Rifleman, the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s website, and most recently, the apogee of his literary career, pronematch.com.
March 11, 2010 | 2 comments | View Post
CT: 10th Annual Constitution State Rifle Tournament Results
Quaker Hill Rod and Gun Club hosted the tenth annual Constitution State Conference Rifle Tournament on March 5, 2010. Five teams from the Connecticut Technical High School System met to see if the regular season champion, Vinal Tech, of Middletown, could fend off defending tournament champion Grasso Tech of Groton.
The Vinal Tech steamroller showed [...]
March 8, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
Three Generations
by Hap Rocketto
I am getting a little long in the tooth but I work to stay in competitive shape for position shooting. I shoot two winter position leagues and specialize in prone during the summer months, with a little four position centerfire league thrown in to leaven the mix.
Deep down inside I hope to [...]
March 3, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
A Shooting Character Straight out of Shakespeare
A couple of weeks ago I was idly leafing through some Shakespeare when a line from King Henry IV Part I leapt from the page and stirred my memory…
February 26, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
An Embarrassment of Riches
Hap Rocketto remarks about NRA National Records and how some are “good” and others are…well…not so good
February 17, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
In Second Place, I am Second to None
by Hap Rocketto
[Editor's Note] This is a Gallery Match primer!
I have just arrived home after shooting the Connecticut Gallery Championship, a match I first shot as a high school freshman in 1962. Way back then The Gallery Match was the largest indoor match known to man. On two consecutive weekends sub-juniors, juniors and seniors [...]
February 10, 2010 | 2 comments | View Post
January Pickering Results
The third match of the inaugural season of the Timothy Pickering Memorial Indoor Prone Postal Match saw some changes as it marked the 181st anniversary of the honoree’s passing on January 29th.
Leading the league for the third consecutive month was PM.Com’s Old No.7. Hunkered down behind their scopes Erik Hoskins again had the high [...]
February 8, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
Dizzy Paul, Jeff, and Me
by Hap Rocketto
Those who are familiar with Yankee Stadium know about Monument Park, a collection of monuments, plaques, and retired numbers honoring distinguished members of the New York Yankees. It was built during a renovation of “The House That Ruth Built” to contain the monuments, plaques, and flag pole which were originally in fair [...]
February 4, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
RI: 2010 Open Metric Sectional Results
The 2010 Rhode Island NRA Metric Position Sectional
by Digby Hand
Nearly three dozen competitors converged on the Massasoit Gun Club for what they thought would be the 2010 Rhode Island NRA Three Position Sectional. In a period of change in the smallbore game they should have not been surprised to find that they actually were shooting the [...]
February 1, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
The Socioeconomic Origins of the Angle Police
by Hap Rocketto
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall combined to touch off a chain of events that threatened to change the face of American Conventional Prone Shooting forever. Why events in Europe and Asia would effect the lives of such venerable Black Hawks as Marianne Driver and Earl [...]
January 27, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
An Article of the Highest Caliber
by Hap Rocketto
I am sure that you are like many people who notice when little technical things in stories, or movies, are not quite right. If you are a SCUBA diver you might notice that the character is wearing the wrong type of regulator. If you like airplanes an interior that does not [...]
January 20, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
CT: The 2010 Middlebury Junior Rifle Match Results
The 2010 Middlebury Junior Rifle Match
by Digby Hand
One of Connecticut’s classic junior matches is contested on a four point range in the basement of a church in Middlebury the first weekend of each January. The 31st Middlebury Junior Rifle Match was marked by cold weather, hot chili dogs, and tough competition.
This year 57 juniors from [...]
January 14, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
pronematch.com Welcomes German Salazar
Pronematch.com is happy to announce that German Salazar has accepted an offer he couldn’t refuse. After a meeting with our staff recruiter he demurred, in his humble way, stating that he was not made of the stern stuff the site required in a writer. However, after waking up with a horse’s head at the [...]
January 13, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
On the Shoulders of Giants
by Hap Rocketto
Each year, at the National Smallbore Rifle Championships, with a gaggle of unenthusiastic juniors in tow, I make for the NRA Trophy Room to insure that the kids see these magnificent works of art and begin to appreciate the many fine riflemen and women who have earned them. Too often the [...]
December 30, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
Law is a Bottomless Pit
by Hap Rocketto
I shot my first long-range match in 1972 at the Colonie Club outside of Albany, New York. I was working in a small private school in New Jersey and was going to meet my fellow shooters from the Magnum Rifle Club at the range. I didn’t have a long-range rifle [...]
December 23, 2009 | 2 comments | View Post
To Loyal Joblillies, and Garyulies
To all of my loyal Joblillies, and Garyulies who shall see these presents greeting,
Know Ye, that We, the Grand Panjandrum of the Pickering Match himself, has observed the steadily growing height of the snow piling outside of our castle. It fortunately is covering and silencing the crowd of lemming like celebrity Global Warming advocates, fresh from [...]
December 20, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
Thank You for Calling Microsoft
by Hap Rocketto
Decision making and problem solving are two very important skills a shooter must have to be successful. Each time a shooter prepares to release a shot though the process of the integrated act of shooting a great many factors are weighed and each requires that a “go” or “no go” decision [...]
December 16, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
2009 NH Junior Invitational Rifle Championship
by Digby Hand
Eight New Hampshire juniors were invited to participate in the 2009 New Hampshire Junior Invitational Rifle Championship which was, for all intents and purposes, a shooting triathlon. Each competitor fired an English Match and a full course of three position with the smallbore rifle followed by a 60 shot standing match with [...]
The Real Trophies are in Here
by Hap Rocketto
Some years ago, when I was a young pup, my National Guard Rifle Team won the US Army Combat Rifle Championships. Each shooter was given a small Blackington medal and a handshake by the general. Back in the barracks, after the awards had been passed out, I was bewailing the fact [...]
December 9, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
Timothy Pickering Results Are In!
by Hap Rocketto
The First Timothy Pickering Memorial Indoor Prone Postal Match got off with a bang. Well, actually 1,440 record bangs as well as an uncounted number of fouling and sighting bangs.
In its inaugural contest records were set in abundance. Erik Hoskins, using a scope, fired 60 record shots on the USA/NRA50 target [...]
You can’t buy them, they must be earned
by Hap Rocketto
There are a few of Lee Marvin movies that I very much enjoy, in part because he was an excellent actor and in part because of the story line. The Professionals, Heck in the Pacific, Cat Ballou, and, of course, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance are films which come to mind. [...]
