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.
by Hap Rocketto I have been, not unfairly, accused of being a bit single minded when it comes to shooting. It is one of my consuming passions. I shoot a lot and when I am not I am either thinking, talking, or writing about it. I am also competitive and always on the lookout for [...]
Twenty-eighth Annual Rhode Island and Massachusetts Goodwill Trophy Match by Hap Rocketto The best available rifleman from the Rhode Island Smallbore Rifle League and the Massachusetts South Shore Rifle League squared off against each other in the 28th edition of the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Goodwill Trophy Match at the Angle Tree Rod and Gun Club in [...]
Shooting Legend Robert K. Moore Passes The shooting world lost another legend April 12, 2013 with the passing of Robert K. Moore at the age of 101. The Washington, Pennsylvania rifleman was one of a quartet of Moore family members, G. Wayne, Bertie, and Charlie, that dominated smallbore shooting in the Keystone State, and nationally, [...]
by Hap Rocketto With the 2012 National Smallbore Position Outdoor Championship coming to its end I had come to a fork in the road of my shooting career. I had just won the geezer Three Position Championship the first time I was eligible to compete. Did I go out in a blaze of glory as [...]
Rhode Island NRA Four Position Sectional Smithfield hosted the 20013 Rhode Island National Rifle Association Four Position Sectional on March 10, 2013. The competitors fired an 80 shot aggregate with 20 shot shots in each of prone, standing, sitting, and kneeling. While a bit short on numbers it was long on competition and opened with [...]
by Hap Rocketto Getting time off from work to participate in an active shooting schedule is a problem most folks face. It is tough to find a happy balance of limited vacation time between the requirements of shooting and what is required to be good family man. This problem has been a constant source of [...]
by Hap Rocketto Hockey fever was sweeping New England in the late spring of 2011 as the Boston Bruins battled it out for the National Hockey League Championship and the honor of hoisting the Stanley Cup. It was mentioned that the Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America [...]
by Hap Rocketto While not quite at the level of Galahad’s quest for the Holy Grail, Jason’s search for the Golden Fleece, Rama’s mission to recover his wife Sita, or Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Junior’s hunt for the Lost Ark of the Covenant I have also set out on a quest from time to time. [...]
by Hap Rocketto Each Friday morning a group of we gray bearded rifle shooters meet at the club to shoot a postal match. Ernie Mellor, Charlie Adams, Dave Vinkler, Steve Rocketto, and I spend the morning blasting away at the NRA/USA 50 target and then repair to Steve’s home, just a short distance from the [...]
by Hap Rocketto Quite often seemingly harmless individual events occur in just the right order and place in time and geography to create catastrophe. This condition serves well for the definition of an accident-a string of incidents when taken individually are harmless but when combined cause a larger event to occur. For example, on September [...]
by Hap Rocketto The lengthening shadows of a New England autumn mean that the dog days of summer are over and the gallery season is about to start. But, before rifle shooters begin indoor competition there is one last gasp of outdoor rivalry, The Great Pumpkin 2400 Metric Prone Match. Senior Len Remaly, winner of [...]
by Hap Rocketto There is a fundamental difference between shooting disciplines. It is not in the equipment or the course of fire but rather the way the shooters look at nature. This major division splits the pistol and rifle people in a way that can only be described by a matter of fact and an [...]
by Hap Rocketto I was trying to tidy up my smallbore shooting kit and came across some really interesting artifacts. A shooter’s carrying bag is a midden heap and an archeologist delight. So, besides the mat and jacket, I came across my small parts bag and my tackle box. At one time I used to [...]
by Hap Rocketto We were swapping jokes between relays at the Rhode Island Prone Championship and one that got a big laugh was about a golfing fanatic priest who had called his monsignor to tell him that he was ill and would be unable to serve Sunday Mass. The errant cleric knew that everyone would [...]
by Hap Rocketto He rebounded from the 10 meter prone event but unfortunately Josh Olson fell two points short of making the finals in today’s Mixed 50m Rifle Prone event at the 2012 Paralympics, firing a 587X600. Josh was five points behind the first place qualifying score. He finished 12th in the field but his [...]
Josh Olson shot a 595X600 to finish in 28th place in the Mixed R3-10m Air Rifle Prone-SH1 competition at the 2012 Paralympics in London. In a conversation at Camp Perry in late July Olsen spoke of just how difficult this event can be to win. To that point the top eight finishers at the Paralympics [...]
by Hap Rocketto When I first began filling out what seemed like a never ending series of card stock 10 ½ by eight inch DA Form 1344s, the official name of which is “Entry and Score Card for NBRP Individual Service Rifle Match” there was an old wives tale existing that there were more individuals [...]
by Hap Rocketto After shooting together for several days at a long ago Interservice the three of us who shared the point sat in the Quantico pits during a lull in the shooting and, for want of a better topic, discussed how we had become Non Commissioned Officers. Considering that we were all in the [...]
Chip Lohman, Editor of Shooting Sports USA, is putting out a call for mini articles, about 300-400 words, on shooting coaching tips. This is a chance for coaches to share their favorite tips to a national audience and to pick up a few dollars in the process. Lohman will assist any would be author with [...]
by Hap Rocketto When Frankie Valli sang out ”Grease is the word…” in the title tune of the eponymously named musical movie I don’t suspect that he was thinking about the triumvirate of rifle lubricants and preservatives so well known to the older generation of shooting competitors, RIG, Lubriplate, and Plastilube. The first of these [...]
