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, the 2012 Senior Three Position National Smallbore Rifle Champion a member of the 2007 and 2012 National Four Position Indoor Championship team, coach and captain of the US Drew Cup Team, and adjutant of the United States 2009 Roberts and 2013 Pershing Teams. Rocketto is very active in coaching juniors. He is, along with his brother Steve, a cofounder of the Corporal Digby Hand Schützenverein. A historian of the shooting sports, his work appears in Shooting Sports USA, the late Precision Shooting Magazine, The Outdoor Message, the American Rifleman, the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s website, and most recently, the apogee of his literary career, pronematch.com.
Day Three: The 2017 Mid Atlantic 6400 With the metallic sight match completed scopes came out of their boxes and the Mid Atlantic took on a new flavor. As expected 400s bloomed like desert wild flowers after a rain storm. The handsomely mustachioed George Harris jumped to the fore with a near perfect 400-39X […]
Day Two: The 2017 Mid Atlantic 6400 Day two of the 2017 Mid Atlantic 6400 began much the same as day one. With good conditions 15 shooters cleaned the 50 yard metallic sight match. Steve Angeli, the most recent member of the 6400 club-a score he shot with irons at the Mid Atlantic in […]
Day One of the Black Hawk Open has concluded. Winner of the English Match was Eric Uptagrafft with a 597-39X, followed by first Master Howard Pitts, 589-36X, second Master Patrick Sunderman, 589-32X close behind. F-Class was a tight race with Richard Bordelon pulling out the win 596-46 over David Rabin’s 595-38 In the 3-P event, […]
Day One: The 2017 Mid Atlantic 6400 The 2017 Mid Atlantic 6400 began today as one would expect the premier east coast 6400 to begin, hard and fast. In the first event, 40 shots with metallic sights at 50 yards, 16 perfect scores were recorded. Leading the pack was Reya Kempley, even though her […]
by Hap Rocketto While leafing through an old Sports Illustrated magazine, as I waited for Dr. Ron Serra, my optometrist, to call me in for my annual pre-outdoor shooting season checkup. my eye caught an article celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the Designated Hitter by Steve Rushin. The minutia and out of the ordinary things […]
2017 Rhode Island NRA Conventional Prone Regional Spring in Rhode Island had been long in coming. The long awaited sun warmed the smallbore range at the Smithfield Sportsmen’s Club as shooters unrolled mats and began assembling their equipment for the 2017 Rhode Island NRA Conventional Prone Regional which also piggy backed the Rhode Island Revolver […]
Joe Farmer – Smallbore Prone Shooting’s Rip Van Winkle By Hap Rocketto Joe Farmer, who passed away on April 30, 2017, was raised in Rifle, Colorado and, perhaps, that is all that might need be said about this outstanding octogenarian rifleman, but the story is more involved then that simple fact. As a young man he found […]
by Hap Rocketto While researching an article on the Herrick Trophy I ran across an old photo taken at the National Matches featuring ‘Kernel Mumm’s Amateurs.’ LTC Morton C. Mumma, the National Match Executive Officer, had organized a pick-up team of some of the most prominent shooters of the day, the likes of Frank Kahrs, […]
New England At JORC Three Position Rifle Championship Five New England Women represented Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire in the 2017 Women’s Division of the 2017 National Junior Olympic 50 meter Rifle Three Position Rifle Championships. Kaitlyn Kutz, Cos Cob Rifle Club, 1135, who is headed to shoot for Web Wright at West […]
The 2017 USA Shooting Junior Olympics has ended for the men shooting both three position and prone. New England representation thinned out after air rifle but five New England riflemen and a transplant gave a good accounting. Jared Desrosiers left Massachusetts for the greener shooting grass of the Olympic Training Center’s Junior Rifle Club. The […]
The 2017 USA Shooting Junior Olympics Men’s 10 meter Air Rifle tournament, in which New England fielded a solid contingent, was con tested April 7-9, 2017 at the Olympic Training Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Rhode Island’s Marcus Mojica, representing the Maspenock Rod and Gun Club boasted the best finish, placing 17, just into the top […]
by Hap Rocketto One of my passions is aviation. It is often said among true aviators that, even in these days of jet powered stealth aircraft; that real airplanes have axles. This harkens back to the early days of flight and fabric covered aeroplanes flown by leather clad airmen peering out from behind goggles as […]
Western Wildcat Wrap Up Note: Because of atmospheric conditions, or some such other problem-probably euphoria, our Assistant Correspondent in the Field, Mark Del Cotto, was only able to send the aggregate results. In a hard fought contest between national champions it came down, as it so often does, to X count. Current National Smallbore Conventional […]
The 59th Western Wildcats Championship Day Three The third day of the 59th Western Wildcat Championship saw iron sight replace scope. The conditions were ratcheted up a bit more providing no relief from the desert heat while the winds continuing to toy with the shooters. Kerry Spurgin returned to the winner’s circle with a 400-32X […]
The 59th Western Wildcats Championship Day Two Note: I have been very remiss in not citing my sources for these reports. Many think I am enjoying the warm sunshine of Arizona watching the matches when, in fact, I am hold up in cold and snowy Rhode Island. Like you I am vicariously enjoying scoping the matches […]
The 59th Western Wildcats Championship Day One The 59th Western Wildcats Championship, the longest continuously running 6400 prone tournament, got underway at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix, Arizona in March 16th. Hard on the heels of the NRA Metric prone championship 40 shooters contested in the metallic and any sight aggregate, an even […]
With the command “Commence Fire!” the 2017 Anysight Smallbore Rifle Metric Prone National Championships got underway. The pack of a half dozen competitors knotted up for the lead for the grand aggregate knew that every shot would count any there would be no quarter given. Starting with the Dewar Match there would be many surprises […]
Pennsylvania’s senior statesman of the sport and shooting icon Elmer Schweitzer passed away on February 28, 2017 at the age of 93. Schweitzer was well known for his shooting skill as well as high quality gunsmith work, coaching, teaching, mentoring, and being a friend to all. Elmer shot his first 1600 in prone competition at the […]
The Purple Heart was authorized by George Washington as a special mark of distinction to Revolutionary War soldiers while he was encamped at Newburgh, New York on August 7, 1782. Only three were presented and the award disappeared into the mists of military bureaucracy for a century and a half. Army Chief of Staff Douglas […]
by Hap Rocketto My wife Margaret was getting tired of me shooting a rifle match at least one day every weekend all summer long. In desperation she finally me asked if she could accompany me one weekend to see what attracted me to the sport which occupied so much of my discretionary time. Thinking it […]
The official dates for the 2017 Smallbore Nationals are: July 8 Check in/Packet pick up/Practice July 9-12 Conventional Prone July 13 Dewar, Randle, Mentor –Awards July 14-15 Conventional 3P July 16-17 Metric 3P, Whistler Boy, Drew Cup – Awards (17)
