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.
Heavy gusting winds, thunder lighting, rain, and hail did not deter 2017 US Roberts Team regained possession of the prodigious trophy by defeating the British 3838 to 3827. Shooting a Dewar on International targets Eric Uptagrafft, Hank Gray, Mark Del Cotto, Morgen Dietrich, Kevin Nevius, Mike Seery, Billy Azzinaro, Matt Chezem, Howard Pitts, and Kerry […]
2017 Rhode Island Outdoor 3P NRA Regional and RIRRA State Championship It was a gem of a summer morning, warm, light breeze, warm, and a bright sky, when Range Officer Brenda Jacob called the shooters to the line at the South County Rod and Gun Club for the prone stage of the 2017 Rhode Island […]
by Hap Rocketto One of the lessons I try to teach young shooters is to expect the unexpected. In a rifle match things can, in the words of Robbie Burns, “Gang aft agley.” You have to be prepared for events that are outside of your control and respond to them with a measured plan of […]
DAY THREE BLACK HAWK OPEN: Congratulations to the trophy winners and thanks to everyone who attended! Thanks too to all those who made this match work so smoothly. A quick review of results: Winner – Mounsey – Eric Uptagrafft 3199-283 Regional 2nd – Mark DelCotto 3199-279 Regional 3rd – Howard Pitts 3197-256 Iron Agg […]
Day Four: The 2017 Mid Atlantic 6400 The four day 640 shot grind began its final day with a leadoff 400-39X at the hands of Justin Tracy. Two thirds of the competitor cleaned the match with Reya Kempley tailing Tracy by and X for second. George Harris pulled into second on a tie breaker […]
DAY TWO: BLACK HAWK OPEN MATCH More beautiful weather to match some really nice targets! Eric Uptagrafft continued his winning ways taking the Iron Aggregate and the Harry Tevis Memorial Trophy with a 1599-141X over first aster Mark DelCotto who shot a 1599-133X. Uptagrafft was winner of the first three matches of the day […]
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 […]
