by Hap Rocketto
In smallbore prone shooting there seems to be an underlying current of thought that if you can’t win the match on the firing line you might stand a chance in the stat shack. This belief seems to grow from the old statistical theory that given an infinite number of monkeys and typewriters one of the simians will hunt and peck out the entire works of Shakespeare. Using this as a logical starting point some shooters believe that given an infinite number of dollar bills and challenge cards the score will grow larger. I do not subscribe to that school of thought.
I very rarely challenge a score. I very rarely win a match but I don’t think that the two are connected. I don’t challenge because I believe that there are precious few errors made in scoring. Unless winning the challenge will vault me into a medal position it is not worth the effort. My eye is as good as the next and my estimates are usually the same as the scorer’s official count. I believe the folks manning the scoring tables are working in good faith and are fair enough to give me every point I have earned.
A challenge is, if you will pardon the pun, a coin toss as far as I am concerned. At Perry in 1992 I was captain of the All Guard Team. The preliminary bulletin for the iron sight team match had us first with the Marines and the Army Reserve close behind. We did not have confidence in our unofficial count and thought that it might be a point or two higher. With time running out and the Marines and Reserves lined up at the challenge window I fell victim to the darker angels of my soul and put my money down. When the final results were posted we had lost points and plummeted to third! My teammates were all good spirited about it but they had all been on the stage before. It was a long time before I recovered. I learned a valuable lesson: never challenge when you are in first place!
In 1993 I was again the Guard team captain. This year the team had obtained a restraining order from the Ottawa County Municipal Court preventing me from coming within 100 feet of the challenge window on team day. They also had a shoot-to-kill agreement between them. If any member of the team saw me at the challenge window, with money in my hand, after the team match I was fair game. This time the preliminary bulletin had us third and we thought we had more points. As you might imagine I was reluctant to challenge. While some members of the team went off to get the judge to cancel the restraining order the others dragged me, kicking and screaming, to the window. When the final bulletin was published we the champions and I finally got my trip to the stage.
It was a nice finish to what is laughingly known as my military shooting career for I retired from the National Guard a month later. I thank my friends for their understanding and faith. But, as you can see, a challenge is a coin toss.
