The purpose of the “Shooter Spotlight” is to help shooters get to know their fellow competitors a little bit better. We cover a wide range of shooters from “Marksman to Master.” This is the 36th interview in the series.
Where do you call home?
I am from Carter, Montana where I lived the first 24 years of my life. After entering the US Army, I called Fort Benning, GA home for the next 25 years. After retiring from the military I moved to Colorado Springs, CO and have lived here 22 years. I call CO my home now.
How did you get involved in shooting competitively?
My father started me when I was about 10 years old. After about two years of learning the basics I started shooting in a senior indoor 4-position league twice a week. We had no junior club then so I shot with the men and entered smallbore indoor matches in the state and continued to develop until I went to college.
What is a little known fact about yourself that your fellow competitors might not know?
I really wanted to play basketball and baseball. I was too short for basketball and there were no programs for kids in those days, no little league so to speak. I was really competitive so my outlet was getting involved in target shooting. This was something I was competitive in and the more I trained the more success I received. If there had been little league baseball I probably would now have progressed very far in target shooting.
What do you consider your finest shooting achievement?
There are several. I always loved the team competitions in the World Championships in International shooting. To win the team match was the ultimate. I was a part of 20 gold medal winning teams in the World Championships and in this I take great pride. Winning the gold medal in Munich in 1972 in 300 meter after coming back from Vietnam to the Marksmanship Unit in February 1970, and having little time to prepare for the US trials was probably my greatest achievement. I decided my best chance to make the team and win a medal was in 300 meters since Bassham and Writer were the favorites to make the team in smallbore 3-pos, I knew my chances to beat one of them out was very slim, so I concentrated on 300 meters.
What is your favorite post match drink?
I don’t really have a favorite. I eat very little before I shoot and never drink coffee. Alcohol in moderation the night before doesn’t affect me, but wine is a no-no. Wine seems to stay in your system and carries over into the next day in the match.
Do you have a favorite shooting range?
By far and away Camp Perry. I have had great success at Perry and when I arrive at the front gate I get the feeling I am home and this is my range and no one beats me on my range. Of course, this is not true, but that is the positive feeling I get when I arrive.
Do you have any short term and/or long term goals?
I want to win the prone aggregate at Perry one more time so I can be the oldest shooter to achieve this mark.
Long term goal? To be able to continue to shoot iron sights and be competitive for as long as I can. I don’t want to become a scope only shooter. I shoot to win, not to participate. Always have and always will.
What shooting skill are you currently focusing your energy on?
Trying to focus on smallbore prone, especially iron sights.
Thanks Lones for sharing a little bit about yourself with the pronematch.com community!
I really enjoyed the article about Lones Wigger. I first met Lones at a small bore Regional in Winter Haven Fl. in 1973. In Jan 74, I ran the first ever, South Carolina Position State Championship, in Spartainburg. Lones was getting ready to shoot the scope match and needed to adjust his scope focus. He took a pair of channel locks and proceeded to strip the threads on the scope and leave deep marks on the scope body, essentially destroying it. Then asked “Who has a scope for me to borrow”. I was slower than the othes, and before I could hide it, he came over as asked to borrow it. The scope was returned in good order, but I was very nervous about Lones’s gunsmithing skills being used on my rifle scope.
I had a chance to briefly chat with Col. Wigger at the 1980 Smallbore Championships at Camp Perry (the year the USA boycotted the Moscow Olympics-which he was a member). I asked him “How do you approach your shooting, to be so successful for so many years?” He replied, “I pray for rain. Everyone can shoot well in good weather. Not everyone can shoot well in poor conditions. I practice in rainy and windy conditions. I know I won’t do as well as I would in perfect conditions, but I also know I will shoot better than most of the others in poor conditions, because they don’t practice in those conditions. That’s why I pray for rain. It allows me to separate from the pack.”
If that isn’t a metaphor for life, I don’t know what is. For the record, that was my first outdoor competition. I was a midshipman at the US Naval Academy at the time, shooting on the USNA smallbor squad that summer. I had one day I outshot Col. Wigger during one of the any sight matches (100 yard prone). I had a chance to chat with him the evening I out shot him. He was very gracious, and illuminating. To me, he was Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan rolled into one. He is the King of shooting. He signed my meal card that evening “Nice Shooting. Lones Wigger.”
Percival F. “Rick” Coggins