Updated Information on Perfect Standing Scores
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 12:06 pm
Update Concerning Recent Perfect Standing Score
by Joe Frey
As was reported in the August issue of the IHMSA News, Joe Cullison fired a 60x60 at the West Coast Championship in Big Bore Unlimited Standing. This was thought to be the first perfect standing score, in that the IHMSA World Records showed no evidence of it, and of the several 20+ year standing shooters who were aware of Mr. Cullison’s accomplishment at the time, nobody had ever heard of a perfect standing score. Even the ol’ Google search didn’t show any evidence of an IHMSA perfect score, though many could be found for NRA matches. I must admit, I found this curious because I couldn’t imagine NRA shooters being that much better than IHMSA shooters, knowing how many fantastic and well-accomplished people we have in our sport and our organization.
Well, as it turns out, the NRA may not have better shooters—they just have better record-keeping! Thanks to a few contacts from faithful IHMSA members, as well as the lengthy research performed by Region 1 Director Allan Olsen, it was discovered that this indeed was not the first perfect standing score in IHMSA.
An email from Brian Witzeling was the first one I received, followed by a couple of others, noting that he remembered Jeff Hunt of Kalamazoo, MI shooting a 40x40. When it was brought to our attention that this tremendous feat had possibly been previously accomplished, Allan Olsen took the time to go back through his copies of the IHMSA News, dating clear back to 1991, to verify this.
In the beginning of 1999, Blair Hamilton took over the Big Bore Records Program. His June 1999 article indeed reports a 40x40 BB US score by Jeff Hunt fired on April 25, 1999. Then in the October 1999 edition, he reports Mark Resner (from North Dakota) shooting a perfect score on August 23, 1999 at Bison, SD. In that article, it states that 40x40 as being the 2nd known perfect standing score.
Another informative conversation and great history lesson for me came in a phone call from Lon Pennington. In what turned out to be a quite lengthy conversation, Lon mentioned names such as Marvin Tannehill and Roger Ward as people he believe may have achieved perfection in the standing realm.
While this does not diminish Joe Cullison’s great accomplishment—doing something which had seemingly been forgotten or lost to history certainly is an accomplishment—we certainly appreciate the efforts by our members to get this information corrected. It should be noted too that Joe’s perfect score was a 60x60 as opposed to the 40x40 scores listed above.
In the near future, I plan to get the existing known records posted in the IHMSA News, that way people can see the records we currently have on file. With multiple people conducting the various records programs over the years, one can easily see where maybe something would have gotten lost over time. By posting our existing records, this may bring about other great conversation of times and events which may not be known to current members.
Thanks again for the contacts people have made to me concerning this, to Allan Olsen for his work in researching this, as well as Joe Cullison for performing an accomplishment so exciting that it has allowed us to generate renewed conversation about our sport.
by Joe Frey
As was reported in the August issue of the IHMSA News, Joe Cullison fired a 60x60 at the West Coast Championship in Big Bore Unlimited Standing. This was thought to be the first perfect standing score, in that the IHMSA World Records showed no evidence of it, and of the several 20+ year standing shooters who were aware of Mr. Cullison’s accomplishment at the time, nobody had ever heard of a perfect standing score. Even the ol’ Google search didn’t show any evidence of an IHMSA perfect score, though many could be found for NRA matches. I must admit, I found this curious because I couldn’t imagine NRA shooters being that much better than IHMSA shooters, knowing how many fantastic and well-accomplished people we have in our sport and our organization.
Well, as it turns out, the NRA may not have better shooters—they just have better record-keeping! Thanks to a few contacts from faithful IHMSA members, as well as the lengthy research performed by Region 1 Director Allan Olsen, it was discovered that this indeed was not the first perfect standing score in IHMSA.
An email from Brian Witzeling was the first one I received, followed by a couple of others, noting that he remembered Jeff Hunt of Kalamazoo, MI shooting a 40x40. When it was brought to our attention that this tremendous feat had possibly been previously accomplished, Allan Olsen took the time to go back through his copies of the IHMSA News, dating clear back to 1991, to verify this.
In the beginning of 1999, Blair Hamilton took over the Big Bore Records Program. His June 1999 article indeed reports a 40x40 BB US score by Jeff Hunt fired on April 25, 1999. Then in the October 1999 edition, he reports Mark Resner (from North Dakota) shooting a perfect score on August 23, 1999 at Bison, SD. In that article, it states that 40x40 as being the 2nd known perfect standing score.
Another informative conversation and great history lesson for me came in a phone call from Lon Pennington. In what turned out to be a quite lengthy conversation, Lon mentioned names such as Marvin Tannehill and Roger Ward as people he believe may have achieved perfection in the standing realm.
While this does not diminish Joe Cullison’s great accomplishment—doing something which had seemingly been forgotten or lost to history certainly is an accomplishment—we certainly appreciate the efforts by our members to get this information corrected. It should be noted too that Joe’s perfect score was a 60x60 as opposed to the 40x40 scores listed above.
In the near future, I plan to get the existing known records posted in the IHMSA News, that way people can see the records we currently have on file. With multiple people conducting the various records programs over the years, one can easily see where maybe something would have gotten lost over time. By posting our existing records, this may bring about other great conversation of times and events which may not be known to current members.
Thanks again for the contacts people have made to me concerning this, to Allan Olsen for his work in researching this, as well as Joe Cullison for performing an accomplishment so exciting that it has allowed us to generate renewed conversation about our sport.