1999 American Handgunner World Shootoff

American Handgunner, Nov-Dec, 1999 by Nyle Leatham

Join perennial match winner Jerry Barnhart and the top shooters in the world for an exciting man-on-man championship.

A whole passel of pistol shooters went home winners from the 1999 American Handgunner World Shootoff Championship at Montrose, Cob., their car trunks bulging with prizes, among them over a dozen custom guns.

Jerry Barnhart from Michigan comes from a winning career in IPSC shooting, a multi-time national champion. He was overall winner of the first American Handgunner World Shootoff eight years ago, and he did it again this year in the grand finale. Having gone down to the wire against challenger Chad Dietrich all week and then finally beating him, his final battle Sunday was against Stock Class grandmaster D.R. Middlebrooks.

Observers agreed D.R. was simply wired in and shooting well beyond the ability his friends had ever seen him demonstrate before. Left in his wake were some noteworthies, including IPSC Standard Class champ Ted Bonnet, against whom D.R. won top Stock Auto, and the legendary Jerry Miculek who had just won Open Revolver over Vic Picket.

The final spectacle and maybe best competition of the match occurs when the top of each class goes against other class winners. Target handicaps are used to equalize the disparity of guns. For example, the Cowboy winner shoots his single-action against Open revolvers, but with one less target.

This has always produced some surprises. No one there will ever forget the year Jerry Miculek, with his revolver, outpaced Jethro Dionisio's lightning auto to take the overall.

In this year's heart-stopping final run, Barnhart's six targets and stop plate were blasted down handily to clinch his three-year winning streak.

Barnhart had words of praise for the match and its sponsors. On accepting the trophy, sweaty face smiling and hands still trembling as he tried to switch off the adrenalin, the intense competitor known as "The Burner" pretty well defined the match as "a maximum challenge to top end or beginning shooters."

"Every year I'm glad when it's over. This match never gets easier," Jerry said.

Every shooter there-- beginner or veteran, professional or tyro-- after those four wonderful, hard, intense days of shooting against their equally talented friends, knew exactly how Jerry felt. That's why almost all would soon be making plans for next year.

Despite the ups and downs of the shooting sports overall in a hard year, and with a lot of events to choose from, the Shootoff held its own with 211 entrants, a handful off from last year. Match director Paul Miller said he was happy with the turn-out, especially with the fact that 71 first-timers joined the ranks. A special alumnus shoot honored the remarkable number of 52 who qualified as five-year (or more) veterans. Jerry B. won that too.

Political Statement

It's doubtful any shooter in Montrose participated just to make a political statement. They came to shoot the game they believe in and love. Yet it was a local reporter and sports editor Kurt Zimmer of the Montrose Daily Press who, in a basically fair and unbiased story, pointed out what everyone knew but didn't bother to vocalize-- this match was taking place relatively unaffected by, soon after and not far from Littleton, scene of the recent high school shooting tragedy.

Further, the match took place with no diminishing of the depth of personal tragedies and social problems, but with a clear vision as to the merits of continuing lawful gun ownership and shooting.

In a sense, as the 200-plus shooters fired 1,000-plus shots each in a safe and controlled discipline, each of the estimated 200,000 to 300,000 rounds fired that week was a vote of confidence. A vote for the sport, the American Handgunner match itself, the devoted work of Paul and Kerry Miller, for fair rule of meaningful laws and ultimately for American constitutional freedoms.

World's Best Match

Counting only the average number of shots sent downrange per competitor, the American Handgunner World Shootoff is arguably the best pistol match in the world.

If our measure of merit expands to include the essentials of a great course of fire that is both fun to shoot and fun to watch; that is sensible, safe and has fair rules properly administered; that offers a wide choice of options for firearms types, for a variety of ages and experience levels, along with practice matches, side matches, gunsmithing and shooting seminars, then the American Handgunner World Shootoff Championship is the best stand-alone ongoing pistol match in the world. (We are not comparing it with individual IPSC Level III to Level V matches, USPSA area matches or national contests which are part of greater organized disciplines.)

And further in our assessment, if we add in the intangibles that define the unique character of any worthwhile shooting event-- location, weather, scheduling, scenery, food, accommodations, friendly local support, extracurricular activities enough for a full family vacation, plus a great bunch of old friends to meet and shoot with again, and a great bunch of new friends sure to become old friends-- then, did we say it before-- the American Handgunner World Shootoff Championship is the best pistol match in the world.