The United States Benchrest Hall of Fame was established by the staff of Rifle Magazine in 1972. It set the criteria for induction to shoot one’s way into the Hall by acquiring ten points by winning yardages, grand aggregates or the Three-Gun championship at the IBS and NBRSA Group Nationals.
The following is a high-level update of the United States Benchrest Hall of Fame based on the results after the 2019 IBS and NBRSA Nationals. The Hall is administered by Rex Reneau who will make the presentations sometime during 2020.
First off, there was some fine shooting at the NBRSA Nationals at Phoenix by Paul Mitchell, who literally shot his way into the Hall of Fame in one nationals. He had six points prior to last week but attained ten more at Phoenix for a total of 16. That is certainly some outstanding shooting! Congratulations Paul.
Also at Phoenix, Mike Conry attained three points which added to his nine going into the week, which pushed Mike over the threshold. Fine shooting Mike and congratulations.
Of note also is the fine shooting by Ed Adams at Phoenix, who won the two yardages in Heavy Varmint, and of course the HV Grand Aggregate. This four-point feat brought Ed's points total to nine; which has him knocking on the door.
One last comment, Wayne Campbell's outstanding shooting at the IBS Nationals at Holton. MI earlier this year, where he won eight points, brought his lifetime total to 56. This allowed Wayne to move past Lester Bruno into second place. Lester has 50 points life-to-date, certainly no small feat; plus Lester still continues to post great results after some 40 years of competition. Congratulations Wayne and Lester on outstanding representation of the sport.
And, of course, it goes without saying that the best group benchrest shooter of all time is Tony Boyer; who has a lifetime total of 176 points. We know that Tony and the sport suffered a tremendous loss this past year when his wife Faye passed. Faye is the only female member of the United States Benchrest Hall of Fame and will be sorely missed.
The complete summary in Excel format will be posted on the NBRSA website. The totals for the Hall members through October 2019 are as follows:
UNITED STATES BENCHREST HALL OF FAME
1 TONY BOYER 176
2 WAYNE CAMPBELL 56
3 LESTER BRUNO 50
4 ALAN EUBER (D) 48
5 LARRY COSTA 40
6 GENE BUKYS 35
7 GARY OCOCK 34
8 ED WATSON (D) 28
9 DON POWELL 28
10 DON GERACI 26
11 RON HOEHN (D) 26
12 BOB SCARBROUGH, JR 26
13 TOM GILLMAN (D) 25
14 LOWELL FREI 25
15 PERRY MORTON (D) 22
16 CHARLES HUCKEBA 21
17 JACK NEARY 20
18 WALT BERGER 20
19 JEF FOWLER (D) 18
20 LEE EUBER 17
21 RUSSELL BOOP 17
22 BART SAUTER 17
23 JACK DEMING (D) 16
24 JIM STEKL 16
25 PAUL GOTSCHALL (D) 16
26 JOE KRUPA 16
27 HARLEY BAKER 16
28 PAUL MITCHELL 16
29 L.E.(RED) CORNELISON 15
30 SMILEY HENSLEY 15
31 BILL FORRESTER 15
32 RICHARD MARETZO 14
33 FERRIS PINDELL (D) 14
34 WARREN PAGE (D) 14
35 P.J. HART 14
36 JIM BORDEN 14
37 ALLEN ARNETTE 14
38 MYLES HOLLISTER (D) 13
39 ED SHILEN 13
40 DAVE HALL 13
41 TOM "SPEEDY" GONZALEZ 13
42 FRED HASECUSTER 12
43 REX RENEAU 12
44 PAT BYRNE 12
45 FAYE BOYER. (D) 12
46 JEFF GAIDOS 12
47 MIKE CONRY 12
48 GERALD MASKER 11
49 RICHARD BAKER 10
50 JOHN BROWN JR. 10
51 DWIGHT SCOTT 10
52 MIKE RATIGAN 10
HONORARY INDUCTEES
1 HOMER CULVER (D)
2 HARVEY DONALDSON (D)
3 SKIP GORDON
4 CLYDE HART
5 ROBERT W. HART
6 ROSS SHERMAN
7 RAY SPEER
8 MERLE H. (MIKE) WALKER (D)
9 L.E. (SAM) WILSON
10 NATE BOOP (D)
11 LOWELL HOTTENSTEIN (D)
