The Bianchi Cup is a major action pistol tournament in the United States, held in May at the Green Valley Rifle & Pistol Club in Missouri. The Bianchi Cup is the only major shooting tournament that has retained its original course of fire since its inception.[1]
Due to the diversity of stages,[2] the tournament is widely considered one of the most difficult championships in all of the shooting sports.[3][4]
In 2023, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) took over the match and rebranded it the CMP Bianchi Cup. [5] Title sponsor of the CMP Bianchi Cup is the MidwayUSA.
CMP Bianchi Cup events
The CMP Bianchi Cup consists of four events: the Practical Event, Moving Target (Mover) Event, Barricade Event, and the Falling Plates Event. Competitors shoot from both standing and prone positions and are also required to shoot with strong and weak hands at various stages. There are no makeup shots in the CMP Bianchi Cup, adding to its difficulty. Competitors fire in Open, Metallic, Production and Production Optic classes within each event.
The Practical Event: Competitors fire at distances from 10 yards to 50 yards under varying time limits from the shooting line.
The Barricade Event: Competitors fire at targets on either side of the barricade at different distances and under varying time limits from within shooting boxes and behind barricades.
The Falling Plate Event: Competitors fire at eight-inch round steel plates arranged in banks of six at distances from 10 to 25 yards under varying time limits.
The Moving Target Event: Competitors fire from within shooting boxes at distances ranging from 10 to 25 yards at a target moving from left to right, with the target exposed for six seconds.
The event draws top shooters from all over the world. Past international competitors have hailed from Austria, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Saudi Arabia (1987–1989), Republic of South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan (1996), Thailand (1993 and 1994), and the United Kingdom.
Bianchi Cup History
The Bianchi cup is the second longest running pistol championship in the world. The event was created in 1979 by former police officer John Bianchi of holster maker Bianchi International as a Law Enforcement Training Match, in conjunction with 1975 IPSC World Champion, Ray Chapman[6][7] and Richard Nichols. The first Bianchi Cup competition was held in 1979.[8] In 1984, the National Rifle Association re-designated the event the NRA Bianchi Cup, National Action Pistol Championship. The competition has four stages, which make up the match aggregate. Each of these stages consists of 48 rounds for a total possible score of 480 for each stage and 1920 for a perfect overall score.
The Bianchi Cup is traditionally held the week before Memorial Day weekend (i.e. the week before the last Monday in May) every year since its inception in 1979. It is the first tournament that turns the sport of competition shooting as a whole from amateur to professional status by offering the winner a large cash prize in addition to trophies.
Before NRA took control in 1984, the overall winner took home the entire cash purse of $30,000 in addition to the Bianchi Cup itself. It has its origins in the law enforcement shooting community. With the creation of the Production Division, it has become one of the fastest growing disciplines in the action shooting community.
The first NRA World Action Pistol Championship match was held in the United States at the present home of the NRA Bianchi Cup in Columbia, MO. The year 1994 was the first time there were five countries competing for the Open Team event and three countries competing for the Women's Team event. Thereafter the World Action Pistol Championship was held in Adelaide Australia 1997, Hamilton New Zealand 1999, Italy 2001 and again in the USA in Columbia MO in 2004. The NRA World Action Pistol Championships were then to be rotated to sponsor countries every two years from 2006 (Australia, Blacktown Rifle & Pistol Club) and returning to the United States every eight years (2012). In 2008 it was conducted in Hamilton, New Zealand, November 5–8. For 2010, the event returned to Sydney, Australia at the Blacktown Rifle & Pistol Club.[9]
The Bianchi Cup has been one of the three championships of action shooting's triple crown, along with the IPSC U.S. Nationals, and the Steel Challenge.[10]
Since its inception in 1979, with the 1985 championship year being the exception, the Bianchi Cup has retained its original courses of fire, consisting of four matches: Practical, Barricade, Moving Target and Falling Plates. Speed, accuracy, and precision are equally important factors and are considered fundamentals that form the core of the match, but most importantly, strong mental discipline on match days is the ultimate key to winning the Championship.
In 1985, the Practical Event was temporarily replaced by the 60-shot, 600-point International Rapid Fire Event, almost identical to that of the ISSF25 m Rapid Fire Pistol Match. Initially, the main differences for the Bianchi Cup/NRA Action Pistol version was that it was to be fired from a standing, hands-over-shoulder starting position, gun holstered, on five Bianchi D-1 "Tombstone" cardboard targets placed 25 yards downrange, using center fire handguns, with the option of using the ground as support if one can make the time limit without incurring any late shot penalties. The total possible score for that year was 2040 points plus 204 x's. This sudden deviation from the original format proved unpopular, so organizers dropped it and re-instated the Practical Event the following year since.
The NRA National Action Shooting Tournament was a money-winning event. For his victory in 2008, Doug Koenig took home the 2008 Bianchi Cup trophy, plus total cash awards of over $8,000. Robert Vadasz Metallic Sight win netted him over $5000. For 2009, total prize money awarded increased over 30% from the previous year.
From 2009 on, the NRA Bianchi Cup offered an Open Division, Metallic Division and the new Production Division to bring more shooters to the sport. The NRA also introduced a Celebrity Pro-Am as a Saturday Event. The fan favorite spectacle included participants from the music, film and television branches of the entertainment industry including Mark Wills, Michael Peterson, Marshall Teague and Michael Talbott. Cowboy Mounted Shooting sensation Kenda Lenseigne made her first appearance at the Celebrity Pro-AM in 2010 and won.
The first competitor to fire a perfect score was Doug Koenig of Pennsylvania in 1990 with a 1920-157X.
The inaugural CMP Bianchi Cup in 2023 saw tremendous support from the 135 individuals who participated in the event, including several international competitors from Australia, Barbados, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.
Pictured above at the 2010 World Action Pistol Championship are (from l. to r.) Jerry Miculek, Carl Bernosky, Julie Goloski-Golob, Bruce Piatt, and 2010 World Action Pistol Champion Doug Koenig
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↑ Adler, Dennis (2010). John Bianchi, an American Legend. Minneapolis, MN 55425: Blue Book Publications Inc. p.46. ISBN978-1-886768-88-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
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