The Civilian Marksmanship Program just concluded the Bianchi Cup at the Green Valley Rifle and Pistol Club. Located in Hallsville, Missouri—as it has been for over the last 40 years—the Bianchi Cup draws competitors from all over the world.
What is the Bianchi Cup?
Bianchi Cup, also known as Action Pistol, is a mix of precision and speed. To sum it up simply, it is bullseye shooting with your foot on the gas! Action Pistol has some of its roots in early police qualification courses, with a mix of pure competition thrown in.
In Action Pistol, accuracy is everything, but you still have to be fast! Precision and speed are two hard skills to wrap together, and that challenge is what brings competitors to this sport year after year.
In each of these stages, the goal is to achieve a perfect 480-48x score to give you a match total of 1920-192x. Competitors come back each year, pushing as hard as possible to hit that magical number.
The Hardest “EASY” Targets you will ever shoot
Bianchi Cup/Action Pistol is composed of four main events:
The Practical: Shooting from 10 to 50 yards at the AP-1 Target.
The Barricade: Shooting around a vertical barricade from 10 to 35 yards at the AP-1 Target.
Falling Plates: Knocking down a series of steel plates from 10 to 25 yards.
The Mover: Engaging a laterally moving AP-1 target from 10 to 25 yards.
The AP-1 Target appears generous when you first look at it. You have a 4-inch X-ring, an 8-inch 10-ring, and a 12-inch 8-ring—heck, even if you hit the target completely outside of those rings, you still walk away with five points. If only it were as easy as it sounds. Just wait until that timer goes off, and you are racing for precision.
To make it even harder, we take that same target and speed it across a 60-foot track laterally in just six seconds. You have to hold some serious target lead to hit that 10-ring.
Then there is the plate rack with six plates, all worth 10X, that you shoot from 10 to 25 yards—piece of cake! Once again, when that timer starts, and you know you need to hit all of them, the pressure mounts.
The Barricade is a make-or-break event for a lot of competitors. You shoot from support on either side of the barricade under tight time constraints.
The Guns
Of course, everyone wants to know about the guns. Action Pistol has multiple divisions, and more than likely, you already own a gun that will fit one of them.
Production Division
Just as the name implies, this is for your factory-standard double/single action, striker-fired, and revolvers—iron sights and very limited bells and whistles. You can jump in here with your daily carry gun and be competitive.
Production Optics Division
Following the same general guidelines as the Production division, this category allows for a slide-mounted optic. You can grab your favorite carry gun or USPSA carry optics gun and jump right in.
Metallic Sights Division
This is where the race modifications begin. Competitors utilize specialized iron sights tailored for the moving target, unique grips that aid in prone shooting, and many other legal customizations.
Open Division
This is the high-octane division where just about anything goes. You will see special optics and bases for the moving target, prone shooting grips, and supports for the barricade event. These competitors fight tooth and nail for that perfect 1920 score.
Rimfire Division
Added by the CMP a couple of years ago, the Rimfire division has been an absolute hit. It features subdivisions that mirror each centerfire category. Any excuse to jump into another division and shoot is a good one, and it’s also a great gateway for new shooters.
The Gear
For the most part, all competitors use a two-piece competition shooting belt. While there are multiple brands out there on the line, you will see quite a few Safariland Competition Belts.
In the majority of these divisions, you will see competitors using race-type holsters. The exceptions are the Production and Production Optics divisions, which mandate draw-from-the-top holsters, so Kydex is king there.
To keep running smoothly through the courses, competitors will have eight magazines or speedloaders and some method for carrying them. Some carry them on their belt, and some bring a range bag to the line.
Last but not least is the protective gear. Of course, everyone has eye and ear protection, but you will also see them with padded gloves for their support hand on the barricade.
The Match Experience
The Bianchi Cup is spread out over Memorial Day weekend. Competitors check in on Thursday and immediately start shooting rimfire and their second gun events. That’s right, you can shoot multiple guns at the Bianchi Cup! Any excuse to burn more powder is a good one.
Personally, I had not shot turning targets since the police academy, which was a couple of decades ago. So jumping into the rimfire match with my Spohr 22LR revolver was a no-brainer. It is a great way to break the ice at a new event and to get in a warm-up. With that said, there is plenty of serious competition in rimfire.
I managed a 1901 in rimfire and came in 14th. Walter Johnson of the Army Marksmanship Unit shot a 1920-184x to win the match.
It’s easy to look at those scores and become discouraged as a new shooter, but you shouldn’t. Competing alongside good shooters will help improve your shooting. You can observe their shooting, gear, and other techniques and gain a lot of knowledge that will help you as you advance.
The main match is shot on both Friday and Saturday, with each competitor shooting two events a day. With ample time between events and a practice range available, you can actually practice each event right before you shoot.
Squads are generally divided by firearm type and move through the event as a group. Even though the field is highly competitive, it is a friendly social atmosphere. There is a good mix of professional, team, novice, and youth competitors at Bianchi Cup, which makes it inviting for shooters at all levels.
Bianchi is attended by competitors and teams from all over the globe. Getting the chance to see how the competitors from other countries compete is an added bonus to attending.
For the Pistol Championship, I switched platforms to an STP 2011 to compete in the Open Division. This particular 2011 was set up as a USPSA Open gun and did not take full advantage of the rules, but I still had a blast.
Scores
Some amazing shooters were competing in the Pistol Championship.
- Open Division: Doug Koenig 1920-182x
- Metallic Division: Roman Hauber-1890 133x
- Production Division: Walker Buckman-1870 117x
- Production Optics Division: Anthony Heinauer-1914 159x
Shooting up to 50 yards away, in a time crunch, and trying to hit a four-inch target is no small feat. The scores above are simply amazing and something to strive for in competition.
The Speed Event
The Speed Event was just brought back to the Bianchi Cup after a gap of just over a decade. This was a fun event for the spectator and the competitor alike. After spending the weekend worried about absolute precision, now you had to try to burn down steel targets with blazing speed.
The Speed Event places two competitors head-to-head in a race to knock down five steel targets. They have a maximum of six rounds and have to do it from the draw.
Trying to swap from drilling X-rings to sub 2.5-second runs on steel is TOUGH! Doug Koenig managed to do just that, though, and brought home another win at Bianchi.
Inviting Competition
The Bianchi Cup is an exciting event that pushes a handgun competitor in ways no other handgun competition does. Having to maximize accuracy with no make-up shots ups the ante.
I have long thought that accuracy was paramount in all forms of shooting, and no other competition blends speed and accuracy quite like Action Pistol. I know I’ll be back next year, and you should go dust off that iron and jump in as well.
I would like to thank John Rickards for providing the pictures for this article.
