(GunReports.com) — Finishing with a perfect points score of 1920-183x, defending champion Doug Koenig battled through his final event at the 2013 MidwayUSA/NRA Bianchi Cup Championships to win his 15th MidwayUSA & NRA Bianchi Cup overall title. But it wasn’t a cakewalk. Pushed through every stage of the competition, it was exactly what competitors and fans expected to see, NRAblog reports.
Out of the four events that combine for the Bianchi Cup title, top shooters Doug Koenig, Carl Bernosky and Bruce Piatt all had the same one left – Moving Target.
Moving Target is a four stage event shot at 10, 15, 20 and 25 yards. Competitors have six seconds to fire six shots at a target moving along a sixty foot run – two runs per stage.
Piatt was up first. A perfect points score until that point, he dropped two points to cement his final score at 1918-176x.
Now, a 1918 is a score almost every shooter dreams of, but this was for the title. In the zero-sum game of top level action pistol shooting, anything less than perfection is likely to cost you a championship.
Unless Bernosky or Koenig dropped any points, which is always possible, the title would fall with one of the two.
Having a place in the spotlight is no surprise for Bernosky … when it comes to high power rifles. As a 10-time NRA National High Power Rifle Champion, he’s been there before. But this was action pistol. You can’t drop points here. Not if you expect to win.
Burning through shot after shot, Bernosky was steady and steely while recording the top Moving Target total for the match, a 480-43x. Having left nothing on the table, it was all up to Koenig, would he seize another title or fall to a new champ? Aside from needing to stay perfect to match Bernosky, Koenig needed more tie-breaking X’s to secure the title – so that’s just what he did.
