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Shooting USA - The Bianchi Cup 2010
 We’re in Columbia, Missouri for the World Championship of NRA Action Pistol Shooting. It's the Bianchi Cup, that’s making a big comeback with lots of new shooters, thanks to more cash and prizes than ever before.
The Bianchi Cup is widely regarded as the richest handgun tournament in the world with total cash sponsorships of $125,000. A significant portion of that prize money is reserved for new shooters in the sport. Midway USA has donated $15,000 for first time shooter awards. That’s helped increase the competitors to more than 200 signing up for the match.
 While many of the shooters may be new, the four events that make up the Bianchi Cup have been the same for over thirty years.
The Barricades: Shooters engage the tombstone targets form both sides of the barricades, within the time limit, and from four distances back to 35 yards.
The Practical: The tombstone targets engaged from ten yards all the way back to 50 yards. Time limits get longer as the shooters move back. Competitors have the option to go prone at the far distances to steady their shots.
 The Falling Plates: Six steel plates, eight inches in diameter, are engaged from ten back to twenty five yards, all within time limits, six seconds at the front and adding a second at each line moving back. The prone position is an option at the far distances.
The Mover: A tombstone target running back and forth at ten feet per second. Competitors shoot six shots per pass at ten and 15 yards, three shots with each pass at 20 and 25 yards for a total of 48 shots.
The tombstone Bianchi target is used on three of the four events to measure the shooters accuracy and score. The outer portion is worth five points. The 12 inch diameter ring scores 8 points. The 8 inch diameter is the 10 ring. In the center is the 4 inch X ring, scoring both 10 points and an X. The shooter’s X Count is used as a tie-breaker at the top of the leader board. Plates score 10 points and an X.
Related Links
History’s Guns:
 John Browning's big .50 is now an historic icon, even though it's still on the battlefield 90 years later, equipped with high-tech thermal sights and remote controls on the Stryker fighting vehicle.
It fires a half-inch diameter projectile at the rate of 500 rounds per minute. It is effective at nearly a mile and a quarter, and has become the standard to which the world’s full-auto firearms are compared.
The Army adopted the Browning .50 Cal in 1921, and it is still on the battlefield nearly nine decades later. The Browning M2, or Ma Deuce, to its admirers, has more than earned a place of honor as one of History’s Guns.
See our Second Half Hour - Sighting In
The Bianchi Experience
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