2009 Masters caters to youth as Koenig notches 16th title
Story and Photos
by Pierre Munson
The 2009 Masters International Shooting Championship was held at PASA Park in Barry, IL, Aug. 6-7 with the shootoffs, steak dinner, and awards ceremony on Aug. 8. Doug Koenig won the match for the 16th time.
Tom Langley put in his best performance to date by placing second overall and earning the High Sportsman award. Langley was followed by last year’s High Sportsman, Lee Atkins, and then Ed Bowling. Both Atkins and Bowling were promoted to Pro class based on their scores in last year’s match. Langley and Atkins were separated by 1.92 match points while Atkins and Ed Bowling were only .14 match points apart. These three shooters are so closely matched that it will be interesting to see who prevails in next year’s match which will be the 25th anniversary of the Masters.
Other top shooters include: Steve Taylor, High Stock; Ed Bowling, High Revolver; Frank Glenn (previous Masters winner), High Law Enforcement; and Bill Shope, High Senior. In Saturday’s shootoffs, Lee Edwards won the Local Hero match. Edwards also shot in the High Sixteen shootoff. He won every pairing except the last where he lost to Doug Koenig.
The theme for this year’s match was the encouragement of young shooters. The minimum age for the Junior category at the Masters is 16. This year, special sub-Junior events were held to encourage young shooters to get involved. Rules and requirements were modified to allow the sub-Juniors to participate without compromising safety.
For example, the Precision event allowed two hands to be used. The Action event allowed a start from either a holster or the ready position. The Long Range event was shot free style with .22 equipment at distances of 75 and 100 meters. Any hit on a Long Range target was scored as successful even if the plate did not fall.
Four competitors entered the sub-Junior event. Match Director Larry Stulhman brought his grandson, 11-year-old Coby Hoag of Palmyra, MO. Ron Weaver brought his grandson, 12-year-old Justin Taliaferro of Midland, TX. Greg Peine brought his nephew, 13-year-old Daniel Garcia of Richmond, TX. Doug Koenig, brought his 10-year-old son, Trevor, of Albutis, PA. Trevor Koenig was the proud winner of the sub-Junior match. Father and son both seemed quite pleased when Trevor received his prize at the awards ceremony.
Trevor commented, “I like shooting with all of the people here. I like the Action Event.”
Trevor won the Action event but he faced a stiff challenge from Daniel Garcia who was only 1.20 seconds off the pace to place second in Action and second overall. Garcia said, “I’m really excited about the Action event. Not only is it a challenge, but it is also something new for me.” Many of the experienced competitors who watched Daniel shoot observed how smooth his Action runs were.
Justin Taliaferro took second in Long Range and third overall. He shot the match last year and has attended more Masters matches than the other sub-Juniors. Justin said, “I enjoy the match because it is a melting pot of styles and techniques. I also enjoy seeing the professionals like Bruce Piatt and Doug Koenig at the match.”
Coby Hoag spoke for all of us when he was able to see a nine-inch plate fall at 100 meters after he hit it at the Long Range event. He turned to granddad Stulhman and with a big smile and said, “That was cool.”
After the match, Bill Shope had the following comments regarding the match in general and his need to borrow an Action gun at the last minute, “It felt great to be able to compete in Masters XXIV, but it was a struggle to try to get in shape for the match by starting the training regimen only one week in advance. If I start now, I might do better next year, so look out.
“The debacle with the action gun was due to my hurried packing to depart for Barry. I intended to use an S&W 1911 .38 Super in the stock event but instead brought a similar looking S&W 1911 .45 ACP. I merely opened the zipper on the case and barely glanced inside before packing it. This would have been OK except that the .45 had fixed sights and required a 6-o’clock hold to hit center on the plates, somewhat unnatural for me. Steve Taylor loaned me his stock .40 S&W after allowing me to try it out. Steve cautioned me not to beat him with his own gun, however.”
“In a previous Masters, I had two otherwise identical comp guns, one in .45 and the other in .38 Super. I must have been nervous on race day as I warmed up with practice draws in the ready area, because when I loaded for the first string on Stage 1, something dropped on the top of my shoe. It was a loaded .38 Super round that had dribbled down the .45 bore and fell out of the end of the compensator. I had inadvertently pulled the .45 out of my bag and warmed up with it, attempting to load it with a .38 Super magazine when I got to the line. The magazine, of course, fit fine but there was a major discrepancy in the caliber size. This was back when ESPN was filming the match. Another milestone of competitive prowess for me?
“As you might know, my favorite event at the Masters is Long Range and I prefer to use a stock XP100 in both Stock and Open classes. Adapting to the center grip Zytel stock and shooting left-handed has worked well for me over the years. I often can shoot better than many of the custom forward grip guns with compensators. I noticed this year that several other shooters turned in good scores with stock guns. The XP100 and similar guns like the Savage Striker are superbly accurate “out of the box,” and a lot of fun to shoot. There’s nothing better than a hillside of bright colored metallic targets begging to be knocked over.”
Steve Taylor, the winner in the Stock category, offered these thoughts on the match.
“My first Masters International, as it once was billed, was the second one I think, in 1987. I didn’t know what to expect, whether I’d like it or not, and I really couldn’t afford to spend any $$ for guns. However, I ponied up for a Thompson Contender in 7-30 Waters on the assumption that if I didn’t like the match I could sell it easier than I could an XP! I shot a PPC revolver for action and a High Standard Trophy for precision. Finished something like 15th Sportsman and was fairly hooked, not just on the match format itself, but on the tremendous SPECTACLE for lack of better descriptive ability! To me it was like a medieval joust with all the colors and people. Just awesome! First the host city of Quincy, IL, had banners across the streets welcoming the Master’s International, then the country lane down to the range was lined with pennants and flags from different states and countries! On arriving at the range the hillside was covered with spectator vehicles and the owners were being transported from the parking areas to the range in tractor-drawn wagons. As you passed the parking area the first thing you saw was two immense tents full of both major and minor vendors and match sponsors! Such an event I had never seen, much less participated in!
“Next, seeing nearly ALL the pro-type shooters I had seen mostly in the magazines. I had met a couple before at IPSC Area matches, but here were ALL of ’em at once! I did wonder that first year just who these poor ol’ guys with white hair were. My mistake, of course!
Allen Fulford, two-time national civilian Camp Perry champ, Frank Glenn, the Arizona gunsmith, and a host of others including a number of shooters from other countries. The mind reeled! While shooting, knees shook just to be on the same range with all of ’em.
“This year I shot both Open and Stock classes with varying degrees of success. I finished 5th overall with the Open gun. The only regret I have from that particular finish? My best friend beat me!
“Ed Bowling finished 4th overall, and worse...he beat my by a grand total eighteen hundredths of a second in the action event! Grrrrr!
“I actually won the Stockgun match, (9th overall) mostly by not failing terribly in any one event! I shot the same Trophy in the Precision Event that I shot in ’87. I shot an STI .40 with open sights in the Action Event and a Remington XP100 in 7mmBenchrest for the Long Range Event. I didn’t win any one of the three events, but that’s the great thing about the entire Master’s format! You do not have to be the world’s best steel shooter, or the world’s most accurate .22 shooter, or the world’s greatest silhouette shooter. What you MUST do to win is master each of these disciplines well enough that you are at least proficient. Oh, maybe match nerves here are the single hardest thing to master,” Taylor concluded.
Special mention should be made of the efforts that Lee Atkins (Masters CEO) and Larry Stuhlman (Match director) put in every year to assure that the match will be held. Vital contributions were also made by: Lee Edwards for putting together the prize table which was valued at more than $16,000 this year; Greg Smith who provided the ATVs for the Long Range event; Doug Alexander, who does all of the scoring, and all of the range officers who work so hard during the match.
Next year, the 25th anniversary of the Masters, will offer some special events to commemorate the occasion. Watch the Masters website: themasters.org/ for updates, rules, applications, links to photos, and results from previous matches.
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