kneeling and standing. For all that, in the 1928
World Championships in Loosduinen, The Nether- lands, we again fi nished third behind the same two as the year before: Swit- zerland (with a new record score) and Sweden. We beat the Swiss prone but trailed them by 59 points standing. In 1929, we improved our placement to a more respectable second place, but found ourselves outgunned by two Swiss: Hartmann and Zimmermann, who both shot record scores of 1114. American Harry Renshaw was third with a 1091. The Swiss pair out shot our top two (Renshaw and Russell Seitzinger) by 47 points and the Swiss beat us by 45. The Swedes, on their home range in Stockholm, could do no better than third. The third time with the
Martinis was the charm. Our 1930s team, comprising J. B. Sharp, Morris Fisher, Bill Bruce, Harry Renshaw, Frank Parsons, Emmet Swanson, Russell Seitzing- er, J. K. Boles (captain), J. S.
The Martini meter free rifl e in .30-’06 had a fast lock time. With these rifl es the U.S. regained the world champion- ship title at 300 meters in 1930.
Hatcher (adjutant), and S. R. Hinds (coach) turned in superb try-out scores, and neither bad weather nor very odd range construction in Antwerp, Belgium, could deter us from a victory over the Swiss. Our score of 5441, while one point short of the Swiss world record, was 34 points ahead of our rivals. We won standing and prone, leaving only a kneel- ing victory to provide the Swiss with some consola- tion. Harry Renshaw was high on the U.S. team with an even 1100, good for second place overall and a record American score—one that would not be exceeded by a U.S. shooter for 22 years. We celebrated our World
Championship win that year by withdrawing from interna- tional free rifl e competition. The NRA had been consid- ering the move for years but had not wanted to leave the fi eld as long as we were losing. Now, though, we were on top again and could retire without looking like losers running from a fi ght. The scant popularity of the free rifl e game in the U.S. was cited as a reason for dropping out, along with the diffi culty of getting adequate equipment and the rising popularity of the
smallbore game. We would concentrate on the latter, thus starting the cycle of Pershing/Roberts interna- tional teams that lasts to this day.
So ended the fi rst Ameri- can decade in international shooting. There would be more and greater to come, but over two decades would pass before it happened.
Lawrence Nuesslein’s target from the 1920 Olympics
58 USA Shooting News | May 2015
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