READY:

U.S. Customs Team Wins
P. C. I. Pistol Series

HOWING THEIR usual championship
orm all along the route, the U. S. Customs
Border Patrol) four-man pistol team from
he evergreen State of Washington checked
n with the top total for the three monthly
natches of the pistol tournament recently
ponsored by the Pacific Coast International
Association of Law Enforcement Officials.
Phe final bulletin just released by Chairman
ohn Shirras of the Tournament Committee
hows the Customs men piled up a total of
335 points out of a possible 3600, for an
erage of practically 278 per man per
natch over the N. R. A. 20-yard three stage
ourse. Texas Highway Patrol, who were
trong contenders for the lead position, fin-
shed only 113 points behind the winners,
nd only 31 points out of over 3000 separ-
ted Honolulu Police Department from a
nd place tie.

Setting the pace in the May match with
. team total of 1113, the Customs men took
he lead over Capt. Dewey Mookini’s Hono-
ulu guartette, and Colonel Homer Garri-
ons Highway Patrolmen from the Lone
star State had to be content with third place.

The second (June) match produced an-
ther record breaking score of 1152 from
he Customs men, and with a ‘three point
nargin over Honolulu, Texas Highway
atrol moved into second place.

The final match in July saw the Texans
‘ake the top position with 1106, 26 points
ver the Border Patrol. And Mookini’s
nen were only two points off a tie for
second place in this match.

But in this aggregation of big league
scores, the early Customs lead was hard to
deat in a single match, and the final sum-
nary gave the Customs high aggregate for
he series, 4

Apart from the dogged struggle for the
hree leading team positions, highlights of
he matches included Customs Inspector
Leonard Trones’ record breaking score of
7, 97, 96 for 290 in the June match. This
was the highest of the 350 scores checked
by the referees. Trones’ 97 slow fire was
highest slow fire of the series. Unfortun-
ately, due to unforseen circumstances, In-
spector Trones was unable to shoot in the
final match, and Inspector Melvin K. Hall
substituted for him.

Second highest individual score was a

FOURTEENTH EDITION

FIRING

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288 shot by. Customs Inspector P. M. Chap-
man in June.

12 scores of 280 or better and 37 scores
of 270 or better give some indication of the
quality of the marksmanship displayed in
the series.

The matches produced three slow fire
scores of 96. These were shot by P. M.
Chapman and Arnvid Anderson of the
Customs, and Chief Radio Operator W. F.
Conlan of the B.C. Police. The leading
shots also gave four nice demonstrations of
timed fire; these were a series of 99’s shot
by Chapman and Rogers of the Customs,
Don Lawrence of Texas and Sergt. Gus
Anderson of Honolulu.

Among the rapid fire scores Detective
Theo. Awana of Honolulu hit the jack pot
with a possible, 100 out of 100. This was
the only possible shot in the series. Runners
up for individual rapid fire honours were
Const. Walter Bailey of the B.C. Police
99, and Sergt. Don Lawrence of Texas with
98.

Of the 29 contesting teams Abilene Dis-
trict of the Texas Highway Patrol from
Breckenridge, Texas, made the best position
gain, moving up from 24th to 19th place in
the three matches. Other teams showing
improved standing during the event were:
B. C. Police No. 1 team, Oregon Shipbuild-
ing Corpn. Guards of Portland, Oregon;
the U.S. Treasury’s Seattle Alcohol Tax
Unit; the composite B. C. Police and Van-
couver City Police team from Vancouver;
the King County Sheriff's team of Seattle;
the San Francisco Office of the FBI, and
the police teams from Upland and Torrance,
California, and Provo, Utah.

The British Columbia Police No. 1 Team
of Sergt. J. A. Young, Corpl. J. A. Henry,
and Const. Walter Bailey and H. J. Parsley
finished the series in fourth place with a
team score of 3128 for the three months.
The No. 2 team of Inspector Clark, Sergt.
J. W. Hooker, Chief Operator W. F. Con-
lan and Const. C. Dryden made seventh
place.

In the individual standing of the 122 con-
testants, Sergt. J. A. Young of the B C.
Police took fifth place and Const. Walter
Bailey took seventh position.

Voted by the participants as a standout
in the field of postal events, we hope that
this event will become an annual Pacific
Coast fixture.

Congratulations are in order to Deputy
Commissioner John Shirras who acted as
Chairman of the Committee, and to Com-
mittee Members Don Lawrence of the
Texas Highway Patrol, Captain Jim Purcell
of the Portland Police Department’s Traffic
Division, Special Agent N. J. L. Pieper of
the FBI's San Francisco Office, and Cap-
tain Clifford K. Keeter of the Ogden
(Utah) Police Department.

Here are the scores on the final bulletin:

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