Sports

The Human Benchrest: The Enduring Legacy of MAJ Ernie Vande Zande

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Ernie Vande Zande was more than a national champion and record-setter; he was the rare competitor who made everyone around him better. Known as “the Human Benchrest,” the Army major and Camp Perry champion combined world-class precision with a quiet willingness to help any shooter who genuinely wanted to improve. His classic article Sights, Wind and Mirage still teaches competitors how to read conditions decades after it was written. Smallbore lost more than a legend when Ernie passed in 2018—it lost a mentor, a gentleman, and one of the finest ambassadors the sport has ever known.

Gold Medal, Mystery Saboteur: The Matthew Emmons Story That Still Doesn’t Add Up

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There are Olympic stories about grit, discipline, and the triumph of the human spirit—and then there’s the one about Matthew Emmons, whose rifle got mysteriously vandalized right before the biggest competition of his life. Not misplaced. Not dropped. Not “oops, I leaned it against the rack wrong.” We’re talking deliberate, tool-in-hand, someone-wanted-this-gun-dead sabotage at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. In a sport where competitors track wind shifts measured in whispers and bullet holes measured in decimals, somebody decided to go full blunt-force caveman on precision equipment. And just like that, Olympic-level marksmanship briefly turned into a low-budget whodunit.

Smoke, Steel, and 1,000 Yards: The Great International Rifle Match at Dollymount

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The year was 1875, and long before ESPN, endorsement deals, or even organized leagues as we know them, one of the most electric sporting events on earth unfolded on a windswept stretch of Irish coastline at Dollymount, just outside Dublin. This was the Great International Rifle Match—a transatlantic clash that, for a brief window in history, made precision rifle shooting a premier spectator sport.

The 10-to-4 Problem: What Rimfire Teaches That Centerfire Hides

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At distances out to 100 yards, the differences between rimfire and centerfire aren’t subtle—they are foundational. A .22 LR match round leaves the muzzle at roughly 1050 feet per second, already flirting with the sound barrier and quickly settling into subsonic flight. Compare that to a typical centerfire round—say a .308—moving at nearly three times that speed, carrying significantly higher ballistic efficiency, and backed by a rigid, jacketed bullet designed to punch through the air rather than cooperate with it.

An Introduction to Business 101: Golf with THE Chuck -A Tribute to Enduring American Grit February 20 – February 22, 2026

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Some weekends feel bigger than sports. Some feel bigger than policy. And then there are weekends like this one where leadership, competition, conviction, and country all collide. I was working on this piece with a Deployment Freedom Cigar lit, paired with a very special small-batch pour of MB Roland Dark Fired Kentucky bourbon. Smoke steady. …

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Another Super Bowl Whiff From The Geniuses Running The National Football League: America’s 250th Anniversary Celebration Be Damned

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One wonders where does this ridiculosity stop-and will not be shocked-when the NFL wokes further up and lectures us on social issues when they recognize other nationalities in America with their own distinctive national anthems, and start calling the “Star Bangled Banner” the “White National Anthem”

NRA 2.0 or Collapse: The $160 Million Lawsuit and the Price of Division

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A house divided cannot stand. Right now, the National Rifle Association is living that proverb in real time, and it’s painful to watch—because for generations the NRA wasn’t just an organization. It was the standard-bearer. The steward. The institution that most Americans, whether they owned a firearm or not, understood as the big dog in the fight over the Second Amendment.

The Promotion of Gambling by Professional Sports Leagues is Stupid and Dangerous

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Athletes like Pete Rose and Paul Hornung and Alex Karras have been suspended or banned from their sports over gambling, Mr Rose’s suspension lasting until after his death. The “Black Sox scandal” of 1919 occurred when eight members of the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, allegedly for a payment …

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