Margaret & the Men

Despite the fact that it has produced such notable nimrods as Annie Oakley, Billy the Kid, Dan'l Boone, Buffalo Bill and Sergeant York, the U.S. has been hard pressed recently to keep its reputation for marksmanship. At the 1962 World Shooting championships in Cairo, Russians won 22 gold medals; Americans had to settle for seven. Last week, when the quadrennial competition moved to Wiesbaden, Germany, the Soviet Union was again heavily favored--if for no other reason than that a lot of American riflemen were busy in another part of the world. The result was a major upset. Led by a divinity student from Nebraska, a marine from New Jersey, and a WAC from Kansas, the U.S. team outshot the best marksmen of 51 nations, trounced the Russians by a score of 17 gold medals to ten.

Competitive shooting has almost nothing in common with the backyard sport of plinking tin cans and pop bottles. Squeezing off 40 to 60 bull's-eyes in a row requires stamina, breath control, intense concentration and absolute nervelessness--"hanging loose," in the words of Marine Warrant Officer David Boyd, 27. Boyd should know: at Wiesbaden he scored a world-record 598 points (out of a possible 600) to win the small-bore prone "English match" championship. Top shooters use specially tailored, delicately balanced firearms outfitted with such refinements as micrometer sights and two-stage hair triggers. Many of the experts shun any form of active physical exercise, for fear that it will tense their muscles, although Nebraskan Gary Anderson, 26, who won the three-position (prone, kneeling, standing), small-bore rifle title, runs a mile every morning to clear his head and calm his nerves. They avoid food before a match (the digestive process pushes up the pulse rate), do not even permit themselves the luxury of a cuss word after a bad shot--lest the emotional release dull their senses. To insulate themselves against outside distractions, they wear heavy earmuffs and blinders.

Equal, for Sure. They could have used blinders at Wiesbaden--where the main distraction was a pert, brunette feminist named Margaret Thompson, 23. "This is one sport where a woman is on a completely equal basis with men," insisted Margaret, who has been shooting since her father, for some reason, gave her a .22 at eleven. A Kansas State University graduate and 1st Lieutenant in the Women's Army Corps, she proceeded to prove how equal by becoming the first female ever to enter the open small-bore, three-position rifle event, placed fourth (behind Anderson) out of 112 competitors.

Margaret also took the women's standard-rifle title with ease, and she was obviously less impressed by her showing than were the German reporters who dogged her footsteps and kept trying to compare her to Annie Oakley. "I have," she said sweetly, "only the pride any athlete would have."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.