U. S. International Shooting Championships
Phoenix, Arizona

Gun Trials scheduled

Phoenix will host the 16th United States International Shooting Championships and final tryouts for the 10 rifle and pistol slots on the U.S. Olympic Games Shooting Team next month.

Sponsored by the National Rifle Association, the U.S. International Shooting Union representative, the two-week competition will begin June 7 at the Black Canyon Shooting Range north of Phoenix.

More than 500 rifle, pistol and running target marksmen have entered the competition. The remaining four slots on the 14-man U.S. squad, for skeet and clay pigeon shooters, were filled last May in St. Louis.

Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona, Sunday, May 30, 1976, Page D10

Marine 1st in pistol

Marine Warrant Officer Francis Higginson came back off a year's absence from International shooting to win the U.S. Standard Pistol championship at Black Canyon Tuesday.

Higginson, a Placerville, Calif., shooter who was off the Marine team last year, put together two strong first-day rounds of 573 and 587 and a 579 Tuesday for a 1739x1800 total, 11 points ahead of his nearest competitor, Army Reserve shooter Mel Makin of Aumsville, Ore.

Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona, Wednesday, June 09, 1976, Page D5

McMillan in form in pistol qualifying

Bill McMillan, 1960 Olympic Rapid-Fire Pistol champion, was back in old form Thursday, holding a respectable lead in rapid-fire competition with one day to go before the event puts two shooters on the U.S. Olympic Shooting Team.

McMillan, from San Diego, Calif., owned 1181 points out of a possible 1200 with a 589x600 Wednesday and a 590 Thursday.

Mel Makin, the Army Reserve pistolman from Aumsville, near Salem, Ore., was second with 1174, and a newcomer to rapid-fire, Tom Treinen of the Navy from Patuxent, Md., was third with 1173 in the 16th U. S. International Shooting Championships at Black Canyon Range.

The Air Rifle Match championship went to Capt. Lanny Bassham, Army shooter from Comanche, Tex., with 1166 out of 1200. Capt. Ernest Van Dezande of Maysville, Ky., was third with 1147.

Karen Monez of San Leandro, Calif. was high woman with 1136, and Rod Fitz-Randolph, El Paso, Tex., was top junior with 1146.

Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona, Friday, June 11, 1976, Page D7

U.S. Shooting Team Adds 2

PHOENIX (AP) - Bill McMillan of San Diego, Calif., and Tom Treinen of Lexington Park, Md., fired their way onto the U.S. Olympic Shooting Team yesterday by winning the top tow spots in the three-day rapid fire pistol match.

McMillan, who earned his sixth Olympic team berth, won the event with a 1768. Treinen finished at 1761.

The team spots were selected in the 16th U.S. International Shooting Championships and Olympic team tryouts here.

Finishing third overall was Canadian Jules Sobrian of Omemee, Ont., with 1760. Sobrian has already been named to Canada's Olympic team and was firing here for the added experience.

Already on the U.S. team are David Ross, Houston, Tex., and Vic Auer, No. Hollywood, Calif., both of them prone-match rifle specialists.

Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona, Saturday, June 12, 1976, Page D2

The chief interest this year in Phoenix was in those events which would send Americans north to Montreal. The first in which the handgunners participated was rapid-fire pistol. Though he had not competed at Black Canyon in three years, Bill McMillan, now a San Diego, Calif., county sheriff, picked up where he had left off. The former world champion led throughout the three days of competition to gain top honors at 1768.

The quest for the remaining Olympic slow was pressure packed, and Navy Petty Officer Tom Treinen of Remsen, Iowa, responded when it counted most. Firing his Walther OSP to a last half course tally of 298, he captured second with a three-course aggregate of 1761. After the match Treinen acknowledged contracting a case of nerves as the final half course began. "I stopped and told myself I was on my home range practicing, and I guess it worked," he confessed.

The rapid-fire championship was marked by another fine exhibition by a teenage competitor, John McNally of Gulfport, Miss., who wants to become a Marine aviator, posted a 594 on day three to tie McMillan's national championship single course record. The youngster had a real chance to become an Olympian until he ran into trouble on his final four second series and finished fourth overall at 1759.

Excerpt from the American Rifleman, Vol. 124, No. 9, September 1976