Some History of ATA Involvement in International Shooting

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Here are the rules for those interested.

 

I shot the Modified Olympic targets in 1968 I believe, at Vandalia, I shot w/ Fred Bischel, and his daughter and 3 others that do not come to mind, His daughter cleaned our clocks on that event, I don't remember it ever being shot after that.

Fred's youngest daughter was a fantastic shot, then got married and became a farmers wife and moved away.

It did have a following of shooters that liked the event.

DLS

 

Here's an article about the selection of our 1920 Olympic Team.

 

Some great old-time shooters were selected for that 1920 team.

Mark Arie, Frank Troeh, Forest McNeir and Frank S. Wright have all been enshrined in their State HofFs an their pictures graced the walls of the Trapshooting Hall of Fame as well. You can read about them on www.traphof.org under the listing, Inductees.

Here is a little about the other members :

Jay Clark Jr., of Worcester, Mass., was born in Newton, Iowa and went East when he was a young man. He was State Champion in 1913 and went on to win the Westy Hogans the same year. He once won the championship of New England and was runner-up in the 1916 Massachusetts State Shoot. Three years consecutively he won the Merrimac Valley championship at New Hampshire State Shoot. He also tied Mark Arie and Roy McIntire that year for the National Amateur Championship, representing his State in place of the champion who was unable to attend the Grand American event. He was manager of the Worcester Sportsmens' Association. He was a lover of dogs, owning pointers and setters, owning and showing Gray Rock Flash, Stepaway and Flashaway Joe. He also judged dog competitions and his services were always in demand.
At the 1924 Grand American when the Permanent Home at Vandalia, Ohio was built and was dedicated to amateur control, Mr. Clark made a leading address on behalf of the amateurs. In the presence of a great crowd, he eulogized George S. McCarty, president of the Amateur Trapshooting Association that year, to whose herculean efforts the home was built and made ready for the 1924 Grand American in the short space of a few months, after the Dayton Trapshooters’ Association had offered the tract of land at the village of Vandalia.
Mr. Clark passed in early 1948.

Horace Bonser, of Cincinnati, Ohio was another great shooter. He was a member of the Okoboji Indians organization. He was crowned Champion of the Eastern Handicap, held in Boston in 1907. He was elected President of the Cincinnati Gun Club and was appointed manager of the A.T.A. from 1927-1929. At one time Mr. Bonser was a member of the Ohio Legislature and chairman of the Harrison Memorial Commission. He was about 48 years old when he passed in June, 1934.

Fred Plum, of Atlantic City, New Jersey shot all over the East Coast and was a regular at the annual Pinehurst tournaments. He was a member of the World Record Squad that broke 497x500 about 1916 at Maplewood, New Hampshire. In 1918 he won the National Amateur Championship at the NY Athletic Club and finished the year as the first shooter to win a 98% American Trapshooting Association Average Medal, averaging 99% on 2,000 targets. In 1919, he was an organizer and member of the Atlantic Indians organization. He won the NJ State Singles and High All Around Championship in 1920. In 1921 he captured the State Handicap, Doubles and All Around titles. He won and defended the Mason-Dixon Challenge Trophy in 1922. In that year he was Chairman of the Central Handicap Committee at the GAH. In 1926 he again won the State Doubles and All Around Championship following up with both titles again in 1928. The State High All Around Championship would be his once again in 1930. Mr. Plum passed in November, 1932.

Chauncey M. Powers, of Decatur, Illinois is on my personal HOF list of forgotten shooters. He's the shooter who was unable to be a member of the 1920 Olympic Team. He was friends with Fred C. Damm, inventor and patentee of the Decatur Red Bird target. Chan was elected secretary of the Illinois State Sportsmen's Association in 1885. He was State Singles Champion in 1896, the same year he invented and patented a shotgun cleaning rod. He was a director in the Illinois State Association in 1899. That same year he was the high average leader at the West Virginia State Shoot. He won the Illinois Live Bird Championship in 1901. He was among the best shooter of his time and in 1907, another great shooter and also on my personal HOF list, Mr. Orin N. Ford, founder of the Pacific International Trapshooting Association, in 1907 called Mr .Powers the "greatest living shot." Here are some of his other accomplishments.

Illinois State Live Bird Champion (1901)
Member of the American Team (1901)
Won High Amateur Average at Indianapolis GC Tournament (1903 )
Won R. S. Elliott Amateur Handicap Trophy (1904)
1906 High Amateur Average Leader
1906 GAH Preliminary Handicap Champion (1906)
1907 High Amateur Average Leader
1907 GAH Preliminary Handicap Champion
1907 GAH High Over All Champion
Called Greatest Living Shot by O. N. Ford (1907)
Member of Winning Illinois State Team at GAH (1908)
Member of Indians Organization (1908)
Gave Up Position on 1920 Olympic Team
1926 GAH Preliminary Handicap R/U 98 +22

Mr. Powers passed in April 1933.

Unfortunately I have yet to create a file on Mr. Ben S. Donnelley, the other member of the 1920 Olympic Team.

Here's how our Olympic Team finished at the 1920 Olympics.

Gun Chatter
By Peter P. Carney​

In the U. S. A. are to be found the greatest trapshooters in the world. This was proven in the Olympic games in Stockholm in 1912 and demonstrated again beyond a question of doubt in the recent trapshooting events on the Olympic program in Antwerp. The six American shooters broke 547x600, with Frank Troeh and Mark Arie tieing for high guns at 94; Horace Bonser and Forest McNeir breaking 93 each, and Frank Wright with 89 and Jay Clark with 84. These scores do not look so good here, but when you buck up against the “iron” targets they throw on the other side, and with the targets thrown at random from a half dozen traps, the scores look pretty good. Canada had a fine team of trapshooters in the event, yet the representatives of the maple Leaf finished last.

In the individual Olympic championship – the amateur championship of the world – Mark Arie won with 95, with Troeh second with 93. The other three American entrants tied for third with 87. They were Fred Plum, Bonser and Wright. When you can win the first five places in competition with the best in the world, no one can take away the credit. The trapshooters should give the Olympic Champions a rousing reception at the Grand American.
SPORTSMEN’S REVIEW, August 7, 1920, page 210

 

Here's our 1920 U.S. Olympic Team

 

Dr.
I shot the modified int. at the Fla. state shoot in 76 or 77. They didn't register them because we had some shooters on the line that shot 3 times at some of their targets and were lugging their beer from station with them. I was very up set as I won that event, did not get the prize money and still had to pay for the targets.
I'm sure you would be surprised if I told you who were the beer hogs. Roger