A who's who of Smallbore Shooters of the 1920's - 1950's...so "Quite Please"

[LAH]

This cartoon appeared in the March 1943 "US Marine" Issue of American Rifleman Magazine, and was "repurposed" as a presentation token at the 1946 Camp Perry Small Bore matches.

The 1946 match picked up where the 1941 championship left off. Garret Wayne Moore, who had lost his leg as a lad, borrowed a rifle and ended up winning the first of his two consecutive prone national titles. Adelaide McCord took the second of her four ladies’ crowns as Art Cook swept the junior category.

The matches might not have been held if not for the work of World War I veteran Edward Dobscha of Willoughby, Ohio. Dobscha, a well known rifleman, had been a member of the 1941 Dewar Team and would again win a spot in 1946 as well.

In recognition of Dobscha’s efforts Frank Kahrs, who was the public relations manager for Remington Arms and a former staff writer for the Rifleman, asked James T. Berryman, then the Art Director for the American Rifleman Magazine to create a cartoon for presentation to Dobscha.

Berryman, whose father Clifford, a Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist, drew the famous cartoon of President Theodore Roosevelt sparing a bear cub which inspired the creation of the teddy bear, would go on in his father’s footsteps to win his own Pulitzer.

The resulting art work produced by Berryman was a pen and ink sketch of a mother cat trailed by her two kittens walking behind a smallbore firing line. A rifleman, irritated by what little noise the felines might have made padding across the grass, calls out, “Quite Please!”










Prominent among the 65 or so match participants who signed the cartoon before it was presented to Dobscha were:

* Thurman Randle: President of the NRA and donor of the Randle Trophy
*John Unertl: famed rifle scope manufacturer
*Harold D. Allyn: well known Massachusetts rifleman
*Al Freeland: shooting equipment innovator
*Garret Wayne Moore: 1946 and 1947 National Prone Champion
*Bob Moore: cousin of G. Wayne and the 1958 National Prone Champion at Camp Perry and the first winner of the Lister Cup in 1952 as National Indoor 4-Position Champion.
* Sam Bond: the senior prone trophy at the national prone championship is named in honor of this shooting equipment innovator
*Rans Triggs: 1941 National Prone Champion
*Bill Schweitzer: noted rifleman and benefactor of the sport for whom the national civilian prone championship award is named.
*The Tekulsky brothers, Sam and Erwin: noted New York Riflemen
*The Lacy Brothers, Jack and Jim: Distinguished Connecticut Riflemen
*Francis O’Hare: the son of Paddy O’Hare shooting equipment supplier and shooter in his own right
*Eric Johnson: 1921 National Prone Champion and noted Connecticut barrel maker
*Russ Wiles, Jr.: RIG company president, rifleman, and the founder of the Black Hawk Rifle Club
*Jim Crossman: firearms writer, Distinguished Rifleman, National Match official
*John Wark: Pershing Team member
*Bill Woodring: Perishing Team member, world champion team member and the only person to win three consecutive US national prone titles
*Kay Woodring: first US female international rifle shooter, wife of Bill Woodring
*Marianne Driver: the Grande Dame of US Randle Teams
*Vincent Tiefenbrunn: smallbore shooter Winchester-Western/Western executive
*Charles Hamby: noted Atlanta, Georgia rifleman
*“Tiny” Helwig: Winchester employee and noted rifleman
*A.L. Darkrow: mainstay of Akron, Ohio’s Zeppelin Rifle Club
*Earl Saunders: Kentucky rifleman and many times member of the Dewar Team

Thanks to Dan Holmes and Hap Rocketto for helping to identify the shooters and provide the background information.

[Emri]

Very interesting. I have seen the cartoon but not the explaination behind it's being.

Thanks Loy,

Emri

[LAH]

Very interesting. I have seen the cartoon but not the explaination behind it's being.

Thanks Loy,

Emri

Emri

I had posted this some time ago, but didn't have all the information to go with it.

I belive the cartoon is the original one used for the March 1943 issue of American
Rifeman, and in 1946 J. Berryman added the "at the National Matches" title at the bottom and
it was made a presentation piece with all the notable shooters at Perry signing it. Pretty neat.

One of these days you'll have to come back to Arkansas and do a little duck huntin.

[Emri]

[QUOTEOne of these days you'll have to come back to Arkansas and do a little duck huntin.][/QUOTE]

Will do, just don't know when. I probably saw when you posted it before, but I also seem to remember seeing it in the American Rifleman under one of those "100 yrs. ago", "75 yrs. ago", "50 yrs. ago" headings they put in the mag.