Source: https://www.backwoodshome.com/just-because/
Excerpt:
QuoteIf you have been reading Backwoods Home for any length of time, you have noticed that the editors, this writer, and the magazine itself are all fans of the Appleseed Project. Appleseed seeks to remind Americans of their heritage as a Nation of Riflemen, and mixes Revolutionary War history with a solid curriculum of rifle marksmanship. Their course of fire is relatively fast, extremely accuracy-intensive, and definitely challenging to any shooter.
Most competitors use semiautomatic rifles. Hell, I used one — a Ruger 10/22, built for butt-kickin' by Kay Miculek of Clark Custom, in a stock from Brownell's — to win the coveted Rifleman's Patch.
But, you know what? The legend at Appleseed says that the record score on their demanding course of fire was set by an old man with an old rifle. I'm told it was a Winchester Model 52, an exquisitely accurate bolt action .22 which dates back to before World War II. It requires four movements between shots — bolt up, bolt back, bolt forward, bolt down — and then the firing hand has to acquire its grasp again and find its way to the trigger. With a semiautomatic, of course, there's nothing you need to do but keep your finger on the trigger, let it come forward to the re-set point, and press it again while that unforgiving clock is ticking.
How could an old geezer with a bolt action rifle outshoot all the rest of us with semiautomatics? Maybe because the years had taught him timing. Maybe because he was focused more on perfection than on speed. Or maybe, simply, because an old person with an old rifle had mastered the Old Ways enough to beat all of us whose skills and technology came later.
https://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=30127.0
He is a long time friend of the program. He has a few more articles out there.