Diana Hufstedler stands, feet apart, with one manicured hand holding the Open Single Stack pistol on her belt, ready to shoot. Her attention is intensely focused 25 yards directly ahead of her. An alarm sounds. She immediately aligns her red dot scope and shoots six rounds into the hillside of Green Valley Rifle & Pistol Club, located about 15 minutes north of Columbia. People clap, but to Hufstedler, there’s only silence. She removes her earmuffs and gazes downrange.

The plates she aimed to hit still stand a few feet in front of the hillside, and she immediately diagnoses her failure on “jerking the trigger” and looks around at some of the world’s best pistol shooters — her competition at this year’s Bianchi Cup, the premier international action pistol championship

This year’s 35^th annual event, held in late May, has drawn more competitors, spectators and sponsorships than any previous year. According to Tom Hughes, NRA national pistol manager and event coordinator, the number of competitors has doubled, and sponsorships have increased more than 500 percent since 2007 alone; the event’s total estimated local economic impact now exceeds $3 million.

“Our competitors shoot one event a day that takes roughly 20 minutes,” Hughes says. “For the remainder of that time, they’re looking for something to do in Columbia.” They play golf, go to movies, eat dinner and stay in local hotels. They also visit local gun stores to stock up on ammo and buy new guns and accessories.

Mike O’Dell, manager of Black Rifle, a local gun store, says he definitely sees an influx of business during the Cup.

“In the weeks leading up to Bianchi, competitors start coming in to pick things up for practice and more or less scope out the local market to see who has what,” he says. “That way, when they’re ready to leave, they drop in to buy something and have it shipped home.”

O’Dell says the most popular gun among competitors is a 1911 semi-automatic pistol as he pulls an older model off the south wall of Black Rifle’s new store on the Business Loop, but he says each year he sees a handful of competitors who buy three or four guns while in Columbia.

“If you consider that a decked-out AR-15 costs well over $1,000, that’s a big deal,” he says.

Larry Potterfield, CEO of MidwayUSA, the title sponsor of the Bianchi Cup, agrees with O’Dell. Even as an online retailer, he sees an influx of competitors hoping to pick up new orders while in town. He says the most popular purchases are ammunition and handgun shooting accessories.

“With nearly 300 shooters, about 100 volunteers and hundreds of spectators, [it] certainly impacts the local economy,” Potterfield says.

The Wild West of Columbia 

Walking between the four buildings on MidwayUSA’s campus about 10 minutes west of Columbia, Potterfield stops along the sidewalk and pulls a small pocketknife from the front pocket of his jeans.

“These damned branches are in the way every single time,” he says as he cuts them down and tosses them aside. He also stops to pick up litter and a heads-up penny.

“Must be my lucky day,” he adds.

Some might credit the company’s success to good luck, but it’s Potterfield’s passion, vision and organization that guide the company’s 500 employees and 1 million active customers.

Each of the four massive buildings is named after one of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore, and the conference rooms are named after gun industry greats, such as Remington, Smith & Wesson and Ruger. Plastered along the walls are reminders of the company’s structure and mission, and in the shipping plant is a small glass-encased inset on the western wall with a single crystal trophy, the Baldrich Award, which Midway received in 2009 for being one of the best-run businesses in the United States. Next to the award is an empty space, “for the next one,” Potterfield says.

MidwayUSA has been involved in the Bianchi Cup since its inception in 1978, when event founder John Bianchi contacted Potterfield to see if his small gun store, about a mile west of Midway’s location today, wanted to receive and hold the event’s prizes.

When Midway closed its storefront in 1984, it couldn’t continue to receive the prizes, but more than 20 years later, Potterfield, who is still close friends with Bianchi, sought to become the title sponsor of the event, which meant an infusion of more than $100,000 toward the event’s success.

“We decided to [get involved] because we could do it — we had the bread — and we thought we should,” he says. “We figured if we believe so much in the shooting sports, we should support them.”

And when the NRA was considering moving to a newer gun range, or circulating the event around the country, MidwayUSA decided that its title sponsorship of the event was contingent on the event remaining in Columbia.

“I said, ‘If you move it, you’ll need to fill our shoes,’” he says. “And there was no one in line to do that.” Despite previous chatter, the event is set to remain in Columbia.

O’Dell believes that both Missouri’s gun-friendly culture and its long history with competitive shooting factor in to the event’s success in mid-Missouri. Three of the leading competitive shooting organizations, IPSIC, IDPA and USPSA, originated in Missouri, and Bianchi’s host range was originally the Chapman Academy of Practical Shooting, founded by Ray Chapman, the father of modern pistol shooting.

“Obviously, there are states that aren’t friendly [toward guns], so events like the Bianchi Cup are going to occur in states where they’re welcome,” Potterfield says.

Hughes says Columbia remains the right choice to host the Cup.

“We’re dead center in the middle of the U.S.,” he says. He’s also a bit nostalgic of the fact that, for 35 years, the Cup has called Columbia home.

The event began when its former police officer-turned-entrepreneur John Bianchi, “The Godfather of Gunleather,” decided to create a competition for law enforcement officers to hone their skills.

A legend among gun enthusiasts, Bianchi represents more than just the creator of the competition bearing his name. “He’s a successful businessman, a fierce supporter of our lifestyle and a fine example of an American gentleman,” says Hufstedler, who met Bianchi at a previous competition.

In fact, his biography has been sold out on the NRA’s website for months and is always nearly out of stock at other retailers, such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

When Hughes took over managing the event, he was able to once again convince Bianchi to come to the event he founded more than 30 years ago.

Sponsoring success

Somehow the event has flown largely under the radar of mid-Missourians despite its notoriety and local impact.

At the event, it’s almost a completely foreign culture. Bianchi Cup veterans wear electronic earmuffs that automatically adjust to noise levels, while first-timers struggle with cheap earplugs and their equilibrium. When all’s quite, the earmuffs hang from carabineers fashioned to work pant belt loops. Trashcans are labeled, “No Ammo.”

Shooters wear blinders, and spectators watch through binoculars, hoping to spot bullet holes in the far-off targets. The event’s top-level competitors, Hughes says, shoot thousands of rounds every single day to practice, and the U.S.’s top gun, ammo and accessory manufacturers sponsor many of the best shooters; there are no fewer than 100 sponsor flags and banners flying at and around the range.

Hufstedler, who ultimately finished second among the female competitors, received some support from Safariland Group but ultimately supported herself throughout the competition.

“I shot only about 1,500 rounds in the six days leading up to the event,” she says. But at about $1 per round, that’s still quite an investment in her sport. “I classify myself as a weekend warrior.” For Hufstedler, it’s a passion she’s had since her childhood in Bulgaria, where she would play with air guns at local fairs with her great-grandfather Donko.

“I’ve never entertained the idea of becoming a sponsored shooter, but if a company wants to claim me, I’d probably shoot a lot more and be a lot better,” she says, laughing. Despite the level of competition and caliber of shooters at the event, the shooting sports have yet to reach a critical mass of followers.

“It’s like golf; until the golfers started asking people to come watch what they could do with a golf ball, there weren’t too many spectators,” Hughes says. “We’re trying to bridge that gap and make the world realize that this is a great sport to watch.

“And we’re getting there,” he continues. “Once you get on TV, that’s the first step.”

Going gun nuts

Missouri’s gun friendliness might mean even more to the state than the $3 million impact of the Bianchi Cup, according to Caleb Rowden, a republican representative from Columbia. After gun manufacturers’ desire to relocate to gun-friendly states made the national news earlier this year, Rowden wrote 14 letters to 14 different manufacturers whose home states were looking to enact stricter gun laws.

As other local and regional economic development bodies and elected government representatives sent follow-up letters, Rowden says he hoped to give the manufacturers a reason to “pick up the phone and continue the conversation.”

O’Dell says he would be happy to see more manufacturers in Missouri. As a sister company with Central Missouri Machine Gun, which makes AR-15s in Fayette, Black Rifle supports a number of Missouri products, including Black Rain Ordnance out of Neosho, Black Dawn in Sedalia and gets its ammo from On Target in Green Valley. They are also about to begin carrying holsters made in Midway.

“If we can support Missouri-made products and have a larger selection, we would absolutely love that,” O’Dell says.

Rowden’s letters outlined why Missouri is “open for their business,” he says. “The biggest thing is that the Second Amendment is safe in Missouri.” They also summarize the state’s tax environment and potential incentives. One potential incentive was introduced late during the last legislative session, which would include a tax credit specifically for the gun industry, Rowden says.

A couple companies responded to his letters, saying they would like to stay closer to their home states, but others say that as decisions were made, Missouri would be on their radar — but so far, no bites.

“We’ve got a great shot at getting a couple,” Rowden reaffirms. “We’re not competing against all 50 states; we’re competing with about 10 or 12 other Midwest and Southern states.”

In fact, Missouri ranks 21^st for the most guns per capita, and Guns & Ammo magazine ranked Missouri the ninth best state for gun owners. And in May, a bill that would make it a crime for federal agents to enforce federal gun laws in Missouri passed with bipartisan support in the state legislature. Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed the bill in July, but it is expected to be reintroduced and well-supported when the next legislative session begins in September.

“We’ve made it abundantly clear that we look out for gun rights in Missouri,” Rowden says. And according to Rowden, O’Dell and Potterfield, the Bianchi cup is just one more way to show the nation that gun culture is alive and well in Missouri