Ray Chapman was an American

sport shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such a ...

and

firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

s instructor who was central to the development of

practical shooting Practical shooting, also known as dynamic shooting or action shooting, is a set of shooting sports where the competitors try to unite the three principles of precision, power, and speed, by using a firearm of a certain minimum power factor to scor ...

. He was one of the founders of the

International Practical Shooting Confederation The International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) is the world's largest shooting sport association, and the largest and oldest within practical shooting. Founded in 1976, the IPSC nowadays affiliates over 100 regions from Africa, America ...

at the 1976 Columbia Conference. He won the first IPSC Handgun World Shoot in 1975 and took silver behind

Jan Foss Jan Foss (1 December 1938 - 12 June 2021) was a Norwegian sport shooter from Oslo who became the second world champion in practical shooting in 1976 during the IPSC Handgun World Shoot II in Salzburg, Austria. The favourite ahead of the champions ...

from Norway in the second World Shoot in 1976. He continued to compete until 1979 when he retired from competition. In his mid-teens Chapman served in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

at the

Pacific Ocean theater of World War II The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

after lying about his age to enlist.Remembering Ray Chapman: one of the founders of modern pistolcraft. - Free Online Library
/ref> After the war, he worked as a policeman before he became an engineer for the California Highway Department. In the 1950s, he was one of the pioneers of the Southwest Pistol League with

Jeff Cooper John Dean "Jeff" Cooper (May 10, 1920 – September 25, 2006) was a United States Marine, the creator of a "modern technique" of handgun shooting, and an expert on the use and history of small arms. Early life and education Cooper was ...

. In February 2008 Ray died peacefully at age 79 in a Texas hospital.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Ray Living people IPSC shooters Year of birth missing (living people)