Legends of Camp Perry: David Tubb

By Steve Leow

Every year, competitors have been gunning for David Tubb. The 11-time National High Power Match Rifle Champion set the national record in aggregate when he shot a 2389-138X. This record still stands.

This year, he’s in the running to add another national championship as he and a fellow Camp Perry Legend, Carl Bernosky, are neck and neck going into the final day of the 2008 High Power Championships.

The resident of Canadian, TX shot a 200-17X in the Scott Trophy Match and has been named the winner of that match. In the preliminary results, he is in third place in the Appreciation Cup Match, third place in the Vandenburg Cup Match, third place in the Clark Trophy Match, fifth place in the Army Cup Match and fifth place in the Centenary Aggregate Trophy Match.

David first came to Camp Perry in 1957 when both of his parents were competitive shooters. His first trip to Camp Perry as a competitive shooter was in the early 1970s, which is also when he became involved in shooting high power rifles competitively.

Throughout the 50 years that he has been at Camp Perry, the friends and people that he has met here have been his most enjoyable experience while competing at the National Matches, other than winning. “Obviously shooting and winning is my favorite thing about the National Matches at Camp Perry, but you can’t win all of the time,” said David.

David’s least favorite aspect about Camp Perry is pit duty. “I don’t like target pulling at all,” he said before heading into the pit. He said that the most difficult part about Camp Perry wasn’t necessarily the weather, but performing well for four days is more challenging to him. “For this camp you have to shoot good scores while not having any hiccups; it’s kind of like a marathon.”

David traveled to Camp Perry with a rifle of his own design, the Tubb 2000. This is modular gun was made to fit with his body type and anatomy. He first fit the gun to his body and then added the sights to it. He said that a lot of shooters are designing rifles with this aspect in mind.