Fiesta of Five Flags Regional Pistol Championship

NRA 2700 Regional Tournament

with NRA Distinguished Revolver,

CMP Service Pistol EIC and

CMP .22 Rimfire EIC

Match Director: James Knerr

Contact via email here.

Date: May 2-3, 2020

Cancelled due to COVID-19 virus threat

Download the 2020 Fiesta of Five Flags Regional Program

A big part of our Club’s history for 70 years has been the Fiesta of Five Flags Pistol Match. This year we will be celebrating this milestone and hope you are able to be a part of it. We have changed the regular format of the program and are going to reintroduce the Fiesta Trophy.

The Fiesta of Five Flags trophy has it's history going back to the early 1950s and will once again be the top prize of our overall winner.

So what about that name, what are the five flags

The Fiesta of Five Flags is derived from celebrating the history of Pensacola which has been under the control of five countries since 1559 when the Spanish were the first to claim this area of Florida for Spain.

The French were the next to possess Pensacola beginning in 1719 and then the British took control in 1763 after the French and Indian War. Spain again recovered the land until General Andrew Jackson annexed west Florida for the United States.

In 1861, Florida seceded to the Confederacy until 1865 becoming a permanent part of the United States.

Now we invite you to experience our city and rich history during your visit!

The 2019 Fiesta Match and NRA Medallion Winners

The match was fired May 4-5, 2019. The coveted NRA Gold, Siver and Bronze Medallions were up for grabs once again. We always look forward to seeing familiar faces as the race to the National Matches begins to heat up.

The weeks leading up to the Fiesta of Five Flags NRA Regional Pistol Match had been nice with very windy conditions at times. The match this year started calm and grew to windy as a quick moving thunderstorm approached. We completed everything on the Saturday program except the NRA Distinguished Revolver match which was fired after the conclusion of the .45 caliber match on Sunday.

That set the stage for some great scores across all of the NRA classifications despite the conditions.

This year we hosted shooters from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Missisippi and Lousiana. The US Army Marksmanship Unit fielded a team as well.

Gold: Greg Markowski, 2652-140X

Silver: Carl Clegg, 2645-136X

Bronze: Robert Case, 2562-77X

SPC Chris Hudock of the US Army Marksmanship Unit

In 2017 Chris put on a clinic during the .22 portion of the match firing multiple 10X cleans during the .22 match on May 6. One was during Timed Fire and the other was during a Rapid Fire stage. Timed fire is two strings of 5 shots fired in a time limit of 20 seconds each. Rapid Fire is two strings of 5 shots each fired in a time limit of 10 seconds each.

Doesn't sound too hard? Consider that the distance is 25 yards and the firing is done with one hand. Not to mention having to reload and re-establish the sight picture for each string. Thanks for the display of impressive marksmanship Chris!

Past Year's Match Results

2020 match not held due to COVID-19 virus pandemic threat

2019 Fiesta Match

2018 Fiesta Match

2017 Fiesta Match

2016 Fiesta Match

2015 Fiesta Match

2014 Fiesta Match

Fiesta Match History

It was first fired in 1950 as a two-day small bore match, but was changed to a pistol match in 1951 with 15 competitors and quickly grew to 100 in the late 1950s. By 1965, the Fiesta Match saw range capacity crowds of 250 competitors from the armed services and individuals from all over the country including Alaska and Hawaii, Europe and the Panama Canal Zone. With so many people participating, the match took 3-4 days to fire all the events. In 1965, at the Beck's Lake Road range property near Cantonment, an additional 50 yard range was built just for the slow fire stages to accommodate additional shooters so no one would be turned away.

The Fiesta tournament served as “a preliminary for both International Games of 1972 and the Olympics.” - Pensacola News Journal, June 6, 1971

A big draw was the purse for the prizes, which in 1968 was as high as $5,000 (for inflation: $34,014)! The Club’s operational budget was also derived solely from proceeds of the Fiesta Match for many years.

While NRA Conventional Pistol matches are not as huge as they once were, the competition is still fierce.This type of pistol shooting can be poised to make a come back as firearm manufacturers are beginning to build pistols with good 50 yard accuracy into them without breaking the bank.