Miquelet (Miguelete)
Early Spanish flintlock with external mainspring and of rugged and reliable construction. Used all around the Mediterranean.
Original Class Cup donated by the Federacion Nacional del Tiro Olimpico Espanol (1972).
Replica Class Cup donated by Archibugieri di Piemonte (1983)

Maximilian
Austrian Emperor (1459 - 1519), dedicated hunter and gun lover, said to be the first to used rifled firearms which would have been in matchlock form.
Original Class Cup donated by the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain (1972)
Replica Class Cup donated by Cyrus Smith, USA (1987)

Minie
Paul Etienne Minie, French Army Officer (1804 - 1879) who, when a Captain in 1849, designed the hollow-base expanding bullet to facilitate quick loading in rifled arms.
Original Class Cup donated by the Arquebusiers de France (1972)

Whitworth
Sir Joseph Whitworth, much celebrated 19th century mechanical engineer (1803 - 1887) who advanced the accuracy of engineering and developed a rifling system for long range shooting.
Original Class Cup donated by the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain (1972)

Cominazzo
Famous family of barrel and gun makers from Gardone Val Trompia in Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Original Class Cup donated by Archibugieri di Piemonte (1983)
Replica Class Cup donated by Badischen Sports Verband (1989)

Kuchenreuter
Famous family of gunmakers from Regensburg, well known for their fine pistols (from 1626 to the present day)
Original Class Cup donated by the Deutsches Waffen Journal, Germany (1972)

Colt
Designer of the first successful percussion revolver to be manufactured on a large scale (from 1838 onwards).
Cup donated by Jim Briggs of the Nation Muzzle Loading Rifle Association of USA (1972)

Walkyrie
Warrior maidens from Scandinavian sagas.
Original Class Cup donated by the Deutsches Waffen Journal, Germany (1972)

Gustav Adolf
King of Sweden, first to introduce the use of paper cartridges as standard for his soldiers.
Cup donated by the Federation Francaise de Tir (1972)

Pauly
Swiss Artillery Officer (1766 - 1817) and designer of the first centre-fire obturating cartridge.
Cup donated by the Town of Versailles (1972)

Versailles
'Grand Prix de Versailles' - First International Muzzle Loaders Team Event, shot at Tir National de Versailles in May 1968.
Cup donated by the Tir National de Versailles (1972)

Mariette
Well known Belgium pepperbox pistol maker.
Cup donated by Deutscher Schutzenbund, Germany (1977)
2nd Cup donated by BPSU of South Africa.

Peterlongo
Famous Austrian gunmaker (1826 -1898) working through the transition from muzzle loading to cartridge arms. Specialised in sporting and target rifles but also made many pistols and revolvers.
Trophy (plate) donated by Deutscher Schutzenbund, Germany (1974)

Tanegashima
Island in the south of Japan where the first matchlocks appeared in 1543, brought in by a Portuguese ship drifting in a cyclone. Within five months the local Daimyo had commissioned 600 replicas and a powder mill, ensuring the rapid adoption of the matchlock as a military weapon throughout Japan.
Original Class Trophy donated by the National Rifle Association of Japan
Replica Class Trophy donated by Cyrus Smith of USA (1981)

Vetterli
Freidrich Vetterli (1822 -1882), inventor of the famous 1869 thirteen shot Swiss Army repeater.
Original Class Trophy donated by the town of Zurich (1981)
Replica Class Cup donated by Archibugieri di Piemonte of Italy (1985)

Hizadai
Japanese kneeling position used in matchlock shooting and derived from the term used in the elaborate Samurai training courses. Original Class Trophy donated by the National Rifle Association of Japan

Amazons
Famous race of female warriors in Asia Minor who fought against Theseus, Achilles, Cyrus and Hercules.
Cup donated by the Federation Francaise de Tir

Boutet
Nicolas Boutet (1761 - 1833), Director of the Versailles Arms Factory, was Napoleon's best gun maker.
His many masterpieces were presentation arms for Kings, Marshals and Generals.
Cup donated by Gazette des Armes, France (1983)

Nagashino
Decisive battle for power in Japan (1575) where Nobunaga's three thousand arquebusiers, with only one day's training, held up a rate of fire of 6,000 shots a minute along an 1,800 metre front line, and destroyed the most powerful army of the day killing 10,000 out of 12,000 of their mounted Samurai.
Trophy (a splendid gold reproduction of an historical painting showing all the details of the battle) donated by the Town Council of Horai, in whose county lies the battlefield and the site of Nagashino castle. (1990)

Rigby
John Rigby, gun and rifle maker of Dublin, who specialised in superb sporting rifles and developed very accurate long range target rifles with which he entered long range matches (up to 1,000 yards) between 1862 and 1865. The firm of John Rigby still continues in business and produces beautiful sporting rifles.
Original Class Cup donated by the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain.

Manton
Surname of brothers John and Joseph who, working independently, were two of the most famous of all English gunmakers, and produced superb fowling pieces, pistols and rifles.
Cup donated by the Shooting Sports Trust of Great Britain (1973)

Lorenzoni
Italian designer of early flintlock magazine repeaters who lived in Florence from 1683 - 1733.
Original Class Cup donated by the Town of Codogno, Italy (1974)
Replica Class Cup donated by the Jaeger Vereinigung Pforzheim (1989)

Hawker
Lt Col Peter Hawker was a dedicated game shooter and wild-fowler, famous for his much reprinted book on the subject of shooting. He co-operated with Joseph Manton, the most prominent gunmaker of the day, in the improvement of the sporting gun. Hawker's double barrelled gun with which he bagged 14,000 head of game is now in the Birmingham Museum.
Cup donated by the Deutscher Schutzenbund (1989)

Pforzheim
Old medieval town where the local shooting association, founded in 1450, held their first international championship in 1561, and the 13th MLAIC World Championship in 1989.
Trophy, given by the town of Pforzheim, was especially designed by Reinhold Krause (1990)

Wogdon
London gun maker working at the latter part of the 18th century who specialised in duelling pistols of the finest quality and style.
Trophy donated by the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain (1996)

Wedgnock
The National Range Complex of the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain and the venue for the 1996 and 1998 MLAIC World Championships. Wedgnock is the largest muzzle loading range built and owned by muzzle loading shooters.
Cup donated by the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain (1996)

Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga, the victor at the Battle of Nagashino, who saw the military advantages of the matchlock musket over traditional samurai arms and employed arquebusiers in large numbers within his army to reach many conclusive victories.
Trophy donated by the National Rifle Association of Japan

Tanzutsu
TAN-ZUTSU is Japanese for short gun; TAN is the word for 'short' and ZUTSU, pronounced (TSUTSU) means 'gun'. Tanzutsu - short gun
Trophy donated by Mr. Onoo president of MLA Japan (2004)

Adams
Robert Adams was an important figure from the British gun trade of the mid-19th century and the name will be familiar to any one who has an interest in revolvers. Less well known is his work as a maker of sporting guns, though he played an active part in the London trade and was granted British, French, Belgian, Scottish and U.S. patents for sporting gun actions, boring and rifling machinery and ammunition. The first was being his British patent 13257 of 1851 for his trigger cocking, solid frame revolver.
Trophy donated by the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain (2004)

Lucca
Medieval Walled City in Tuscany, Italy. Host of the 20th MLAIC World Championships in August 2002
Trophy donated by the Federation Francaise de Tir (2004)

Halikko

Magenta
Town of Lombardia where, in 1859, the first relevant battle of the 2nd Italian Independence War was fought and won by the Piemontese Army and the French Allied Army over the Imperial Austrian Army.

Forsyth

Batesville

Pennsylvania

Lamarmora

Kunitomo