Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-11-22
ERB HAS The CUP.
The Champion Wing Shot of
America.
A Stubbornly Fought Battle, Won by
an Exceedingly Marrow Margin
Over Budd at Davenport

The shoot for the American Field wing
shot champion cup of the United States.
between G. w. Budd. of Des Moines,
and Fred Erb, of Lafayette. Ind, took
place at the grounds of the Forest Gun
club at Davenport yesterday, and was
witnessed by about three hundred per-
sons, many attending from this city. The
official scorer was George Ferral; S. A.
Tucker was referee. The Judges were
for Erb, d.. DAVIS. of Lafayette; for
Budd, r. B. Organ, of Chicago. Among
those in attendance outside the city, were,
c. P. Richards. editor of the american
Field; Mr.. Whitfield, of the Kansas City
Referee; c. F. Cahoon, Freeport, Ill. !;
DR.. Ady. West Liberty: J. Davis, Musca-
tine; John Smith, of Audubon.
Erb won the trophy, by the narrow
margin of 43 to AZ, and the Democrat
Gazette says of the contest in general:
Aside from Budd's last lost bird there
was not wild shot. A tougher lot of
pigeons never left the trap. They were
far above the average. Birds have been
seen upon rare occasions that flew better
"a little-but there never W as lot that
died harder. Budd lost eight and Erb
seven birds. Out of these fifteen three
were killed out of bounds. so that only
twelve escaped the park. OF these twelve
as stated above. one went away I'M
ruffled. Every one of the others went
away badly demorslized, some of them
MORALLY wounded. but bound to wing il
as far as they could. They few wicked
ly enough. They came out of the trap
in all kinds of shapes, but the shot all
ways caught them before they went far
Budd downed a number of difficult in
corners and right quarterers. which
seemed to fall to his lot in unusual num-
bers. and Erb made number of remarks
BILE clean kills at the trap, before the bird
had fairly had time to get off the ground
Budd used his second barrel on number
of birds that seemed safely sent to grass,
but he did it as precautionary measure
Long experience had taught him how
prone the dead pigeon is to come to life
and tiy away after being considered safe
Mr.. Erb made q number of great shots
with his second barrel. He seemed
slightly more nervous than Mr.. Budd and
fired more quickly. In consequence of
this he failed to kill with his first sew
eral times, but in a large proportion
OF instances be ran up the score
with his second, and those shots
we're some of them remarkably clean
kill. Several of his lost birds got away
by climbing right up in the air, his shots
seeming. in those cases, to pass beneath
them. Budd, on the other hand, was
evidently shooting behind his quarters,
so that they caught only the edge OF the
load in several instances.
The trophy for which the match was
shot is a beautiful solid silver cup valued
at $3.50. Two years ofunbroken holding
a condition that will keep it wandering up
and down the earth for a good many
years before it finds resting place. 1t
now reposes In the safety deposit vaults
of bank in Des Moines, but will be
turned over to Mr.. Erb by NJ. Budd,
upon the order of DR.. Rowe of the
american Field DR.. Rowe and his
friends left for Chicago last evening and
MIR. Budd went to Des Moines. and Mr..
Erb and Mr.. Davis will go home this
morning. Mr.. Budd will not issue a
challenge to Mr.. Erb for some time, but
may do so in the future. He is soon to
leave with party on a special car for an
extended tour of the west and south, and
will not be in Iowa or able to shoot Mr..
Erb for half year at least"