A really good friend of mine shared this with me today. How amazing that her family now has a piece of their history back.
"A true Comfort family story. In 1935 at the NRA National Matches held at Camp Perry, Ohio, my husband's grandfather, Benjamin C. Comfort, a St. Louis, MO civilian, came "out of nowhere" to enter and win the 1935 Wimbledon Cup Match. Ben Comfort outshot numerous (several hundred) shooters to win the match with a score of 100 with 14 V's. The Wimbledon Cup match is an any rifle match with no restrictions for sights, where competitors fire 20 shots prone at 1,000 yards.
Ben Comfort was the first person to win the Wimbledon Cup, or any other significant yard match, with a magnum caliber, the .300 H&H Magnum to be exact, and in so doing, brought real change to the world of NRA long-range shooting. In the NRA's book, 100 Years of National Matches, one entire page is devoted to Ben Comfort's win.
Ben Comfort died in 1961. The rifle was lost to the Comfort family since that time. He had divorced my husband's grandmother and remarried a woman who did not maintain ties with the Comfort family after Ben's death.
For nearly 35 years, Mike and I have searched for this rifle. We contacted the makers, Griffin & Howell, the NRA, and anyone else that came to mind with no luck.
In January this year, while searching online for ammunition loads for his M1A, Mike came across his grandfather's name mentioned. He clicked on the link and it took him to Sportsman's Legacy in Kalispell. As he perused the site and scrolled down the rifles section...….THERE was his grandfather's rifle! It's engraved with his name, the match name and location, date and his score! It was for sale! Within five minutes I was on the phone and had to leave a message. An hour later, the rifle was ours after a down payment!
We will never know where the rifle was during the years 1961 to last November when Sportsman's Legacy acquired the rifle in a winning auction bid along with several rifles. Mike and I feel it should never have been out of Comfort family hands but we are elated we were able to purchase it and bring it back.
A wrong made right today."
