Re: dogzapper's comment that Askin's was rumored to have cheated his way to the top:

Before WWII the main pistol game was NRA bullseye (the only other game was PPC, based on the FBI course). Then, as now, there were three parts to bullseye pistol: .22, centerfire and .45. Centerfire could be any centerfire round. So Askins got the bright idea of adapting a Colt Woodsman Match pistol to the .22 Velo Dog cartridge, which was an obsolescent centerfire cartridge about the size and power of a .22 LR. I don't recall if he had to cut the case down in length or was able to use the cartridges intact. In any event, the obvious advantage was it had the recoil of a .22 LR, significantly less than the .32 and .38 caliber centerfire revolvers that were then favored for that class, clearly a benefit in timed (5 shots in 20 sec) and rapid fire (5 shots in 10 sec), which accounts for 2/3 of the overall score.

He actually shot a few matches with that gun, but IIRC he didn't actually win a championship with it. I believe the next year, the NRA modified its centerfire rules so that a centerfire pistol had to be at least .32 caliber. In his writings, Askins was clearly proud of the way he gamed the system to gain an advantage over his competitors. Whether it would be considered cheating depends on your idea of sportsmanship - it was definitely gamesmanship. But he was a national pistol champ so he clearly was a top notch target shooter.

I also read somewhere (possibly on the 'fire) that he had a dislike of Jack O'Connor because O'Connor replaced his father as Shooting Editor of Outdoor Life when the elder Askins wasn't yet ready to go.