RIP Tommy Campbell

[TimBoettcher]

Sad, he was a really great guy… many good times with him. 
 

 

Timmy

[outerlimits]

so sorry to hear.  met him at the 1984 steel challenge-very friendly.  RIP...

[warpspeed]

From Safariland ?

 

RIP

[Guy Neill]

Tommy was a great shooter and person. He will be missed.

 

RIP Tommy.

[Braxton1]

I remember when he was THE guy to beat in the "Tactical" class (before Limited Division existed).  He had one of the fastest accurate double-taps I've ever seen.  We used to like to think that it was because of the superior reset of that S&W trigger, but it was just raw talent.  He was also the one who proved that "trigger freeze" was a shooter problem, not a gun problem.  Most wrongly believed that they were out-running the gun when this happened.  Tommy proved that the gun cycles so fast that you're not out-running it, even with sub-.12 splits.

 

While at S&W, he was instrumental in the development of the large-framed S&W automatics, the 645 and later the 4506 and 1006 pistols.  His prototypes, dubbed Supergun and Supergun II, were giving the 1911s of the day a run for their money.

 

Tommy was also the co-developer of the .40 S&W cartridge, along with Paul Liebenberg.  They wanted to get a 180 grain 10mm bullet to fly at 950 fps and figured they could do it with a case length that'd be usable in a 9mm-framed gun.  Their re-design of the case webbing allowed this to happen, instead of simply chopping a 10mm Norma case.

[21 shooter]

I met Tommy Campbell probably 15+ years ago, I think he was working for Safariland at the time.  He was on the road a lot.  He gave me his business card and I asked him if he was the Tommy Campbell that worked for S&W, the famous competitor I had read about.  He was surprised at that and said no one that day had recognized him and few knew about his background.  He told me a lot about developing the 40 S&W and other interesting stories, he was a fascinating person to talk to.  I told him I met very few people at his level of knowledge and ability.  He was surprised that I asked him to autograph a business card,  which I still have.  Another legend in the competition and shooting world has left us.