Rob shot his first competition in either 1978 or 79, he doesn't remember for sure now.  It was at the Mesa Police Department range and it was a night shoot.  He shot a Smith & Wesson M-27 revolver with a 6-inch barrel loaded with 200-grain round-nose bullets he bought from the Mini-Gun shop and loaded himself.  The custom holster was  made by a local leather worker, Jess Bird, who had built holsters for Rob's dad for many years.   Every pistol the Leatham's owned had a Bird holster. That first match, Rob finished third revolver behind Mike Henry and Charlie Mills.   Rob was now addicted!

He would play hookie from church to go to matches on Sundays at the Cactus Combat Match League in Phoenix. Rob remembers riding up with his friend Guy Hammond, who built Rob's first pin gun, for the Monthly match and soon Rob was threatening to win every category he entered.  At those events you could shoot Auto, Revolver, Snubby, Rifle and Shotgun.  The Cactus League also had a best-of-the-day competition, pitting the top revolver against the top auto shooter in a man-on-man type shoot-off.  This could  be where Rob came to love, and excel at,  shoot-offs.

Rob met Brian Enos some time in the 1980-1981 period and they started a close friendship that endures to this day.  The two fed off each other, and their love of firearms and desire to learn drove them to performance levels not previously seen in the sport of action shooting.  They began questioning everything they had been taught about shooting and developed techniques that worked specifically for them,  discarding fad and traditional methods.  Their results speak for themselves.  Never content to leave good enough alone, Rob and Brian started trends that, to this day, are considered state-of- the-art.  Neither consider themselves "form shooters" and Rob really dislikes the concept of "do it this way because I do" that he was taught when beginning practical competition.

Rob shot many, many local and state level matches, sharing wins with Brian regularly.  Rob was beginning to get the picture, and knew he had things to learn to get to the next level.

"So many times when we were in the formative stages we would ask a shooter why he did something, only to find he had been told 'that was the way to do it'.  'By who?' we would ask, only to be given some guru du jour's name.  Only thing is, we could not find any sensible reason many of these techniques were effective. Often we could not do as well with these techniques, and simply discarded what seemed irrelevant.  Maybe we were not skilled enough to employ these tricks successfully.  In the end, how you shot, not how you looked while shooting, was our focus.  The paramount object was to hit the targets quickly.  Those that followed one master or another blindly, never seemed to be much of a threat at the higher levels." 

In 1981, Brian went to the Steel Challenge and did quite well.  When he returned, Rob asked him about the match and Brian said that he thought Rob would not do too well, as it was a lot more of an accuracy match than the IPSC stuff they had been shooting.  At this time, Rob was definitely renowned for speed more than the accuracy. "This kind of p***ed me off.  I remember that being a turning point for me, since I now wanted to prove Brian wrong".  Rob And Brian then practiced heavily all year long and went to the 1981 IPSC U.S. Nationals.  "That was my first big match.  I met all the big name shooters and had a great time.  Brian and I stayed in a campground with his Mom and Dad, and man, it was hot.  It was in Virginia in the summer and we were sweating our butts off from the humidity".  Rob finished 10th at his first Nationals; Brian finished right behind at 11th.  Rob has attended every U.S. National since, rain, shine, sleet or humidity.

Rob first fired the the Steel Challenge and the Bianchi Cup in 1982.  These two events, plus the IPSC US Nationals, were the pinnacle of the action shooting game.  The IPSC principles of DVC (diligentia, vis and celeritas, Latin for Accuracy, Power and Speed) had been equally represented in practical shooting.  The Cup and the Steel Challenge did not follow these guidelines.  Bianchi is all accuracy with comparatively little speed.  The Steel Challenge is speed with some accuracy, and neither has the power equation factored in.  Together, the three are a good test of everything an action pistol shooter should be. 

Over the next couple of years, Rob shot these three majors and a slew of local events.  In 1985, he won the triple crown:  the IPSC U.S. Nationals, the Bianchi Cup and the Steel Challenge.  Rob is still the only competitor  to have achieved this amazing accomplishment in the same year!

Many shooters have come and gone over the years, but Rob is still going strong!  Most of the established shooters from the 70s have since retired, along with the majority of those who started when Rob, now age 43, did.  "The 80s were a magical time for pistol shooters.  The sport of practical pistol was in its infancy, but growing rapidly.  Specialty events, what Brian and I started calling 'carnival shots,' were popping up all over the place and industry support was growing.  I was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time and make a living at my hobby."

"There is so much history I would like to give you here, but there is just no room. Maybe my upcoming books can fill in all the holes."  Rob is still training, still winning and still learning.  In September of 2003, he won his fourth straight USPSA Limited National title in an epic battle with Phil Strader and Teran Butler.  "I haven't learned so much, or fought so hard, since my battles with Jerry Barnhart."  Those two are sure to be forces to be reckoned with and Rob looks forward to many more battles to come.  He says "Bring it on".