Campfire tales

Guns Magazine, Nov, 2002 by John Taffin

MEMORY

They're having a four-man, four-gun, four-week pistol tournament at Shooting World. Why don't we make a "four-man" team with Lana and Dot and enter?"

My friend and shooting buddy Ray had piqued my interest, and I asked him about the details. He recounted that each person on the team would shoot 40 rounds Bullseye style at 25 yards with four different guns: a .22, a centerfire semiautomatic, a centerfire double action revolver, and a centerfire single-action. They could be shot in any order with one being used each week.

"I will if the ladies are willing to go along, but only if we approach this with the idea of having fun and not having to win," I said.

I especially did not want the women to get stressed out over their shooting. Ray was in full agreement.

Competitive Shooting

I've enjoyed some forms of competitive shooting, but as my work involves constantly testing different firearms, I find it difficult to stay sufficiently familiar with one gun to be truly competitive.

This was especially true for me when I was deeply involved in long-range silhouette shooting. My first love was the sixgun, but even here I would say I shot well over a dozen different guns during my competition days.

It was only when I settled on a Ruger .357 Maximum that I was able to consistently shoot top scores, and in fact set the local course record which shall never be broken as our local group no longer shoots silhouettes. The days of my being able to shoot top scores are long gone in more ways than one.

In the proposed four-man tournament we would also be handicapped in several other ways. Neither Ray nor I had ever shot much bull's-eye competition, the gals never had, and we would be shooting indoors. The latter would especially be a problem for me due to the light, or rather the lack thereof.

Those Sneaky Sights

I need a lot of light to see the sights these days. "They don't make things like they used to" certainly applies to sixgun sights. For some reason, all manufacturers are providing fuzzy sights on their sixguns and semiautos.

This was not true in the 1950s and 1960s, and they have been very subtle about it, gradually changing them decade by decade. And they have really been devious, as witnessed by the fact that when I pick up a sixgun from my teenage years they have somehow retroactively fitted that revolver with fuzzy sights as well. Very strange!

I've also come to realize that they seem to be in cahoots with the leather manufacturers as all of my older cartridge belts have shrunk. At least they haven't gotten to the rifle manufacturers completely yet as their rear sights are fuzzy but the front sights are still sharp. I will keep my "eye" on them.

Although the gals are very experienced cowboy action shooters, they had spent very little time behind the semiautomatic pistol, so we did take some time at the range before the tournament to familiarize them with a 9 mm. We entered and found ourselves the four oldest shooters signed up, and also one of only two teams that were not completely comprised of men.

Everyone else in the tournament shot two-handed as the rules allowed. However, I was forced to shoot one-handed in order to be able to see that fuzzy front sight.

At the end of three weeks, we were in first-place! As we arrived for the last evening, some of the other shooters tried to rattle us, me in particular, but it didn't work. I don't get buck fever. I don't get rattled, normally, when it comes to shooting, and besides, I had saved my best gun for last.

Fleeting Glory

On this night my pistol of choice was a single action -- a fine Freedom Arms Model 97 .357 Magnum loaded with 148 grain hollow base wadcutters over 3.0 grains of American Select in .357 brass.

In shooting our 40 rounds we used two targets of 20 rounds each. I felt real good about my first target and as it was coming back up the lane to me so did everybody else. The whole crowd could see that every shot was in the ten-ring. It proved to be the only perfect target of the whole tournament and I chalked one up for the old guys.

One spectator had to bring his young son over just to look at me and my moment of fleeting glory. I thanked the fellow who had particularly gone out of his way to rattle me.

No Women Allowed

More than 50 shooters took part in the tournament, and when the scores were totaled, we had taken every category, and, of course, the whole contest. Ray and I had finished one-two in three categories, and I beat him out in the single action shoot.

The ladies did more than their part to help the team, and were right behind us with only two other men besting their total score. It wouldn't surprise me if at the next tournament they put a cap on age and hung up a sign that reads "Men Only, No Women Allowed."

Old Dogs And New Tricks

The story is told of a bullseye shooter who shot religiously every week. He also was soon sabotaged by fuzzy sights, and it got to the point that he had to quit shooting altogether. However, he still came to the range every week. He brought his competition pistol with him, but kept it cased, and just sat and watched as the others shot and then visited with them afterwards. For several months they tried to get him to shoot again, but he always refused.