How fast is fast? Gentleman Jerry Miculek tackles McGivern's record

American Handgunner, July-August, 2004 by Charles E. Petty

A lot of guys like me grew up with awesome respect for the feats of Ed McGivern. Legendary is the only word that fits. I remember those grainy black and white movies of the short squat man in the big hat and the five shots that sounded almost like one.

McGivern did most of his recorded high speed shooting in the 1930s using the best timing equipment of the period--stopwatches. He used a solenoid operated plunger to start and stop the clock that was certified to be accurate to 1/20 (.05) sec. The feat everyone know, about is firing five shots in 9/20 (.45) seconds. All the shots were within an area about me size of a playing card. Without taking anything away from his accomplishments there is an inherent source of potential error in the timing. If each tick of the clock took .05 seconds then there is the opportunity for that much error at each end of the event and mean that the very precise time--by modern standards--could be from .040 to .050 seconds.

The gun he used was a Smith & Wesson M&P Target revolver. It had a 6" barrel and wore the famous McGivern gold bead front sight. The world knows the M&P as the longest lived revolver ever made. When S&W started using model numbers it became the Model 10, the one with adjustable sights became the Model 14 and when stainless steel took over, it would have been a Model 64 or 65.

The New Guy

Now let me tell you about McGivern's successor. He's Jerry Miculek (properly pronounced Mish-u-lak, by the way), a soft spoken 49 year old Louisiana Cajun who made a big splash in practical and speed shooting competitions some years ago by using revolvers to thoroughly clean the clocks of guys--good shooters--using autoloaders. I know these things because I watched both at matches and clinics how Jerry could take a S&W Model 625, shoot it just as fast or faster than the best autoloaders and, using moon clips, reload even faster. Anyone who thinks revolvers are obsolete don't know nothin'.

It was simply ordained Jerry would go after McGivern's records. We know about the five-shot speed but there was another teat of his not maw know about. McGivern tells the story in his book of shooting five shots from each of 10 guns in 25 seconds. This time Jerry went after that one too.

The occasion of Jerry's effort was the NRA National Police Championship held in Jackson, Miss., September 22-25, 2003. This is a big deal match that brought 460 shooters from 35 states and four foreign countries together for four days of competition with both revolvers and autoloaders. It's held at the Jackson PD range, as it has been since 1989.

Short History Lesson

NRA PPC (Police Pistol Combat) match has a total of 150 rounds fired at ranges from seven to 50 yards on the standard B-27 silhouette target. Positions include: prone, kneeling, sitting, and standing. Some of the standing portion provides for the use of a barricade for support and cover. The hook for this one is if you shoot on the right side of the barricade you use your right hand but on 'tother side it's the left. This means everyone must shoot a few rounds with their weak hand. With the exception of a stage at seven yards everything can be fired with two hands. For revolvers it's all double-action except for the 50 yd. stage where single-action is permitted, but almost everyone shoots that double-action too.

Of course law enforcement handguns have undergone a paradigm shift to autoloaders so, in 1990, the match rules were changed to permit the shooter to use either a pistol or revolver. But the real change came in 1992 when a separate class was established for pistols and the National Champion became the shooter with the best score for both guns. This year the winner was a soft spoken Mississippi State Police Lieutenant named Philip Hemphill who won the revolver portion outright with a score of 1,496-120x out of a possible 1,500. He's the kinda guy who probably said "excuse me" if he had to pop some miscreant during his days on the road. He only managed to finish third in the pistol phase but the combined score bested two shooters from the famed U.S. Border Patrol team. Agents Robert Vadasz and Clay Tippit finished second and third only two points behind Hemphill's 2,988 of a possible 3,000 points. Hemphill is not exactly a stranger to the winner's circle. This year was his sixth National Championship and he is one of only two men to shoot a perfect 1,500 score. He's done it twice.

The PPC nationals are a big deal for shooters, but there are also social and entertainment events. Corporate sponsorships paid for banquet dinners two nights, the Jackson Police Department hosted a fish fry at the range and shotgunner John Satterwhite put on a trick shooting show, but the event that captured the most extra attention was Miculek's effort to better McGivern's records.

The Happening

Jerry is one of those genuinely nice guys who doesn't let fame get in the way. I've known him for some time but it was still impressive to watch him talk to folks with no hint of pretense. I've also watched professional athletes, you know football, baseball and basketball players who are much too important to speak to a kid or sign a piece of paper. But put this in perspective, there are literally hundreds of players in each of those sports, but right now there is only one guy in the world who can do what Jerry does with a revolver. I know the pond is smaller, but it sure is refreshing to know you don't have to be a jerk to be good at sports.