TargetTalk

Okay, contest winner will get a sleeve of Vogel pellets delivered to their door. I would like see some folks write about their experiences at Benning, to include matches, things learned, people met, clinics attended, etc, whatever you think is interesting! We will install a poll to let ya'll vote on the winner

Who's game?

Any limit on the number of words?

=8^0

Steve

no, just as long as it does'tn exceed our bandwith allowances.

BTW, I have gift certificate that is rightfully yours, since I made mistake on who was AMU and who was not

Here I was at Ft. Benning. The base is sure a nice place alright – but, there have been a lot of changes since I first came here. More paved roads and facilities that would make most small towns jealous. So clean and aligned, with everything in its proper place – as it should be.

I found the building, an older barracks, that was to be my billet for this stay at Ft. Benning – I’m retired Air Force, so no motels for cheap ol’ me. I was down for air pistol finals and hopefully a team placement. After all, I must still be good – I qualified at the PTO.

I took a quick look at the base map and headed to the Phillips pistol range to do a little warm-up. Well, I soon found that this range is the home of high power pistol shooters and that my air pistol was garnering some very strange looks. It was sure noisy too, not like my home range.

So, realizing my geographical mistake, I asked about air pistol shooting and the officer at the door said, “You need to be at Pool!” It was a hot day and I thought that was very kind advice – nothing like a swim in the heat of the day.

So, I headed back to the barracks room and put my shooting stuff away and got ready for a swim at the pool. It took me almost an hour before I found the pool and then the sign confused me, it said Pool Range - which I thought was kind of odd. But, I grabbed my towel and walked in through the gate all ready for a swim.

Right at the door I was stopped and told I had to go to the 10M building to register. I thought that’s a great idea – keep strangers out of the swimming pool. Everything orderly and in its place.

Upon entering the registration building, I saw that I was the only person without a gun or shooting kit. These folks sure must be possessive about their guns to take them swimming. Me? I left mine in my room. I guess they all had their swim suits in their gun kits, 'cause I was the only one ready to swim. I’m was so confused!

So I asked this big fellow, some kind of a sergeant I guess, about swimming and shooting. He sure looked at me strangely. I guess he thought I was addled or something. He said, “Old timer, you have it all mixed up – you should be at the Hook facility at dinner time for the introductions and information review.” It was so noisy that I thought he said they were going to cook something special for dinner.

I checked my watch and it was getting on in the day and I was getting a little hungry – so back to my room I went. I put away my swim stuff, put my street clothes on, and headed to the designated shooter’s chow hall to eat whatever was supposed to be special.

When I arrived at the chow hall, I found I was the only one there - except for the cook. I asked him what was being fixed for the shooters that was so special and told him about my first day at the shooting championships. I also mentioned that this was the first time I had been back to Benning since 1964.

He took me under his wing, I guess – fixed me a nice steak dinner. Then he sat with me while I ate and we talked about what it was like back in the sixties at Benning and the old time shooting competitions. Finished with eating this very fine meal, the cook asked me to walk with him – he had something to show me.

We walked down the road a ways, then went into a building that almost resembled a museum – it was quiet and cool, a place of reverence. There he showed me hundreds of pictures, trophies, and fine guns. What a place, all those years of shooting history laid out right before me.

I looked for pictures of shooters from the 1960s era and found some – Tommy Pool, John Foster, Coats Brown, Denny Behrens, Ed Teague, and so many others. For a moment it was just like being there in 1964 – we were all so young…so young …….. then…..

I heard a distant ringing that wouldn’t go away and realized as I awoke, that I must have been dreaming. Us old timers do that sometimes, ya know. Well, I didn’t shoot that year, I just spent my days watching the new line of young shooters doing their best – after all, these are today’s shooters. And, by the looks in their eyes – tomorrow’s winners.

Keep shooting, as the years move on quicker than you know.

Not only a great story but a terrific piece of writing Bill.

As I was removing the piezo transducer from my stop watch I was reminded of the event at the nationals that caused this project to be put on my to-do list


I've got a stop watch that I keep with my shooting stuff.

on air pistol practice day, I had no problems with it, just like all the times I had used it in the past....

then, on day ONE of air pistol... early in the string, I'm shooting away, tearin' up the 8-ring, earplugs helping me to keep at least a fraction of my concentration somewhere in the vicinity of my front sight....

when Range Officer Mrs Hall interrupts me and points at my stop watch, I lifted it to my ear and sure enuf it was beeping....

I pressed some button or another and it stopped beeping, (alarm went into snooze mode) I tossed it onto my gear bag on the floor behind me and continued shooting, I was able to get past that distraction in just a few shots and then there she is again interrupting me, that dumb stopwatch is beeping away again...

seems the monotonic alarm beep was echoing off the entire shooting range and all the RO's could hear it up and down range and had a hard time fingering out where it was coming from, even my wife later said she heard it where she was sitting up in the benches near the door clear across the room....

Now I felt REALLY embarrassed, I was worried about getting DQ'd for the dumb thing!

so I asked Mrs Hall to take it and give it to my wife and tell her to put it in the car, she did and that's where it stayed the entire trip home... and every day at a little past nine, we'd hear that beeping coming from the piles of duffel bags and equipment in the back seat :)

Now, the beeper transducer is in my box of electronics parts and the stopwatch is back with the shooting equipment... hopefully THAT mistake won't happen again... (I'll find something new to screw up next year, I'm sure)

Poole
http://arizona.rifleshooting.com/

It always happens on match day.
Next time, just yell...







STOP WATCH!!!

;-)

Okay, I guess thats it for contestant entry's. I guess I declare the winner to be Bill Clarke's story.... even if he was not there officially, although Bill Poole's story had a familar ring to it..... ha ha

let's see some more next time.

My two don't count because I did not put them under this heading?

"The Nationals, Malfunctions and knowing the rules"

"The Nationals, its more than just scores"

One was before this announcement and the other was probably the last. But both were written to support the Nationals and share my experiences which I guess is the prime purpose of this forum. So thanks for the forum.

Yep Pete, your right, I just was;nt considering everyting. You did have some good information as well, I was just thinking that I needed to do something about the thread before it got buried and I forgot.

hmmmmmm What to do now?, shall I send you some pellets? or give you a credit, e-mail me and let me know
Scott