Shooting Bulls-Eyes

Shooting Bulls-Eyes

In the latter part of the 60’s I was stationed in Lorain, Ohio for some temporary
duty. I was scheduled to be there for several months and since there was no base
or housing I found some affordable lodging at a small trailer park not far from
where I had to work.

I had nights and weekends off so I had plenty of free time to sight see and read,
mostly gun and hunting magazines. One night, as I sat on the porch reading “Guns
and Ammo” or something, the paper delivery man came by. He inquired whether
I wanted to subscribe to the daily newspaper, which I declined, and then noticed
my magazine and asked if I was interested in shooting. That was my introduction
to a man I’ll just call “Mr. Smith”.

Mr. Smith was a target (bull’s-eye) shooter, meaning he belonged to a group of
people who liked to go to matches around the state and shoot at targets for
trophies and prizes. I didn’t know a whole lot about target shooting and said so
but Mr. Smith said he would give me some tips and take me practice shooting if I
wanted his help.

I was soon going to the local range with him after work and on weekends learning
how to hold a pistol and shoot at a bulls-eye on a target anywhere from 15 yards
out to 50 yards. I was a poor offhand handgun shot and it took a long time for me
to get to be able to even keep 10 shots on the target at 50 yards, let alone in the
ten or X ring!

Soon Mr. Smith had me at a local gun shop scouting out possible guns to buy to
get me going to a match. I had finally mastered how to shoot his 45 acp without
hurting anyone, but he started me out with a used Browning Hi-Power in 9mm.
We added a Browning Challenger .22 for my small bore gun and I was into my
meager bank account for over a hundred bucks.

I shot ok with the .22 but the Hi-Power and I weren’t doing so hot. I should add
here that my only pistol experience prior to meeting Mr. Smith was with my .22
Colt Scout six-gun and that was simple plinking and rudimentary hunting, not
target shooting. The Hi-Power was a tricky gun to master, with the terrible trigger
pull and fixed sights but it taught me a lot about controlling my breathing and
trigger squeeze. Mr. Smith said if I could learn on that then I would be ready for a
good gun! I did a lot better shooting Mr. Smith’s customized 45 with good sights
and we soon decided I needed to get a good 45 fast.

We debated my options and I had two choices, buy an out-of-the-box target
pistol or buy a used one and send it to a smith to accurize it. I didn’t really have
the time for option two so I dug deep into my last savings and bought a Colt Gold
Cup NM for (If I remember correctly) $125.00. With my Hi-Power for trade-in, I
had to come up with about $75.00 cash! Big bucks back in those days!

It is amazing how much better I shot with that Gold Cup, I didn’t turn into an
expert overnight but I did raise my scores by a good percentage. I am a firm
believer in getting the best tools for the job if you can afford them and I have
never regretted the purchase of those two expensive pistols, even though I pretty
near starved for a bit.

I won’t talk about all the practice and trial and error stuff but suffice it to say, Mr.
Smith was a good coach and I think he just enjoyed teaching someone about his
sport regardless of how well I did or didn’t do. I think if circumstances had been
such that I could have stayed there longer I may have actually learned how to
shoot well.

We went to several more matches and I finally got to shoot some targets for score
and, although I was not in the top ten, I at least made a good showing for an
amateur and I don’t think I embarrassed Mr. Smith. I guess I am still in awe of
anyone who can stand up at the line and hold a pistol out in front of them in one
hand and put 10 shots in the X ring of a 50 yard target, the people that Mr. Smith
shot with could do that pretty consistently and that’s something.

I had to ship out before I could get to anymore matches and I had to put my
target shooting behind me. In fact, I didn’t really have the drive or the patience to
continue Bulls-Eye shooting and don’t know if I ever would have been good
enough at it to compete against the experts, but it was a fun experience. Today, I
only plink around my yard and my shooting is mostly with two hands, age is no
friend to shooting one-handed, but sometimes, as I look at the target, I hear Mr.
Smith quietly telling me to “get your sight picture, control your breathing and
squeeze the trigger”.