The beginning

First off, I'm new to the forum and this is my first post so hello to you all. I'm new to bullseye but I'm not new to precision pistol shooting. Im 27 years old now, and can remember seeing target pistols over three years ago and being drawn to them. I loved how they felt, how they looked, and how accurate they could be if you could become the shooter necessary for the gun to perform. I loved how a pistol match showed more the capabilities of a shooter than the capabilities of the gun. For me at the time I had shown interest in rifle but it's simplicity and lack of challenge bored me too easily.

But bullseye - now there's a sport I thought I could prove my self in. Where a person stands toe to toe on a line to show what he or she is capable of with a quality target arm out stretched in one hand and at 50 yards to boot. The challenge excites me. I did my research and learned of the cost of the guns, and the ammo. Oh the ammo! I said to my mentor "I can't afford this! I'm not gonna be able to be a competitive shooter after all I guess." He says to me "what about muzzleloaders?" Ha! Muzzleloaders - that's funny I thought. But precision muzzleloading pistol shooting (American unlimited) is laid out much like bullseye. And so I could afford the powder, ball, tools, and the guns. And now I stand a national champion in both the NMLRA and NRA this year two and half years later after beginning my pistol shooting career.

One of my practice pistols for cold wether or winter is a S&W M41. All my slow fire practice at 25 and 50 yards was preparing me for bullseye much to my unknowing for my focus was not on bullseye.

The more competitive pistol shooters I met the they talked of bullseye. The more reading I did on technique, the more I heard of bullseye. I was bit again by this bug for bullseye and this time I couldn't shake it. I had to do it. If only one time I thought. That was a pointless thought in its self! After my first match I was hooked.

I had the 41, ammo... Heck, I even had an old pachmyer pistol box with a scope mount that used to belong to my grandfather. He wasn't a bullseye shooter but thought it would be good storage for the small amount of pistols he had. I just didn't have a red dot... Or means of attaching one to my older 41. So I'll shoot open irons! The sport used to be all irons anyway... Like I'll do any good any way. I had the training for iron sights because the muzzleloaders were iron sighted.

So I found a local club and range that held monthly shoots. Outdoors. It was the same range that the regionals and state champs were held at too. So went I did to the last monthly shoot of this year. I didn't know anyone at all. Thankfully I ran into a Masonic brother who introduced me to the regulars and how things were ran.

I was nervous, cautious even because I didn't know how to score the targets with the score cards I was given (I was helped with that) and I didn't want to do anything that might have been frowned upon. But once the gun was loaded and we began a slow fire sight in/warm up I was excited. Nothing felt better than to finally shoot on a bullseye pistol line. It felt natural. It felt like I had finally come to what I was looking for. And the actual match felt even better.

When my first timed fire target turned I was shocked, or surprised at how the firing line just erupted in gunfire like a pop corn machine. It's was hilarious to me. Had I been focused any less I might have laughed during the relay. I was having that much fun.

So the 22 stage ended, and not having a center fire or 45 I called it a day, said thank you and left. Less than a week later I get the bulletin in the mail with the scores and come to find out I won the 22 stage by two points! 12 shooters total. I shot a 869-24X. Not bad I thought. I could really do this after all maybe... I also happened to clean my first target in competition. I've cleaned targets in practice with both modern and black powder but never in a match until this one.

So now I'm saving to buy a Springfield Armory Range Officer in 45 and I'll have to do some bench testing and come up with a load for it. I'm gonna stick with irons. I shoot irons well and don't have the money for a dot or having one mounted anyway.

So there it is. My introduction, my excitement, my small victory and the chance to finally play the game I've wanted to for over three years now. I finally got to the promised land, that hallowed ground they call the bullseye pistol line!

Outstanding Tim!
Congrat's.
Welcome to the affliction.
al

nothing wrong with iron sight.. for most of us we'd still be using them if we could see well enough.

irons all the way

I asked and the answer I received was that dot sights came around after bullseye shooters were getting older (poorer eye sight) and the sport wasn't gaining new shooters - or - it was an effort to keep shooters with poorer eye sight in the game. Or something along thoughs lines. Personally a dot sight takes away from the spirit of the game a little bit. I'm my pinion that is.

Tim;
Good shooting and welcome to the forum.
BE shooting is a great road to travel like many other disciplines.

My personal opinion of "spirit of the game" has to do with shooting the .22, then CF using the .38 or other CF and not .45 and then shooting the .45.

Clarence

PS; yah, this will go well

If I could afford three guns I'd do it that way too but right now I'm only able to get my second gun. It makes sense to get the second gun as a 45 so I can shoot the whole thing and eventually get a 38. I like your thinking.

Welcome, I wish I had started earlier.  Which is why my 13 year old is on the line now!

Shoot Irons as long as you can. Welcome.

Jim Lenardson broke 2670 four times with irons! Haven't seen someone win a match with irons in a looooooong time :p)
Jon

CMP EIC matches are iron sights only. An option if you want to go that route.

Tim:H11 wrote:I asked and the answer I received was that dot sights came around after bullseye shooters were getting older (poorer eye sight) and the sport wasn't gaining new shooters - or - it was an effort to keep shooters with poorer eye sight in the game. Or something along thoughs lines. Personally a dot sight takes away from the spirit of the game a little bit. I'm my pinion that is.

Dot sights indeed came into the inventory in the late eighties, but the early ones, added a bunch of weight to the gun.  

Before that a few pistol shooters had great success using a small rifle scope. It is my understanding that neither  a scope or a red dot has *ever* been disallowed under NRA rules.  They were legal from the start,  just not invented yet.  Lasers have been disallowed because they place a visible dot on a target that distracts other shooters.  



If you want to shoot either a dot or irons well, my advice is to worry three times as much about your grip, and your triggering, and let the sighting mechanism take care of itself.  

In slow fire I tend to shoot irons better than a dot.   (Less chance of me losing focus on my shot process by watching the dot bounce around)

Timed and Rapid are a different animal.   An iron sight requires a four point line up from your eye to the rear sight  to the front sight to the target.   A dot requires only three.  Eye/dot/target.

Jason, you absolutely tore up Friendship this year! If you want a place to crash coming or going to Perry let me know; I live an hour north of Dayton. I'd like to get up to Camp Perry myself for service pistol, haven't been yet.

Thank you very much I'll keep that in mind. Never been to Camp Perry. Not sure that it's really in my budget right now. But maybe someday.

Schaumannk wrote:

Tim:H11 wrote:I asked and the answer I received was that dot sights came around after bullseye shooters were getting older (poorer eye sight) and the sport wasn't gaining new shooters - or - it was an effort to keep shooters with poorer eye sight in the game. Or something along thoughs lines. Personally a dot sight takes away from the spirit of the game a little bit. I'm my pinion that is.

Dot sights indeed came into the inventory in the late eighties, but the early ones, added a bunch of weight to the gun.  

Before that a few pistol shooters had great success using a small rifle scope. It is my understanding that neither  a scope or a red dot has *ever* been disallowed under NRA rules.  They were legal from the start,  just not invented yet.  

The wide use of the red dot can be explained by mentioning one name: Joe Pascarella! He came to BE, I mean PP, with a clunky "Oxford" sight. He soon was over 2600, well over, and for 3 consecutive yrs he had the high score @ Perry, winning 2 of them, the 1st being lost due to an uncrossed "X" on his scorecard. By the 3rd yr dots had grown onto PP's like flower's in spring. They have been ther ever since, lighter & better. Others tried various scopes but Joe made it work proving nothing succeeds like success!

Ron Habegger

Jon Eulette wrote:Jim Lenardson broke 2670 four times with irons! Haven't seen someone win a match with irons in a looooooong time :p)
Jon

Jim Lenardson.......would win matches w/ irons if he decided to. He is so smooth and natural it's amazing.    One of the shooters hid his muffs between .45 targets. Commands started, he glanced around for them then stepped to a locker where we tossed old, worn ear protectors, placed a worn out set on and shot the string w/o anything untoward. Implacable but always laughing! A great guy too!

Ron Habegger