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Today is a travel day, driving from Huntsville to Nashville and then flying home on Southwest.

This was my second visit to the River Bend Gun Club a little bit north of Atlanta.

After work, I drove south from Huntsville Alabama a handful of miles to where highway 231 crosses the Tennessee River.

I have the utmost respect for our law enforcement officers many of whom frequently put their lives on the line – and sometimes lose – on our behalf.

Tony has a provocative idea. In his Harmonic Functions on Manifolds blog, he suggests pulling out your best scores from the record book – you all write down your scores, don’t you? – and tally them up to discover your true potential.

I can see two, maybe three camps of thought on what a spotting scope is for but first I’ll point out that we all probably agree it’s a good tool for getting your sights lined up. But once that’s accomplished, the divergence of opinion begins.

In the near future, we will start instructor-led, live courses but on a remote basis. Students (and instructors) will attend class from home or work. They will avoid airplane travel, rental car agencies and taxies, and they will go home every night.

Before

Little things:

• John occasionally brings sweets – donuts, cupcakes, etc. – but won’t touch them himself until the match is over;
• Younger shooters (that’s younger than 50 or so) are more passionate in their frustration and can become borderline reckless if their handguns jam more than once – keep an eye on them;
• Renold usually has a tune going in his head as do I and, passing close to each other on the way out to the targets or back, we hum aloud to compare notes, but adopting his tune doesn’t help me shoot as well as he does;
• Most of the High Masters have a lot of upper-body strength, often from childhood, but there are significant exceptions so it’s not a requirement for that level of performance, just a help;
• Couldn’t see a double on someone’s otherwise excellent target one day, scored it as a miss, didn’t change my story when the shooter pointed out a slightly elongated hole, he challenged it (for a buck), the jury agreed with him, then I re-scored it but possibly gave him too much thereby apparently compounding my faults – like a shot in the five ring, “it happens,” and all you can do is move on;
• The conscious mind can only think one thought at a time but Bullseye requires a skilled coordination of observations and actions – it can be a long road for those who insist on “figuring it out” because that path forces no more than one step at a time;
• I feel an odd tension around Bill – we’re too much alike, perhaps, even though we appear to be quite different;
• Bob will move up and out of Sharpshooter land after today – good, because he’s shooting Master-level scores which sure knocked me out of the run for one of those new pistols, the prizes for this competition;
• I’ll need 90+alibi rounds of wad for the 45 competition today, plus 30+alibi of ball for Service Pistol team and another 30+alibi of ball for the Leg Match;
• I lightly cleaned the wad gun last night so it’s ready; and
• Yes, my shoulder and grip are both tired but no more so than yesterday or the day before – I’m ready.

Let today’s matches begin!