Steve Reiter

Flash Update: Click for today’s results!

See this article at USA Shooting for details of the competition for the four spots remaining on the USA Olympic Shooting Team:

This is a very pretty target.

My work takes me to many large and successful companies. Some of them build airplanes. Some of them make automobiles. And some of them … well, they won’t say what they do. They just smile and change the subject.

For those who’ve followed the developing scores over the past several days, it’s been an exciting competition.

Here are some scattered notes and comments from today.

I didn’t shoot very well in today’s 2700. All my scores were down at the low-end of where I’ve been shooting. The bad news is this was an Authorized match and the scores count so I’ll be in Outdoor Sharpshooter land for a while. The good news is that’s where I *should* be competing, that’s where I *need* to be working, and doing the things I did today (shooting, not quitting, re-focusing on basics) is what will *eventually* let me learn what I need to know to advance. Patience!

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!

Before

The Desert Midwinter competition for 2009 Conventional Pistol begins today with a 900 for service pistols.