August 11, 2001

T's TOO BAD I SUCK WITH MY SIXGUNS... At least I didn't finish last — which is where I ended up on my very first shoot with the Carolina Cattlemen's Shooting & Social Society. I shot in the "Duelist" category again, since it just seems right to me that the pistols get shot with one hand. Actually, I think my shooting style is more properly called "Double Duelist," since I shoot the strong-side revolver with my right hand, and draw and fire the weak-side gun with my left.

I had one clean stage (though I can't remember whether it was Stage 4 or Stage 6) but one horrible stage (that would be number 3) with four handgun misses. Bleah. It was really hot and more humid and with my sweaty hands I had trouble keeping control of the revolvers — kept slipping on the grips. I'm wondering if a set of hard rubber Colt grips would be a worthwhile investment...

I'm strongest with the old Winchester rifle. The shotgun is getting better for me, though I need to speed up and smooth out my loading technique. That should shave a lot off my times once I get that figured out.

Finished 18th out of 22 contestants, with a total time of 371.20 seconds. My "Overall Rank" is 103, which I guess is where I sit among all the shooters that either have shot or do shoot at the club. I don't know how far down the list goes — the low number for shooters in this particular match was a 120, so I'm not last on this one, either, which is nice for me. It's apparent how slow I am when one compares the time of Tarheel Gunslinger (the fastest Duelest shooter of the match) with an overall time of 223.20 to my 371.20. Just call me "Turtle Boy." I've got a long way to go to acquire the speed, smoothness and skill of many of these long-time cowboys. Of course, a duelist is always going to be slower than a Traditional shooter; just look at the fastest guy of the match, Stinky Jim, coming in at 182.80. It's more fun to me to shoot one-handed, though.

Here are my stage results:

I didn't take notes on my number of misses per stage (or anything else), but I'm starting to do that. I think my goal for the next match is to try and shoot it "clean" (no misses), and if I have to go a little slower to do that, I will. After all, each miss costs me five seconds — I won't take that much time to make sure I'm on target!