A reader in Georgia was cleaning out his old gun magazines, and was kind enough to send me a photocopy of an article titled “Bowl ‘Em Over,” about the 1979 Second Chance Combat Shoot, from the November ’79 issue of old friend Bob Brown’s unique magazine, Soldier of Fortune, now sadly missing from the newsstands like so many other great periodicals including our own  Backwoods Home.

Wow…flashback. Next year it will have been forty years ago. 1979 was the year I took my first expert witness case, and I was still a couple of years out from starting my own school.

The photo shows the top seven shooters, in order of their finish out of 350-plus competitors. In the top row, that’s overall champion Bill Wilson on the left, shooting one of his own custom Colt .45 autos years before he started manufacturing his own premium grade handguns at Wilson Combat. Across the back row are Nick Pruitt, Wayne Umberger,  Ray Neal, and me (grateful to have clawed his way to fifth place), and in the front row are Darryll Early and Lowell Wells, each holding the guns we won.

Good to remember there was a time when none of us were gray, and we only had one chin apiece.

Regular blog readers know that last year, the Second Chance Shoot was resurrected as The Pin Shoot, with more shooting games to play on reaction targets than ever.  You can get info at http://www.pinshoot.com/.  The next such event will be held at the same venue, in the great family resort town of Central Lake, Michigan, June 7-14, 2019.

Good news for ya: 1979 was like the third open-entry pin shoot (the very first was invitation only), and it got 350-plus shooters because it had been widely publicized in the gun magazines. In the almost four complete decades since, gun magazines have gone a lot more toward firearms tests and reviews than reportage on shooting events, and word hasn’t got out that this wonderful match is “back in business.”  This means you’ll have fewer competitors to beat for the raft of guns that will be on the prize table.

In his 1979 SOF article, John Howard wrote, “(This match)differs from most other shooting competitions in that it stresses camaraderie, relaxation and just plain fun. Unlike most shoots where one feels like a trainee back in boot camp and where competitors regard one another w ith hostile rivalry, at (this) match top competitors lend each other eapons and ammo and share tips. There is a real sense of friendliness and credit must be given to (founder) Richard Davis, who sets the overall tone and mood of the match by his constant good humor. Davis does a never-ending five-day comic monologue on the P.A. system, which keeps everyone laughing.”

I’ve been to the last two “resurrected pin shoots,” and had a ball at each of them.  Hope you can make it to the next one.

If so, I’ll see ya there.

 

9 COMMENTS

  1. “Good to remember there was a time when none of us were gray, and we only had one chin apiece.”
    That made me laugh as I can very well identify with both the hair and chin(s)!! although in my case it is not only the color gray but the lack of a lot of the hair on my head
    Thanks for the trip back in time, Mas!
    About to board up the house between Wilmington and Camp Lejeune since it looks like Florence is making aim directly at us. What is it with hurricanes that begin with “F” and the NC coast? Fran had horrible winds, Floyd had flooding rains, and now Florence may end up with both!

  4. Ha ha ha. After scrutinizing the photo, I see a huge camera assembly on a strap around Mas’ neck. Back then, was this a proto-type of GO-PRO? Curious, do you still have the pics from the
    ‘old days’ taken from that camera at that shoot? Would love to see them.

    Stay safe all.

    • If I do, they’re in storage. Got some this year from a friend at the shoot. Oughta dig ’em up and post ’em. Thanks for the idea.

  5. 1980 was the first year I made it to the Second Chance Shoot, then 81, 82 and either 1987 or 88. I only won one gun, a Mag-Na-Port customized Charter Arms Bulldog in 1982 but had lots of fun all four times I attended. I will try to make it up there again sometime, but life tends to throw me a bunch of curve balls when I least expect them.

  6. In 2003 I subscribed to “Soldier of Fortune” magazine. The TV news was only telling us how many coalition members had been killed each day during The War on Terror in Iraq. I wanted to know more, and SOF delivered.

    Also, they once printed an article by a man who claimed we lost the Vietnam War because we failed to cut off the enemy’s supplies. That article was a light bulb moment for me. When an army fails to cut off its enemy’s supplies, the war can drag on and on.

    Southerners hate General Sherman, with good reason, but his strategy shortened the war. I wish we could cut off the terrorists’ supplies.

  7. This is off-topic, but it is still a “blast from the Past”.

    Back on July 11th, in this very Blog (entitled NRA Nails Anti-gun Lie), I wrote the following blog post in response to fellow commentator Roger Wilco:

    “You are correct. Our current crop of leftists have not “Progressed” to out-and-out assassination of their political opponents yet. Although one gets the impression that they are sliding in that direction since the very sight of a Conservative, eating a meal in a restaurant, is offensive to them and worthy of mob harassment.

    No, at the moment, their favorite tactic is ‘Character Assassination’ rather than actual ‘Physical Assassination’. I anticipate that, any day now, they will trot out some woman who will claim to have been sexually harassed by Justice Brett Kavanaugh (27 years ago) and who will then proceed to paint Justice Kavanaugh as a rapist and, for good measure, a racist too!

    After all, all straight white men are rapists and racists in their book. Justice Kavanaugh is white, isn’t he? He is a straight man, isn’t he?

    Well, there you go. In their mainstream media reports, the Judge will be found ‘Guilty, as Charged’.

    Probably, the Leftists will wait until Justice Kavanaugh is appearing in his hearings before the Senate before unleashing the accusations and media firestorm. That is when it will have maximum impact. Just like they did with Justice Thomas.”

    Now, see the following link:

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/kavanaugh-accused-of-decades-old-sexual-misconduct-in-letter-2018-09-13?mod=newsviewer_click

    No, my friends, I cannot foretell the future! 🙂

    It does not take a crystal ball to predict what the Leftists will do. Not once you understand their bankrupt ideology and how they think!

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