The Pin Shoot, my favorite shooting match evah, wrapped up a couple of days ago. A good time was had by all.

I got to see a lot of old friends. One was Al Burnett, who I met at the very first such match in Central Lake,Michigan in1976. Now 86, Al is a retired Michigan State Trooper, former National Police Shooting Champion, and has a resume that also includes senior firearms instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia. He was in the latter capacity when I went through FLETC’s Basic Officer Safety and Survival Course in 1981.

We learned that some of our old friends had made their last visit to the shoot. In our memories will be body armor executive Ed Bachner, the beautiful Katie Stenbeck, and her dad Bill who was a retired lawman.

Heaven knows how many shots went downrange that week, all safely.  Springfield Armory had donated beaucoup guns, all won by highly skilled shooters who proved their ability in front of viewers in bleachers who had a clear view of the pins and could see instantly how everyone was shooting.  Big thanks to Springfield for their support!

You’ve already heard in these pages why I’m so partial to this match that I’ve traveled there 29 times to shoot it.  For a first-timer’s articulate view, check this out, from the pages of one of the most informative gun forums, pistol-forum.com:  https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?53145-The-Pin-Shoot-Central-Lake-MI-2022.

I am already planning to be there in mid-June 2023. You can find details here: www.pinshoot.com. 

32 COMMENTS

  1. Does anyone see a serious problem here?

    There is one woman in a sea of guys.

    Now, there’s nothing wrong with guys, nor am I arguing for women from a diversity perspective, but we really need to recruit, train, and mentor women, and young ladies to get into shooting sports.

    Why?

    Women are 50% of the voting population. Women who don’t shoot are far more likely to vote for gun control, and more regulation. Plus as Mas would attest, armed women are quite the force when it comes to empowering your wives and daughters to control their own destiny.

    Does your club have open houses to expose members of the non-shooting public to guns and shooting sports? Does your organization have ladies days at the range to provide support, informal instruction, and a safe place for newbies to shoot? Do you have staffers who know how to teach, mentor and support women and young ladies, without the event turning into something that resembles Marine Corps training with drill instructors?

    It’s about time that our clubs and the membership focus outward, along with on our own members and activities. Our survival depends on it.

    • Actually, yes. Our local sportsmen’s club’s Rangemaster is a woman, and she very actively recruits and supports women participating in events and training – with the club’s full support. I won’t mention the name of either due to the wide range of readers, but be assured that at least one club does work to increase the number of women shooters.

    • Not just women. Whoopi recently repeated the canard, “When Blacks start getting guns, gun laws will change.” (Evidently, she hasn’t heard of Winsome Sears.)

      Of course, Texas just had a special election for Congressional District 34, and the voters were called racist for electing Mayra Flores, the first Representative in history who was born in Mexico.

      Christine’s “outward focus” needs to be, pardon the expression, “inclusive.”

    • That’s one woman in *competition*, in a sport that’s largely male. There are plenty of female shooters; my local range is full of them. Before my state went Constitutional Carry, about half of concealed carry licenses went to women.

      There are as many woman drivers as men, but this year, there are none competing at the local speedway.

      • TRX,

        I believe truck drivers also have competitions where they compete at skillfully maneuvering their tractor trailers.

        It may be interesting to read about women in combat. There were/are groups of women (Assyrians?) who are organized to fight jihadists. It works pretty well, because in Islam, if a man is killed by a woman, he doesn’t go to Paradise. So, the men just run away from these women.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethnahrain_Women%27s_Protection_Forces

        Of course, we could read accounts of women prevailing against criminal attackers, as well as read about Joan of Arc, Boudica and Tom606’s girlfriend.

    • I have a picture of a rifle team I was on (late 1960s & early 1960s).

      In addition to my sister, there were 3 other females.
      40% of the team.

    • I would like to see more women at the Pin Shoot and other shooting events too. They are not prohibited from attending and only need to pay an entry fee. No one is keeping them from the fun, but they need to have a desire to attend. It is no one’s fault that a small number of women enter these competitions. Just because females make up half the American population, it’s unrealistic to expect women be half the attendees in any event.

  4. There were probably 10 to 15 more women participating in the event. Those folks pictured were High Scorers who won a Springfield firearm or other prize in the various classes. There was also an event at the end of the week for the youth who worked all week on the adult supervised timing and target setting crews. The boys and girls were coached by senior shooters earlier in the week then allowed the opportunity to shoot at some pins after the competition was closed. This was all appropriately supervised and there were easily as many girls as boys participating! The goal is to have experienced crew members returning to work the match and to spark an interest in shooting sports for these young people as well. I agree with the previous comments about involving women, but folks we need youth in general!

  6. Is that Sweeney in the background? He needs to be writing another book for my immediate consumption instead of having such fun abusing perfectly good bowling pins.

    • Yup that’s Patrick, always one of the big winners at the shoot. Don’t worry, he’ll be producing more good books!

  7. So accustomed to the superiority of Mas’s broad vocabulary to my own I had assumed “evah” to be some important word of unknown definition to me, from Shakespeare or his contemporaries perhaps. One that I needed to immediately learn and so put myself to the task of procuring this knowledge, but found only my own shame.
    Fortunately, our society did away with pillories and dance caps, or anyway they are least take on more mercirful shapes now.

  8. Off topic but more information, about Uvalde, keeps coming out. See this video and news report:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxeHz47o34Y

    Somehow, these reporters have forgotten their role in our modern society. That being, to cover up the crimes of, and to protect the Democrat Party and Big Government globalist elites at all costs. These media folks forgot themselves, to such an extent, that they actually did some straight reporting! I guess that these small-time local reporters don’t have as firm a saddle and bit, installed, as their big city counterparts. I hope that their careers don’t end because of it.

    These news reporters even acknowledged that a cover-up and effort to suppress information, and to keep the public “in the dark”, is underway. They openly speculate as to whether the public will ever be allowed to see the full video footage.

    This is another strong indicator that we no longer have (in the words of President Lincoln) a “government of the people, by the people, for the people…”. If we did, the right of the People to know the truth would be undisputed.

    Clearly, what we have now is a “government of the elite, by the elite, run purely for the benefit of the elite…” and truth is as scarce as pink unicorns!

  10. I was just thinking more about women in combat. Here is a historical “What If?” scenario.

    Remember, at the end of the Battle of Berlin, in 1945, the Russian soldiers raped all, or nearly all, the German women of every age, in that city. Now, I’m sure there were guns everywhere, so those women could have armed themselves, and shot the Russians when they came to rape the German women. I don’t remember reading of any women doing that, but I do remember reading of some who committed suicide after being raped. I suppose, if the Berlin women had resisted the Russians with guns, the Russians would have shot them dead. So, submitting to rape may have been seen as the lesser of two evils.

    I don’t know what was in the heads of these women, nor do I know everything that happened. I just know I like to war game when to shoot, and when not to shoot, from my protective, comfortable, boring, middle class bubble in which I live. In other words, given that situation, what would I do? How would I react? Would I fight to the death, or submit to rape? If I am ever in prison, I may get to see how I would react in that situation, even though I am a man.

    • Men can be sexually battered too. I have seen some huge female looking members at my gym who make most of the guys, especially the little girly-man types very nervous.

      My own Bertha stands 6’9″ and at 318 lbs can rape anyone other than maybe The Hulk. I can walk with her into any rowdy biker bar and feel perfectly safe.

  11. Funds and attention need to be paid for continuously replacing defective school locks. I have a load of experience with maintaining school door locks and checking to make sure that locks are really locked at all appropriate times. It takes unflagging diligence. Townspeople also need to insure that delinquency is curbed, not condoned. Take the drivers’ licenses and cars away, if that is what it takes. All willing and capable school staff need sheepdog training.

  12. VICTORY!!!!!

    The SCOTUS has released their decision in the BREUN case. Here it is:

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf

    The SCOTUS BLASTED the “May Issue” standard used in anti-gun Blue States.

    While it does not require “Constitutional Carry”, I think it may well force States to, at a minimum, go the “Shall Issue” route.

    One can already here the wails and howls of protests from the Firearms-Prohibitionists. Here is one such wail:

    https://www.everytown.org/press/everytown-responds-to-decision-in-nysrpa-v-bruen/

    My guess is that the American Left will follow their SOP for such setbacks. They will ignore this decision (and the Constitution) since it is telling them things that they don’t want to hear. They will invent new infringements to “work around” the Constitution and continue with their plans for Firearms Prohibition. Everytown says as much, above.

    • TN_MAN,

      This is wonderful news. It’s been so long since I’ve heard good news that this actually feels strange.

      The timing is amazing. New Jersey is passing very restrictive anti-gun legislation right now. And, along comes this ruling from the Supremes. This ruling, and the abortion ruling when it gets here, will further divide our nation. I’m OK with that. I like to hear the Communists wail and scream. I’m also OK with peacefully dividing this nation between Left and Right. We have nothing, NOTHING, in common.

      Imagine people in the Northeast getting used to their neighbors carrying concealed regularly. Why, I suppose it just may cause everyone to act, and drive, more politely than before. One thing’s for sure. The future will be interesting.

      (For the record, I am used to being disappointed, and expect to be disappointed again, just as TN_MAN predicts in his comment. The Left will fight this with everything they’ve got).

      • Please don’t consider all of the Northeast as anti-gun or anti-carry. The three northern New England states — Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine — are permitless carry.

      • Have the body bags ready. Billions of Americans will die because of this crazy decision by the SCOTUS to please the insidious gun lobby which gave six of the justices hundreds of millions of dirty blood dollars. Only the supremely brave and wise Beyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor have the guts to stand up to the murderous NRA and other diabolical Second Amendment advocacy groups.

      • @ Tom606 – What are you doing? Auditioning for a position on CNN or MSNBC? 🙂

        I am sure that those propaganda organs knew that this decision was coming and had already drafted their response narratives weeks ago!

        No doubt, they were ready to launch these narratives the micro-second that the decision was released.

      • Mas,

        Of course, you are correct about the northeast. I should have said, “Mid-Atlantic States” or something. But, I’m referring to the densely populated areas of NY, NJ, CT and MA. (A relative from SD calls this area, “the ant farm”). I don’t know what to think about Rhode Island. Is it densely populated and liberal? Probably. Come to think of it, Rhode Island is not even an island.

    • Here is an interesting video that offers insight on the Breun decision:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXTz-wKyj9I&t=1108s

      Cam does make one mistake in his comments. He basically said that, while this decision does strike down “May Issue” license laws, it does not address “Shall Issue” laws. While Justice Thomas did not address “Shall Issue” laws in his main decision, Justice Kavanaugh did address this question in his supporting opinion. Justice Kavanaugh wrote:

      “First, the Court’s decision does not prohibit States from imposing licensing requirements for carrying a handgun for self-defense. In particular, the Court’s decision does not affect the existing licensing regimes—known as “shall-issue”regimes—that are employed in 43 States.

      The Court’s decision addresses only the unusual discretionary licensing regimes, known as “may-issue” regimes,that are employed by 6 States including New York. As the Court explains, New York’s outlier may-issue regime is constitutionally problematic because it grants open-ended discretion to licensing officials and authorizes licenses only for those applicants who can show some special need apart from self-defense. Those features of New York’s regime—the unchanneled discretion for licensing officials and the special-need requirement—in effect deny the right to carry handguns for self-defense to many ‘ordinary, law-abiding citizens.’ ”

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