What Was Your First Competitive Shooting Event?

[dhagerty40]

first match was an IHMSA match at Dulzura in 1988. still shoot IHMSA but branched into rifle silhouette and .22 Benchrest about 7 years ago.

 

[Geronimo Jim]

Shot my first PPC match in 1974 or 1975. Since then have shot in
IDPA, IPSC, Pins, high power, IHMSA big bore and small bore,
and probably forgot some. Currently shoot cowboy action every
week as well and groundhog match weekly. Good on me!

 

[Ringostar]

You mentioned shooting competitions, but not specific. So I started archery competition in the late 80’s. Until rotator cuff issues would let me hold the bow up for 70 rounds indoor spot targets in about 94. Then went traditional archery for several years and got good at it. Then went stock car racing until 2004. Then tried across the course in 07, but was too stiff for sitting position. USPSA about 08 to 13, but struggled getting up from ground positions. Started F class in 2010, and still make a couple matches each year.

 

[ricco1949]

Age:

15. Field archery
40. Group Agg 50 Yd 10-22 League
53 1000 Yd BR

Rick M.

 

[1K6BRA]

Isaac Walton league early 1970’s in Oil City,Pennsylvania every Friday night when I was probably 10. Shot this discipline until I was 18. Indoor 22 four position match .I believe it was 50 feet but I might be wrong on that. Friends and I still talk about going to that shoot. Ahhhh, the good old simple days!

 

[alf]

Registered trap back in the 70's

Started registered Benchrest shooting in 1988, then added Hunter BR, followed by 1000 Yard BR with some 600 thrown in.

 

[hpshooter]

"NRA 50' small bore"

At Camp Cliffside, a camp for employees of Union Carbide kids in WV. That was in 1954, I was 7 years old. Continued to shoot at that camp and the next level camp owned at UC. The seed was planted!

 

[foxguy]

Small Bore Silhouette (Paper Shoot as we shot September thru April). Also, Bullys Eye Pistol in the Fall.

 

[KMart]

February 68. Edson Range Camp Pendleton. Qualification day. Shot high gun in the platoon but was first loser to another shooter in the series.

 

[wkdickinson]

1987 EauClaire Rifle Club ATC match. A work friend who'd shot HighPower for a long time helped me with equipment and coaching, along with a couple other competitors. I shot a borrowed National Match M1 Garand. It was amazing! After that I bought my own equipment and shot ATC for a long time. I still shoot competitively today (at 70 years old), but ARA and G-class (f-class but from a bench).

 

[cjames]

1st Marine Division, Division matches Camp Pendleton 1997 Willcox Range.

 

[drop_point]

As a kid doing air rifle and archery. Didn’t do anything after that until an F-class match in 2013.

 

[tikkaman308]

Last October, I shot my first competition, a UBR 100/200 benchrest match...I'm hooked

 

[6MMsteve]

1986 Org Penn 1000yd BR Club, 7x300 whby did not get on paper, the bullets were coming apart but I had no clue they was, Come Back in 1987 and took home some trophies with my 308 Baer, My Brother shot smallest group of the day I won my relay and took 2nd in the shootoff

 

[426nut]

I once won a ham at the 100yd turkey shoot held at Jesters range shooting Dad's Savage/annie 64. Dad's friend had a .458/2" that he used for the string cut. Life was much simpler back then. E.

 

[Fast14riot]

Somewhere around the early to mid 90's as a 10-12 year old, shooting informal PPC matches with my mothers GP100, in open class club level and taking podium finishes. Quickly discovered that I was a natural pistol shooter, then later learned I do not like pistol shooting, lol!

Picked up rifle shooting again, oh, maybe 10-12 years ago and after shooting a few 40's in silhouette, then service rifle and earning a medal in my first match I discovered F/class. Been a runaway train ever since.

 

[sw282]

Handgun, silhouette late 70’s

IHMSA in the same time period. Still shoot now and then in Lincolnton and Gainesville Ga.

 

[Bluefink4895]

1992'ish...a friend took me to 200 yd walk & paste hi-power match. I was given a club M1 rifle, ammo, web sling, and approximately 15 mins of instruction.
Results were not pretty...but it did the trick. Things quickly spiraled out of control into a full-on raging hi-power addiction.
Then came pursuit of the Distinguished Badge and LEG matches...The madness.
Still at it today + serious small bore prone now too. Leaving for Camp Perry Sunday.

 

[dryhumor]

IIRC, 1981. US Navy Atlantic Fleet Rifle and Pistol Matches, Naval Station, Annapolis. Shot my first 1000 yd match at Quantico that year. Then, various transfers came along and never got to compete again, other than rifle and pistol quals.

 

[357Mag]

Next week will mark 10 years since my first .50 shoot, it was a small shoot thrown together in Escanaba Michigan. Great introduction to a decade of fun this far. Less than 15 shooters and a relaxed, but safe crowd.

Made me curious, What was your first shoot?

1976 -

100yd " benchrest " @ the " Blue Creek " range, on the IN / OH line; just outside of Wilshire, OH.

Fred Sinclair had an ardent local area following, that campaigned a lot of Sinclair rifles.
Fred's wife Becky also shot there frequently.

I shot what I had... my custom varmint rifle built by Sinclair. It featured a Wichita WBR1375 single shot benchrest action, M-700 trigger converted to 2oz by Ken Burns,
a 24" SS 1.375" straight bull 1-14 5 groove Hart, Bishop walnut / walnut laminate target stock; and an aluminum trigger guard Fred custom-machined for me. Scope was a Leupold 24X sat in B & L rings on 2pc Weaver bases. I had spec'd my custom varmint rifle without consideration for making any weight class. Not withstanding, I was allowed to shoot my 17.75lb. " .22-35 Remington " wildcat rifle along with the BR boyz... although it was not legal wt to qualify for any award.

Shooting some of Ron Fifer's superb .224" cal 52HPs, I managed a score that had I been
legal wt.... would have put me in 3rd place ! I was shooting my wildcat case chuck full of IMR4350 ( w/ mild compression ), along w/ CCI BR primers; and the Fifer's seated .002"
off the lands. The competition were seasoned benchrester's who knew the range, and were shooting things like .222, .222 1/2, .222Mag; and old tymee 6 X47. The 6PPC had only recently been introduced, and would not be encountered for a bit.

Overall, I was quite proud of my accomplishment. It was my first time ever shooting @ a competition, and the very first time I had tried " benchrest ". I was doing load work-up for my new rifle concurrent with loading @ the range ( outdoors ). My rifle's laminate stock had @ 2.75" wide fore end. My Wichita rest's front pad had no fwd stop bumper and was a rounded rectangular shape with no side wings to help position the rifle's fore end.
I also did not watch any wind flags, or the "'condition ". That was all new stuff to me, and I was already " task saturated " as it was !!

I sent a brief write up to Mike Walker, who was serving as the Tech Editor for " Precision Shooting " magazine at the time. Mike put the article and a pic I sent along with it, in the
Nov 1976 issue. I recently looked it up in the on-line digitized archives of the magazine.
.

With regards,
357Mag