Posted by Bill Murphy on April 29, 2008, 4:41 pm, in reply to "Censorship"
I would make a couple of points in response to the gentleman on the other thread who implies that the Smith team should use more serious competition guns and take the competition more seriously. These points are made in the interest of making those who did not attend the shoot realize what the real story is. The first point is that one poster stated that his 19 did not qualify for the Smith team. Well, my 21 was only one target from qualifying for the Parker team, so the score needed to qualify for event 2 was not much different for either team. I'm not sure what a shooter had to score to make the Smith team, but it is obviously more than 19, which isn't bad shooting, in my opinion, on that field. The second point is about the guns. There are fairly serious guns on both teams, and there are fairly "not serious" guns on both teams. Some of the best shooters on both teams use hammer guns as well as hammerless Damascus guns. The shooter who we think shot the record number of consecutive hits on the infamous "A" bird was shooting a not too tightly choked 16 gauge gun. No one shooting a "serious gun" seemed to be able to hit four straight to beat the record shot by that 16 gauge shooter. That shooter is not a registered NSCA competitor as far as I know. What the gentleman who commented negatively may not realize, since he did not compete, is that some shooters have migrated from one team to the other in alternate years. There is no unfriendly brand loyalty among most team members, only the desire to enjoy the company of other shooters. The comments that are made on the other gun forums are probably made by posters who didn't attend, didn't compete, and are not members of either participating organization. You won't find any negative comments on the PGCA site because they would be soundly shot down by replies that would set the poster straight, just like what happens on this site. I'm going to keep competing every year, whether I shoot a Fox, a Smith, or a Mossburg, as long as the same guys keep showing up.