I was asked to relate one of my most important memories of BULLS-EYE shooting...
Years ago the Marine Shooting Team had a new OIC that did not allow smoking by his shooters, EXCEPT Andy Moody. (I guess results outweigh training ideas.) I was at the Virginia State matches run by the late Frank Thomas, in Bristol VA and as luck would have it, got to shoot beside and score one of my Favorite Marine shooters, Andy Moody. I was shooting well for me, and Andy was always a point or more better than any of my targets.
We were shooting the .45 Slow Fire stage of the NMC, on the last Slow Fire of the match, and I started with an X followed by a 10. I noticed that at this time, Andy had the slide off of his pistol and was brushing out the barrel. I thought, "WOW, he must have gun trouble," but, like I should, I continued to shoot. With good results after the first magazine, I noticed Andy was back behind the firing line, "SMOKING a cigarette!" and thought, "WOW, he MUST be having trouble!!!"
I shot a few more good shots and looked at Andy and he again had the slide removed and was brushing the bore. The evil thought :-) went through my mind, "I JUST MIGHT BE ABLE TO BEAT ANDY ON THIS ONE TARGET TODAY." I finished my slow fire in about 6 minutes and watched Andy. After 2 more minutes or so he finished and looked over at me and shrugged. I had just fired a 96 with 4 X's, about as good as it got for me with a .45, so I pointed at the eyepiece of my spotting scope and grinned. Andy came over and looked at my target and smiled. With about 30 seconds left, he walked over to his box and pointed at the eyepiece of his scope. I thought, "WHAT THE #$%^n?" I looked in his scope and he had a 100-9X slowfire, after pulling the gun apart twice and smoking. So much for clean gun vs. dirty gun & fouling shots.
Andy went to the short line and had a 100-1x Timed Fire and a 100-9x rapid fire to tie the National Record with a 300-19x. Did I beat andy on any of the 27 targets that weekend? NOOOO! But the memory of that day will go with me, with a smile on my face, to the grave. Feel free to pass this story along to anyone. -Karl Woerner