October 2026 (1) - Flipbook - Page 6
match. They’re thinking that
they can develop their skills on
their own and then show up to
the match and be competitive.
Generally, I’m fairly nice to people and I don’t get on them too
much. Let’s examine some of
these arguments point by point.
There are people who are
trapped at work. Usually, these
people let work consume their
lives because it’s just easier that
way. If they get up and go to
work and go home every day,
then they don’t have to confront the fact that life is passing
them by. I hear by propose the
idea that the hours you spend
at work are basically wasted.
Yes, I know that work pays the
bills, and we all need to have a
roof over our head and food in
our belly and our favorite bottle
hidden up above the refrigerator. What I’m saying is that you
should not allow work to consume your life.
I used to work with a guy named
Lane. We work together at a
small company 昀椀nishing Drywall. All the work that we do is
commercial work so it’s strictly
an eight hour day proposition
and if it goes beyond that they
have to pay us overtime. Lane
had some problems, and one of
his problems was that he liked
eating pain pills. Just got him
to the point where he eventually ended up estranged from
his wife and child and moved
to Reno where his parents were
and went into rehab. Typical
of a lot of addicts, Lane completed rehab successfully and
then went back out and rejoined
the world. He started working
down in Reno and before long
6
he was eating pain pills again.
One day he went to bed and
never woke up. There was never
really much of an explanation
as to why he died, whether it
was a heart attack or an overdose, but in the end, I suppose
it doesn’t even matter. Lane’s
pension bene昀椀ts were put into
a trust for his children. When
his obituary came out and I read
it, it was all about what a great
drywaller he was. He built a lot
of stu昀昀. He was 48 years old. So
I say again, the time you spend
at work is basically wasted. No
argument about how you have
to be at work really holds any
water upon close examination.
You need to be at work just long
enough to meet your 昀椀nancial
goals. The rest of the time is
yours. Don’t ever let your obituary be all about what a great
worker you were.
by yourself will most likely not
translate to a match shooting
environment. Furthermore, by
working by yourself, you are denying yourself of being exposed
to other people and talking with
them and getting their perspectives and learning about the
things that they’ve tried. You
are steepening and lengthening
your learning curve by remaining alone. You can learn a lot by
watching YouTube, subscribing
to the big printed black powder
magazine, reading this magazine, and being on a forum
or two, but nothing replaces
live 昀椀re experience with other
knowledgeable shooters in attendance. It’s the di昀昀erence between book learning and practical application. Match shooting
is the practical application side
of things. Book learning is great,
but it only goes so far.
As far as “getting good“ before
you go to a match goes, I don’t
think you can do it. Being in a
shooting match causes you to
shoot dozens of rounds a day,
probably over several days.
Things that might work for a
little fun range session of maybe
10 or 20 rounds at home end up
breaking down in a competition.
Competition means that you’re
gonna be shooting frequently,
and not always when you have
everything set up just perfectly.
You have to have a good load,
good fouling control, good body
control, and good spotting. This
all takes a lot of e昀昀ort and time
to develop. I would put forward
that things that work in match
competition can be translated
to the real world, (like a hunting situation), but things that
work in a shorter range session
There were three new younger shooters at the big whiskey
match this year. All three had an
excellent time and were quickly
accepted into the group. Two of
them even ended up involved in
the shoot o昀昀 for the new Shiloh
ri昀氀e being given away. I’m pretty sure we’re gonna be seeing
those guys around in the future!
Building the sport is going to
take time and patience, but
mostly it’s going to take participation.
I hope the reasoning behind
what I’m saying came through
and that I didn’t get too far o昀昀
the rails with some of these explanations. I’ll see you boys on
the 昀椀ring line!
October, 2026, Issue #4
