Target Sports

SHOOTING HOLIDAYS: ALL AMERICAN

Created on 14th May 2009

JOHN EMMERSON mixes young people and pistol shooting in a family holiday - and finds it a successful venture

THIS ARTICLE was purely intended to describe my recent holiday in the USA and my visit to East Orange Shooting Range in Florida. However, as I considered it, I realised I had an issue to address first. That issue is the political hot potato of teaching young people to shoot. I started my own shooting career at the age of 13, when upon attending Bradford Grammar School I found it had a shooting range. Imagine that in the current political climate!

As a pupil I made my first visit to Bisley Camp on a cadet shooting competition. I have been back recently and witnessed the camp crawling with young people marching about carrying SA80 assault rifles. Oh horror, I can hear the anti-gun lobby cry! Well actually, nothing of the sort. Every young person was perfectly behaved and demonstrated the discipline that is inherent and important within the shooting arena. Where else can you find well over 1,000 perfectly behaved teenagers who are all enjoying themselves within a competitive environment and are totally self-disciplined? That is the truth of a sport which is vilified by the press and others set on destroying it.

My own three children are now in their late 20s, and grew up in a house where guns were not a mystery. They were a fact of life. My eldest daughter shot target rifle as a teenager before getting bored. My youngest daughter couldn't care less about shooting. My son took up target shooting at a very young age, and travelled to competitions with me, trained with me, and became the wonderful companion he is today. Then he discovered guitars, girls and Jack Daniels in that order. Given a few days' training I bet he could still out-shoot me!

We lost my wife a few years ago, but I am now blessed with a wonderful new partner, Annaliese, who comes as a package deal with 17-year-old Ashley and 14-year-old Dominic. Annaliese shoots air pistol for the Police Sport UK leagues, and her boys shoot sport air rifle. Both lads are ferocious sportsmen and very competitive.

So came our first holiday abroad together. It was to the USA, and I grasped the chance to introduce Annaliese and the boys to proper pistol shooting. Finding a suitable range was not too difficult. I have shot in the USA several times and I was familiar with East Orange Shooting Sports (www.EastOrangeSS.com). This is situated about an hour's drive away from the Orlando, Disney attractions at 7210 Gardner Street, Winter Park.

To make sure it was legal and approved, I corresponded with their president John Ritz (John@eastorangess.com) before I travelled to America. He is very knowledgeable and approachable and told me the requirements. The young persons must be physically able to handle the firearms safely. They must also be accompanied by an adult who has some form of photo ID with them. A driving licence or passport is ideal. A firearms certificate would demonstrate that you have handled firearms in the past, and are current with safety measures.

Having said that, on our arrival and after a very warm welcome, John made it quite clear that he was going to go through all safety aspects with us, including gun handling. He was aware of my own pedigree with regards to shooting, but putting that aside he gave us a first-class talk on how he expected us to behave on his range. It gave me an idea of the high standard expected of all shooters and reassured me that those around me would behave in a similar safe manner.

Last time I was there, a few years ago, a State Trooper parked his cruiser outside, walked in and banged his loaded, but still holstered pistol on the counter in front of us. Very interesting! Lesson one is don't wear a holster that is so easily removed. The bad guys know about this, and will try to nick the gun. Lesson two - don't do that at East Orange Shooting Range! You will get told where to go, in very impolite terms. He was one of those cops who listen to the argument that 80% of armed confrontation takes place at less that 20ft. He put his target at round about 20ft and blazed away in rapid fire bursts. None of his shots hit the eight, nine or 10 rings! I was taught a simple truth during my police training: ‘Speed is fine, but accuracy is final'.

Being a true Yorkshireman, I realised that he was a cheap source of targets. So I kept pinching them out of the bin behind him. He did get a little rattled when he realised that the targets at the extreme end of the range having the centre being removed by me and my companions were his old ones!

When it came to hiring the pistols, I was offered a good range of revolvers and semi-auto pistols. The shop is well-stocked with new and second-hand pistols, but the hire pistols are hung up at the back of the store for easy selection but no access. I chose to hire a .357 Smith & Wesson 686 with target sights and a 4" barrel, and a .22 Smith & Wesson 617 with a 6" barrel and target sights. Both these pistols were common in the UK prior to 1997. I could take one of these apart in my sleep and I still have a redundant stock of rebound slides, springs, and shims. For those familiar with these pistols of old, you will be surprised to find that the hammer nose has gone! All firing pins are fixed and floating in the frame of the pistol. There is then a hex key slot just above the chamber release. This is to lock the firing pin as a safety measure. Other than that, it was like picking up an old friend.

Into the range

We were then escorted into a very neat and tidy range with firing points in two bays. Each bay has a wire system which takes the target downrange. It's exactly as with the air weapons changers we have here. You clip your target to the carrier and send it off to the desired distance.

I was then discreetly watched by one of the instructors until he was happy I knew what I was doing. Here is where pride took over. At maximum range I was going to take the middle out on my first go!

Actually this didn't happen. Adjustable sights on any pistol mean that the last person to use it altered it for themselves. So I ended up with a nice group, but high left. Satisfied that I was a competent but useless shot, our instructor left us to it. CCTV over the shop counter makes sure you are kept under constant observation.

I then introduced the 686 to Annaliese and the boys. I had bought some 158gn FMJ RN in .38spl for their introduction to real pistol shooting. The essentials are grip, stance, breathing, trigger control and sights. Forget those at your peril.

While each had their own unique problems which were easily sorted, all three shot very well. Our instructor was concerned that I chose the full 40ft distance for their first lesson, but none of them shot outside the eight ring. This was not bad for a first time with a full bore pistol - I was very proud of them.

Gradually the 686 lost favour to the 617, as they preferred the lighter recoil of the .22 pistol. That didn't bother me, as it gave me chance to use up the rest of the ammunition. However, that was after I was satisfied they had all learned how to use the pistols safely. It really didn't take long before they were comfortable with the gun handling skills. It surprised me how they all took to it so quickly. They also got quite competitive. The boys had to beat mum, brother had to beat brother. To be fair, they were all shooting far better than I had hoped. It was really a draw all round, but of course I had to declare Annaliese the winner!

We only had one minor problem, when the 617 did one of its usual tricks. It skipped over the rim of a case on ejection. The ejector, when released, rammed it firmly back into the chamber. I didn't have my Leatherman with me due to the security aspects of a visit to the Florida attractions and I had to call out one of the instructors to sort it. They were very helpful and it proved no problem whatsoever!

The team at East Orange Shooting Sports were very welcoming and skilful in the way they handled their visitors. It was a safe environment to introduce those who were not only in a strange country, but also unfamiliar with the sport.

At the end I saw a few of the new pistols on the market. This was very interesting, though I did feel a twinge of regret that we are now missing all these new innovations.

The outcome

For me the holiday proved a good reminder of the years of shooting cartridge pistol, and why I love the sport. To Annaliese and the boys it was a new shooting sport to try.

At the end of the holiday I asked the boys which of the experiences we had given them was the most memorable. It wasn't the pistol shooting, though! The reason behind this is that the boys are both competitive sportsmen. If there is no competition, then it's just practice. The buzz is competing. This puts the pistols into the same category as a cricket bat, or a football. In other words, just sporting equipment.

Heaven forbid that they might want to compete in the Olympics eventually! After all, wasn't that created by the Greeks in order to test the skills and resolve of their young warriors?