The Circle Of Experience

It was one of those campfire circles without the actual fire, but this group of devoted handgunners had enjoyed such gatherings in the past in different locations. The conversation seemed a bit more urgent at some points and good for a laugh at others.

This bunch, gathered for the annual Elmer Keith Invitational Memorial Long Range Handgun Shoot, had come from Washington, Idaho and Montana, and all had stories to tell. It is always good, and even educational, to join in one of these confabs, to enjoy experiences and maybe learn something new about — oh, let’s see, now — handloading, wolf management (and mismanagement!), dumb-luck shots fired, gasoline prices, accumulation of junk, and the most common cause of death among criminal suspects.

This year, the event was held at the top of a hill along the property line of two farms about 18 miles south of Spokane. Last year, we were maybe 25 miles north of the city (that site became unavailable due to a mid-winter property sale), and the turnout was down for any number of reasons. But the conversation was fascinating.

One guy talked about the downside of wolf reintroduction in several western states. By no small bit of irony, the most popular target of the shoot was a facsimile of a wolf at the 75-yard line, which ended the competition pretty much with all the black paint shot away. I hit the sucker eight times for score and a couple of dozen times during warm-up, discovering in the process my 4-inch Model 57 Smith & Wesson in .41 Magnum really likes a load I had tried a few years ago with less satisfaction out of my 6-inch Model 57 or a Ruger Blackhawk. It pushes a 170-grain Sierra JHP ahead of 24 grains of H110 ignited by a Winchester primer.

We talked about suspicions regarding wolves being “re-populated” as a means of reducing game herds to the point where hunting would be restrictively regulated, or prohibited. Hunters, the consensus indicated, would eventually be considered competition and get secondary treatment by predator-loving game managers in preference for providing a good prey base for the Apex predators.

Now with the planned transplant of grizzly bears to the North Cascades, concern is turning to ire among outdoorsmen and women about the future of mule deer hunting in the region.

We briefly discussed the late Elmer Keith and Jack O’Connor and their alleged mutual dislike for one another, plus Keith’s long-range handgun shot and O’Connor’s affinity for the .270 Winchester and sheep hunting. We recalled the late Jeff Cooper and the effectiveness of the Model 1911 pistol.

We talked about past events, the upcoming election, the Trump verdict and other stuff over which we had no influence but plenty of opinions. Hang around enough old handgunners, and you may come away with a wealth of reminiscences from people who may have blazed a few trails and have probably been to some places where you want to go.

It was just the sort of relaxed gathering we all enjoy and never experience enough.

Cause of Death

Want to know the main cause of death among bad guys? It happens to be “just beginning to turn his life around.”

Don’t believe me? Google the phrase. The first thing to pop up is an entry in the “Urban Dictionary,” which explains the phrase is commonly used by the family of some repeat offender to the media after the suspect gets killed by the police or an armed citizen during the commission of a crime. “The deceased victim’s family will tell tall stories of how the deceased” had big plans to be a star in sports or entertainment. Prevailing wisdom is that such people just don’t turn fast enough.

There are many reports detailing how some people have actually turned their lives around. A few involve stints in prison. Others claim to have gotten religion.

But then you find a story like the one involving an 18-year-old New Yorker who was killed last year after having just been bailed out of jail by his stepfather.

It’s no laughing matter, but it does seem a bit strange that so many of these people are remembered by alibi rather than how their turnaround seemed to involve a one-way detour into the criminal Twilight Zone.

It’s pretty hard to get a group of gun folks together these days without discussing the National Rifle Association’s “reform” effort, which appears to have started in mid-May with the election by members of a small “reform” slate of candidates and new officers by members of the Board of Directors.

The new leadership team includes President Bob Barr, the former Georgia congressman. The First Vice President is Bill Bachenberg, and the Second Veep is Mark Vaughan. Stepping in as the new executive vice president is Doug Hamlin, who has his work cut out in the aftermath of longtime EVP Wayne LaPierre’s departure earlier this year.

The elections of “Reform” candidates Jeff Knox, Judge Phillip Journey, Rocky Marshall and Dennis Fusaro signaled members want a change, especially when two former NRA presidents — John Sigler and David Keene — did not make the cut. Another veteran director, Joel Friedman, also lost re-election, while Jim Wallace, longtime executive director of the Massachusetts Gun Owners Action League and seen by many as a “reform-minded” came up short in the general election but captured the 76th Director’s seat during the special election at the NRA annual members’ meeting. He provided the accompanying photo.

The past five years, since problems within NRA became public at the Indianapolis meeting, have been rough for NRA. It has lost millions of dollars in revenue as members either closed their wallets or shifted their financial support to other gun rights organizations, and by some estimates, the NRA has lost more than a million members.

Around our conversation in the farmland of eastern Washington’s Palouse country there was plenty of disappointment in the now-departed former NRA hierarchy, and hopes the organization will rebound with new blood at the helm. Nobody said they had left the organization, and the circle included some life members and at least one endowment member who had once served on the NRA Board of Directors.

If I ever have time, I’m going to write a memoir. It won’t be “Hell, I Was There … Redux,” but it may be interesting. My working title is “Ghost Camps,” and it will include plenty of campfire talk.

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