Competition And Training Evolution

Bill’s cut-off for us gun geezers was those who were in the game in the year 1985. Jim Wall, who started shooting as a young gun around then, was the baby of our bunch at 54. Rob Leatham, the wonder kid of action shooting at that time, was 58 when he attended the reunion. Westerhout, now 83, was the eldest in the group. We shared the evolutions we had seen.

Today’s shooters, with the benefit of modern knowledge of kinesiology, are a league beyond those of yesteryear in terms of deliverable speed and accuracy. Gun trends? We had been told the reunion’s shooting match would require 1911s, which dominated the game in 1985. However, the vast majority were 9mm 1911s instead of .45s. We could almost feel Jeff Cooper rolling in his mausoleum. Jim Hewins defended the faith with a .45, and John Sayle and Jason Cole shot .38 Supers.