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Old Time IPSC shooters


tightloop

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  • 7 months later...

Thanks for sharing your stories of Roy Bohmfalk. He's still the excellent teacher he always was, though he pretty much has left us to our own devices now. And he's still a fine shot, on the rare occasion when we can get him to send some lead downrange. He's still kickin', just turning 80 this year, and as feisty as ever. He still can tell a good shooting story around the campfire. However, if you'd like to get those old shooting stories down, you'd better not wait too long.

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  • 2 years later...

I think I fit in here - I was a close friend of Bill & Dottie Hahn, and used to shoot with OCPL at the Oceanside Police Range, starting in 1971.

I had no idea so many OCPL shooters were still around!

I came up with the revised name for the club upstairs in Bill's den, after we went IPSC and "Combat" became non-PC - 'Linea de Fuego' - 'Line of fire' in Spanish.

I worked for a large Government agency at the time.

I am proud to have a 2 digit Charter Life USPSA membership number. After I moved to AZ, I met Brian E, and Robbie Latham and his dad. I have a CD of Nyle Lathem, Bruce Nelson (one of the IPSC founders), and myself discussing the start of IPSC - sadly, I am the sole survivor of the three.

Tim LaFrance built several guns for me - I still carry one of his 9mm NOVA pistols. He rented an apartment from me years ago. I saw him in December at the Small Arms Review Gun Show in Phoenix. He had broken his neck racing a sports car, but is well on the mend.

Cross draw holsters came into use because a frequent start position was 'hands clasped at center of chest'. After Tommy Campbell showed up with his chest rig, that position went away. (I'm still in touch with Tommy.)

And I still shoot IPSC at a club my wife & I founded here in NE Arizona (up in the mountains at 6500 feet - we expect more snow this weekend).

I'm looking forward to "looking back" when we used whistles, stopwatches, and stop plates, and ALL guns were made of steel and walnut, not plastic.

OCPL - Oceanside Combat Pistol League

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I would like to preserve some shooting history:

Why were shooting boxes 3' x 3' ?

Because we bought 1x2's in 8 foot lengths - when cut to 5 foot to hold targets, there was a 3' section left over.

Why are they called Pepper poppers?

Because John Pepper (whom I spoke to last week) came up with the design.

Why is it called Comstock scoring?

Because Walt (?) Comstock came up with score divided by time, allegedly while driving with friends to an early match in Northern California.

Why is a shot overtime ONLY if it is .3+ seconds over?

Because when we used whistles, we figured that was the reaction time.

Why is the command "If you are finished, unload &show clear?"

Because a Canadian shooter would complete a course of fire, lower his pistol, and scan the targets - if the RO said "Unload & show clear", he would claim he had not finished shooting and demand a reshoot. (I know who this is, but there is no need to identify him here.)

What do you guys remember?

And does anyone still have a ballistic pendulum?

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i remember using a ballistic pendulum back in the mid 80's. you could easily tell the difference between 230 gr FMJ .45's and 160 gr 38 supers. can't believe we were loading supers that hot then. and walt comstock always used a stop watch...even when the timers came out.

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Does anyone know what happened to Stu Mullins? IIRC he was from Northern California.

I don't know where he is now, but I remember shooting with him at the Richmond Hot Shots club in the mid-late 80's. I kind of recall he would attend a match on occasion into the 90's.. I remember him as being a nice guy who was willing to help folks, and was a real solid shooter. He sold me my first "real" IPSC" holster (a used Davis) for something like $15 bucks...I was so proud of that thing.

There are several folks who post here from the Richmond club/Northern California, maybe they would know where he is now. If that doesn't work an email to Buffy (Tom F) who is the club contact would know ,or maybe George (Geoff) who posts here on occasion might know.

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I still remember my first major match back in the late 80's maybe early 90's (area 3 match) , at the chapman academy range. I couldn't be leave the shooters that were there, to start with it was the first time I meet Ray Chapman, but got to shoot with Michael J Plaxo, Tommy Campbell. Bill Wilson. Rick Castelo, Rick Byfeild, John Shaw, and that is just the ones I remember, I had only been shooting a short time and had read about these guys in magazines for a while. it was something to watch these guys shoot, I meet Ray the first day there, him and my shooting buddy were friends only said a few words to him that day. went back the next year and ran in to him while I was shooting with out my friend he waved and called me by name. and we must of talked for 15-20 min like we knew each other for years, great shooter/man.

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I think I fit in here - I was a close friend of Bill & Dottie Hahn, and used to shoot with OCPL at the Oceanside Police Range, starting in 1971.

I had no idea so many OCPL shooters were still around!

I came up with the revised name for the club upstairs in Bill's den, after we went IPSC and "Combat" became non-PC - 'Linea de Fuego' - 'Line of fire' in Spanish.

I worked for a large Government agency at the time.

I am proud to have a 2 digit Charter Life USPSA membership number. After I moved to AZ, I met Brian E, and Robbie Latham and his dad. I have a CD of Nyle Lathem, Bruce Nelson (one of the IPSC founders), and myself discussing the start of IPSC - sadly, I am the sole survivor of the three.

Tim LaFrance built several guns for me - I still carry one of his 9mm NOVA pistols. He rented an apartment from me years ago. I saw him in December at the Small Arms Review Gun Show in Phoenix. He had broken his neck racing a sports car, but is well on the mend.

Cross draw holsters came into use because a frequent start position was 'hands clasped at center of chest'. After Tommy Campbell showed up with his chest rig, that position went away. (I'm still in touch with Tommy.)

And I still shoot IPSC at a club my wife & I founded here in NE Arizona (up in the mountains at 6500 feet - we expect more snow this weekend).

I'm looking forward to "looking back" when we used whistles, stopwatches, and stop plates, and ALL guns were made of steel and walnut, not plastic.

OCPL - Oceanside Combat Pistol League

Here you go Slueth

Any idea who the handsome guy with the beard is at the banquet of the Bianchi Cup #1?

Old%20shooting%20pics%20171_zps2lwavejd.

here he is shooting the "falling plates"---that's right, the plates weren't hinged, they really "fell" into the mud.

Old%20shooting%20pics%20270_zpsgackm6lz.

…here's that holster that Tommy wore---my favorite picture; Rick Miller taking a picture of Tommy and his holster (BTW, I talked with Tommy about a year ago at the SHOT show--he said that he had loaned that holster to someone and never got it back!!

OldPics055.jpg

…my recollection is a little different than yours re: cross draws. If you recall in the year leading up to (and including) the 1979 Nationals in Utah, Jeff had set up the Cooper Assault Course which required a weak-hand draw from a kneeling position----it was IMPOSSIBLE to accomplish that from a strong side holster without covering your legs with the muzzle---plus the cross draw was significantly faster---the center line start position with the hands was serendipitous (or so I thought)

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Ah yes, those were they days. When gentleman wore jackets to dinner.

I shot my SIG 220 box stock - the most accurate new gun I ever purchased. Today, it's my nightstand gun!

But the beard is gone.

Now, I have to search through my boxes of pictures for evidence of the photographer's feats of daring do - or daring didn't!

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  • 10 months later...
  • 10 months later...
On 7/21/2008 at 8:17 AM, Early IPSC'er said:

Here's a story that some of you old timers might find entertaining:

After the first few Bianchi Cups, the NRA developed an interest in starting some type of "practical" shooting program (the term "action" shooting hadn't been developed yet). In late '82 or early '83 they formed a "Practical Shooting Committee" to organize this endeavor. The board included Jeff Cooper, Ray Chapman, John Bianchi (although he always sent Richard Nichols as his rep), Bill Jordan and a few less notables like myself. For those of you who never met Bill Jordan (of No Second Place Winner fame) he was the Cooper antithesis: tall, skinny, talked with a lisp and was hilariously funny in a red-neck/trailer trash sort of way. Of course Jeff was the epitome of intellect and decorum and seemingly void of humor below a mensa level. Both Jeff and Bill were WWII Marine veterans and had terrible hearing (actually Jordan was as deaf as a post). Those meetings were frustratingly hilarious to participate in. Jordan wanted to make sure that this new sport didn't become an NRA-sanctified IPSC program and Cooper wanted it to be truly "practical." Jordan would say in his Elmer Fudd lisp, "We have to make suwe that this new spowt is faiw fow wevolers, it can't be dominated by fowty-five shootews." At that point Cooper would lean forward and say, "What did he say?" Then he'd say, "This is 'practical' shooting, we need to set up a scenario and let the shooter solve it with whatever tool is best suited to the task." At that point Jordan would lean forward and say, "What did he say?" The younger guys like myself spent most of our time repeating the conversation in a slower, higher decible level for the two of them. We were quite lucky that no blood was drawn during those early meetings. The first couple of Bianchi Cups had been shot on modified "Option" targets with a 6"x6" head. When the "tombstone" target was proposed I thought that Jeff was going to have a stroke--it totally emasculated the entire concept and led to the disolution of the "Practical Shooting" committee and evolution of the "Action Shooting" committee which Jeff wanted nothing to do with (nor did I). Anyway, other than Richard Nichols, I think that everyone else in those meetings is now dead, so there's a story that most of you have never heard.

Great thread to read so many thanks to all. I never knew Ray Chapman (didn't even get into pistol shooting until long after his retirement) but I did get over to Columbia for the occasional match thereafter and always found the bumper sticker on the office door quite amusing:

Will Rogers Never Met Ray Chapman

I always wished I could have known him........

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28 minutes ago, Reed said:

Great thread to read so many thanks to all. I never knew Ray Chapman (didn't even get into pistol shooting until long after his retirement) but I did get over to Columbia for the occasional match thereafter and always found the bumper sticker on the office door quite amusing:

Will Rogers Never Met Ray Chapman

I always wished I could have known him........

I got to know Ray working as an adjunct instructor at the academy, I got along fine with him, maybe because my father was also a Pacific Theater WW2 vet and I was used to that no bs style. He didn't suffer fools gladly as the saying goes, he was old school in a lot of ways but on the other hand forward thinking. For instance he was one of the first if not the first to put on running shoes instead of the combat boots most everyone else competed in back at the beginning of the sport, he did get some kidding about them but it was competition and he looked for every advantage.  The late Larry Bullock previously worked at the range some and didn't necessarily get along with Ray. Larry was a great practical joker and was selling those bumper stickers, looking back now I wish I'd bought one. I was more than a little surprised when I came in and saw one stuck on the office door, at any rate it didn't work as a practical joke. It didn't bother Ray.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Roy Bohmfalk's son may have a box of old match scores and such from Cooper's Big Bear Valley days and SWPL.  Roy and I had talked often about using that info to write up a "snap shot" in time from the early days.  If it didn't get thrown out when he passed, I hope to be able to retrieve that box of goodies if the family isn't interested in keeping it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Man, hard to believe that I missed this thread all the years that I was more active here.   I might have shared this story somewhere else on the forum.

 

A lot has transpired since I got my schoolin one day at the hands of one of the old time IPSC wolves.   Back in days of yore, there was a well loved gentleman gunslinger named Miller who operated a range in SW Colorado that was the epitome of cool hang outs for the best in the sport.  Matches like the Rocky Mt Stock Gun and World Shoot-off were held there for years.  I was very new to the sport (27) and seeing this kind of shooting skill and knowing that it doesn't get any better, was a heady experience.  I had tried motorcycle racing and damn near killed myself before I realized that I really wasn't that good at it. 

 

 The San Juan Shooting Range was a place of legend and definitely a place to see who had a way with a pistol and who didn't.  So, I customized my own 1911 shooter and went down to see if I could hang with those lads when it came to shooting fast and straight.  I went down there with my "C" card, feeling like a real small fish, and ended up finishing well enough to face our humble host, in man vs. man shoot-offs.  The matrix decided that I was worthy of extra favor that day, and I survived a couple of surprised wolves.  So, I end up looking at the elimination board to see who's coming up next and I see " B effen E" !!!  OK?   In my mind, I'm already a minor god for making it this far.  There are only eight slots left to the winner.  Quarter finals, I suppose.   Drum roll, so I step to the line, trying not to look over at BE with more than a causal glance. I doesn't matter if I look at him or not, cuz BE is just standing there all calm and shit, like Shiva.  

 

When the RO squeezed the bicycle horn, I knew I was road kill if I didn't turn the badger loose.  I actually took that first run from BE.  After that, I cut my eyes over, ever so slightly.  Wow, that was no harder that those other GMs that I had to squeak by to get here.   The next time they blew the horn, I shot a smokin run.  Blazin fast, like my best practice run on my best day. IAll my plates disappeared crazy fast.  And couldn't figure out how I hit anything with the way my hands were shaking.   And somehow BE's stop plate was on the bottom?    WTF?  Man, he's really good......

At least I was alive this far in.  I think we pushed it to best 3 out of 5 after that.  The last couple of runs it was like he had an extra gear that he didn't show earlier.  I didn't advance in that shoot-off, but the thrill was like going five NASCAR laps with ol #43. 

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I remember when I started the guy to beat was KIRK KIRKHAM. The first IPSC National Champion.  With a club having guys like Kirk, Brian Enos and Rob Leatham you really had to do your best to come  home with any wood.

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Do any of you remember when Miller from Colorado (I don't remember his first name), was shooting 9 major using 160 grn cast bullets?  And this was when .38 Super was still relatively new?  Ahh the discussion and controversy.  And then they banned 9 major and 9x21, 9TSW, etc.all showed up.

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2 hours ago, gregdavidl said:

Do any of you remember when Miller from Colorado (I don't remember his first name), was shooting 9 major using 160 grn cast bullets?  And this was when .38 Super was still relatively new?  Ahh the discussion and controversy.  And then they banned 9 major and 9x21, 9TSW, etc.all showed up.

 

 

Paul Miller.

was early 90s, shooting a lead 160gn RN bullet., loaded out long.

needed to get barrel reamed out for the longer bullet.

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  • 7 months later...

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