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Old Time IPSC shooters


tightloop

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Thinking back on the matches that I went to that had "known" shooters competing in it, made me think about who was the fastest guy I ever saw or competed against. Man, there were lots of guys that shot who you might not see but once or twice a year, there were the local hot shots, there were the guys whose names appeared in magazine articles...and probably I am talking about 1985 and before...too many current guys to choose from, although that would be something to really think about, but for this limit yourself to the older shooters...

Guys like Brian Enos (our host), Nick Pruitt, Raul Walters, Mickey Fowler, Jim Zubiana, Chip McCormick, Bill Wilson, Mike

Dalton, Mike Fitchman...

Make your choice and tell us why you chose that person...always a story in there somewhere. Be interesting to see who was the guy noone wanted to face in the shootoffs...I have my pick, but will wait a while before telling that story.

Edited by tightloop
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I'll play. :)

1984. The Ohio Sectionals. I had been shooting IPSC for about a year or two. They had a man vs man shootoff after the match. I was working my way through the pack ---------- until I drew John Sayle. :unsure: He had been in the top 16 at the Nationals before and was the guy to beat at local matches. He won. :mellow:

Of course Ken Hackathorn was a force to be reckoned with also. He still is at local IDPA matches. :cheers:

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I'll play. :)

1984. The Ohio Sectionals. I had been shooting IPSC for about a year or two. They had a man vs man shootoff after the match. I was working my way through the pack ---------- until I drew John Sayle. :unsure: He had been in the top 16 at the Nationals before and was the guy to beat at local matches. He won. :mellow:

Of course Ken Hackathorn was a force to be reckoned with also. He still is at local IDPA matches. :cheers:

Took a Gunsite course with Ken, pistol 250...he was a tough competitor then, about '80 IIRC, and have shot a few matches with and against John Sayle, he too was tough to beat...You ever shoot against the third member of that threesome; Bill Wilson? Was on Bill's squad at the '80 Natls...he could shoot. I remember being amazed at how well he did on a set of targets at 50yds firing thru a port and having to hold the port window open by holding the string in your teeth...wow.

Thanks Bill....

tightloop

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Old time? The "Jet". Watched him shoot the 1990 (1991?) Steel Challenge, and he "drove it like he stole it". His movements were not overly choreographed, he was just *fast* and *smooth*. Also had a chance to watch him shoot some IPSC matches at Norco around the same timeframe, and he brought that same elegance to the paper as he had on steel.

Current day? Gotta be TT. I watched him shoot a stage at a local (western washington) club match back 6 or 8 years ago, and... not only did he do it in a way that seemed impossible for "mere mortals", he made it look effortless. The guy is just smooooooth. No wasted movements, no jerky starts and stops, just fluid motions, and if you blink, you miss it.

B

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my first welcome to the big time, course I wasn't ..shot in a shootoff against TGO at a NM sectionals..I just laughed at myself as he just cruised effortlessly..and watched him turn it up as he got closer to the top..

for me..watching shooters like Cal Elrich, Floyd Wine, Jim Wall, Mike Martolin and Charlie Putman, just fueled me to keep on trying.

Jim Wall was one of the most talented shooters I ever shot with.. Shot always a 5" gun from a Milt Sparks IWB, sometimes for big matches he would break out a 1AT. I have seen him shoot with no sights, left handed and with a burned up old Norinco..and he could still go one on one with the fastest. Great shotgun shooter too.

Edited by eerw
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my first welcome to the big time, course I wasn't ..shot in a shootoff against TGO at a NM sectionals..I just laughed at myself as he just cruised effortlessly..and watched him turn it up as he got closer to the top..

for me..watching shooters like Cal Elrich, Floyd Wine, Jim Wall, Mike Martolin and Charlie Putman, just fueled me to keep on trying.

Jim Wall was one of the most talented shooters I ever shot with.. Shot always a 5" gun from a Milt Sparks IWB, sometimes for big matches he would break out a 1AT. I have seen him shoot with no sights, left handed and with a burned up old Norinco..and he could still go one on one with the fastest. Great shotgun shooter too.

I know a little about Cal Erlich and Floyd Wine but the rest don't ring any bells...give me a little background on them if you can...where were they from, when did they shoot....

Thanks

Tightloop

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Jim Wall….

Boise Idaho area.

Won a large handful of Area #1 Limited titles.

A bunch of good finishes at SOF, always in the top 20 and a number of top 5 and 10 finishes.

4th Standard at the World Shoot in Brazil (used a Novak built Para in 45 ACP drawn from a 1AT)

Put a lot of shooters on the trailer and won guns in the main and side events at American Handgunner Shootoffs.

Jim, in an awesome display of sportsmanship (at the AH Shoot -offs) refused to take a 3rd and 4th gun off the prize table as he figured he was fortunate enough, others should get the opportunity.

A practitioner of the sightless pistol BEFORE “others” found it cool.

A story about Jim shooting the sightless pistol at SOF! I was there, this is my recollection.

1999 or 2000 Jim is shooting his sightless fire branded Norico 1911. Not a surprise normally but this is a money match and by my thinking he “should” be shooting his World Shoot Novak. Jimmy Wilson is the CRO and course designer of a stage that had shooters starting in their kitchen cleaning their pistol. Ammo is loose in a pie tin, mags are empty, and a commotion erupts in the backyard. You have 6 seconds before your home’s backdoor is busted open exposing you to 7 bad men (SOF dropper targets). On signal load up and engage! I guess Jim’s pistol was not limiting enough as Jim only brought 7 round mags. He scoops up a handful of factory 230 Ball, loads one mag, seats, racks and just as the door opens, absolutely slays the 7 droppers. Not that a number of us couldn’t go 7 for 7 but we had extra rounds and still did not execute near as fast!

Jim is an ON DEMAND shooter!

I got more.

Patrick

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Jim Wall….

Boise Idaho area.

Won a large handful of Area #1 Limited titles.

A bunch of good finishes at SOF, always in the top 20 and a number of top 5 and 10 finishes.

4th Standard at the World Shoot in Brazil (used a Novak built Para in 45 ACP drawn from a 1AT)

Put a lot of shooters on the trailer and won guns in the main and side events at American Handgunner Shootoffs.

Jim, in an awesome display of sportsmanship (at the AH Shoot -offs) refused to take a 3rd and 4th gun off the prize table as he figured he was fortunate enough, others should get the opportunity.

A practitioner of the sightless pistol BEFORE “others” found it cool.

A story about Jim shooting the sightless pistol at SOF! I was there, this is my recollection.

1999 or 2000 Jim is shooting his sightless fire branded Norico 1911. Not a surprise normally but this is a money match and by my thinking he “should” be shooting his World Shoot Novak. Jimmy Wilson is the CRO and course designer of a stage that had shooters starting in their kitchen cleaning their pistol. Ammo is loose in a pie tin, mags are empty, and a commotion erupts in the backyard. You have 6 seconds before your home’s backdoor is busted open exposing you to 7 bad men (SOF dropper targets). On signal load up and engage! I guess Jim’s pistol was not limiting enough as Jim only brought 7 round mags. He scoops up a handful of factory 230 Ball, loads one mag, seats, racks and just as the door opens, absolutely slays the 7 droppers. Not that a number of us couldn’t go 7 for 7 but we had extra rounds and still did not execute near as fast!

Jim is an ON DEMAND shooter!

I got more.

Patrick

If you have more, don't keep them to yourself...these are the cool kind of stories that you never hear about.

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Here's one Patrick...about 83 or so we had a young guy about 23 yrs old named Brad Butler who lived up the road from Houston, in Corsicana...really really fast and pretty accurate too.. had a couple of great finishes the year before, as finishing 2nd to Barnhart in the Fl Open, and a top 25 finish at the Natls....so when our 4 man team had a member go into the hospital we called Brad to see if we could bring him in as a kind of ringer to shoot a match in Austin against Chippie and 3 of his buds in a money match...

Called Brad and he is up for it...tells us he has been shooting lights out..so we invite him. He phones the next day and asks if he can bring his GF for the weekend trip to Austin and the match...tell him sure if she ain't ugly....

Man, we meet him and the GF Fri nite and she ain't ugly, she is supermodel good looking..about 5'5" tall, brunette and built like the proveribal outhouse...

Our G2 tells us that Chippie has a member, Jeff Wassom who has the flu and not feeling well at all...figured we had the match and the money in the sack...

Sat dawns bright and shiny and we meet at the range...Brad obviously did not get ONE wink of sleep the night before...The GF had him OCCUPIED all night long...

Even with Wassom sick with the flu, we lost the match...Brad shot like a little 6 yrs old girl ...and as we paid Chip thye $$, Brad kind of sheepishly asked if we would be wanting him to stand in again...

We guessed we'd better think about it, we told him...

A sure thing is NEVER a sure thing...

Edited by tightloop
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I heard from more than one person that Rick Castelow was the fastest shooter they had ever seen from the beep to the first shot.Back in 02 he sort of came out of retirement and shot at a small club way up in the hills and hollers of middle TN.8-10 shooters max was all that ever showed up but of those there were at least 5 A to Master class shooters.Castelow was shooting a Les Baer Single Stack.He had obviously slowed down some over the years but was still smooth and effortless.There was one stage where you could shoot all the targets plainly from one spot but to have any decent shot at the last couple you had to move as only part of the head was visable and you were crouching down and shooting almost at the 180 through a port .Everyone but Castelow moved to the other spot.This was a 16 rd stage mind you.He stayed there shot 9 rds,reloaded and hit the two difficult targets in the upper B zone.Needless to say he smoked every body on that stage including the Open Masters

Edited by et45
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I heard from more than one person that Rick Castelow was the fastest shooter they had ever seen from the beep to the first shot.Back in 02 he sort of came out of retirement and shot at a small club way up in the hills and hollers of middle TN.8-10 shooters max was all that ever showed up but of those there were at least 5 A to Master class shooters.Castelow was shooting a Les Baer Single Stack.He had obviously slowed down some over the years but was still smooth and effortless.There was one stage where you could shoot all the targets plainly from one spot but to have any decent shot at the last couple you had to move as only part of the head was visable and you were crouching down and shooting almost at the 180 through a port .Everyone but Castelow moved to the other spot.This was a 16 rd stage mind you.He stayed there shot 9 rds,reloaded and hit the two difficult targets in the upper B zone.Needless to say he smoked every body on that stage including the Open Masters

Love stories like that one...smoked the Open Masters...LOL...great stuff. Never saw him shoot up close, was at some of the same matches, but just never paid much attention...my loss. Reminds me of the old baseball story: a batter was facing Bob Feller and struck out on three pitches, as he returned to the dugout the ondeck batter asked him about facing Feller, the batter's reply was three words, Oh My God!!!

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A couple of old timers that won world shoots, Ray Chapman and Ross Seyfried (spelling). Ross shot a very lightly modified 1911. Also, Chuck Taylor. He finished second in one of the early world shoots.

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I've always assumed that Cal Elrich of World Fast Draw competition fame was also the IPSC shooter I hear about. Is that him? If it is, when did he get into fast-draw competition?

On the World Fast Draw website he is in some how-to video clips on loading ballon-break blanks and other things. He seems to be good at teaching shooting too. I believe he also has made an instructional video about fast draw.

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As Bob said, it is the same guy, one of the predecessors to Bob Munden. Another really fast draw guy from back there was Thell Reed, who also shot with Cooper, Chapman, Erlich, Weaver and some others...another great story in there somewhere I am sure...Anyone ever shoot with Thell or Cal...tell us about it.

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I was at Second Chance one year and Cal Elrich did a fast draw, gun spinning demonstration with a single action.

A few years later I was at the USPSA Nationals in the vendors tent. Cal walked up to one of the tables and picked up a 1911 and started spinning and throwing it up in the air. :) Dave Stanford walked up behind him and took the gun away and put it back on the table. :roflol:

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I was at Second Chance one year and Cal Elrich did a fast draw, gun spinning demonstration with a single action.

A few years later I was at the USPSA Nationals in the vendors tent. Cal walked up to one of the tables and picked up a 1911 and started spinning and throwing it up in the air. :) Dave Stanford walked up behind him and took the gun away and put it back on the table. :roflol:

You got to watch those revolver shooters....who's watching you Bill? :D

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I remember a guy who used to shoot down around Macon Georgia in the mid 80's. His name I believe was Lester Rhodes and he was a big time "Cooper" disciple. He would usually shoot a LW Commander loaded with Hardball out of a Summer Special Holster. He would regularly humble good shooters with comp guns and speed holsters at the matches down there. It was always impressive to watch him shoot.

I also remember the first time I saw Todd Jarrett shoot at the Area 6 around 88-89. Man he was (still is) fast....... :surprise:

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I also remember the first time I saw Todd Jarrett shoot at the Area 6 around 88-89. Man he was (still is) fast....... :surprise:

HAHAHA He used Todd Jarrett's name on a "old time shooters" thread. :roflol:

Wait he is my age. :surprise:

Edited by BSeevers
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I also remember the first time I saw Todd Jarrett shoot at the Area 6 around 88-89. Man he was (still is) fast....... :surprise:

HAHAHA He used Todd Jarrett's name on a "old time shooters" thread. :roflol:

Wait he is my age. :surprise:

And that makes you....how old? You aren't a pup, but not a gray beard either...Just in your prime :D

Latewatch...You could get away with that when they still had stand and shoot stages, I'm thinking that is one of the reasons Chuck Taylor stopped shooting competition, the sport got away from Coopers ideals.

Edited by tightloop
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