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Yep, new SG season! The hi-def network goes 24/7 next week...start bitching to your cable company. Hopefully, the HD deal with the sats is forthcoming. The HD versions of the shows rock! Michael B PS: I've decided to bail on Equador...I can't rationalize putting half a million bucks worth of hardware (not to mention a few pretty good friends of mine) on the line in a country that's dicey. I've had a sufficient number of shaky Third World kids point battle rifles at me, thank you. There's no way to travel inconspicuously with a full-blown camera crew. Might as well have a big blinking sign over our heads. Plus, I was unable to get anyone in the Equadorian goverment to even answer my paperwork questions, which didn't exactly fill me with the warm and fuzzies (especially after almost getting tossed out of Canada for heaven's sake last year for failing to dot the appropriate "i.")

Yep, it's that time of year again! Season 4 for SHOOTING GALLERY Air Times: Mon Jun. 27, 2005 8:30 AM Wed Jun. 29, 2005 6:00 PM Fri Jul. 01, 2005 8:00 PM Season 2 for COWBOYS Air Times: Tue Jun. 28, 2005 12:00 AM Thu Jun. 30, 2005 6:30 PM Sun Jul. 03, 2005 12:30 PM And our first season producing AMERICAN RIFLEMAN! Air Times: Mon Jun. 27, 2005 9:00 AM Wed Jun. 29, 2005 5:00 PM Sat Jul. 02, 2005 9:30 PM I'm particularly proud of the Jeff Cooper interview on SG running this week! BTW, we won first and second place in the CONSUMER TELEVISION division of NSSF's Good Shots/Great Stories competition this year. Last year, we won first and third. I insisted on being in the CONSUMER TELEVISION division, as opposed to the lower "shooting ducks in a barrel" divisions because I wanted to compete directly with ESPN, PBS and the network outdoor shows! We also picked up a cable award, one of two Outdoor Channel shows to do so. THANKS FOR WATCHING! Michael B

Hey guys; I took the list's advice and went to the Kiowa Creek Sporting Club, about 30 miles east of Denver, for sporting clays lessons with Warren Watson. A BEAUTIFUL facility and an EXCELLENT instructor! I had a great time. I had no idea that there was a quality instructor so close to home base. I unconditionally recommend both Warren and Kiowa Creek! Michael B KiowaCreek.com 303-644-4627 Warren Watson School of Shotgunning 303-644-4507

RE: Shotguns... Got friends I respect a lot in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Couple of them swear by 14-inch "Binnillis" and cut-down 870s. One of them is a "first guy through the door" sort of guy, and he says on the 8th day, God made the 12-gauge slug. Says it carrys a profound message to the first guy shot. Michael B PS: New seasons starts in a week! Check out the Jeff Cooper piece on SHOOTING GALLERY...

This is from my blog, FWIW: Can the Bianchi Cup Survive? First, let me say congratulations to Doug Koenig for his sixth consecutive victory at the championships of NRA Action Pistol, the Bianchi Cup, Memorial Day weekend in Columbia, MO. Here are the top three scores — the scores on the four stages, followed by the overall: 1) Doug Koenig 480-48Xs 480-48Xs 480-41Xs 480-48Xs 1920-185Xs 2) Bruce Piatt 480-43Xs 480-46Xs 480-42Xs 480-48Xs 1920-179Xs 3) Mike Voigt 478-45Xs 480-47Xs 480-36Xs 480-48Xs 1918-176Xs Essentially, the shooters fire 192 rounds in four stages, barricades, falling plates, moving target and practical; high score on each target is an 8-inch 10-ring. Inside the 10-ring is a 4-inch "X" ring. The "Xs" were originally conceived as the tie-breakers, because a perfect score of 1920 was thought to be impossible. For the last few years, a perfect 1920 has been not only possible, but necessary to win. Doug Koenig's performance in this year's Cup was, for all intents and purposes, as close to perfection as any pistol match ever shot in the United States! It matches and exceeds John Pride's legendary 1920-179Xs in 1995. He shot perfect scores — 480-48Xs — on three of the four stages, dropping only 7 Xs on the mover! BTW, Koenig was second on the mover; Bruce Piatt dropped one less "X", 6 Xs, on the mover. Only six shooters shot a perfect score on the mover, and other than Koenig and Piatt, all dropped 12 or more Xs. Both Koenig and Piatt bettered their performances over last year's Cup (2004 scores showed Koenig at 1920-177Xs and Piatt at 1918-181Xs). I assume (my scoresheet isn't broken down by division) high metallic sight goes to Rob Leatham, in 10th place overall, with 1910-153Xs and high woman, also for the sixth time, to Vera Coo in 22nd place overall with 1894-149Xs. Again, I stand in awe of this level of shooting ability. To say the bar has risen to levels none of us could have anticipated 25 years ago is a vast, vast understatement. When I talked to Doug and Bruce on Thursday, both of them were calm, enthusiastic and for lack of a better word, light-hearted. They seemed to be having a great time as opposed to being locked in this amazing competition. The real shocker here is Michael Voigt — President of USPSA, former World Champion in IPSC Standard Division competition and multiple time national champion in 3-gun. He's never been known as a "accuracy" shooter — just screaming fast. He changed those perceptions at this match. BTW, Voigt and I were once friends, and we do indeed have problems for which there is probably no solution. Still, this is a breath-taking exhibition of talent on Mike's part, and he has my sincere congratulations. SOOOOOOOOOOO...after all these accolades, why is the title of the post about whether this match will survive? Again, the numbers tell the story — 147 shooters competed the match, a steady decline over the Cup's 26 years. Sponsorship was simply not NEARLY what it should be for an event of Bianchi's standard. Of the numerous gun magazines, only the NRA's SHOOTING SPORTS USA attended (there may have been "correspodents" from the other mags there; I didn't quiz everyone!). I was there for AMERICAN RIFLEMAN TV, and Jim Scoutten was there for SHOOTING USA. In short, for the most part the industry gives it a big ole shrug. As a former match director myself, I can't imagine how I could run a match of Bianchi's quality on 150 shooters...I simply could not make the spreadsheet work! What's the problem (s)? IMHO: 1) The lack of a comprehensive marketing plan for all the shooting sports 2) The lack of marketing/public relations help on a national level 3) The Balkanized landscape of the shooting sports, where the sports routinely snipe at each other over tiny slivers of market share 4) A lack of commitment on the part of the industry to growing the shooting sports Unless we all start putting pressure on the industry, we're going to continue to see the some of the gold standard matches leach away, and we will all suffer for it! So congratulations to Doug, Bruce and Mike! And fingers crossed for next year...

I'm a little bummed with Tripp right now. I ordered a couple of his .40 mags for my Trojan, and they worked excellent. I bought some more, and there appear to be feedlip issues...slam the magazine home, and rounds pop out the top. Happened on 2 out of 3 Tripp mags. Was planning on shootng the gun in the Area 6s...went back to a .45. Michael B

Got 2 feet of snow last weekend up here in the high country. SUXS! Where is summertime when the livin' is easy? Michael B

Hey Flex; SHOOTING-WISE, I really like scenario-based practical shooting. From a video standpoint, scenario-based shooting is cool. You don't have to structure your narrative as tightly as you do in, say, Steel Challenge shooting. You still have to make sure there's a story (as opposed to just reporting results), but it's a bit easier to do that in a scenario-based format. From a video standpoint, the ranges are the toughies. If the range looks like ca-ca, it's that much harder. The trick is to make the competition look like fun. What makes that if you focus on the *competition,* you have to first make sure that the viewers *know* the competitors. That's harder than it looks. My co-producer, Robin Berg, comes from the X-Games and he's been through this before. First, you have to make the viewers care about the PEOPLE involved. If you can't do that, it doesn't matter who wins, because the viewer doesn't care who wins. The cowboy experience is instructive...they had their own show, focusing on their competitions. The show was very appealing to the people who SHOT THE COMPETITIONS. The rest of the television world pretty much didn't care. NONE of the shootiing sports has a large enough "installed base" to carry a show. You gotta appeal to people who aren't involved with the sport, which means they don't automatically know the personalities or even the intricacies of things like scoring, strategy, etc. In a case where you're having to fill in a lot of knowledge, easier is better. Example...a relatively intelligent poodle can understand how the Steel Challenge is scored; OTOH, half the people *in USPSA* don't understand how USPSA is scored. Another example...annswer the question, "Who won?" If it takes more than a first and last name to answer that question, you've got problems. Ranges and stages are not designed to accomodate video; ranges are designed (usually) around safety issues. Stages are designed for the shooters — which is as it should be. However, when you want to display the sport to a larger audience, you need to craft some way to highlight your strengths and downplay your weaknesses, which means range/stage design SPECIFICALLY for television, with the shooters adapting to the media. Not that big a deal, really. Have you ever been to a Super Bowl in person? Dull as dirt, because of all the stops and starts for television. The Super Bowl isn't run in real time; it's run in Television Time. That's because the NFL figured out pretty quickly that it couldn't have it both ways. The spectators are secondary to the camera. I want to do our own match for The Outdoor Channel, which I believe will happen in the next year or so (the transition to hi-def has sucked up all the available resource for this year). The idea would be to create scenario-based practical pistol SPECIFICALLY for the camera, and I've got an agreement in principal. We'll see. In the meantime, there's a number of things USPSA could — but will never — do prepare themselves for the future. For example...how many classifications does one human being need? The answer, IMO, is one (your highest). How many national championships does an organization need. "One" seems to work great. Half a dozen drive the organization to bankruptcy. Hmmmmmmm. Why would you have more than one Nationals? Hmmmmmm, how about to accomodate the "professional shooting cadre," which consists of about 10 people. Prize tables? I would never hang around for the award ceremony. It's long, dull and the viewers don't care. You want to get a big slpash, give away money and make up one of those big checks. Otherwise, it's snore-nod city. Scoring? Think about why golfers have leader-boards. Props? The lens sees a lot, and the greens at Augusta look better than a grafitti-sprayed piece-of-crap barricade...sort of the "broken windows" theory of match design. Think about it, though...if one of the functions of media coverage is to grow the sport, which sport looks more appealing...one that is practiced in a complete 1880s town or a landscaped park setting like sporting clays or one that is practiced using the remnants of a shed you tore down last summer cleverly decorated with spray paint? I'm not saying that *every* match needs to be tricked up, but there ought to be one that is. Also, consder this...at the NRA meetings, one of the Powers That Be in practical shooting was lamenting the fact that in USPSA, on any given day there's only about five people who can and will win a big match. There's two ways to look at that tidbit of info...either that those five people are so amazingly incredible shooters that only they have the skills, strengths and mindset to win, or that the sport has inadvertantly *evolved* into a sport that perfectly accomodates and reflects the strengths of the top tier of competitors. That's not necessarily a bad thing — if you've got the PR muscle of NASCAR to make your drivers into media personalities. If you don't, it's a hard row to hoe. Okay, enough blathering. I think I'll go watch 24 and see if Jack tortures anyone else! Michael B

Sorry to be out of touch...been on a hellish round of filming. I got back last night from the cowboy's End of Trail at their new Founder's Ranch facility in New Mexico. Good lord, what a facility! 400-500 spectacularly beautiful acres; currently 15 large shooting bays and a huge mounted shooting arena; plans under way for many more bays and a complete permanent cowboy town that can be used by Hollywood. This year they drew around 800 "ground" shooters, maybe 100 mounted shooters and had (I think) at least 100 vendors...essentially a tent city on par with DEADWOOD. There were two stages of entertainment running constantly, chuck wagons set up serving food, and several large and small facilities for seminars and training, which also ran continuously throughout the four day event. There were side events, Gatling Guns and cannons at a buck a shot, tons of shooting. There were also dinners, dancing, gambling and a Friday evening concert with Riders In The Sky. Hell, they've even got their own buffalo herd. This, kids, is how to run the store! Both Scoutten and I were there filming; SASS' media people had arranged local news and people like USA Today. The whole event ran like clockwork; whatever we needed to facilitate the filming process, SASS had people standing by to help us out. Before anyone starts on, "yeah, but they wear costumes...," the different between SASS and USPSA is a *VISION* — SASS has one; USPSA doesn't. You don't need a sound stage to film a USPSA video...you need intelligent direction, some innovative camerawork and a willingness on the part of the sport to move forward, to think outside the ole proverbial box, to take some RISKS. On a national level, we've been presented with an amazing cultural window. I think Tightloop's got the right of, but who's listening? Michael B

Tightloop My Brutha! Here's why nobody's doing what needs to be done: 1) It costs money to hire professionals, even if the professionals work at the brother-in-law rate. 2) USPSA has a long and venerable history of not being the easiest people in the world to work with. LOL! 3) In truth, there's no honest-to-goodness consensus on whether the organization and the sport wants/needs to grow. 4) Practical shooting is by its nature visual, but the sport itself is not media friendly in the way its laid out. 5) It's hard to train camera crews to work around guns...I have the two best crews in the business for that, and it has taken a huge amount of work and money. 6) There are venue issues, as xsrdx has noted, but part of the problem is that USPSA does not play well with others. There are spectacular shooting venues — the Whittington Center, the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio, blah blah — that have never or rarely been used for practical shooting. Our idea of a classy venue seems to be putting up a poster of a Bud girl and spray painting some grafitti on the barricade. Make fun of the Cowboys all you want, but their venues make GREAT television. But I digress. mb

Quick "El Jefe" story: We filmed an episode of SHOOTING GALLERY on Cooper for next season. Great interview — the interview with Col. Cooper that I'd always wanted to see. he's happy enough with the interview that h e loans me a few of his guns to go shoot, including his personal Commander. I mean, who's gonna pass up shooting Cooper's carry gun? I take it to a steel range at Gunsite and crank it up, filming all the while. So we rush the piece through editing so Cooper can show it to the NRA last week (which voted to include the show the NRA archives, BTW). They're all watching the show and there's Michael shooting El Jefe's carry gun...arms fully extended in an isosceles position. Gasps go up. "That boy doesn't know how to shoot right!" Maybe there's a 12-Step program somewhere... mb

Actually, the marketing issue's not particularly hard. Paul Erhardt, Scott Moore and I developed a functioning model on how to promote the shooting sports back when we were all working for NSSF. I was able to use some of the model when I worked with USPSA, and Scott and Paul have helped USPSA out as well. The model's been used to promote the ESPN Great Outdoors Games, the Scholastic Clays Target Program and the Steel Challenge and has yielded pretty spectacular results. For instance, the Challenge from a $125,000 match to a more than $300,000 match in three years. It's not inconceivable that the Challenge will hit $500,000 and major national sponsorship within the next two years. The GOG target sports now outdraw the X-Games in viewership, and the SCTP program has become a textbook success story (you can now letter in shotgun at high schools in many states!). It ain't rocket science! mb

Sweeney You Philistine; First, you've got to stop watching BATTLESTAR GALACTICA reruns and instead switch to DEADWOOD, so your basic obscenity would change from the strange-sounding "frakking" to the more socially acceptable "f&^*&%g c$%^*@!$@r!" Secondly, some BHPs came from the factory without the magazine disconnect. My .40 Tactical, purchased around 1993, came NEW OUT OF THE BOX without a magazine disconnect. i called the media people at Browning on it and they said yes, as a matter of fact, some of the Tacticals came from the factory without the disconnect as part of the "tactical package." Given that undeniable fact, and given that the Tacticals were pretty popular a few years ago, I would wager to bet that MANY of the BHPs used in IDPA came in this configuration. I'm gonna spend some time with FNH at the NRA Meetings next week...I'll ask them about a "tactical package" for the FNH HP. In the meantime, go back to your revolver and start pondering how much fun it would be to feed the idiots who hamstring the shooting sports to Mr. Wu's pigs. mb

Hi guys; This weeks marks the end of original shows for SEASON 3 of SHOOTING GALLERY and Season 1 of COWBOYS (we've now got 13 weeks of repeats). The Outdoor Channel couldn't be any happier with the shows and with our numbers. My Executive Producer (the man who authorizes our checks!) said that he thought every show was a home run. I still find this amazing. I want to thank you all for your viewership and your support, because you are the people who make it all possible. Hard though it is to believe, I am humbled. Again, thank you. mb

Mr. Enos, email me offline (mbane666@nedernet.net) and we'll get this puppy under way. I practically commute into Phoenix these days (good weather in the dead of winter). This will be fun! THANK YOU! mb

Jeez, thanks guys! When we went to flilm John, he asked me what he could say. I said, "Dude! Be yourself." I just got back from GUNSITE where one of the things we did was the interview with El Jefe, Jeff Cooper, that I always wanted to see done. There are all these people in Gun World that we sort of know; as much as possible I want to give them a forum to reach the larger audience (22 1/2 minutes isn't exactly a major caliber soapbox!). Watch for Jim Cirillo, Ken Hackathorn, Rob Haugh, Wayne Novak...kind of reads like Opinions-R-Us, don't it? And I am always open to suggestions. BE, you wanna do a show with me? COWBOYS has turned into a huge success. I think a couple of episodes are going to be put up for Emmys this year; last year, SHOOTING GALLERY made the finals for a Telly (essentially a cable Emmy), only the third Outdoor Channel show — and the only one in its first season — to get that far. My production team is in the process of overhauling AMERICAN RIFLEMAN TV, and we have a major documentary on Second Amendment issues, media bias and the shooting sports in the scripting stage. More television is better, which is why I never insist on exclusivity when we come out to film. It's also why none of my shows charge "expenses" or weird fees for us to come out...exposure shouldn't hinge on whether you can pony up the bucks. I'm going to try and ramp up at least one other shooting show for 2006...am badly in need of a clone! Again, thanks! mb

And if you wanna go Old School, Rusty Sherrick (http://www.c-rusty.com/) makes a really nice horsehide N-frame holster. Spec it without a strap for competition. He's making me one for my pathetic 1917/1955 Target bastard child... Michael B

I'm probably going to have to hold until next year...in all honesty, I've just run out of *me.* My production team just agreed to take over production of the AMERICAN RIFLEMAN show (in addition to my own SHOOTING GALLERY and our COWBOYS) at the request of The Outdoor Channel. That gives us,like, 78 shows to do in the next 12 months.Plus a recently green-lighted documentary on "The Gun Wars" with me and Tom Gresham hosting. In the meantime, we've drastically increased our support of the Steel Challenge and one of the big cowboy matches. Sorry...I really wanted to do this in 2005! Michael B

I've got BHPs from Novak and C&S...both are flawless. Michael B

Clay-Dude; Naw...you just get a 5 yard penalty and loss of a first down for BAD TASTE IN CLOTHES!!!! Michael B

Aw guys! I wish I could tell you that I, or Paul Erhardt, or Chris Chaffin, or Gary Mehalik or any of the rest of us "driving" this thing actually knew what we were doing! Shooting's not like any other sport, and the existing "roadmaps" will only take you so far. Paul and I are probably the most successful shooting sports marketing team ever; that and a buck will get you coffee. We both feel we're at, or even past, a tipping point for the Steel Challenge. The challenge is to figure out what's necessary to "tip" the shooting sports as a whole. We're closer now than we've ever been...the lines on the graph are converging. If we could just see clearly where we need to *push." I'm not complaining; more an explanation that some of the things we do will be heading down the wrong path, and hopefully we'll self-correct before we get too far. Sweeney is dead right...what makes a good match for you and I aren't necessarily the same things that make a good match for SHOOTING GALLERY. For example, the appeal of the SC over, say USPSA, is that there is one person I can point to sand say, "he won." The fastest man alive. As opposed to five "National Champions." Teevee has a fiercely short attention span! mb

Speed option plates gone. Mike & Mike made that decision *before* the prize money discussion started. My understanding is that it was purely an issue of "match streamlining," preparing for increasing numbers of shooters in future years. Bigbrowndog, after decades of working with the shooting sports I've come to the conclusion that, as the sainted Cyndi Lauper once sang, "money changes everything." So many of the things we've wanted for the shooting sports have been contingent on more money coming into the sports, and we simply haven't been able to raise the bucks. So we're making a bet here, that if we "chum the water" with some dollars, more dollars will follow. We (The Outdoor Channel) put up $10K, then SIG followed suit the next day. Several companies are looking at similar awards for stock/limited gun and revolver...if not this year, then next year. At SHOT, I had a meeting with a MAJOR non-gun potential sponsor of numerous shooting sports, and the first words out of their mouths were, "How much cash do you have on the table?" After that, the meeting went great, and we are presenting ON BEHALF OF THE SHOOTING SPORTS at their corporate headquarters in April. There is a HUGE trickle-down effect for us regular shooters! Last time I talked to Mike-and-Mike, the SC had something like 150 guns to give away as prizes. It will be the biggest prize table in the history of the shooting sports. I think that's something to be enthusiastic about! And by the way, The Outdoor Channel is the ONLY television network who PUTS THEIR MONEY WHERE ITS MOUTH IS! The ONLY one! We support the SC, several major cowboy matches and more on the docket for next year; we donated $100,000 worth of airtime to NSSF to promote the shooting sports; we're adding more shooting sports shows and revamping some of our baseline shooting shows to be more competition friendly. WE DO NOT EVER CHARGE A FEE, "EXPENSES," WHATEVER TO COVER A MATCH!!! That is selling edit; it poisons the well for everyone and I will not do it! The Outdoor Channel is ALONE among the networks in REFUSING to donate airtime for "gun safety messages" from thinly veiled antigun groups like Americans for Gun Safety... I could (and occasionally do) go on and on! These guys are the REAL DEAL. The SC is only the first step. Michael B

Strange story...in my impetuous youth growing up in Memphis in the 1950s, my grandfather owned a drugstore in a good neighborhood going bad. Jerry Lee Lewis hung out there. Enought said! I didn't realize it at the time, but the way you maintain a DRUGSTORE in a war zone was to be the baddest dogs on the block. My grandfather's "delivery boy" was a local legend, a very hard man who carried a straight razor and a hooked-bill linoleum knife. When I was about 12 or 13, he asked my grandfather for permission to "show me a couple of things" on knives so I'd be ready for high school. Yeah, right. i was the only kid at my school who NEVER got hazed. Never been without a knife since (and my first "sensi" taught me well!). I love Bali-Songs and I've got a bunch of them (including one Benchmade wanted back for their "museum"), but local laws pretty much rule them out for regular carry. Daily carry knife is an aging Benchmade Emerson copy. I'm also fond of Delicas and the Mike Janich designed neck knife from Spyderco. I've been lucky enough to study with Dan Inosanto and Mike Janich, but I still have a weird affinity for straight razors--as my first sensi said, "Cut you before you know you cut; kills you before you know you dead." He diudn't believe you should cut a woman; one killed him. Michael B

Rhino; If I thought you had the brains to understand it, I'd viciously insult you...and about your mama!!!!!! This forum consistantly cheers me up. Sometimes we drift into an area of hostility, but the people on the list are good enough to pull it out before it crashes and burns. Except, of course, for Rhino, who is a persistant thorn in the side of civility! Michael B PS: Hey Rhino...I found a mystery novel in the airport that KNOCKED OFF my characters! Pretty weird...

Done deal...THE 72 SECOND CHALLENGE...as stated, break 72 seconds and get a check for $25 grand ($10K from The Ourdoor Channel; $10K from SIG; $5K for winning the Steel Challenge). In the event of more than one person breaking 72 seconds, FAST TIME TAKES HOME THE DOUGH! Major publcity around this!!! I think we've kicked it up a notch! Michael B