USAShootingNews SEPT/OCT 2009 VOLUME 17, NO. 5 Contents FEATURES 18 2009 Nationals Wrap- Up By Mary Beth Vorwerk 24 World Cup 2009 Update By Mary Beth Vorwerk DISCIPLINES 14 Pistol By Keith Sanderson 15 Rifle By Launi Meili 16 Shotgun By Bret Erickson & Mark Weeks COLUMNS 6 From the Editor By Mary Beth Vorwerk 7 Aim with AMU By SFC Richard Merrill 8 Inside the Blue By Sr. Master Sgt. Jeffrey J. Julig 10 On the Firing Line By J.P. O’Connor 12 Coaches’ Corner By Rifle Coach Dave Johnson AROUND THE RANGE 28 Shotgun Junior Olympic Wrap-Up ON THE COMPLEX 30 Thoughts from: The Executive Director Paralympics Marketing Competitions Operations 18 33 NEWS & EVENTS USA Shooting News is published six times a year. USA Shooting is the national governing body for Olympic Shooting sports in the United States. USA Shooting News is produced as a service to international shooters, coaches, officials and media who cover Olympic-style shooting. Shooters featured in USA Shooting News magazine may be photographed without eye protection. These are posed photographs using unloaded guns and do not represent actual competiton. USA Shooting encourages all shooters to use proper eye and ear protection when shooting. Inclusion of advertisements in USA Shooting does not constitiute endorsement of advertised products or services by USA Shooting, its staff or its sponsors. www.usashooting.org 3 USA Shooting 1 Olympic Plaza Colorado Springs, CO 80909 Phone: 719-866-4670 Administration Fax: 719-635-7989 Competitions Fax: 719-866-4884 Lindsay Brooke Competitions Manager 719-866-4885 [email protected] Buddy DuVall Director of Marketing 719-866-4880 [email protected] Bob Foth National Paralympic Coach 719-866-4881 [email protected] Cynthia Jackson Coaches’ Assistant/Team Manager 719-866-4611 [email protected] David Johnson National Rifle Coach 719-866-4630 [email protected] Nicole Levine Competitions Assistant 719-866-4882 [email protected] Sergey Luzov National Pistol Coach 719-866-4615 [email protected] Robert Mitchell Chief Executive Officer 719-866-4899 [email protected] USA Shooting wishes to thank its supporting partners. Nichole Rae Learn what these sponsors do for you. Membership/Merchandise Manager Visit our website at www.usashooting.org. 719-866-4743 [email protected] Bill Roy Director of Operations 719-866-4890 [email protected] Mary Beth Vorwerk Media & Public Relations Manager 719-866-4896 [email protected] Mark Weeks National Shotgun Coach 719-866-4682 [email protected] Corrie West Marketing Manager 719-866-4616 [email protected] Karie Wright Controller 719-866-4887 Editor: Mary Beth Vorwerk Designer: Claire Landis-Tyson Printing: Sport Graphics Contributors: Contributors: Lindsay Brooke Buddy DuVall Bret Erickson Bob Foth Senior Master Sgt. Jeffrey J. Julig Launi Meili SFC Richard Merrill Robert Mitchell JP O’Connor Marcus Raab Bill Roy Keith Sanderson Wolfgang Schreiber Cover Photo: Wolfgang Schreiber, issf-sports.org DON’T POINT AND CLICK. AIM AND FIRE. Calling all couch potatoes. Drop the remote and get out to the Henry Big Boy .44 Magnum range for a great day of shooting fun. Shooting enthusiasts across America are buying Henrys because they are magnificently styled, have the smoothest actions, perform with flawless reliability, bear the Henry Golden Boy .22 LR / .22 Mag / .17 HMR great historical name of Henry and are affordably priced. Every part in a Henry is made in America. Every rifle is engineered with features many competitors charge twice the price for. We are a family owned business and we stand behind every rifle that leaves our plant. Henry U.S. Survival .22 LR Order our free color catalog right now. You have absolutely nothing to lose except those extra pounds you gained sitting on your rear end. Henry Acu-Bolt .22 LR / .22 Magnum / .17 HMR For a Free color catalog visit www.henry-guns.com or call Toll Free (866) 200-2354 Columns From the Editor Aim with AMU Inside the Blue On the Firing Line Coaches’ Corner Coolest Picture I’ve Ever Taken! By Mary Beth Vorwerk, Media and Public Relations Manager When I discovered this picture two days after I actually took it during the Men’s Double Trap Final at the 2009 USA Shooting Shotgun National Championships, I quickly emailed it off to my fellow staff, as well as family and friends with the subject heading, “Coolest picture I’ve ever taken.” I must say, this is definitely by far the best photo I have snapped in my eight years of working in Media Relations for the Olympic movement. I am by no means an accomplished photographer, in fact, I got pretty lucky with this picture, but I do enjoy taking photos and getting a shot like this doesn’t happen too often. Stand- ing in back of the bunker, I was taking pictures behind the shooters hoping to get a puff of orange from the target breaking in the sky in some of my photos. I literally had no idea until two days later when I finally had a chance to go through all my pictures that I got the perfect shot: lightening flashing in the background as well as a puff target, another target breaking and two shooters at the line. I guess the photo was the perfect way to showcase what a great match we had this year at Ft. Carson’s International Shooting Park, by bringing out the “electrifying” nature of this shotgun event in general! I can’t imagine ever being able to take a better picture if I tried! It was definitely luck, but I am certainly happy with the result, and especially since so many others seemed to love it as well. I heard several people talking about the infamous “lightening photo” throughout the course of the nationals. The picture seemed to spread like wildfire on email as I had numerous shooters, referees and others come up to me and tell me what a great shot it was. I was a little embarrassed and even a little reluctant to publish it in the magazine, but knowing how many people enjoyed seeing it, I really did want to share it with all of our USA Shooting News readers. I would like to point out, however, that the lightening is MUCH farther away than it appears in the photo. National Shotgun Coach Mark Weeks and his staff are constantly watching out for threatening weather and checking the lightening detector at the range and would never keep our shooters on the field if they were in any sort of danger. So, the lightening that appeared in the picture was definitely not a threat to our shooters. With that being said, I really hope you all enjoy seeing the “coolest picture I’ve ever taken”! Columns From the Editor Aim with AMU Inside the Blue On the Firing Line Coaches’ Corner Grip Fitting 104 By SFC Richard Merrill and the USAMU International Pistol Team In our previous discussions on grip fitting, we have moved from the this valley too deep because this will produce the same problem as logic of properly fitting a grip, to tools and shaping, to important ter- having a finger ridgeline that is too pronounced. minology. Now we will conclude the series with a focus on fine tuning Last on the grip are the fingers. To keep the grip pressure aligned your grip from the rear forward. from front to rear, the fingers must be placed so that the middle seg- Working from the rear of the grip around to the fingers brings us to ment of the middle finger and ring finger are perpendicular to the axis the palm ridge line and the ball of the grip. If you look at your hand, of the barrel. Form a grip feature that allows fingertips to lie, but not a the palm ridge line is the line that extends from your wrist towards place to push into. If the middle segments of the fingers are incorrectly your fingers. The ball is at the end of this line. In your hand the ball is placed, the fingertips will be pushing from the side causing sight mis- a concave depression, but on the grip it is the round protrusion that fits alignment. So, like the thumb, the finger tips just lie there, but do not into our palm. Most commercial grips already have this line and you add pressure. The pinky finger hardly ever fits because on most peo- only need a minor adjustment to fit it to your hand. The easiest way to ple, it is too short. In order to remove enough wood to fit the pinky, fit this part is to add filler to the grip and grab the grip starting from you would be grinding the frame. Just give the pinky a good natural the back with the hand getting as high and into the grip as possible, place to lie that will not place any unwanted pressures to the grip. then reaching around with the fingers. From now on, this is how you Some grips have ridgelines between every segment and every fin- should grip your pistol to guarantee consistency. ger, such as a Steyr air pistol. These ridgelines are fine to have, but If filled correctly, you will form a knuckle-looking feature on top of not necessary. Since our hands expand and contract every day, these the ball. This forms from the tendon for the middle finger, which also ridgelines will usually be in a different place every day. For example, happens to be the deepest part of the ball.