Submitted by David Hyatt, Torrington Gun Club Pistol Director
This was our third year running the CMP 900 Bullseye Matches indoors at Torrington Gun Club, located in New Hartford, Conn.
We have competitors from Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. As they say, “If you build it, they will come.” It appears to be true – the word gets out, and they come. We first started with only a few participants, and, with the support of the CMP and NJ Pistol, we are now on the map.
This will be our third event for this winter season, and, this time, we were totally surprised at the turn out. We averaged around 14 to 16 competitors during the previous matches, with two relays.
At this match, we had 22 competitors overall and four relays – 1 through 3 competed on Jan. 19, with the fourth held on Jan. 21 for local club members.
I got a call from a stranger at first requesting another relay due to the head count adding nine more to the roster. We didn’t realize they were coming from Fort Eustis, located southeast of Williamsburg, Va. – a near nine-hour drive. They came up on Friday and shot Jan. 19 during a snowstorm that afternoon.
For all but a few, this was their very first Bullseye Match, and with .22 pistols with open sights, they did okay. Paul Gallo and I called the line and gave them some shooting instruction.
SFC Lawrence Carter and Louis Gillaspie are both classified as Expert and have been competing for about 10 years now. They served as mentors for the Fort Eustis team, and the young men and women involved are now hooked into the sport and are looking forward to continuing with a great attitude and the will of learning the skills. They all enjoyed the indoor shooting with their own port, with the heating system keeping them all nice and warm during their 90 rounds of precision pistol shooting.
When they were all in the club room as they were scoring the targets, I asked them all this question, especially to SFC Carter who’s retiring in December: “Can you picture yourselves when you are in your 50’s and 60’s hanging out at the club with your teammates, drinking coffee, scoring targets, boasting about how your scores could have been a bit better if only….?” They all said, “Absolutely,” and in my own mind, I’m confident that with motivated soldiers like these folks, our shooting sports will be saved. These young soldiers will be the next generation when we get old and are not able to see the bullseye target at 50 feet!
Learn more about Torrington Gun Club at https://www.torringtongunclub.org/.
The Civilian Marksmanship Program is a federally chartered 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation. It is dedicated to firearm safety and marksmanship training and to the promotion of marksmanship competition for citizens of the United States. For more information about the CMP and its programs, log onto www.TheCMP.org.
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