Chatting with a friend about the Factory Reps back in the days of my youth

[JDHasty]

He brought up how the Bausch & Lomb reps had a shtick wherein they would set a scope on the corner of a display cabinet then turn and knock it to the floor and pick it up and go on talking. He would then mount it in a fixture shaped like a rifle stock that could be affixed with an optical collimator and proceed to invite anyone to look see if it wasn’t still perfectly centered in the bullseye.

I reminded him of the ads they had of their scopes being used to hammer a nail into a piece of wood then mounted on a rifle and working fine. He was a gunsmith at a large shop back then and he said he witnessed the act of driving a ten penny nail with a scope that the rep later shot a match with and did quite well.

Those were good times. John Bartlett was the Winchester Rep and Larry French was repping other lines and not only were both outstanding shots, they traveled to gun shops and gun clubs, large and small, and if you mentioned an issue you were having with their product it was not surprising for them to tear the gun down and either set it right or at least accurately diagnose the issue and tell you who to take it to or to send it back to the factory with the note they gave you. I remember many of those guys face, but can’t remember their names on demand. The names do come to me from time to time though.

[georgeld]

I watched a guy cut a spike with a knife
beating it with a hammer.
When I looked that the spike it was aluminum!

That fairly well soured me on such BS demo's

[Johnly]

I hunted with a touring Federal trapshooting professional after he retired. I was on the USIOC taxi squad for 15 trap bunker at the time and his wingshooting abilities with his M12 duck bill trap put my shooting skills to shame. It was something you could just sit back and admire from the duck blind.

[JDHasty]

When I was ranked a AA class trap shooter I was shooting a thousand rounds every week. I shot in the field with Ken Jones who holds a world record in International trap and let’s just say: I was impressed.

Anyone who says trap shooting isn’t good practice for field shooting is clueless.

[B23]

Originally Posted by JDHasty

When I was ranked a AA class trap shooter I was shooting a thousand rounds every week. I shot in the field with Ken Jones who holds a world record in International trap and let’s just say: I was impressed.

Anyone who says trap shooting isn’t good practice for field shooting is clueless.

Were you PITA or ATA? Or, did you just shoot local, unregistered, club shoots in which case there's really no official classification.

[Johnly]

Originally Posted by JDHasty

When I was ranked a AA class trap shooter I was shooting a thousand rounds every week. I shot in the field with Ken Jones who holds a world record in International trap and let’s just say: I was impressed.

Anyone who says trap shooting isn’t good practice for field shooting is clueless.

Small world it seems. I shared a motel room with Ken during the US team tryouts in the 80's when it was held near Ontario, CA. Super nice guy and the speed and accuracy of his second shot set him apart from the other competitors.

[JDHasty]

Originally Posted by Johnly

Small world it seems. I shared a motel room with Ken during the US team tryouts in the 80's when it was held near Ontario, CA. Super nice guy and the speed and accuracy of his second shot set him apart from the other competitors.

Wonderful guy (exceedingly modest) who's coaching was so spot on that I went from shooting birds in the field and breaking an average of 21-22 targets to being competitive overnight.

I had 20/15 vision and lightning reflexes and got on targets very early, before the wind had time to complicate hitting them. I hunted behind five to seven of the best flushing dogs around and being able to hit multiple rising chucker or especially pheasant that can rise off of any one of the spread out dogs was something I loved. I worked for Ken and he watched me shoot at Orting Gun Club one evening and worked with me on what I needed to do to become good, he was such a great help.

I shot singles and was very competitive for the short time I was involved. I went back to school full time and could not practice three nights/week and go to shoots almost every weekend. I intended to take it up again, but my two Beretta 32 inch A303s trap guns were stolen and I haven't gotten back to it. Maybe some day.

I got to shoot international with him once and only wish I could have afforded to take it up.

My favorite shooting quote of all time was something Ken said one day when a guy at the gun club who was breaking 13 targets and not even hitting all that he broke. He said: I don't shoot targets all that well well, but I never miss live birds in the field. Ken leaned over and said to me that's something that if I had a nickel for every time he has herd the same story he would be a very rich man, the difference is in the field nobody is keeping score.

Tom Price is another friend of mine who shot on the Air Force Team.

[Bill K]

Originally Posted by JDHasty

Wonderful guy (exceedingly modest) who's coaching was so spot on that I went from shooting birds in the field and breaking an average of 21-22 targets to being competitive overnight.

I had 20/15 vision and lightning reflexes and got on targets very early, before the wind had time to complicate hitting them. I hunted behind five to seven of the best flushing dogs around and being able to hit multiple rising chucker or especially pheasant that can rise off of any one of the spread out dogs was something I loved. I worked for Ken and he watched me shoot at Orting Gun Club one evening and worked with me on what I needed to do to become good, he was such a great help.

I shot singles and was very competitive for the short time I was involved. I went back to school full time and could not practice three nights/week and go to shoots almost every weekend. I intended to take it up again, but my two Beretta 32 inch A303s trap guns were stolen and I haven't gotten back to it. Maybe some day.

I got to shoot international with him once and only wish I could have afforded to take it up.

My favorite shooting quote of all time was something Ken said one day when a guy at the gun club who was breaking 13 targets and not even hitting all that he broke. He said: I don't shoot targets all that well well, but I never miss live birds in the field. Ken leaned over and said to me that's something that if I had a nickel for every time he has herd the same story he would be a very rich man, the difference is in the field nobody is keeping score.

Tom Price is another friend of mine who shot on the Air Force Team.

Kind of reminds me of someone, posting of late, that seems to talk a lot of how he does, but can not show it, on record anywhere.

[B23]

This all makes for great story time but I'd still like to know if these were PITA or ATA registered targets JDH was shooting because I used to shoot trap and not only am I well aware of what it takes to earn a AA classification for singles and 27yd handicap but I also can look it up.

Didn't someone recently post something about people exaggerating....

[Rick in Oregon]

Originally Posted by B23

Didn't someone recently post something about people exaggerating....

And seemingly endless pontification of meaningless random thoughts.