How did you get started in Bullseye?

In seeking to get more people into Bullseye it might help to remember how each of us got started.
I think there are just enough Bullseye shooters out there (they just don't know it yet) to keep our sport strong.

I got my 1st gun at 53?. I'd go to a commercial range & shoot at 7 yards.-Then I happened across a magazine article about Bullseye. The article rang my bell & I thought I would find out more. With no computer it was a real quest to find the sport. Area gun shops were clueless.-Finally a tiny magazine add about a match 125 mile south. A call-and I was put in touch with a local club (my club now) http://www.tcgc.org/  that had matches.
I think I was hooked on Bullseye after that magazine article. Still hooked at 70.- Love the sport. - Russ

In the womb (quite literally).

Ladies, you have your marching orders.

I was 20 and had been shooting revolvers for about four years. Because of a political move I was able to enter a local Sheriffs academy and shot some PPC.  A friend who knew a guy who was a serious BE shooter invited us to do a range day together so he could con us into a BE slowfire contest. I shot well enough that our BE man took us under his wing and loaned us a .45 and got us to join his club shooting matches. I caught the bug but with job changes and family stuff I wasn't able to continue to compete for a long time. Finally ready to take a run at it.

Dad was an avid deer hunter.  I shot sporter rifles since I was a lad.  I had my first 30-06 by age 10.  In SoCal at Santiago Range, now gone, high power guys let me try their Garands.  Loved it.  But we moved to Oregon in 1964.  I stayed with hunter rifles until LtC Miller USA Ret introduced me to BE pistols in 1969.  LtC Miller was a SAFS instructor.  He had me behind a High Standard day after day.  I was 20, and had a source of lots and lots of Green Box ammo.  I have not shot much rifle ever since except a few years of Smallbore Outdoor prone.

Dad was a BE shooter in the 60's and 70's. I didn't think too much of shoting back then, but as I got older I picked up a intrest. Shot my first meet last year at 49 years old!

From a master class bullseye shooter who I met at a 22 league in 1999, age 45

Though I knew it existed, I didn't know anyone who shot bullseye until I was 45 and I met a DD retired Navy Shooter. Two years later I started shooting rifle and planned to attend the Fleet Matches and he loaned me his Hardball gun to shoot the pistol matches. I also shot a 2700 at my local club, but never really got the bug. 

This year I heard about a retired couple who were running an evening Coached practice and now indoor matches for a club 60 miles west of me. I was burning out on Highpower practice and I wanted something to do that would concentrate on sight alignment and trigger control. I started attending and was hooked.

Last night a few of us worked on 1 shot drills, and then I followed that up with some rapid fire. 

I've learned alot from that DD Navy shooter (Doug Bronnenberg) and the retired Distinguished Pistol couple (Tom and Elizabeth Gathright). I hope to be able to share some of these things one day. 

Mike

I was into my 2nd year of High Power rifle competition and an old neck injury came back to haunt me, so I started shooting pistol.  Took up Air Pistol then jumped right into Bullseye That was March of 2013 so I've been shooting bullseye coming up on 2 years.

- Dave

After serving in the Army, I was in college in Florida during the early 70's. A fellow wanted to start up a bullseye pistol club. He introduced me to the sport and took me to my first match. I shot .22 only for quite a while because that was all I could afford, but I was hooked.

I had always wanted to shoot in the matches at Camp Perry even as a kid...I'm not sure what made me aware of the National Matches but I knew that was something I wanted to do.

In 1996 I bought a Ruger MkII and had it drilled and tapped for a red dot.  My local club had an indoor bullseye league, but none of those shooters shot any NRA matches of any kind.  I moved 150 miles away and didn't even know of a place to shoot.

I eventually found a local club that had an active bullseye league with members who helped me find NRA matches.  I shot in my first NRA match at the Wisconsin State Indoor Championship in 2010 as an unclassified master.
I didn't shoot too bad either!

When I was in High School in the late 90's I had a Ruger 10/22 that I swapped out parts until it was a tack driver. My father took me to an NRA Silhouette match with that gun and I did really well. I was asked to compete in small bore matches and then later high power rifle and service rifle matches. It was a good gig, all my match fees were paid for and a match M-14 was issued to me. Competing on a rifle team is also a UIL sport. I joined the Marines as a machine gunner and went to war with the Corps most decotrated unit, 2nd Battalion 5th Marines, and left the service a disabled veteran and recently hitched. Once home I got back into service rifle where occasionally they would shoot a Pistol EIC. I was hooked and shot bullseye matches for practice. Now I'm a bullseye shooter that also likes to shoot rifle matches!

I was standing in formation one chilly morning in Zirndorf, Germany (Pinder Barracks) when the CO asked for volunteers to shoot in a "Friendship" pistol match. Having hunted squirrels with a pistol since a very early age I was interested in giving it a try. I raised my hand ( I know "never volunteer") and was issued a Hi Standard 102 that had seen better days. The match was between the Army, Land Polizei, Stat Polizei and the local civilian team. The match was basically half of a international center fire match fired with 22s. I won the match and thought that was fun and went back to work. The next thing I know I was called in to the CO's office and handed my walking papers. I was sent to Grafenwoehr and ended up shooting for 7th Army. It was a lot of fun shooting up all that free ammo. That was in 1971

Len   ( I also ended up shooting for the civilian team)

I shot junior rifles in the 50's, and then when I was in the Army Reserves , I shot pistols on our local reserve team and then the ARCOM team. After about a 20 year layoff, Im back at it again.

I decided I wanted to be able to shoot a pistol before I could no longer shoot due to age.  Picked bullseye because that was the hardest pistol discipline I could find.

ChipEck wrote:I decided I wanted to be able to shoot a pistol before I could no longer shoot due to age.  Picked bullseye because that was the hardest pistol discipline I could find.

You have obviously never shot a free pistol.

I was shooting smallbore rifle on my college indoor range when I got to know a bunch of the Bullseye shooters.  Even took some lessons.  I entered law enforcement and thus mostly shoot PPC then after a break (kid, new job, then started own business) got back into shooting and started practical (USPSA).  I found out thru SSUSA that a neighboring club had a winter indoor bullseye league so I took up bullseye also.  I now shoot it year round.

I'll throw mine in even though it doesn't follow the usual pattern - I started in Bullseye a year ago but haven't shot a match yet. Our local range has a bunch of things for precision rifle but nothing for precision pistol since our Bullseye match director passed away several years ago. Action competitions, but nothing precision so I figured we should start Bullseye up again.

So...I had never seen a match and sure never competed in one, but volunteered to be match director anyway. Been running the matches for a year now, put together a Zins-Moody clinic, practiced enough to know I really suck at this, but I still haven't competed in a match. One of our club goals for this year is to get some of the other shooters comfortable running the line so I can compete.

I finally get to shoot in my first match tomorrow. You got to have goals, so my primary goal is to have some fun while keeping 'em all on paper. I guess after tomorrow I'll be able to say I really have got started in Bullseye.

Clay

I saw a Coast Guard Officer in 2006 with some extra dangly stuff on his uniform. He told me all about the distinguish pistol and rifle badges he had. In 2008 he invited me to fleet forced match in dam neck, VA. I got my first time exposure to EIC matches. With loaned equip from the armory I place in the upper 50%. I wanted to into the bullseye game but was a bit more spendy then I thought. In 2013 I got my own first hardball gun and have been shooting off and on through the years

June 2012 my family joined a local out door gun club.  Took my teenage sons with their MKII Ruger .22s to this thing called "Bullseye League " to see what it was because a club member/match director told me my boys would learn to shoot pistols accurately.  I wasn't interested in shooting at those distances due to my poor eye sight and recovering from a back injury. I just watched.

The boys shot for several weeks and every one was very helpful to them.  I just watched and marveled at what they were doing with pistols, especially at 50yd with the CF guns. When the boys told every one they would be gone for 2 weeks at camp one of the shooters talked me into coming back and shooting one of the boy's .22s - we have now become good friends.

Anyway - went back shot the .22. I had 4 shots on paper at 50yd for my 1st target.  My competitive nature kicked in.  I was hooked. 

I wish I could have discovered it years ago instead of in my 50's

About 2 years ago I was shooting 9mm and 22 at 8 inch dirty bird targets.  There was a guy two points over who approached me while I was reloading.  Steve struck up a conversation and at some point he asked if I was interested in joining a bullseye team. I didn't know what bullseye was but I’ve had the bug ever since….

I wish it had happened 20 years earlier.

john bickar wrote:In the womb (quite literally).

Ladies, you have your marching orders.

John's words are accurate, as are his shots, and his dad's, Frank, were, and his mother's were. And was Ray an uncle? Frank Bickar, perennial Ohio State Camp, has his name on the Silver Bowl, top Civilian in Perry HB EIC, won many 2700's etc. A leader and organizer for the Canton McKinley R&P. Mom's EIC points were illustrative of her marksmanship.

And John you are right there with them in BE success!

Ron Habegger

I was invited to shoot on opening night of the Oak Harbor Conservation Club's indoor 25 yd range. With a nearly new HS slant grip HB Citation I was ready for .22, only. After a couple or so NMC's I was hooked. With the late Miles Kline as a coach & later friend there was plenty of guidance. Living 13 mi from Perry and our office window overlokking the ranges location was another plus.

In spite offalling short of my main goals it was a good ride.

Ron Habegger

Another non-typical story here. I grew up all my life only shooting shotguns and rifles for hunting and pleasure/plinking.  In 2008 at age 36, I bought my first pistol mainly for home/personal defense.  I had no help or mentor to turn to. I knew I would have to take my time to learn about pistols.

During my first practice I couldn't hit anything, destroyed some [url=#]frames[/url], but stayed with it and kept slowly getting shots on target.  During that first pitiful session a fire ignited in me to try and get better and I began to wonder what it would be like to compete with a pistol.  That day I scoured the internet reading about the types of pistol disciplines and knew that bulls-eye might be the one for me because it was something I could [url=#]participate[/url] in, well into the later years of life.  
Found the closest upcoming match about 2 hours away and just went to observe and hopefully learn something.   It happened to be the annual state championship match.   During the match a shooter loaned me his .22 and invited me to shoot along the rest of the match course with the group for fun.   That day and after that open invitation, I was hooked on bulls-eye. 

It's been over 6 years since I started my journey but I've enjoyed every learning step on the path and the new friends I've encountered. The fire to compete, reach goals and [url=#]continually[/url] improve is still burning strong inside.

A couple of things I've noticed to close on: 
There are plenty of potential older shooters out there who are not young or at the junior level.  Keep this group in mind always along with juniors. Many of them may now have the financial means to fully [url=#]participate[/url] and all that is needed is a simple invitation and have them join you at a match or practice session and just shoot along.

Lastly, bulls-eye is one of the greatest sports/activities around.  It's just that a persons eyes are not opened to this until they get that chance to experience it.

When I was 54 I saw a ad for a new model of the Browning Buckmark.  I had never owned a pistol but had always wanted one since I was a young boy. I then looked around the internet to see how you decided you were any good at shooting a pistol. Long story short I bought a S&W M41 and a used Clark 45 instead of the Browning.  I shot in the last 2 bullseye matches at the Clark's gun range in Haughton Louisiana with a couple older master shooters.  I have been trying ever since to improve.  Made Expert finally last year at 71 and hope to break Master before my time runs out!  Loaned my 22 to the last post.

Now he beats me all the time!

I saw a plaque on the wall of my local range with the names of shooters who cleaned a target. I really wanted my name up there.