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| David Bridges poses with his pistol. |
You might say that I am a late bloomer. I am currently 55 years old and did not purchase my first pistol until I was 50.
My first pistol was a Springfield Armory full size 1911A 45 caliber. Once I started shooting I just loved it and I would practice shooting any chance I could, sometimes 5 to 6 times a week. I had a good friend, Barry Hunn, that taught me the fundamentals like stance, sight alignment and one real basic – dominant eye. Turns out I am right handed and left eye dominant. This early shooting was all two hand shooting and focused on just hitting the target, anywhere.
It wasn’t until about a year and a half later that I was out at my local gun club, South Bay Rod & Gun Club in Dulzura, California (near San Diego), that a member talked to me about Bullseye competition. Since I had purchased a Ruger 22 a few months earlier, I was all set and wanted to give it a try.
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| David Bridges practicing at the range. |
I attended my first Bullseye competition on April 27, 2002 and shot a 69.7% for my first match. Everyone I met at the match was friendly, courteous, helpful and encouraging. They were all around a great group of people to shoot with and to learn from. It took me just over a year to move up to the Sharpshooter classification. I listened and tried their suggestions to see if it would work for me. I also bought a book called The Pistol Shooter’s Treasury from Gil Hebard Guns and I read and re-read this book. I would recommend this book to anyone. At each level of my progress I would pick up some “new” idea from the book. I gradually improved my scores to where now I am shooting in the low 90’s consistently.
Distinguished Stories
Wanted!
In an effort to better preserve this history and honor of the distinguished badge, the CMP is collecting individual stories and pictures for every distinguished badge earned. If you, or a close
family member, is distinguished and would like to submit the story of how you became distinguished, please email competitions@odcmp.com with your story and pictures. The CMP will record this information and display it on
the Distinguished
Badge website. |
It wasn’t until the California State Match of 2004 that I shot my first leg match for EIC. I wasn’t originally going to shoot this event since I didn’t own a service pistol. The match director, Don Gussler, loaned me his for the match. I proceeded to place first of the non-distinguished shooters and earned my first 10 points towards Distinguished Pistol – I WAS HOOKED!! I then purchased a Springfield GI 45 and had Don rework it for EIC matches.
During the 2005 California State match I placed first out of 20 competitors to earn another 10 points, now I was at 20. I then entered the Pacific Fleet match and All Navy match at Camp Pendleton, CA. The Pacific Fleet match had 97 non-distinguished competitors and the All Navy had 74, I placed 5th and 3rd respectively for my final points toward the Distinguished Pistol Badge.
Shooting Bullseye competition is a tremendous joy for me because of the people that are involved. They want to win but at the same time they are encouraging and helpful – TRUE SPORTSMANSHIP. I look forward to many years of shooting and to be as helpful and as encouraging to others as those have been to me.
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