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The following biography was written by

How I Became a Distinguished Pistol Shot

by

Charlie Fletcher

Revenge can be a powerful motivator and sometimes it pays off.

In May 2004 I shot in the New Jersey State Service Pistol Championship. It was a 900 aggregate match and a CMP Leg match follows it same day. Both matches were shot with a CMP approved M1911 .45 hardball gun or the Berretta M9 9mm service pistol. At the beginning of that day I practically placed no importance on the 900 championship, because my priority was the Leg match. I had wanted to try and earn at least a 6 point Leg. So I pretty much relaxed throughout the 900 match patiently waiting for the Leg match to follow. When the 900 was over and the Leg match was about to begin the match organizer approached me and said, “Congratulations, you won the match.” I looked at him puzzled and said, “What match?” “The State Championship,” he said.

“What? I won? You’re kidding, right,” I asked. “Is your score is 823,” he asked. I answered yes. “Well, you won, that is the highest score today,” he informed me. I couldn’t believe it! As I walked back to my firing point to get ready for the Leg match I was in disbelief but extremely happy. I never won an Open in my life let alone a hardball match. By the way, that was my first 900 hardball match ever; I had only shot Leg hardball matches. Later that day the statistician asked me for a description of my equipment and she also took my picture with the match organizer. She was collecting information for Shooting Sports USA (SSUSA) magazine for an article about the championship. Was I happy? You bet I was!

We then shot the Leg match, and with it came disappointment. Prior to registering for this match competitors were told, erroneously, we could not use our own ammo. We were required to use the ammo issued at the match. I estimate that I ate 12 points due to bad sight adjustments with their unfamiliar ammo. My first shot in Slow Fire was a 6 at twelve o'clock. I made a best-guess sight adjustment and my second shot was a 6 also, but at six o'clock. I was not happy. I had lost 8 points in Slow Fire with my very first two shots. Switching ammo now for Timed and Rapid Fire (a reduced load and also issued) I also best-guessed my sight adjustment. My first string of Timed Fire was okay, but it was a little low. It cost me 4 more points. Never again will I use unknown ammo in a match. If you add the twelve points that I lost to my final score of 269 it would have totaled 281. And 281 is surely a serous score that can win and it would have earned a 10 point Leg for me that day.

The next day brought more disappointment. Monday, the statistician emailed me and said she is very sorry the match organizer told me I won the 900 before all the totals were officially tallied. As it turned out I missed out on the Championship by one point. Apparently, there was a scoring discrepancy on my scorecard for my first Slow Fire target; therefore, the statistician deducted one point from my Slow Fire score. This now resulted in my score tying an Air Force Reservist shooter. But, and this is a big but, my adjusted score now was 822-12X and his was 822-18X. So now I have lost the Open…by 4 X. I blame myself for not having my scorer that day correct my scorecard before I signed it and turned it in. The total for my first Slow Fire target was incorrect based on an error in adding up each individual shot value. One of the shot values should have been a 10 instead of a 9. What happened was, after a second thought the scorer decided to change a 9 to a 10 for the individual shot value, but didn’t, he only changed the total, for the 10 shots. So now the total was inflated, by one point, based on this. I checked my personal score book and I see this was the case: a 9 was changed to a 10. I vowed that this would never happen to me again! Officially I won second place overall, but in reality I know I had won the Open. I did not tell the Air Force shooter about this until about nine months later, and we both agreed that it was a good lesson learned.

But here’s the good news. I didn’t win a 6 point Leg in the Leg match that day. I won an 8 point Leg instead! Was I happy? Yes! Before the day started I had hoped for a 6 point’er, but I got an 8 instead. Great! But my joy was tainted by the 900 match disaster and my disappointment would not leave me.

The following weekend I scheduled myself to shoot a Leg match in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. I was very determined to do exceptionally well there after what had happened to me the weekend before. I surely did not want to lose 12 points again like I did the week before due to ammo. So that Monday I reloaded some of my 230gr 3.7gr 700-X loads. I had been shooting this load in practice and this is the same load I shot in the NJ State Championship. I went to my club that Tuesday night and Ransom rested my loads at 50 feet. 50 feet is by no means a conclusive test, 50 yards is, but unfortunately I didn’t have access to a 50 yard range. My 50 foot test produced an average one inch 10 shot group. The Ransom rest was haphazardly mounted to a wooden podium with big C-clamps, but this was the best I could do and it was good enough. The big question then was what this load would do at 50 yards? The match was coming up in four days and I couldn’t adjust my sights. So I had two club members help me with testing and calculating sight adjustment for 50 yards based on 50 feet results. Together we mathematically estimated that since the load is reduced and the heavy bullet is slow moving, a drop of approx 6" will occur at 50 yards from 25 yards. We tested sight adjustments with 10 clicks up and then 20 clicks up at 50 feet. I then got 3" high groups for the 10 click adjustment and 6" high groups for the 20 click adjustment. The three of us agreed that 9 or 10 clicks up should be a pretty good in the ball park adjustment for 50 yards from 25 yards for the Bowmar sights.

The next day I called IMR Smokeless Powder Company in Kansas and I spoke with one of their ballistic technicians. I told him about my load and my test. I asked for his help with guessing sight adjustments for 50 yards. He thought my load would do as well accuracy-wise at 50 yards as it was at 50 feet. He agreed that since my load was a reduced load the bullet was moving very slowly and there would be a lot of bullet drop at 50 yards, especially with the heavy bullet I was using. This concurred with what my two club colleagues believed, and the technician agreed that 10 clicks should be about right.

Back to the club I went for the rest of that week, and I practiced hard. I was shooting the .45 hardball gun well and I was anxious for the weekend to come. I badly wanted to beat those guys. I was in the car on my way to Gibbsboro that Saturday and I knew all those involved in the miscalculation of my 900 score the week before would be competing in the 2700 and Leg match. So now not only did I want to do well, but I vowed to myself all that week that I would win the overall, beating all the non-Distinguished and Distinguished shooters! I even told my family and friends I was going to win. Pretty arrogant, huh? All week I believed this and I believed it right up to long drive down to Gibbsboro, a two hour trip from NYC. All of a sudden half way down the New Jersey Turn-Pike I said to myself, “Holy cow! I must be out of my mind! I’m telling everybody I’m going to win?! All these shooters are heavy hitters…and a Leg match is a tough match to shoot!”

I shot the 2700 and for all intents and purposes I forgot about the Leg match to come. The 2700 sort of relaxed me. When it came time to start the Leg match I was relaxed and said to myself, “okay, here is what I’ve been preparing for.” It kind of felt anti-climatic at that point and then I said to myself, “oh what the heck, just shoot the match.”

I used my well tested ammo and hardball gun sighted-in for 50 yards, albeit via calculations. My first shot in Slow Fire was a 9 at eleven o'clock. Looking into my spotting scope and seeing the 9 put a smile on my face, and I thanked God for my two club friends who helped me. I made a sight adjustment two clicks down and two clicks right. Then my second shot was an X. I was now zeroed at 50 yards and it only cost me one point. When I shot Timed and Rapid Fire I clicked down 7 clicks. My first string of Timed Fire was zeroed dead-on and I did not lose any points in my first string, all shots were 10s and Xs. So I shot my ability, lost no points due to ammo or bad sight adjustments, and ended up with a score of 277-6X. Of that my Slow Fire score was 92. Not too bad. As you can see, doing one's homework can pay off big.

After the match, the match organizer from the previous week’s match spoke with me. He was in a tie for second place in the Leg with 272, and he assured me my score of 277-6X won. I looked at him and said, “Thanks, but I think I’ll wait for the official results in the email.”

I was totally drained by the end of the day, and in a fog during the long 110 mile drive home. My 277-6X score which was potentially good enough to win the match and earn a 10 point Leg, didn't really sink into my head then. I was dead tired the rest of the day and the next day too. But when I read the email with the official results the following day I was very happy. I was still feeling a little anti-climatic, but after three or four days passed it finally sunk in. Not only did I become Distinguished with a 10 point Leg that day, but I won the OPEN Gold Medal too! And this time I won it by a solid 5 points over the second place winner. And that made up for the disappointment of losing the state 900 championship a week earlier by one point.

Speaking of losing or winning by one point or an X tie breaker, in September 2004 I shot the Leg match at the conclusion of the New York State Outdoor Championship 2700 in Wappingers Falls. I won the Leg match there, my second gold medal, and just months after first Open Championship. My score was 272-9X, if I remember correctly, beating the second place finishers score by one X. Yowzer!

All along I knew I wasn’t looking to avenge myself against anyone, I was really looking to prove something to myself. These shooters are my colleagues and friends. But it helped to say I will go and beat them, it helped drive me to succeed.

The organizer asked if I wanted to receive my Distinguished badge at the awards ceremony at Camp Perry the following month. I thought that would be a great honor and that was what I did.

I had not picked up a gun from 1991 to 2004 after having earned 14 Leg points in the 1980s. During the 1980s I remember thinking that I would never become Distinguished because it was so hard to do. Earning an 8 point Leg and a 10 point Leg in two consecutive weekends to “Leg out” was truly a dream to me. Sometime I still can’t believe it.

There are a few people that helped me to reach the tough goal of becoming Distinguished. My two club friends come to mind because without their help I may not have succeeded. And also a great help to me was reading the five-time National Pistol Champion, William Blankenship, Jr., USAMU retired, story in The Pistol Shooters Treasury compiled by Gil Hebbard. Bill wrote something to the effect, “Always look at the sights and its alignment and never look at the target. And especially pay close attention to the light space between the left and the right of the front sight when it is centered in the middle of the rear sight notch. Once perfectly centered then level the front sight with the top of the rear sight. Once everything is perfectly aligned then squeeze the trigger without disturbing the sight alignment and sight picture.” What stuck in my mind just prior to my two weekend matches was what Bill said about the evenness of the light space–left and right–in the rear sight notch. Remember, by watching this light space you will be looking at the sights, and not at the target. It works.

The Distinguished gold badge is a highly coveted award. Every time I see my Distinguished pin on my shooting cap I get a thrill, and I think I always will for it was hard earned. I checked the CMP list of names of Distinguished pistol shots. There are only four shooters with the last name of Fletcher. Two are Marines, and one is an Army Reservist. I am the only civilian. This also makes me very proud.

Charlie Fletcher

Brooklyn, New York

Distinguished Pistol Shot

Badge #1323