I went to a local club for the first time tonight that is near my neigborhood to shoot a couple of practice rounds. I look down to the left, and two stations away is a a man with no left arm. I couldnt believe my eyes as he turned 24 of the targets to dust. Funny thing is he came to me and said "Nice shooting" after the round was over. Watching him made my day.

Let's celebrate it and get used to it! Thankfully, USA Shooting has a Paralympic shooting program in place for rifle and pistol. Shotgun is not too far behind, I've heard. America is sending 2 Paralympic shooters to London, and the Paralympic Olympics will be starting soon. We are sending rifle shooter Josh Olsen and pistol shooter Eric Hollen to the Games where, hopefully, they will medal.

At my club last week, a wheelchair shooter went 25, and cleaned all of our clocks.

Missouri State Shoot saw a one armed shooter compete for many years in the past. Can't remember his name but he shot a Rem 1100, was a great shot and a heck of a nice guy.

Anyone remember his name and where he was from?

milt

Anybody ever watch Dean DeBolt, of Iowa, I think? (Not to be confused with Dean DeBow).

Watched him shoot doubles at the Grand in Vandalia one year. He'd smoke a pair, tuck the gun in his arm, reload two shells, and do it again, over and over. Pretty impressive.

Hi;

Wild Bill is correct. Because of the 2 wars we will see an entire generation of veteran amputees. Hopefully many of them will shoot trap. Those guys have it hard enough as is and I know all you other shooters out there agree that all of us need to be extra welcoming towards those who have sacrificed so much.

Steve Nunley

Albuquerque, NM

One armed shotgunning must be exceptionally difficult. I sure wouldn't want to arm wressle a fellow who could do that.

We had one in Osceola Wisconsin excellent shot and very nice gentleman.

Even more proof that trapshooting is much more of a mental sport, than physical.

John, you are right about the arm wrestling. This guy was probably pushing 80 years old and he hurt my hand when he shook it.

Back in the '60's and '70s there was a gentleman named Julian Zerwasiak (SP) from Central NY area. He was a skeet shooter with his left arm amputated at the elbow...

You never wanted to bet against Julian...He was quite a shooter.

Dave in SC

One individual I work with, occasionally, is an Iraq war vet. and left arm amputee. He's an excellent rifle shooter, smallbore and air, and plays on a war vets amputee softball team. The team only plays able-body teams (you might have seen his team on TV - the networks report on it from time to time). He bats one-handed and plays outfield. When he catches the ball, he throws it in the air, shakes off his glove, catches the ball and throws it in. If his team loses, not too often, he challenges the biggest opposing player to a pushup contest. He is capable of doing 60+ one-armed pushups and usually wins. He's another one you wouldn't want to arm wrestle. He is also close to bench pressing his body weight with one arm!

YA....I got beat in doubles one time by an old guy with a model 31 Rem. [pump] broken rib sections, and when it racked shells it rattled so much it thought it was going to fall apart........

GS

Years ago, I lost a shoot off to a one armed man at the old Milwaukee gun club. He used his stump to hold up the forend of his BT 99. I also shot with a guy who had one leg and he used a wooden crutch to prop himself up and shot that way. Never understood why he just didn't shoot in a wheel chair?

This same guy played baseball on another team than I and he also batted with the crutch propping him up too. They had a pinch runner for him after he swung the bat.

I have been shooting for 42 years and have lost to women, children, a one armed man, a one legged man with a single crutch. About the only person I haven't lost to is a person in an iron lung, and that will probably happen some day too.

My boy said to me, that should tell you something about your shooting ability. Steve Balistreri

In the Sacramento area we have Rick Odekirk (no left arm) he shoots trap and skeet very well, he shoot a 1100 for everything including turkeys in March. don q

Iremember back in the 80's of a man that shot at the Iowa State Shoot who had no hands. He shot a Rem 3200 that had a very large trigger guard that he'd pull the trigger with his stump, had a hard leather cone on the forearm for his left hand. After sooting he'd use both stunmps to get the next shell from his pouch. Not to bad a shot either. Very interesting to watch. Have to give lots of credit to people with that much guts.