Regarding exhibition shooting and exhibition shooters, I guess I could add a few things:
1) Back in the early 80's when the Bianchi Cup was still the "Bianchi Cup" and the family was still involved and pretty much the only people attending during the week were those who were competing and their families, the folks that were running things were always looking for stuff to keep people's interest up in the evenings and during the lunch breaks.
a. The problem was, if you were going to keep such activities "gun-related", they had to be pretty hi-speed considering that the audience was pretty good at such things themselves.
b. But it was there, during lunchtime, that I too saw John Satterwhite put on a very lengthy program that impressed even the more shotgun savvy among us. And yeah, he used an autoloader but stop and think about that.
i. When I was teaching in the 90's and the cops in the class with 870's felt behind the curve because other officers had the same Benelli's then that I had seen Satterwhite use years earlier in Missouri, I'd borrow a gun from one of them and outpace (shoot three-to-five round bursts faster than) one of the guys with the Benelli to show them that they weren't.
ii. But if that means the pump could be made to operate faster than that auto, then what Mr. Satterwhite was doing was all-the-more impressive because it meant that his initial reaction times had to be quicker in order to make up for the slower gun (in order for him to still hit all the stuff in the air before it hit the ground)!
c. And it was also at Bianchi one year after the barbeque, that everybody sat around the pool at the Holiday Inn to watch Bob Munden do things with a pistol that even most of those in attendance couldn't do. And it was neat because I think that he did things with a handgun (like I think Satterwhite had done with the long gun) that perhaps he might not have normally included in his "act" because his "audience" (again just people from the match and their families) had the experience to appreciate it whereas a more general group might not.
i. But for all the things he "shot" (Which, if I remember correctly was also observable from the expressway/roadway that passed nearby the hotel!), it was the one series of drills involving multiple shots with his SAA that to this day I believe to the untrained ear would have sounded like one that impressed me the most. Even to us (not the timers we had) things occasionally sounded blurry. Amazing stuff.
2) As to Colonel Applegate, I first met him when I was asked to go to dinner with him and three other people. It was an amazing evening that I'll never forget. Some months later, he called me out of the blue to ask me some questions about the chemical agent stuff we were teaching as this was something he had long been known for and that he was still "playing with" on the side. I helped him as best I could and then steered him to a buddy of mine who knew a lot more about such things than I did. However, that call was the beginning of a friendship that lasted until he died and I learned an awful lot from him during those years.
a. As to the adventure of his being accosted as an older man, I would respectfully submit that the actual event might have happened a little bit differently as related here and if I can come out to the recently announced Gunstock 2010 in October, I'd be happy to offer up the version that I was told while we're there.
b. His personal link to exhibition shooting (not mentioned in this thread) was his uncle Gus Peret who not only was one of the people who taught him how to shoot but who also somebody who worked for Remington(?) as, among other things, an exhibition shooter.
3) I fully agree with the remarks made here about the way people are "wired". I've had the very good fortune to have met, observed and/or shot with a number of pretty amazing people and while they had taken conventional shooting skills to an extreme (and some did some pretty neat "trick" shooting for fun on the side), the kind of true "exhibition " shooting we are talking about here is something else.
a. I'm proud to say that I know Jerry Miculek and he has hands and forearms that can control just about anything. Ray Chapman had some of the largest (and strongest) hands that I ever saw; at least until I was introduced to Bill Jordan. But look at the pictures and tracings that you see of Ed McGivern's hands; quite the opposite. And friends of mine who once saw Thell Reed and somebody else shoot (maybe as part of that Gene Autry thing that he was part of) when they were all kids in California - I think in some of that "school shooting" kind of thing that Charlie mentioned in this thread, told me that while he was a nice guy, there was nothing remarkable about Reed except for the fact that he could shoot like nobody else on the planet at the time!
b. So I'm thinking that while some sort of basic strength is needed to control the gun, it is how one is "put together" (wired) that allows one person to operate or cycle it at levels not obtainable by others no matter how much those others might practice or otherwise do exceptionally well in whatever event(s) it is in which they excel.
c. I was always impressed with Ray Chapman, who could pick up almost anything and within a few shots would become "one with the gun". That almost intuitive ability was how he was "wired".
i. But one day, while he, two close friends of mine and I were having lunch after having just shot as a four man team somewhere, he went on and on about how Eldon Carl (who I think was last heard of as involved in desert motorcycling) was the most "natural" shot that he had ever seen.
ii. Mr. Carl must have been "wired" even more effectively; especially after Ray gave us examples of why this was so. And those examples are more stories that would be more properly retold at that meeting in October.
4) Hope these ramblings were of interest.
5) Oh yeah, and Karwin was an adventure too; I remember him telling me how his allergies and an ad for a house for sale in Shotgun News (of all places) led to his moving to southern Oregon. And I thought that I had moved around for some interesting reasons. He knew more about some things technically and historically than I ever will. Like Applegate, even like Ray (when he wasn't being grumpy), I learned something from him every time we spoke. He will be missed.
If you knew him, Art is still alive and kicking... :thumbsup:
