Alamo Fast Draw

Alamo Fast Draw show Excerpt Episode 21:
LLedslinger: Jim you and Greg came up with the idea for the retro fast draw shoot, could you tell us about it?
Jim Martin: What we wanted to do of course I want to do because I'm hardheaded and we couldn't do it was shoot live ammo but then again that's out of the question and another thing I wanted to do was have a hand restriction where you could not hold onto the gun. Well then Greg and I started talking about it he said well you know we are drawing a lot of shooters from Cowboy Fast Draw that are used to hang onto their gun and we will lose them if you put an inch restriction on it. And I said that's good thinking I'm glad I thought of it. The other thing is the shoot to hit is the way we use to shoot all of our wax and all of our live ammo back years ago. Now an interesting comment and I would really like to know what everybody else thought but an interesting comment came the other day Jim Cornwall, he's a gunsmith that I work with up here he does my machine work for me, he called me up and it was the first time he'd seen this as he said Jim is there some kind of rule about them shooting the second shot when they have to wait so long. I said no Jim it's just that these guys are programmed to shoot one shot and all of a sudden they wake up to the fact that they can shoot again, and then they say oh dang I can shoot again and then they go see. He thought that was funny. A lot of the guy's when they first got up there what happened to them because they are so programmed to the one shot per draw that they did not realize that they could just immediately that they could get off a recovery shot. I think it was Doug up their shooting correct me on this Doug but didn't you get up there and blast away for five times and miss them all in one round, and I yelled up their "missed it by that much". It seemed to be the remark to make at that point and I think everybody got a kick out of it. It's so much fun to shoot this way and you know here again I was western states PR director for the WFDA for a great number of years and I used to write about this all the time on how a boring index shooting his not only for the shooters but for the spectators. They would make remarks like what are they doing up there have you know who's winning but when they had the shoot to hit elimination these people would get into it because it was a gunfight and they would get in to reading for somebody and it was really interesting to see but that aspect is all but disappeared from the sport entirely. I think it's a sad comment because of that it eliminates someone th some of your talent if you have a good talent for a recovery shot. I know a lot of times my recovery shot would go off with somebody else's first shot and it would be a real close tie and this was a challenge for me to be able to get that second recovery shot off so fast it develops your ability. One of the things I really don't like and cowboy shooting two day is the big targets the moved in close so they can hit them without looking stupid instead of going out and practicing and increasing your ability and getting better, they move the targets in the and make them bigger and I do not agree with this at all I think it is really ridiculous. In fact at winter range a couple of times when they had the fast draw booths set up on the side you could listen to the wax bullets going off and you could listen to the live ammo bullets going off and they sounded the same because the live ammo was so weak in the powder charge. It sounded like they were shooting wax bullets about their a little ping you know it's a sad comment but that's the way things are.
LLedslinger: Bob Graham you won the contest want to let us know about the way the show went?
Bob Graham: I think the contest went real well, everybody had a good time. Even though it was shoot till you hit there was a lot of us that started off shooting 2,3,4 shots and then narrowed it down to maybe one or two but I think that happens when you get your confidence up and you get into a groove. At 21 feet it takes a while to get their because we're not used to shooting that far away.
Wes Flowers: That last one you were hitting pretty good though Bob the last round you were hitting pretty good.
Bob Graham: Yeah I kind of went through my whole life experience with shoot till you hit. Years ago I'd empty my gun out every time I pull a gun out because we shot to you hit, I may hit my second 3rd, fourth shot or maybe even the fifth shot and that was it 15 feet so I decided well I'm wasting so many shots before I get to the target, out slow down and shoot two shots. Then I would probably hit my second shot then I decided well I'm wasting time there and so I said I'd shoot one time and react if I've missed I would shoot and recover and basically that's what I did in that contest. I went through the whole spectrum that I did did years ago and once I found out I could hit that first one then it was a lot easier but it's a matter of concentration. In any kind of a sport the better you are doing is because of your concentration and your focus not really because of your athletic abilities so much but it's a mind thing mind control and your mind control shore body. If you can stay calm and the fast at the same time then you've got a winning combination.
LLedslinger: We have a guest that's asking the question is what do you people shoot? Bob I'm gonna let you enter that.
Bob Graham: Well it depends on what fast draw association that you are shooting in we can shoot Blanks at a 4 inch balloon anywhere from eight to 12 feet in front of us but in this particular contest we were shooting wax bullets that were powered by shotgun primers, no powder behind it just a shotgun primer only and this propels the wax bullet out there at about 800 feet per second if I'm not mistaken and will carry a good 50 feet or 100 feet with pretty good accuracy as long as you have a clean barrel. We're not shooting live ammo by any means because in fast draw is just too, will they did years ago but in the last I'd say 30 years it's been mostly wax and Blanks because the speech that we shoot is just too dangerous to shoot live ammo. If you get a boot shot with a wax bullet it'll bounce off your defector plate or maybe hit your foot and Bruce it pretty good but it's not going to put a hole in it. And that's the main thing we want safety first and we bring our new people in the sport along to realize that safety is the most important factor because we really cannot afford to have any accidents.

If any of you Gunfighters would like to hear more of this interveiw you can listen to episode 21 on the audio player(red) on the right side of this page. If you would like to join in the show live or listen live to the Alamo Fast Draw show or call 1-724-444-7444 show#16056. Whether you are a gunfighter or not its a fun show.