Team Erhardt Project: My First Title

This is the latest installment in the Team Erhardt Project series which appears on The Shooting Wire.

OK, First Loser isn’t a real title but they hand it out anyway, and boy did I get it handed to me on Wednesday.

A week ago I flew to Jackson, Ohio for the week long 4-H shooting sports camp, where for the second year in a row they were holding a Scholastic Steel Challenge demonstration.

Since adopting SSC, Ohio 4-H has seen a big bump in interest in pistol shooting. 4-H already has a strong shooting sports program in 84 of the state’s 88 counties, but with SSC they have a pistol program that’s now in 14 of those counties as well.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Scholastic Steel Challenge it’s a team version of the Steel Challenge using four of the eight stages (5 To Go, Speed Option, Roundabout and Smoke & Hope) and designed to introduce young shooters to pistol competition, specifically speed shooting.

But unlike the Steel Challenge, SSC is shot from the low ready position.

The program is sponsored by some of the biggest names in the industry including the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Smith & Wesson, Glock, Action Target, Brownells and the Outdoor Wire Digital Network, which of course publishes The Shooting Wire.

In addition to the combined 90 guns Smith & Wesson and Glock have donated to help teams kit-up, the two companies have been on the ground for nearly every major match and demonstration SSC has put on.

While Glock’s Ed Fitzgerald was in the Volunteer State for an SSC demo for the Young Marines, Smith & Wesson’s Tom Yost was in Ohio – with me.

You can probably figure out who got the better part of that deal.

Since a key aspect of my continuing campaign for speed shooting greatness is the M&P Pro pistol from S&W, Yost offered to work with me one-on-one before the 4-H camp got underway.

While Tom swears this offer was based on a sincere desire to see me do well in competition, I have a sneaking suspicion that executives at Smith & Wesson sent him to make sure any association with the Mayor of Suckville wouldn’t have any lasting negative effect on the S&W brand.

Regardless of his true motives, the time on the range with Tom was very productive if for no other reason than he drilled into my head the need to focus hard, really hard, on the front sight.
That and he drifted my rear sight so the M&P no longer shoots 2″ to the left. That should keep me off Kippi Leatham’s boneheaded shooter list – at least for a little while.

Probably like a lot of shooters, I spend more time looking past, or through, the front sight to the target which dramatically increases my margin for error. Tom’s constant refrain of focusing on the front sight kept me on track more often than not.

When Wednesday rolled around the group of 16 shooters in the Level III pistol section, who had been practicing the SSC stages, were ready to to compete. And I, with my cool Steel Challenge shooting shirt, M&P Pro 9mm and trick Safariland rig, was ready to step into the shooter’s box along side them.

The 16 kids were divided into four teams with Chris Johnston, Jake Dixon, Jacob Stockdale and Stephen Schmidt captaining each squad. These four proved to be the fastest and strongest shooters among the 16 and were separated to even out the competition.

They were also my main competition.

I squadded with Jake Dixon’s team since he and I went toe-to-toe on Roundabout the day before with 22 rimfire pistols to see who’s kung fu was stronger.

Jake seems to remember beating me on both runs but I don’t recall it that way. And besides, I’m the one with a column in The Shooting Wire so I won…as far as you know.

Wednesday morning I joined the competition and while the others shot from the low ready, I shot from the holster, because this still had to be real match practice for me.

For the most part I shot a solid match. I finished with 82.04, which was off my previous 80.01 at Harvard Sportsmen’s Club back on July 2, but not far off. I also shot a new personal best of 20.18 on Speed Option.

I also soundly beat Jake who finished with 87.68. Petty, yes, but the kid’s going to be an outstanding Steel Challenge shooter if he keeps competing and I’d like to go on record as having beaten him at least once in his career.

Sorry, Jake.

However, while I was feeling pretty confident about the time I shot – even Tom Yost thought I looked strong – it wasn’t until later that I’d learn the truth.

It seems that my first Steel Challenge title isn’t the one I was expecting as Chris Johnston ‘owned’ me with a blazing time of 68.17.

To add insult to injury, he kept walking by me on the range telling me he could beat me from the holster as well, begging the question, ‘whatever happened to respecting one’s elders?’

So in the end I came away from Ohio with a properly sighted-in gun, and better focus on the front sight and the title of First Loser…behind a kid…who trashed talked me the whole time.

I even got beat in a one run on Smoke & Hope top shot contest, finishing third while shooting from the low ready. Liam Doak, the winner, crushed it with a 2.88 run that was almost a full second faster than me. I’m pretty sure I hate him.

Oh yeah, the World Speed Shooting Championships are going to be all sorts of fun at this rate.

– Paul Erhardt

Follow the Team Erhardt Project on Twitter at @TheShootingWire, use hashtag #TeamErhardt.