Hello: Over the past 46 years, I have seen some questionable things done before and during tournament shoot offs. Some shooters would say it's a form of cheating, some call it gamesmanship? I personally knew an all American who was in a shoot off at the Grand in Ohio who would let his opponent wait for him to come to the line and just before he thought he would forfeit and win, he showed up to shoot. When his name was called for the shoot off he would buy a soda and drink it and wait just before it was time to forfeit the shoot off and magically show up. He told me nothing better than to mess with the guy's head a bit. Another all American after the first shoot off round if still tied would tell his opponent "that he has never seen anyone break targets faster than him". He felt it did one of two things, either the guy or gal would say to themselves "if you think that's fast watch this, or they would say I normally don't shoot that fast as I better slow down. Either way, he felt his statement could possibly mess up his opponents timing. Another time, I saw a shooter drop to one knee during a shoot off in the heat and his opponent a fairly knew shooter came over as he thought he was very sick and magically got better and win after shaking up and destroying his opponents timing. Is this plain cheating or gamesmanship as most sports pull things some what like this to mess up their opponent? What do you think? Steve Balistreri Wauwatosa Wisconsin
I have watched a shooter purposely hold a trigger back when closing his Model 12 to put one into the ground just to break his opponents concentration. It worked too!
Big Jack: I did see that same thing happen twice myself and the guy who was straight in the shoot off missed the next two targets. I am a very easy going person but if some did that to me I would walk off the line. Steve
I think the perfect comeback would be to fire one of yours in the dirt and say "Damn, my gun does it too!"
