Dear Gus I too was at Quantico that year the first one shot in the US. I had two flint guns of my make being shot by two UK clay shooters .There I met Team armourer Willis Boitnot, Marge Pepiot writer and Don Getz ,Hershall House who had tables plus Herman Marker .I doubt the UK team had as much as a spare spring . We where suitably impressed .
Dear Rudyard,
Though I had shot at the Nationals at Friendship for four years on the Primitive Range prior to the World Championships at Quantico, my eyesight (especially with prescription lenses in period spectacles) was never good enough for me to have won there, let alone in International Competition. So I worked those matches at Quantico as a Volunteer.
Since we didn't know until the last minute I could take leave to Volunteer at the Match, I "reported in" on the Monday prior to the weekend the matches were to be shot and stopped by Range Control to see where the Volunteers were working. They told me the only one who had checked in was Major Jim Land, USMC (ret) and I think Executive Secretary of the NRA at the time and he was already downrange at Range 1. When I got down to Range 1, I found him digging in the dirt with his back to me. As I approached, I called out, "My God that's a sight I'd never thought I'd see, a U.S. Marine Major digging holes in the ground at the Range! What the (Heck) are you doing, Sir?" He turned around, recognized me and warmly welcomed me. (I had been a Sergeant when Jim was still on Active Duty and knew him well from there and from his competing in North South Skirmish Association National Matches.)
I asked him where were all the other Volunteers? He frowned and said, "We're it. There was supposed to be over 100 Volunteers show up to work this past weekend, but nobody showed up." I grinned and said, "Well, you have me from today through the end of the Matches, as I just got leave to work them. Might be a bit difficult, but we will have to see about getting it done." The look of gratitude on his face was immense. So we continued to dig holes to set pieces of pipe in the ground to hold the target frames at 25 and 50 Meters. (On active duty, we didn't shoot at those ranges, so there were no pre-set pipes at those distances.)
Later on that day, we were checking how to paste the targets on the frame. Jim told me the target paste we used on regular and NM Targets, left too many bumps and wrinkles for a World Match and he wanted really smooth Targets, but didn't know how to do it. I asked him if he ever tried the Spray Adhesive, then sold in Office Supply Stores? So off I went on the first of many trips all over the place and this time to the local Office Store out in town and bought the only four cans they had. Worked great, but it didn't take long to run out. (We wound up getting a LOT more of the cans from all over Northern Virginia before we finished the targets. Grin.) Jim then told me I was the "Official Crisis Control SNCOIC (Staff Non Commissioned Officer in Charge) of the World Matches" and I wound up also being the Liaison to the rest of the Marine Command and the large crowd of NSSA shooters, who did finally begin to show up the evening of the following day.
Of course the Command at Quantico was well used to running major shooting competitions, including the Armed Forces Intramural Military Rifle Matches, but no one had ever run an International Muzzle Loading Match before. As each new problem/challenge came up and we got it resolved, Jim and I kept saying to each other, "I sure hope the Shooters never realize what a Lash Up getting ready for this thing has been." GRIN!! Fortunately, everyone from the Commanding Officer on down, cooperated hugely with us and that helped a lot. The NSSA Shooters were all veterans of running the Huge Spring and Fall National Championships, so that made things immensely easier, even though those matches were a bit different from International Matches.
I was informed we had a problem on the Trap Range and when I got there, they informed me the electrically operated Trap Machines would not work for one stage of International Muzzleloading Competition. After they explained it to me, I checked with an NSSA Member I knew who was an electrician. After five minutes, he came out to his truck and I asked him if he could fix it? He said, "Sure, as soon as someone gets me a 35 cent part." I quickly pulled a dollar out of wallet and offered it and he grinned and said he already had one in his truck. When I retired from Quantico in 1997, we were still occasionally using the "fix" he had done 17 years earlier.
Though we worked up to 16 hour days, we did manage to get everything set up in time for the Matches.
Rudyard, since you were with the UK Clay Shooters, do you know the name of the rather short gentleman who almost always wore a touring/drivers soft cap? We had enough things going well, that I wanted to watch the Clay Shooters for a little while, so I was there a few minutes before they began shooting. This gentleman was dressed in nice wool sporting jacket, tie, trousers, and that cap. Before the Shooters took their firing points, he almost marched out to the first firing point, did an about face, flourished/doffed his cap and said, "Good morning everyone!" Then he put his cap back on and marched back. I looked at a couple of NSSA Shooters near me and said, "Now THAT'S Class!" Turned out I could only watch for a little while before another crisis came up, but I enjoyed watching the shooters compete for a short while.
Things were going well enough I decided to wear my moccasins, buckskin trousers, 18th century shirt and the Marine version of the Rifleman's Cap on the last day of the shoot. This was after Herschel House and other Riflemen dressed in Riflemen garb had fired an exhibition Team Match the day before. Though it was not yet legal to use reproduction arms, they scored high enough they would have won the Gold Medal, had reproductions been allowed. So I decided to "get in the spirit of things" myself the last day.
Not very long before it was time to award medals, Donald "Bucky" Malson came up and grabbed me and said Jim Land needed me again. I couldn't imagine what for as shooting was almost over. When we found Jim, he and Bucky told me I was going to be in EVERY Winner's Picture in Muzzle Blasts Magazine. I looked at them suspiciously, while waiting for the other shoe to drop, because I thought they were up to something, as of course I had not competed. That's when they told me I would stand behind each Gold Medal Winner on the platform while holding the flag of his/her country as he/she was awarded their medals. So I indeed was in a lot of the pictures in Muzzle Blasts, but mostly you can only see my Rifleman's style Marine Hat behind the Winners.
After I came down off the platform for the last time and put the last flag away, Bucky told me Jim needed me one last time. I looked at Bucky, grinned and said, "The Shoot is over, what possible problem could there be now?" That's when Jim awarded me a Gold Medal for my efforts as the Crisis Control SNCOIC and informed me it had been authorized by the US Team, the NRA and Val Forgett, Jr., who had paid for all the medals.
Good memories.
Regards, Gus