Mayo pistol club members find life on the range right on tar

[dismal]

http://postbulletin.com/newsmanager/tem ... 2&a=326766

Mayo pistol club members find life on the range right on target
2/5/2008 4:38:08 PM


By Christina Killion Valdez
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

His eyes and gun trained on the target, Jim Smith unloads 10 bullets, all of them hitting the center ring.

"I've never had a bad day at the range," he says later. "You can't shoot well if you're uptight. You have to be relaxed and in the zone to shoot well."

That focus on precision and fun just about sums up the aim of the Mayo Clinic Pistol Club, of which Smith is a member.

The club, however, almost never got started.

About 36 years ago, Richard Haas, who's since retired as a lab worker at the clinic, helped convince the activities committee to start the league. Unsure of what a gun club was, the board would have nixed it if he hadn't spoken up. "I got them to try it out," Haas said.

Haas compares recreational pistol shooting to his other passion -- golf. Time spent at the firing range is similar to golf in that you work on your grip, stance, breathing and precision.

It's a comparison Darwin Kuhlman, an electrician at Mayo who is heading up the group this year, agrees with. "You want to replicate the same muscle movement like in a golf swing," he said.

It can also be compared to archery or bowling, he said. Plus, he noted, pistol shooting is an Olympic event.

Nonetheless, the Mayo group is simply recreational, he said. They get together for three hours every Sunday from January through March at an area shooting range.

Safety, by far, is the biggest priority, Kuhlman said. That and fun. Some people keep their own score, but the club stopped keeping track, Kuhlman said, adding "You can enjoy it with no pressure."

No physicians are among the 30 or so members this year, but they have joined in the past, Kuhlman said. The group represents many departments at the clinic, from surgical to maintenance to administrative.

There are also women.

"I used to shoot in a trap league in the 1970s. I was the only girl," said Hattie Hanert, who works in human subjects research protection at Mayo.

She and her daughter, Jennie Snell, 24, who's done archery for 10 years, joined the pistol club this year.

"I thought we both might enjoy a change," Hanert said.

For the first week, they borrowed a friend's 9 mm pistol, what Hanert described as "a Clint Eastwood gun."

Deciding that it was something they wanted to stick with, the mother and daughter plunked down $395 for a gun of their own -- a .22-caliber.

"I bought her an iPod for Christmas that cost $300," Hanert said. "But I just wasn't comfortable buying her a gun for $300."

Until they tried it, that is. Now both women are getting used to how the pistol feels in their hands and working on their aim.

From 50 feet away, Snell said it's hard to see if you hit the target. After collecting her paper target the second week at the range, she found out it was marked up from shrapnel not finely pierced bullet holes.

Eager to try again, Snell had already learned one important thing about the pistol club-- it's never a bad day at the range.

[nyffman]

No physicians are among the 30 or so members this year

Hmmmmm?

[Thunder71]

I know this is an old thread, but are there any Mayo club members here?