The scenery is better when you are part of it!
It has been a long time since I posted anything on my website. I guess I didn’t feel the need to when so much has been on other platforms. This event deserves a post because it is so amazing. I started competitive shooting at the Adaptive Defensive Shooting Summit about 5 years ago. This event is organized by Trevor Baucom and is held at the Sig Sauer Academy in Epping NH every year. After attending this event for a few years, I decided it would be nice if we could start getting other ranges to host events. The question then became how do you get people to buy into this idea and then how do you get them to do it right? I came up with the idea to get people without disabilities to essentially roll a mile in my chair so to speak. The idea is that the person without a disability competes alongside a team mate with a disability. They both shoot the stages from a wheelchair and then the overall time and any penalties are combined for a team score. This hopefully gives the person without a disability a better understanding of what it is like to compete in a wheelchair. That was the start of brainstorming The Great Equalizer event with a few friends that I met at ADSS. Jason Beam. Tom Dunham and Steve Bedell have been the driving force behind making that idea a stunning reality. They took my simple idea and ran with it full speed ahead. Just to test out the idea, I reached out to friends who I enjoy spending time with, and before the end of the day, they were already asking about next year. Well, the next year finally came and it just got even better.
Now that we have the kinks ironed out, I hope to invite the people in control of other ranges to come try it out. With that experience, I hope to start a series of competitions in New England. That way it isn’t everyone coming to Enock but I can go to other states too.
My selfish motivation for doing this was not just to hang out with friends, but also to learn from some of the best shooters I know. I want to introduce you to a few of them and show off their talents.
So at this and all adaptive shooting events we attend, everyone is generally competing for at least 6th place when five of my friends show up haha. They are just that amazing.
First up is Jeff Messer. He comes from Vermont and has been using the iBot chair to participate in events. This chair is amazing. It stands up and allows him to move over terrain better than anyone. He is also lighting fast and accurate as you can see in the video.
Next up is Stephen Pento and Ed Clark. I am putting them together because you really can’t talk about one without the other. They literally practice together, compete together and even load their own ammo together. They push each other to be better and it shows. Actually, it’s a good thing we don’t allow people with disabilities to be on the same team with these two in the mix. They are amazing and Stephens’s team even won this year.
Nick Fairall rounds out the group of guys I normally shoot with at these events. Nick is an American former ski jumper who competed for the United States in the men’s normal hill individual competition at the 2014 Winter Olympics. I copied that from his Wikipedia page if you want to learn more about that part of his life just google it. As for his shooting prowess, I would say being a top athlete has transferred over to shooting competitions as well. I kept hearing people comment on his reloads and how they were almost seamless. It was as if he didn’t even have to think about it. He just did it. I think that discipline certainly comes from his training. He performs at a super high level no matter what he is doing. It is fun to watch.
Last but definitely not least is Michaela. She just started shooting about a year ago and quickly rose to the top. She had some really good mentors in Stephen and Ed and has really been studying and honing her skills every chance she gets, She even got to train with Lena Miculek, the top female shooting competitor in the world. Her dedication to the sport definitely shows in her outstanding performance. Her team came in 3rd this year.
We also had a new competitor for TGE but not new to the sport, Ryan Bugler. Ryan came from MA to compete in the event and also attended ADSS. He is a marine veteran with firearms experience prior to his injury, and his dedication to adapting to the sport from a wheelchair is admirable. I look forward to new people getting involved in our community as the events grow.
And then there is me. While I am getting much better, I definitely have major room for improvement. Here come my excuses haha. I don’t practice nearly as much as the friends I just told you about. I am working on my stance in my wheelchair. I am still running my stock firearm and haven’t modified it. There I got that out of the way. Truthfully I don’t practice anywhere near enough but am hoping to remedy that situation this year at least to some extent. I still probably won’t practice as much as my friends. I just can’t afford it. I do want to upgrade my gun. I got an Fdez Werx slide that I need to get a sight for and want to do a different trigger potentially. That being said without practice none of that will matter so that is my main goal. I need more practice and less lame mistakes like not even shooting a target because I was looking right over it haha. I also shot the targets out of order on one stage. So be looking for improved performance next year. In the mean time check out the videos I did get. FYI the second video is me shooting the targets out of order. I leaned the wrong way and shot the targets to the left and then had trouble getting back to the right. Oh well I shot them well at least
I want to thank Jason, Tom, and Steve for making this dream of mine a reality. I really didn’t do a whole lot in the process. It was just my idea. I also want to thank all the volunteers from the Buxton Hollis Rod and Gun Club. This is a huge undertaking and we couldn’t do it without all the help. I want to thank all the sponsors, Fdex Werx, Dunham Firearms, Zeroeid in Training, Outdoor Dynamics, Taconic Distilling and Livefire. We definitely couldn’t do it without sponsors. Also a BIG thank you to News Center Maine 6 for the great representation they gave us in the story below. You are all amazing and I can’t wait to work with you again next year!