GUNS Magazine August 1960

Pis.ol Ti.le Jinx...
"THE MOST IMPORTANT SIX INCHES in competitive pistol shooting,"
says Jim Clark, "are the inches directly between the shooter's ears." .
Clark's record entitles him to opinions about pistol-punching paper targets.
That record includes many major-tournament victories, a dozen and a half
national records, and a houseful of trophy hardware. But the thing that makes
James E. Clark, the pistolsmith from Shreveport, Louisiana, completely unique
in the world of handgun shooting-and perhaps the thing that best proves the
above statement-is the fact that he is the only civilian ever to have won the
National Pistol Championship.
It happened at Camp Perry, of course, in August of 1958. The men and
women who fired those 1958 matches will not forget them. Shooting conditions
can be rough there on the shore of Lake Erie, and the weather during "pistol
week" in 1958 was less than ideal, to put it mildly. Scores suffered, and so did
the shooters. Among the select coterie of top Masters who might win, it was a
battle. of nerves, of concentration, of trying to outguess the weather gremlins.
Competitive shooters without exception believe that no sport applies greater
pressure, produces more tension, than the shot-by-shot ordeal of big-time target
competition. One point lost on one shot can put you three or four-or even a
Champ's stance shows relaxed but steady quality that won him
National pistol title on basis of good aggregate of all matches.
GUNS AUGUST 1960
By GRITS GRESHAM
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