Way back in the 1970s, I began a career in law enforcement. One of the things my small agency did was promote the Kansas Peace Officers Association. Each year, the association would hold a Spring Conference and a Fall Conference. Aside from ceremonial details, some training and general cross-pollination of issues, ideas, methods and complaints, they did a golf tournament, a shotgun clay bird event and shooting courses so someone could win trophies.

I actually made our pistol team one time, attended the Spring Conference of 1979 and won the “novice” award at bullseye – barely. I won’t mention my PPC effort.

As I acquired a few B-16 repair centers for shooting the slow fire stage from 25 yards, I thought it was time to revisit the old course with a recently acquired firearm.

“The Bullseye Match is commonly known as the NRA Bullseye Short Course … The Bullseye competition is intended to provide officers with the opportunity to compete in competition with match quality pistols or revolvers. These firearms may be converted or specially produced firearms designed for precision target shooting. Officers have the option of firing their duty firearms in this match.”

At the time I was preparing for the match, I toyed with the idea of shooting the 1911 I first carried in uniformed police service– a threadbare Colt National Match that’d seen too many shifts in rain, snow, with temperature changes resulting in corrosive condensation. I intended to use my 45 handloads.

But it was a revolver era, so I elected to shoot my first centerfire handgun, a six-inch Colt Python with my handloads. The ammo was loaded on the department’s Star Progressive loader and featured Speer swaged hollow-base wadcutters of the era.

Quoting again from the KPOA rules of the time, the course is as follows --

“The Bullseye Match is fired at 25 yards, either single or double action, standing, firearm held in one hand only, all portions of the shooter’s clothing, body and gun clear of artificial support …

The following is the course of fire for the Bullseye Match:

NRA Short Course

Range | Type | Fire Time | Rds | Strings | Target

25 yds | Slow | 10 minutes | 10 | 1 | B16

25 yds | Timed | 20 seconds | 5 | 2 | B8

25 yds | Rapid | 10 seconds | 5 | 2 | B8”

In the spirit of that quote from the KPOA rules of that era, I shot the newly issued MAC MEUSOC 1911 45 on the short course, one-handed, just like in the old days.

I had B-8 repair centers too. Why repair centers?

They take less space in my gear, they are the important part of the targets and – if a round strays even just a little clear of the repair center paper, something that could be counted on a full-size target becomes a miss.

As I’m only competing against me, that adds some little pressure.

I used some old stock ammo, ASYM Practical Match 230gr. FMJ. Anything ASYM made was consistent and accurate. Any issues in scoring would be mine.

When shooting bullseye, I learned to use a six o’clock hold, reducing eye fatigue. I quickly found that this combat gun prefers a center-on hold. Scoring was sad, at 66/100, but the group wasn’t terrible – for me – with two ‘out-riders,’ it measured 5 3/8”, one-handed. The main cluster with a “just outside” flier was three inches, with seven hits going inside 2 ½”.

With that, there was one hit outside the rings completely, it would have been worth four points on a full-size target. I counted it as a miss.

Timed and rapid were shot on different B-8 (CP) repair centers, shot the same way, but using the “Bullseye Match” app on my phone for range commands through the AXIL XCOR earbuds.

Timed fire, I believe I had one outside, ended with a 70/100, 1-X. I shot that stage way too fast, a result of too little practice.

In rapid fire, all hits were inside for a score of 80/100. The final total was 216/300, 72%. The gun is clearly up to better use, as was the ammo. Still for little practice and having shot the course cold, I think I won’t be complaining. The MEUSOC is still working without fail when I feed it ammo with the proper bullet profile and overall length.

Fall is the time to be outside and being on the range seems to be the best use of that time.

— Rich Grassi