gary reeder
when my shop was just outside Nashville and I was at the
Saturday, June 20, 2020, 21:47

radio station in Nashville I had a helluva combat range on my land. My Dad was head honcho for the plain clothes Pinkertons and arranged it for me to run several law enforcement agencies thru my range. They had to pass to be eligible for a promotion and other goodies.

The course was in heavy woods and started with a 65 yard run uphill before they encountered the first target. There were 25 kill targets and 15 non kill targets. Two shots at each kill target so they had to carry 50 rounds with them. Behind each shooter was a runner that was a safety man. If the shooter missed a target (and they were well hidden in the Tennessee woods at ranges up to 25 yards), the runner yelled "contact" the shooter had 5 seconds to find and kill the target. The shooter had to reload several times (no high cap pistols back in 1978 with the exception of the Browning Hi Power and the model 59 S&W). Most used 1911s or Browning Hi Powers and a few used S&W model 39s. Some used S&W revolvers, mostly model 10s. So a 1911 shooter had to reload 7 times, a Hi Power shooter 4 times the S&W revolver guys 9 reloads. On a reload the shooter had to take cover to reload, usually prone behind a tree.

The course was 300 yards long in a fish hook design. At the end of the course the shooter encountered 4 bad guys all at once. One with a club, one a knife, one an Uzi and the final one a revolver. So the shooter had to take out the baddest of the bad guys by sight in the right order and do it quick.

At the end of the course the shooter had to stop, reload and run back to the starting line. So it was a rough course, but the life size color bad guy targets taught the shooter to look first before pulling the trigger. We ran the course every sunday. On some I would stand in front of 8 or 10 guys that were going to run the course the second time that day, after finishing the first leg of it. I pulled a 45 out and shot into the ground. I told then they were just wounded on their strong arm and would run the course with their left hand (or right if they were a leftie). We put a boxing glove on their strong hand so they had some leverage to help load and reload but pretty much had to do it all one handed. They were taught to cock a 1911 on the heel of their boot. I was called a lot of un-gentlemanly names on that part of the course.

We had a little lady Highway patrol do the course one Sunday. She used a 6 inch Python and had 9 speed loaders on her belt. She aced that course and the second one, never missing a bad guy. She had one good guy killed to keep it from being a perfect run. We had one target that showed an old lady holding a bag of groceries, obviously a no kill target. Then a few targets later the same old lady, except this time she was holding an Uzi under the bag of groceries. Then about 10 targets later the same old lady without the Uzi and the lady highway patrol drilled her between the eyes, not once but twice. I was the runner and I heard the lady mutter "bitch" after she punched the old lady's lights out.

We had some really good times running that range and had several guys give up halfway thru the course, saying they would never have to encounter that type situation. A few fat guys gave up after the 65 yard run up hill before taking the first shot. But all in all I really enjoyed running it. I would run it myself a few times a week just to stay in shape.