Gunslingers keep cool hands

FATHER AND SON: Luke (left) and Doug Mende display their national championship spoils. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

It's an obvious cliche to say that ace Carterton pistol shooter Doug Mende and his son, Luke, have been on target for the past 12 months but it rings true all the same.

The Speed Steel Nationals in Rotorua in April saw Doug Mende, 57, win the gold medal in the discipline of open revolver while Luke Mende, 31, took the major spoils for single action revolver.

Here the emphasis is, as the name suggests, on speed with shooters firing at five steel plates which are of differing sizes and placed at various distances and angles to create a variety of challenges. On the beep of the timer, they draw their pistol and shoot each plate with the fifth being a stop plate synchronised to the timer. Each shooter shoots the stage five times with the slowest time being dropped and the remaining four are combined to make up their score for that particular run.

Come the Cowboy Action Shooting Nationals in Taupo this month and the Mendes were at the top of the prize list again, Doug striking gold in Black Powder and Luke taking the silver medal in B Western and also securing the golden buffalo award for registering a perfect score over two days of shooting, something which his proud father labelled as "unbelievable ... insane, really".

Cowboy Action Shooting recreates life in the Wild West by shooting a course of fire designed to depict an old West historical shoot-out, a movie scene and just someone's idea of what "Wild West" means. Three types of gun are used - shotgun, rifle and two pistols - and various target set-ups are made to resemble a Western scene. Scores are allocated according to elapsed time and accuracy in hitting the targets. A penalty of five seconds is added to the elapsed time for each missed shot, and failure to shoot and move through the stage in the specified order will also cause a time penalty. The winning shooter will have a combination of the lower elapsed time and the most hits in the correct order.

For Doug Mende, the thrill of being number one over the whole of the country was nothing new. He had also won a gold medal at each of the respective championships the previous year but in different disciplines. His first taste of pistol shooting came in his early 20s and, for Luke, it was simply a case of following in his father's footsteps.

As in most sports, the ability to remain calm under pressure is a major requirement for pistol shooting and Doug Mende says getting the breathing right is an important part of that process.

"There is no better way of controlling nervous tension than having the breathing under control, and that's not as easy as it sounds. Experience helps, no doubt about that."

Interestingly, Doug and Luke Mende shoot under the banner of the Target Sports Club, which is based in Wairarapa but has no range. It was formed after Doug and several other shooters left the Wairarapa Pistol and Shooting Sports Club, whose range is at Gladstone, because of "various issues" some years ago, with Doug having an application to rejoin that club declined last year, for reasons which to his mind have not yet been fully explained.

"There's been some talk about them being worried about a takeover but all I want to do is to have somewhere local to train my son and grandkids, that's it, really.

"I'd like to think we can sort things out but we'll see."