LITTLE ROCK — Matt Mink is fast, almost superhumanly so. He can draw his pistol and fire six shots into the center of a target seven yards away in 1.5 seconds.
Since taking up practical pistol shooting in 1999, he has won many state and regional matches, plus a national title, the 2006 International Defensive Pistol Association national championship in the Custom Defensive Pistol division. Now he can add international honors to his list of accomplishments.
World Shoot is held every three years in different locations and is the top event of the International Practical Shooting Confederation, of which the United States Practical Shooting Association is the American branch. Mink, who lives near Conway, qualified for a spot on the team by shooting several matches selected as World Shoot qualifiers and counting scores from past national championships. The U.S. team was composed of Mink, Angus Hobdell, a transplant Brit living in Arizona, Robert Vogel of Ohio and David Olhasso of Pennsylvania.
Mink, 35, placed second individually in the production division and was a member of the winning U.S. production team during World Shoot XV in Bali, Indonesia.
Production is one of those divisions for different types of pistols in practical shooting. The guns are close to what could be bought in an everyday sports goods store, but fine tuned.
Practical shooting involves shooting targets, mostly cardboard and some steel, arranged in a "stage" that the shooter moves through as quickly and as accurately as possible. Shooting over and around walls, moving targets, some close, others 40 yards distant, are all part of the game. The top shooters in the world like Mink make it look easy.
Mink has finished in the top six at the past six USPSA Nationals. After shooting few matches or practicing for much of 2008 because of a change in jobs and the birth of a son, he decided to concentrate his limited time for practice on his fundamental gun-handling skills.
Mink didn't get to practiceas much has he would have liked prior to the match, shooting only 800 rounds of ammo, compared to Hobdell, who shot 18,000.
While flying to Bali, Vogel and Mink talked extensively about their shooting techniques, since they are usually battling for a top spot when they shoot against one another.
"During my talk with Bob on the plane, I realized that maybe I didn't grip the gun as tightly as I should. So on the first day of the match I gripped the gun as hard as I could. It's easier to shoot if the gun doesn't move as much. I made a conscious decision to change my technique to help me keep focused on the match. The second day was my worst day of shooting, had five misses. I decided to go back to my shooting style of the first day.
At World Shoot, Mink had to go head to head with the best shooters in the world.
"Adam Tyc from the Czech Republic was the guy to beat." Tyc won the production title in 2005 at World Shoot XIV.
"No other production shooter compares to this kid. He's it. After day one I saw that Adam was going to win it and the rest of us would be fighting for second and third. To get on the podium is prestigious ... as they only recognize first through third place at the world shoot; everyone else gets nothing. The American, Czech, Slovak, and Italian teams shot together. The sheer talent on our squad was unbelievable. I knew that the team and individual winners would come from this group."
Mink traded places with Vogel through much of the match.
"On the sixth day, I had oneof my best days of shooting, ever."
After six days and 36 stages of shooting, Mink clawed his way to second place in production division, beating Vogel by 3.8 points, and the American team finished first.
The team score takes the top three shooters from the team, which were second, third and fifth for the American squad. This was the United States' first win in the Production Division, which has been recognized since 1999.
Mink said, "Bali is hot and humid and the food is not very good. We finally found a Pizza Hut and ate there seven times and a McDonald's a few days before we left, but something still wasn't right about it. We ate at an outdoors restaurant, Bob took a bite out of some "chicken" then got up and walked over to the railing and spit it out on the street.
"It was a running joke that we couldn't find anything to eat," he said.
Competing on an island does have one plus.
He said, "My favorite part was the beach, and I went out there almost every day. I've never been so tan in November. I also got knocked senseless by some massive waves."
Mink is one of a few dozen practical pistol competitors in the U.S. sponsored by a firearms manufacturer. Mink shoots for CZ-USA, the American branch of Ceska Zbrojovka, an internationally known firearms maker based in the Czech Republic. Mink got the attention of Hobdell, CZ-USA's top dog, by beating him at a match and man vs. man steel shoot-off in 2003. The perks that come with sponsorship include freeguns, paid travel expenses, paid match fees, factory parts support, magazines and apparel.
Tyc is a shooter for the CZ factory team The next World Shoot in 2011 will be held in Greece, and Mink plans to be there to attempt to wrestle the production title from Tyc.
River Valley Ozark, Pages 66 on 12/25/2008