The purpose of the “Shooter Spotlight” is to help shooters get to know their fellow competitors a little bit better. We cover a wide range of shooters from “Marksman to Master.” This is the 22nd interview in the series.
Paul Gideon
Where do you call home?
I grew up in Columbus, Ohio but have lived for the past 35 years just outside of Gambier, Ohio, which is about 60 miles NNE of Columbus.
How long have you been shooting?
I started shooting smallbore 4-position when I was nine years old. My first two years after my undergraduate degree, I was too poor to compete but started again in 1973. As best as I can tell this is my 48th shooting season.
How did you get involved in shooting competitively?
My dad is a physicist who spent most of his career working for a large R&D company in Columbus called Battelle. A group of interested parents started a junior rifle club in the fall of 1958 and I joined right away. Our long-time coach, Bill Mefferd made us show a grasp of each position before he would allow us to enter and compete in the Buckeye Junior Rifle League. Several of us were also teammates on the Ohio State University Varsity Rifle Team in the late 1960’s.
What is a little known fact about yourself that your fellow competitors might not know?
Both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees are from Ohio State University, both in social work. For the past 20 years, I’ve worked for the Ohio Dept. of Aging doing program analysis to help manage Ohio’s largest Medicaid Home and Community Based Service programs which keep around 30,000 disabled elderly in their own homes. I’ve found that the rigor and statistical sampling involved in program analysis applies quite well to the demands of testing smallbore ammo.
What do you consider your finest shooting achievement?
Hmmm. So far, I count four major highlights: winning the Smallbore Prone Championship at Camp Perry in 2003 and 2006, and qualifying for the 2001 and 2009 U.S. Roberts Teams. The 2003 national title I won virtually on the final target on the last day. In the 2006 Championship I led from early in the second day and won with a four point margin (leading is mentally a much tougher chore than coming from behind). I made the 2001 U.S. Roberts Team as an alternate but qualified second to help hold down our nail-biting one-point win. I again made the top ten on our 2009 U.S. Roberts Team but had an extremely disappointing match on a day when our British counterparts turned in a superb performance for their 36-point win. Two Roberts Team trips and a 2006 sojourn to the Scottish Meeting have helped me cement some lasting friendships among UK smallbore shooters who are warm, generous, and can agitate with the best.
What is your favorite pre-match meal?
Watered-down Gatorade and Ranger cookies keep me going all day. In the UK where Ranger cookies are unknown or just unavailable, my mates keep me going with Flapjacks.
What is your favorite post-match drink?
Java, some really good java. When I’m with Kevin Nevius, he can sniff out some of the best coffee in the land.
Do you have a favorite shooting range?
As far as indoor ranges go, it seems as if I’ve spent most my life competing on the Ohio State University’s Converse Hall range. Outdoors, my favorite is the Rodriguez Range at Camp Perry (although it sometimes can be a real mother too).
Do you have any short term and/or long term goals?
The Kevin Nevius influence has nudged me to try to learn the intricacies of shooting an Anschutz 2000 action in a Robertson fiberglass stock (he’s trying to wean me away from torqueing bedding screws to death). With that tool or my old favorite 1811L, I’d like to win some more National Smallbore Prone Championships. Although I’ll be 68 in 2017, I’d also like to qualify for the next U.S. Roberts Team and try to make some amends for my performance this past summer.
What shooting skill are you currently focusing your energy on?
A knee injury a year ago and surgery this past September have forced me to go to a standard rifle in an effort to shoot competitive scores with all the standing cards I have to shoot now. I will shoot kneeling again sometime in the future, but meanwhile this is my chance to try work my way up to the Greg Drown/Garald Wise performance standard in standing.
Thanks Paul for sharing a little bit about yourself with the pronematch.com community!
Paul, It looks like they caught you by suprise! That isn’t somebody elses gun that you are tweaking, is it?
I still think that you should shoot a “real” rifle, no bedding!!!
It was great traveling with you in England, I certainly felt safer when you were behind the wheel instead of he who shall not be named.
Justin
Mighty bold talk from a man too afraid to take the wheel himself.
But I am sure it is a canon of the Pastafarian Faith to not drive on the right.
Regards,
He who shall not be named
Ah Hap, me thinks you jumped the gun here. What makes you think that I was refering to your ability to pilot to said deathmobile? There were numerous other people in the thankless position of taxi for the stars. You certainly were not the worst…. nor where you the best. Let’s just say that I’m glad that no Rockettos are the drivers of rocketts. That would be bad news indeed.
And I will certainly admit to my own hesitation to drive. I can pretty much guarentee that either everyone in any vehicle I was driving would still be looking at Big Ben and Parliment, or be dead.
Guestin (I actually got something in the mail from SPIE with that name on it)
Paul:
I have been waiting for you to be in the spotlight – somewhere I know you are not comfortable!
You are my friend, my mentor – I have told you this before…….but I would never have had any success in this sport without your influence – you are a true champion, and live up to the title in EVERY way (life and otherwise!)!
I have never met someone more meticulous, so machine-like and determined.
I was so proud to see you on that podium – I remember both of your National Championships like they were yesterday.
I also remember the reporter for the NRA asking me – “hey, you are also from Ohio – what’s it like to compete against Paul Gideon”………..to which I replied “He is my best friend………I wish he would move to Pennsylvania!!!!”
All the very best,
kev
@ Justin Tracy
Justin
No, I wasn’t caught by surprise. It’s just that in the Roberts Team tent, there were often several simultaneous sideshows. Here I was keeping a close eye on Wig slapping an Eley decal on Kevin’s rifle case while I do preliminary tightening of collar screws with my T-handle Allen wrench (prior to applying torque with the proper tool). Besides, no one else would have a barrel covered by dark blue sport tape, would they?
I do have a “real rifle” with no bedding (my 2000 series standard rifle), but you still have to torque the bedding screws and the collar screws.
Late in Bisley week, I was right behind “He Who Shall Not Be Named”, waiting to enter a busy 3-lane roundabout. Just when a huge lorry pulling a flatbed full of stone came into view, H.W.S.N.B.N. darted into traffic only to mis a shift or skip a gear, killing his engine. I swear that from my close vantage point I saw blue brake smoke billowing from every wheel on that lorry while three sets of silver-dollar eyes (Kevin? Kim? Justin?) looked on in horror from the rear seats at the close encounter playing out before them. I cast a look at Edie and Nancy, wordlessly relieved at the near-miss. As you all are my witnesses, I never did clip a curb during my initial and only UK driving experience. I do learn just standing back and watching others jump off cliffs.
Paul Gideon
@ kevin nevius
Kevin
I was very happy to be there for your own climb to the top of the podium at the National Championships in 20008.
We also shared–with Carl Jooss, Rick Sarver, and Garald Wise–three consecutive Any Sight 4-Man Team championships, including one when Sugar Shane was there to eat all those gull feathers! Who ever said that revenge is best served cold?? He would have liked it far better with some hot roast pork gravy.
That same NRA reporter came up to me on the stage at Camp Perry to seek my reaction to your ‘I hope he moves to Pennsylvania’ comment. After a good laugh, all I could say was he should advise Kevin that I wasn’t moving so your only choice was to get better and beat me (which you’ve been doing all too frequently lately). So if you get done re-bedding my re-chambered rifle, we’ll have to see this spring if it’s good enough to make you sweat again. I’m not throwin’ down the gauntlet, I’m just saying, can my Tenex score better than your X-ACT?
Waiting to see,
Paul G
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