Fox Island revolver shooter lands third in international competition

James Austin patents an idea for reloading more quickly

Marques Hunter

of the Gateway

James Austin of Fox Island would have a leg up if he could travel back to the Old West. Austin, 44, has been a gun enthusiast for nearly 15 years. His collection of pistols is more extensive than most people’s DVD library.

Austin practices about three times a week — at least once at the Gig Harbor Sportsman’s Club. He believes he’s the best shooter the club has.

Austin is backing it up, too: He placed third in his division last month at the Smith & Wesson International Revolver Championship hosted by the International Confederation of Revolver Enthusiasts. He wound up 17th out of 209 competitors on a 12-stage course.

His also placed third last year during the event put on by ICORE, but he closed the gap between the first- and second-place winners last month.

“I just have a drive to work hard,” Austin said. “I guess you could say I developed the talent that way.”

There is more to shooting iron and paper targets for Austin, though. For the past 1 1/2 years, he’s been toying with a vision he’s had for enhancing the manual process of inserting an eight-shot moon clip into his revolver.

Without looking, he sometimes reached for a new clip and came up empty. It’s a common mental slip that many shooters make, but Austin wanted to find a way to get around it.

So he went to his gun lab upstairs — the place where he tunes his own ammo, gun and trigger work — and he wound up patenting an idea. It’s called the moon clip server, and it’s a spring-action belt clip that allows the shooter to grab from the same location each time.

“I get the same reload every time,” Austin said.

Austin is certain his innovative idea has helped him: At a normal match, he believes it has shaved at least six seconds from his finish, and that equates to about 2 percent of his final score.

“It added a whole new twist to competitive shooting,” he said.

His wife Melissa is into gardening, but Austin’s hobby lies in metal pieces that make loud noises. A self-employed bulldozer operator for 19 years, Austin doesn’t wear cowboy boots, but he does wear the hat.

Although he’s fond of taking outdoor trips that include hunting, it’s the competition against other men and women that excites him the most. Austin is one of the few who toy with a device that hasn’t changed much since the turn of the century. He compares his craft to golf, in that you must become skilled at a number of different types of equipment.

“It’s the same feeling,” Austin said, comparing gun-shooting with more common sports. “It’s just as much of a sport.”

At his most recent competition, Austin used a revolver to shoot a target that was 50 yards away. The distance is so far that he must rely on his recoil to determine if he was on target.

Even when he’s not at the range unloading 300-500 rounds, he’s dumping dry rounds upstairs in his gun bar. And what video game lies on top of a stack of other Xbox games? “Red Dead Revolver.”

The biggest matches are done for the year, but Austin said he’s looking forward to more competition down the road. It’s a hobby that keeps him busy around his house and around others who share the uncommon interest.

“I’m not that talented of a shooter,” Austin said. “I have a drive to complete something. Based on that, I’ve become skilled by practicing and practicing.”

Sports reporter Marques Hunter can be reached at 253-853-9246 or by e-mail at marques.hunter@gateline.com.