imported post
I was a member of my service's national pistol team for a few years. We shot conventional Bullseye and travelledto the "fleet" matches in Virginia Beach, VA & San Diego, to the Interservice match at North Little Rock, ARK, and the Nationals at Camp Perry. It was a lot of fun and good training to be provided government ammo and being paid to travel and shoot all over the country. I miss those days <sigh>. The service provided match-grade 22's and 45's as well as some 38 Supers if we wanted to use them. They had some S&W Model 52's but they were notorious finicky eaters, so most of us just used our bullseye guns for centerfire. I was originally issued a S&W Mod 41 HB, a "Gold Cup" 45 for shooting centerfire and .45 matches(hollow slide, full length ribbed sights and roll pins holding them on) and a "Hardball" 45 (Legal for "Leg" or EIC matches). I eventually bought my own Model 41 HB and had an EIC match gun built that I also used for CF and 45 matches. I used SWC for CF and 45 matches and had to use regular "hardball" for the EIC matches. I recall most of my team mates becoming Distinguished sooner or later.
I started match shooting High Power Rifle and Bullseye Pistol at the same time in 1988 and dropped rifle in 89 to concentrate on pistol. I went Distinguished in 1993.