Olympic shooters at Fort Moore prepare for Paris. I tried to compete against them

Have you ever sat down with a beer in your left hand and a bag of chips in your right hand to watch the summer Olympics, only to be left wondering what it’s like to compete against the best of the best on an international stage?

Well, Tuesday I competed against two Olympians and promptly was reminded why they are going to the Paris games and I am not. And you don’t have to wonder yourself anymore.

I headed out to the Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Moore to compete against Sgt. Sagen Maddalena and SSgt. Will Hinton.

Maddalena is heading into her second Olympic games and will be competing in both the 10m air rifle and 50m smallbore events. Hinton will be competing in his first Olympic games in the trap shooting event, in which you shoot flying clay discs with a shotgun.

I grew up shooting a variety of guns in my early teens. I primarily shot targets or soda cans with a .22 and sporting clays with a .410 before graduating to a 12 gauge later on. However, nothing could’ve prepared me for this level of shooting. The rifle has a trigger so light that it would fire if you accidentally sneezed, and you’re aiming at a clay target flying at the speed of a car on the interstate.

Upon arriving at the Marksmanship Unit, I headed inside one building where a row of olive green target boxes stood. There I was, greeted by Maddalena, who set me up with an air rifle and let me get sighted in.

I felt sighted in after hitting a near “bullseye” with a score of 10 on the target while using a gun rest, so I stood up and began my competition with Maddalena. It wouldn’t go well for me.

To be competing in a competition against Olympic shooters was surreal. In the 10m air rifle I hit every shot on target, with 9 out of my 10 shots hitting the black ring that is just slightly bigger than a quarter. I even hit a 10.0, which means the edge of my shot hit the bullseye that is about as big as the period at the end of this sentence.

However, with a smile on her face and joking with me in-between shots, Maddalena stacked bullet on top of bullet like Robin Hood with his arrows and made me question whether my grandfather should’ve given me the nickname “Deadeye.”

The final score was 104.1 to 65.8 out of a possible top score of 109. To say I got whipped would be an understatement.

I asked her what my chances were of making the next Olympic games and asked her to be bluntly honest.

“Yeah, let’s keep practicing,” she demurred.

I walked over to the trap shooting fields where I’d meet up with Hinton, who would pick up where Maddalena left off. I was rusty to say the least, having not shot a clay in a few years.

He fashioned me with a shooting vest, shooting glasses and ear plugs so I could look like an Olympian, though I wouldn’t shoot like one.

The clay targets come flying out of their bay at speeds between 60 and 80 mph, and the direction is unknown until they come flying out, leaving only a split second to react.

How good is Hinton? The 28-year-old native of Dacula hit a clay target and then shot the shard of the clay that flew off from the clay he just shot.

I shot two of the five targets and Hinton hit four out of five — he attributed the miss to interview nerves. Before I arrived, he hit 49 out of 50 targets.

How many did I miss while practicing? I don’t feel that’s important, but probably more than Hinton’s missed the past few months of shooting almost every day. Though Hinton said, “I’ve missed more targets than a lot of people have shot at,” when asked how long he’s been shooting.

After our competition, I asked Hinton the same question I did of Maddalena: “What are my chances of making the next games?”

“They’re not looking too good, but there’s always next quad,” he responded. I jokingly and humbly responded, “And the one after that, and the one after that….”

Here’s what I can say after shooting against Olympians: Next time you’re watching Olympic shooting events while lying on your couch and think to yourself, “I could do that!” My answer to you would be, “No, no you can’t.”

Though, I guess you could pull out that dusty old Red Ryder BB gun and try your best to pretend you’re the next Annie Oakley. Just don’t shoot your eye out.