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When it
comes to the world's best tutors of shooters, Chuck Dryke is a….
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Gun On a midweek morning at Chuck Dryke's 40-acre spread just outside of town, a neighbor woman has come by with her two preschool daughters. The kids aren't out of the car five minutes before their curiosity has attracted them to Dryke, a 65 year-old legend in these parts who speaks with the grace an patience of a cowboy Mr. Roger. Dryke takes the children toward an empty field on his Sunnydell Shooting Grounds where he shows them something that causes their eyes to widen with expectancy. They smile and hold out their hands, eager to get the feel of the small rifles. One is a cork gun, the other a tiny, low-impact BB gun. Neither could do the damage of a hard-thrown rock, but the kids don't know that. Dryke explains about the respect one must show toward firearms. |
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It is the first time either of them has held a gun of any kind. Dryke shows them how to position their feet, and how the rifles should rest against the shoulder. He points at a target off in the distance and tells them to open both eyes, focusing on the target, not the sight at the end of the barrel. Later on, he promises, if they're still interested, to let them shoot a BB gun. "By the time they leave today, they'll be hooked," Dryke says, "but the important thing is they'll be starting out with more shooting knowledge than a lot of people have their whole lives. " Dryke knows whereof he speaks. In the global club of competitive shooters, he is a Casey Stengel you can understand, a Red Auerbach without the ego, a Vince Lombardi without the desire to intimidate. This is all subjective, but his record indicates he is among the best of the best shooting instructors in the world. They come literally from around the world to Dryke's training center, roughly an hour's drive up the Olympic Peninsula from the ferry dock on Bainbridge Island. |
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