My Interview With Todd Jarrett (part 2)

My first meeting with Todd Jarrett was on Thursday, which was the first day of the Smith&Wesson U.S. National Steel Championships, hosted by the friendly staff of the Titusville Rifle and Pistol Club in Titusville Florida. He was in between stages working on his pistol, so I briefly introduced myself, told him a little bit about my blog, and then asked him if I could get a few minutes of his time a bit later. He was very friendly, and his response was “no problem buddy, see me after I am finished and we will talk”. Well, this isn’t Gun Shy’s first rodeo, and I fully understand how things can come up that create schedule changes in a moments notice, so I figured that I had given it my best shot, and now I would just have to wait and see what his schedule would allow. Throughout the afternoon, I watched him and all of the many other super competitors demonstrating their skill at this great facility, and one thing I noticed, was when one of the other competitors shot a really great time with accuracy, Todd was actually excited for them and voiced that, and even applauded them. I found that to be not only interesting, but refreshing in such a high stakes competition. We progressed into the afternoon and the last stage was almost completed, and I was sitting up on the platform near the exit reviewing the notes I had hastily taken during the day trying to clarify some of them, when Todd walked behind me and said “Hey man, let’s find a place in the shade and talk”. I said “Great, let’s go”. I had a list of prepared questions for Todd, but the discussion immediately took the direction of just being a friendly conversation instead of an interview, so I just ran with it and took a few notes. Todd grew up in Southeast Virginia, and was introduced to firearms early as small boy, and hunted like many other young men do out in the rural areas of Virginia. He got serious about competing in 1984, and in the time span that has past since then, he has fired approximately 2.2 million rounds in practice and competition. Because of the way Todd's movements flow, and his technique when positioning his body in respect to his dynamic shooting as well as the way he manipulates his pistol, I was curious to know if he had any martial arts background. He told me no, but then went on to bio mechanically analyze certain movements and positioning, breaking them down while defining them the same way that a martial artist would do. I am of the personal opinion that Todd is a detail oriented individual who has examined the many aspects of movement thoroughly, and then figured out the most efficient way to apply it to his own specific style. I asked him if there were any crossover sports that he may have participated in that would transfer to his shooting, and he told me that he had raced dirt bikes and snow mobiles. Anyone who has done this (Gun Shy has), knows that it definitely improves your reaction time and how you read and react in a high pressure situation requiring split second decisions.

It is obvious by his many accomplishments, that Todd is a master of the pistol, but I was curious to know how he viewed his skill in regards to other firearms such as rifle and shotgun. He replied that his skill level was pretty much equal throughout the full range of weaponry, and that in his opinion, his weak link would probably be skeet shooting. He then recited some numbers to me, and after hearing them, it didn’t appear to me that he was lacking much in that area either. The discussion then shifted into more of a mechanical realm, and I was very surprised at how knowledgeable and competent his understanding was when it came to the overall operation of firearms and all of the ancillary components that accompany them. He was even versed in various gun oils and their lubricating properties and how some can fail when they become hot or how some tend to attract particulate matter, and pointed out some other things to me that I had never really thought of. I was starting to realize that the interview was turning into me getting schooled by Todd, much to my delight of course. I then shifted to the subject of the hotly debated LDA trigger that many people such as Michael Bane love, but the single action purist will not even acknowledge. I had studied a mechanical diagram of it prior to meeting him, and to me it resembled a Swiss watch with what appeared to be a lot of intricate moving parts. I have fairly good knowledge of the single action trigger, but to me the LDA was still a bit of a mystery. I could hardly believe it when Todd demonstrated his in depth knowledge of this mechanical marvel. Is it reliable I asked? Todd responded that they had one LDA pistol with 312,000 rounds through it that was still functioning perfectly. So much for the small fragile parts myth that some of the single action chauvinists have propagated in the 1911 community.

I guess it should be no surprise that Todd is knowledgeable about Para products, because it turns out that he has been with the company for nineteen years. He is more than just a shooter, and knows about all of their products in depth. I say this because there was no question that I posed that he couldn’t answer. After talking to him, it made me feel confident that I had made the correct decision in acquiring some of their pistols. It was also interesting to learn that Todd had been with Blackhawk since its early days as well, because they are another company whose products I use, and I think their equipment is well thought out ergonomically. Over the three days of the competition, Todd gave me a lot of his time, and Gun Shy was happy to learn that he was in fact the real deal down home guy I had enjoyed so much on youtube. During the time that I spent with him, he was also gracious enough to introduce me to some of the younger competitors who are making big noise in the shooting community such as Max Michel and others, so I jumped on the opportunity to interview them for my future articles. It should be noted that Max who is an amazing shooter had glowing praises for Todd, and I got the impression from some of the younger competitors that Mr. Jarrett is to shooting sports what Wayne Gretzy is to ice hockey. In my opinion, Todd Jarrett also is unique because he was one of the first to take what he learned in the competition shooting world, and transfer those valuable skills over into teaching our law enforcement and military. He has been a trail blazer in the sport, and to me he represents the platinum standard on and off the competition range. He truly is a great ambassador for the shooting sports, and in a world where the media jumps on any opportunity it can to report negatively about firearms, Todd and the other younger competitors who have followed in his path, have put a positive and healthy face on firearms and their use. I will talk further about those competitors and my discussions with them in my next installment.

Another related article can be found here.