Keep in mind that Gary had to teach himself how to shoot and he recognized that he had to learn a lot more about shooting techniques to reach his goals. This kind of technical information simply was not available in the United States at that time. The timeline was during the height of the Cold War when the best shooters in the world were from the USSR. They were also the ones who had the most advanced coaching information. The only publication he found to be useful in the beginning was the article in the American Rifleman by Anatoli Bogdanov, the great champion from the USSR (see "An Article from the Archives").
Once Gary was on the International Rifle Team at the Army Marksmanship Unit in Ft. Benning, he was eager to learn from his new teammates, but mostly he was blown off. The culture then was not to share what you knew with other shooters because they might use it to beat you. However, he remembers three great teammates who were willing to share what they knew in spite of the culture: Bill Krilling, Martin Gunnarsson, and pistol shooter Bill Blankenship.
When Gary was an alternate on the Olympic Team, Rome, 1960, he used much of his time to photograph Russian shooters and talk to them. He found them helpful and willing to answer his questions. He found that cold war enmity did not carry over into sports.
A great breakthrough in his quest for advanced marksmanship knowledge occurred when Army leaders brought back a copy of a Soviet shooting text that Army Intelligence translated for AMU. Each member of Army International Rifle and Pistol Teams were given an English translation of a 300-page book on advanced technique titled "Sportivnaya Strel'ba Iz Vintovki" by A. A. Jur'yev, with the English title "Competitive Marksmanship with Rifle and Carbine". Gary studied the book meticulously and underlined in pencil much of the Russian advice. Later he loaned his copy to another shooter and it was never returned, but we recently acquired another English copy from AMU's Bob Alyward.
It is ironic that during the height of the cold war, Gary found the shooters and coaches of the USSR to be his best and most open sources of information. He readily attributes much of the shooting knowledge that aided his rise to the top to what he learned from the Russians.
Interestingly, a copy of "Sportivnaya Strel'ba Iz Vintovki" by Yur'yev (in Russian, first edition, published in 1957) was given to Gary many years later by Yur'yev's daughter, a KGB agent who defected to the US. She heard Gary was editing the third edition of a translation of the book, and presented him with an original 1957 edition, autographed by her father. How all of that came together will be in a forthcoming blog.
When Gary was an alternate on the Olympic Team, Rome, 1960, he used much of his time to photograph Russian shooters and talk to them. He found them helpful and willing to answer his questions. He found that cold war enmity did not carry over into sports.
It is ironic that during the height of the cold war, Gary found the shooters and coaches of the USSR to be his best and most open sources of information. He readily attributes much of the shooting knowledge that aided his rise to the top to what he learned from the Russians.
Interestingly, a copy of "Sportivnaya Strel'ba Iz Vintovki" by Yur'yev (in Russian, first edition, published in 1957) was given to Gary many years later by Yur'yev's daughter, a KGB agent who defected to the US. She heard Gary was editing the third edition of a translation of the book, and presented him with an original 1957 edition, autographed by her father. How all of that came together will be in a forthcoming blog.
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