Thanks to Walt Hinton, who NRAblog has had the pleasure of meeting at several NRA events, for passing along the following article. It ran in his company newsletter's "Outside the Office" column:

About 10 times a year, Walt Hinton, a Rosslyn-based industrial security representative, has mere seconds to make every shot count. He travels the coast, networks with law enforcement officials, and shoots a pistol for 45 minutes straight during national police pistol combat competitions, sponsored by the NRA, of which he is a Life Member.

In 26 years of competition, Hinton has traveled to nine states, collected more than 50 trophies and participated in over 150 competitive matches, including two championships at the national level. He has also ranked in the top 25 and among the top 50 competitors four years in a row in the California Police Pistol Association.“It’s a pleasure to attend these competitions,” says Hinton. “We talk about training, meet old friends, and have an opportunity to gauge our training and skills against some of the best Municipal, County, State, Federal, Industrial and Military Law Enforcement officers in the country.”

A typical competition consists of 60 rounds, fired in five stages, each timed. Ideally, a competitor attempts to accumulate the maximum point value for a particular stage with turning targets. For example, a stage includes 24 rounds, with six shots from four positions – sitting, prone, standing left hand barricade and standing right hand barricade from 50 Yards, with a possible score of 240.

His passion for shooting keeps him busy during the season from March through October. An ex-military policeman, Hinton was hooked from his first competition at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where he was serving as a Military Police.

“Through competitive shooting, officers are given an opportunity to perform under pressure, to gain confidence that they can perform "on the street," and to add to their training repertoire some of the finer aspects of shooting - which could someday save lives”, explains Hinton.

His most recent competition, the National Police Shooting Championship in Albuquerque, N.M., is considered the United States “World Series” of shooting sports, and draws several hundred marksmen from around the country. There, he won numerous competitions, including first place in Sharpshooter and Marksman Classification. He also placed in the top five for other categories such as Revolver, Semi-Automatic and Open Class Revolver, totaling eight trophies in the Industrial Law Enforcement Category.

“Although this year’s competitions are over, my passion to excel is even more optimistic for 2010. The support I receive from my family and friends is unwavering and pushes me to work harder each match. I’m already practicing for next year and hope to add more trophies to my collection,” says Hinton.

Hinton is pictured (top) shooting from the kneeling position at NPSC and (right) at the 2009 Veteran's Day shoot at NRA HQ Range. E-mail your story to us at GOblog@nrahq.org.