Marty Goodman - Jewish Marksman

This article is hopefully the first of many where I let Jewish marksmen tell us about themselves in their own words, prompted along by a few questions I sent over. Marty Goodman contacted me after seeing this blog, and graciously agreed to be the guinea pig. Hopefully some of you that have been on the sidelines will volunteer as well! So without further ado, let's meet Marty!

1. Where did you grow up, and where do you live now?

I was born in Brooklyn, NY Moved to Long Island (Massapequa Park) in 1966, Retired in 2005 and moved to Cookeville, TN.

2. What do you do for a living?

I was a Graphic Artist, Illustrator and Photo Retoucher, I owned my own company "Retouching Graphics, Inc."

3. Who introduced you to firearms? How old were you the first time you went shooting?

I started shooting informally in 1958 at 18 years old, my first rifle was a Enfield Jungle Carbine.
In 1968 I went to the Nassau County range and met a smallbore shooter that had been on the St. John's Rifle Team in college. We stated talking, he invited me to his club meeting, and the rest is history.

4. How did you get involved in shooting sports?

I was a line coach for rifle in the Army, training basic training troops, plus See #3

5. What shooting sports have you competed in? Have you earned any awards or classifications?

I started with smallbore 3 position, air rifle and prone. Made only expert in all 3. I competed in the Maccabiah Games in 1989, (13th)and earned 3 medals. I also shot high power rifle and made master, almost hi-master. I have won numerous awards, too many to count. I have competed at Camp Perry over 30 times, I am going this year also. My highest award and best performance was in the 1000 yard match at Camp Perry, I finished 14th overall out of over 700 entries. I beat many many top shooters. My best achievement is as a coach, I ran and coached the Roslyn Junior Rifle Club over a 30 year period, my goal was to prepare juniors to compete in college. Dozens of my kids competed on top college teams with many getting a scholarship in rifle. All three of my children went to college on a shooting scholarship. My oldest son and daughter went to Tennessee Tech and my middle son went to Jacksonville State University. My oldest son Manny was on the US Rifle Team. Because of a lung problem I can no longer shoot rifle, so I compete in bullseye pistol, tactical matches and SASS cowboy matches. I have numerous NRA, CMP and SASS ratings as instructor, coach and range officer. Shooting has been a major part of my life for 50 years now.

6. What do Jewish family members and friends think about your shooting?

I am very lucky, the largest portion of my family were not liberals, and got a lot of support from them.

7. What do you like most about the shooting sports?

Everything, it builds the best people who lead exceptional lives.

8. Do you have any goals right now in the shooting sports?

My only goal is to keep shooting as long as I can. At my age (over 70 now) goals are hard to achieve. I am in reasonably good physical shape, but age catches up to you. I still work out 3 days a week at the gym. Winning is no longer a need for me, just competing is enough. I also enjoy coaching, teaching and training shooters as much as I can.

9. Is there anything else you would like to say to the readers?

I could never understand why so many Jewish people are such liberals, our enemies know that a majority of Jewish people are against gun ownership. If the Jews in Europe all owned guns, there would be a lot more of us. Long live Israel....

Jewish Marksman Officially a Master

Today I received my Master classification card in NRA High Power Rifle. What's the secret to getting there? The same secret to make it to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, and more practice.

Last weekend I attended an NRA Smallbore Prone match. The match was run by a Jewish marksman, but more on him another time... For a great summary of the sport and its history, check out fellow Jewish marksman Hap Rocketto's piece here.

Smallbore rifle is a new challenge for me in many ways. I thought my prone game was pretty good, typically 97%+ in High Power. Well, it turns out that 97% barely makes the Sharpshooter class in Smallbore Prone, and that's exactly how I shot last weekend. It is also a 160 shot match, shot in 20 minute intervals of 20 shots at 50 yards, 50 meters, and 100 yards. I find it difficult to stay focused for what amounts to a five hour match, particularly when at this club 15 to 20 minute breaks are taken between stages..next time I'll bring something to read between stages!

There is a lot for me to learn and practice to begin to do well. First and foremost, I need to build a good position. Curiously, with the AR-15 service rifle I was able to build a stable prone position very quickly, even though most people don't love its ergonomics. My 9's in prone are usually trigger problems, not hold problems. However, despite my smallbore rifle's adjustable buttstock and comb, I can't get my head in a good, comfortable position, and find myself craning my neck down to see the sights. The result is a stable position for about five or six shots before the discomfort and strain breaks down the position and the hold falls apart. I am pretty sure that sight risers (blocks that allow a shooter to bring the sights up higher above the muzzle) will fix the problem. It stands to reason that the closer I get my smallbore rifle's geometry to my proven comfort behind the AR, the better I'll be. The other issue is a handstop too large for my hand, which becomes quite painful by around the twelfth shot or so. Lastly, I have trouble with the bottom row of targets for some reason.

Anyhow, my goals for the rest of the year will be to make High Master in High Power, and I think Expert in smallbore prone might be doable.

Another High Master Score for the Jewish Marksman

I had a good weekend match, shot 97% on the nose for a High Master score. I did not win the match (came in 3rd), but had a lot of fun because going into the final stage it was anybody's ball game, and the top three shooters were all one point separated from the next.

I also shot a 191 standing, which is a new personal best. If I can get over my start-of-match jitters, which last for about 10 minutes, I think I can improve on that even more....

I even had an alibi string during the match, my rifle jammed during feeding immediately after a magazine change during rapid sitting. I am not sure what happened, probably I did not slam the magazine home hard enough and the problem did not repeat. The situation distracted me a little more than it should have, and I shot a 193 whereas I usually shoot 197 and above for both seated and rapid prone. It carried over into my prone rapid with a 195. I got my act together in slow prone though.

I competed as a Master, even though the NRA still has me classified as a Sharpshooter!