Photo By Sgt. Levi Schultz | Lance Cpl. Brandon Baker, legal assistance clerk, Legal Services Support Team, began...... read more read more
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Lance Cpl. Brandon Baker, legal assistance clerk, Legal Services Support Team, began gunsmithing at 16 years old. With his knowledge of guns, he competes in various shooting competitions and works on the rifle range as a marksmanship coach.
• I enjoy being around guns and practicing marksmanship. Before I joined the Marine Corps, I worked as a gunsmith for a small ‘mom and pop’ gun shop. Eventually, I became certified by three different manufactures to work on their firearms.
• In my time as a gunsmith, I’ve worked primarily on Colt pistols, Smith and Wesson pistols and several Remington rifles. Most of the work I performed included bore sighting but occasionally I would get a request to build a gun.
• The customer would give me a general idea of what kind of rifle they needed and I would take that to the next level and decide what kind of scope and design they needed. I would try to take the picture in their mind of what they wanted and make it a reality.
• My upbringing led me to get into gunsmithing. Growing up on a farm, you worry about predators attacking your livestock so I have been around guns for my entire life. Once I got older, I began to enjoy working with my hands a lot and my passion for it grew.
• While in the Marine Corps, the biggest translation I have taken from my gunsmithing is while on the shooting range. If another Marine is having a problem with their weapon I can assist them. I’m really good at identifying issues with guns and I am able to help the other shooters which led me to become a marksmanship coach for the Marine Corps.
• During my time spent with other marksmanship coaches, it has helped to reinforce what I already knew about shooting. I’ve taken the little tips the instructors have from years of shooting Marine Corps style and adding them to my personal ‘playbook’ for when I go to the range. When I go out hunting and shooting in competitions, the little personal tips you get from people helps to grow your skills.
• When I get the opportunity, I enjoy participating in marksmanship competitions. Different competitions I have competed in include; defensive pistol, cowboy action shooting, and a 1,000-yard match.
• In defensive pistol competitions, you’re given a scenario with different targets and must choose how to engage them. It is a timed event so you’re basically racing the time, your own accuracy and at the same time, everyone else.
• During cowboy action shooting, the competitors shoot powder rounds to pop balloons from horseback using lever-action rifles and six-shooter revolvers. Participants in the event are required to be in full cowboy rig including a drop holster and a cartridge belt.
• The biggest factor drawing me to shooting is in that moment, nothing else matters but you and that machine. You don’t have to rely on anything but yourself and the weapon.
• When many people get around guns they are afraid of them because they feel they are dangerous however most weapon malfunctions are caused do to user error. People often don’t realize that these machines are used to control little explosions. The detail that goes into them is extreme to the 1/1,000 of an inch. Just to know that something that intricate can be made from things so simple as a couple pieces of steel, springs and plastic cut to a certain shape is really incredible.
• I grew up in a very small town with maybe a thousand people. If you can think of any movie with a little farm town; that is what Hooker, Okla. was. Saturday night the whole town would be at the football game and on Sunday morning the only place that was open would be church.
• My greatest inspiration is my great-grandfather who fought in the Army during WWII. Until the day he died in 2011, he was working on his farm. The man had a huge heart and no ‘quit’ in him. He never talked about his time in the service so I had to do my own research and I have found that he earned a bronze star and purple heart. I regret that I didn’t spend more time with him when I was young.
• My younger sister still lives back home and my older sister moved away and currently lives in Palms Springs. My little sister looks at my decision to join the Marine Corps as an inspiration. She sees it as proof that just because you come from a small town doesn’t mean you can’t do great things.
| Date Taken: | 10.22.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 10.22.2015 11:59 |
| Story ID: | 179624 |
| Location: | TWENTYNINE PALMS, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | HOOKER, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 439 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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