“I grew up shooting, under the supervision of my father Harry; he’s a certified gas pipeline welder who works for Central Hudson. We take the technical aspect of shooting sports to a whole different level than most members of the club,” said VanEtten. “It would be very hard for the average person to even follow our conversations about the characteristics of guns and ammunition.”
These days, father Harry favors static shooting contests, commonly known as bull’s-eye events. When his four sons were young, Harry shot traps with a rifle. “That’s actually not the same thing as shooting clay pigeons, but people outside the sport usually make that mistake…participants do not, however!” laughs Auguste, whose mild and modest nature belies his can-do perfectionism as an emerging exhibition shooter.
Harry also taught Auguste how to safely reload ammunition, “which isn’t actually as dangerous as people think,” said the 31-year-old. “I’ve been reloading empty shell casings since I was 12 years old and never had an accident.”
According to Auguste, custom reloading once-fired brass, i.e., used shell casings, isn’t merely economical; it’s also how he coaches the best performance out of his pistols.
“When you reload, you can tailor the ammunition very precisely, because every firearm is unique, just like a person. Sometimes the available ready-made ammunition just doesn’t quite agree with the weapon. I do it to cut costs, sure, but also to give my guns the highest potential of accuracy,” he said.
To clarify this finer point, VanEtten describes how the recoil of a handgun differs from that of a rifle. A long gun basically wants to kick rearward into the shooter’s shoulder, while a handgun tends to rise after firing.
“I’m trying to make the combustion of the gunpowder in my firearm create less muzzle rise, and have less felt recoil, for speed and accuracy,” said VanEtten.
VanEtten would like to compete in more regional and national competitions, but often the travel expenses are prohibitive. Some of the best events are held in California, birthplace of the Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championship. Now in its 31st year, the Steel Challenge offers one of the sport’s largest purses. It attracts shooters from all over the world.
While Auguste trims costs by using reloaded bullets, a competition match requires about three boxes of ammunition (150 rounds), plus entrance fees and gasoline. And due to his back problems, VanEtten can’t work as hard as he used to. This compounds the negative effect of a weak economy on his pocketbook. He misses his late mother, Victoria, who died a year ago from complications of Lyme disease. A conservative political activist in Saugerties, she was always emotionally and even financially supportive of her third-born’s shooting enthusiasm.
“Right now, touring competitively is not quite doable financially,” said VanEtten. “But I dream every day about being able to make a living as a shooter. I would love to have Jerry Miculek’s job, representing a gun maker at competitions all over the place.”
