Presidential Papers, Doc#287 To John Merrill Olin, 13 August 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #287; August 13, 1957
To John Merrill Olin
Series: EM, AWF, Name Series
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace
Part II: Civil Rights; June 1957 to September 1957
Chapter 4: "Logic and reason must operate gradually"

 

Dear John: I was tremendously interested in your letter. I shall try the full choke barrel in my trapshooting. Moreover, I shall see if I get on to the birds before they get so far away. Of course with that set of barrels I can also use the three inch shells.1

The trouble with me making an arrangement with someone to come to the farm to help me out is that I never know when I am going to be there. Usually our trips are arranged on the spur of the moment and I have only Saturday afternoons for shooting. However, if I should be able to set up a trip in more orderly fashion, I shall certainly take you up on your offer to send one of your agents to the farm for an afternoon.2

In view of the difference between the two sports--as you have outlined--I think I shall probably stick pretty close to skeet shooting, because I shall certainly never have time to become even reasonably proficient in more than one of them.3

It seems that almost every day I have a new reason for being grateful to you. I am sure you know how much I appreciate your kindness.4

With warm regard, As ever

1 Olin had written on August 8 about the President's interest in trap and skeet shooting. In trap shooting the clay birds are thrown from a single machine or trap; in skeet shooting, they are thrown from two traps and provide the shooter with a greater variety of angles and trajectories. Olin said he doubted that Eisenhower would become "very proficient at regular trap shooting using a 20-gauge gun. If you do use a 20 gauge gun," he wrote, "you should use the 28" barrels and shoot the single targets with the full choke barrel." He reasoned that standing sixteen yards from the trap with the targets flying about seventy miles per hour, "the targets are about forty yards distant when broken and therefore you need a concentrated pattern in order to break targets regularly at this distance."

2 The President would make a last minute visit to his Gettysburg farm August 24 - 25. He would not return to the farm until October 4. It would be late December before he would practice skeet shooting (see Eisenhower to Olin, Aug. 28, 1957, WHCF/PPF 597, and President's daily appointments; see also Eisenhower to Olin, Feb. 6, 1958, AWF/D).

3 Olin had explained that "the open barrels or the short barrels upon the 20 gauge Model 21 are appropriate" for skeet shooting because "the targets are broken usually within a twenty-five yard distance."

4 In July, at Olin's suggestion, Eisenhower had agreed to have his Model 21 Winchester double-barrel shotgun restocked and the boring changed for skeet shooting (for background see no. 241). The shotgun would be returned to Eisenhower on November 1 (see Eisenhower to Olin, Nov. 5, Schulz to Whitman, Nov. 1, and Goodwin to Eisenhower, Nov. 12, 1957, all in WHCF/PPF 597).

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Merrill Olin, 13 August 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 287. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/287.cfm

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