The original "Traveling Man"......

Bill Calfee

Gun Fool
The original "Traveling Man"......


CYA friends:


Warren "Mac" McFarland was the sport of Big time RFBR's original "Traveling Man".


CYA friends, the history of why the BR-50 G-line was formed, which is today's ARA A-line, is fascinating.



I'm headed to the range to shoot my 40-X pistol, if traffic allows....



"Mac" was Big Time RFBR's original "Traveling Man".........



More later......



Your friend, Bill Calfee


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The inaugural, Big Time RFBR "Traveling Man", was Warren "Mac" McFarland.


Here's a picture of "Mac" shooting the #1 Calfee XP conversion, as a rifle, during his first BR-50 Championship run.

I sleeved this first XP conversion.....for use as a rifle.





DSC09982.jpg


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CYA friends, if you think the current ARA A-Line "Traveling Men" endure hardships with all their traveling, you will be blown away amazed at what Warren McFarland endured during his Championship runs.
 
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Memories.........

Memories.........


CYA friends:


Warren McFarland was an interesting character...


He loved centerfire XP-100's.....


So one day he asked me if I could fit a 22 rimfire barrel to a XP-100...


I said no, a rimfire has a completely different bolting system, and it would be extremely difficult to do.


But CYA friends, just like friend Deveng and his determination to come up with a 4th lever for the Bond trigger, the thought of a XP in 22 rimfire eat at me.


It took me a full year of figuring and making drawings to build my first XP in 22 rimfire.


This was late 1979.


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I made that first 22 XP to look exactly like a factory XP, same barrel length and same factory stock.


I called Mac when I had it finished and asked him to run down..... ( running down is 175 miles, in this case)



In four hours he arrived......


Now get this, this is why he was such an interesting character, I should say one of the reasons, that is:



When I called him I never told him why I wanted him to come down, nor did he ask........he just came.



Anyway, when he arrived I told him I had something for him, and handed him the first XP 22....


He studied it for a minute or two, then opened the breech bolt, and you should have seen the look on his face...



He said, "you did it"...........


I built him a lot of guns over the years, but none ever made him more happy than that XP 22.


He was like a kid in a candy shop......and he wanted to shoot it, which we did....



And the thing shot amazing.........I believe I used a Douglas barrel........I believe.




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Anyway, when BR-50 came along in l989 I wound up converting that first XP 22 into a rifle for Mac, which you see in this picture..



More later, your friend, BC

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DSC09982.jpg
 
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Driving 2,000 miles to shoot just one target

Driving 2,000 miles to shoot just one target



CYA friends:


When BR-50 first started a complete match consisted of just one 50 bull target...


That would be like a complete ARA match today consisting of just two cards......


But even then, there is a difference.....


A competitor had just 30 minutes to shoot the 50 bull BR-50 target, whereas a competitor has 40 minutes to shoot two ARA cards, with a cleaning break in between.....


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An aside:

I wonder how competitors today, being used to shooting only 25 bulls, and getting 20 minutes to do it, plus getting to clean their gun between targets, would handle having to shoot 50 bulls in just 30 minutes?



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Anyway, Warren McFarland, the original "Traveling Man", would drive 2,000 miles, round trip, just to shoot one BR-50 card .


I've got a bunch of "Mac" stories.....


More later about the original RFBR "Traveling Man".



Your friend, Bill Calfee


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PS:


CYA friends, I'm somewhat reserved about telling some of the stories about Mac, cause you'd probably believe they were made up.


And I fully appreciate that.......


Because what that man did was so out of the norm, that I doubt there's another RFBR shooter today who would go through what he did...


I know I couldn't.


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DSC09982.jpg
 
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