Coffee Talk with Julie Golob and Her Julie Double
Tom McHale 08.02.12
Today we continue our quest to speak with fun and interesting people in the shooting industry. We’d like to thank Julie Golob, coffee aficionado, for sharing some time with us. In case you don’t know, in addition to roasting her own Major Power Factor coffee, she also shoots at a lot of things. So we hear…
My Gun Culture: Congratulations on completion of your first book: SHOOT – Your Guide to Shooting and Competition! How on earth did you find time to do that? We’re guessing you had the laptop out between stages at Bianchi. Or did you have a Julie-double competing at some of the matches?
Julie: Thanks so much! You know… the Julie-double was a great idea at first until I realized she didn’t write so well and she didn’t win matches! I had to let her go in Colby Donaldson style and tell her she “fired her last shot.” In all seriousness though, writing a book turned out to be much more difficult than I ever imagined it would be. I had to tackle it like I would a checklist to stay on track. There were definitely a lot of late nights and I am so glad to be done reading all the different sports’ rulebooks!
My Gun Culture: We’ve had similar troubles. Fembot Julie-doubles are great at shooting but kind of lousy at office work. If you had to pick one piece of advice from your new book “Shoot” that you’re most passionate about, what would that be?
Julie: What I want people to take away from the book is that safety is first and foremost whenever dealing with firearms and to go ahead, get out there and try your hand at shooting. There are so many shooting sports and I believe there’s one suited for everyone. Go for it, be safe and have fun!
My Gun Culture: While flying over Montana recently, I could have sworn I smelled coffee beans roasting. Any ideas why?
Julie: You did??? Well it wasn’t from my house! Book writing and training kept me from that hobby this year but now that you mention it that’s on my winter to do list. I LOVE it! I even roasted batches for Christmas gifts one year with signature roasts – double tap roast, powder burn, etc. in major and minor power factor, of course! If you love coffee and you’ve never had fresh roasted beans, I highly recommend it!
My Gun Culture: Just hypothetically speaking, if your daughter follows in your footsteps, but winds up shooting for, oh, say Team Glock or Team Sig, will you still attend her wedding?
Julie: Absolutely! You just won’t see any of those plastic gun key chains as wedding favors, the reception won’t be at the Sig academy and the mother of the bride will be in Smith & Wesson blue with a splash of Benelli red, of course.
My Gun Culture: Speaking of weddings, we couldn’t help but notice that your maiden and married names both start with a “G.” Call us skeptical, but doesn’t this mean you didn’t have to change the monograms on your towels? This wasn’t a marriage of convenience was it?
Julie: Too funny! It’s actually more than just the ‘G’ part. I only had to drop the “ski” and add a “b.” I remember when I first met him, I thought, “wow… our names are so similar!” I prefer to think that it means that we are meant for each other though.
My Gun Culture: Recently you won the USPSA Ladies Revolver Championship, making you the only competitor in history to win National Championships in all six USPSA divisions. Some people are saying this is a result of you possessing all five Sankara Stones from Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. As these stones are known to help fight the forces of evil, that seems to be a plausible explanation. While there are no current USPSA rulings related to use of Sankara Stones, many are concerned about the precedent. How do you respond to these accusations?
Julie: Yes, I admit to having connections in the government, but when I put in the request to acquire the five Sankara stones to commemorate my wins in five divisions of USPSA it just made sense. After all, they were just sitting there in that big warehouse next to the Ark collecting dust. Even with the shipping, excise tax and dangerous goods fees it was well worth it and come to find out, tax-deductible! I admit to having an edge over the other person in consideration, to house the stones. Some guy named, Robert Leatham had also applied. Who’s that guy? But, being former AMU (Army Marksmanship Unit) I had the edge. To anyone who has a beef with it, you carry those things around in your shooting bag at a Nationals. They may “glow” and all, but they easily weigh fifteen pounds each. Add to it the ammo, water, snacks, etc. I had to train for months just to carry my bag! Truth be told, I am sending them back. I’m all into the number six now.
My Gun Culture: We’ve noticed that you’ve been competing in 3 Gun Competitions recently. If there were a 5 Gun match, what would your other two choices be?
Julie: That’s easy! Machine gun, preferably the gatling gun and then a cannon shoot. I SO want to shoot a cannon.
My Gun Culture: I have a great lead for you on that. Last spring, the folks at LuckyGunner.com hosted a mega-shoot event and I was able to shoot a Napoleonic Field Artillery cannon. Shoots a 12 pound cannonball you know, and does a heckuva job on old cars. I think it would work great for you, but you’d have to talk the folks at Smith & Wesson into springing for a pretty hefty 4 wheeler to lug it around the matches…
We’d like to thank Julie Golob for taking time out of her busy schedule shooting the heck out of various things to do this interview. We hope you enjoyed learning a few new and interesting things about the only woman, man, or child to win National Titles in all six USPSA divisions.
Don’t forget to check out Julie’s new book, available now!
This article originally appeared on My Gun Culture and is republished with permission.
