Mr. Carter held 44 national shooting records with pistol, military rifle and small-bore rifle. He was one of 53 civilians who have received a special Army award for marksmanship.

He served on the rifle association's board from 1951 to 1969 and was its president, a part-time position, from 1965 to 1967. He was the first director of its lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, from 1975 to 1976. In a bitter battle for control in 1977, he won an election ousting the association's executive vice president, Maxwell E. Rich. Later he was re-elected by a unanimous vote and continued in the post until he retired in 1985.

Mr. Carter was born in Granbury, Tex., and joined the rifle association as a junior member at the age of 16. In a quarrel the next year, he fatally shot a 15-year-old boy. Mr. Carter was convicted of murder, but the verdict was overturned by a higher court, which ruled that the trial judge's jury instructions had been incomplete.

The case was buried in the past until 1981, when a reporter asked Mr. Carter about it. At first he denied knowledge, then refused to comment. Later he acknowledged the episode and expressed regret about the boy's death. Joined the Border Patrol

Young Mr. Carter went on to graduate from the University of Texas and Emory Law School. Following in the footsteps of his father, he joined the United States Border Patrol. He rose rapidly, and was chief of the entire patrol from 1950 to 1957. He was commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Southwestern region from 1961 to 1970, when he retired after 34 years with the Government.