That’s our main gate in the middle right.

Plenty of room for a State Match, an Area match, or even a Nationals. Plus RV parking too. 

Sorry for the car window reflection… Brian took the pic with his phone, but apparently didn’t wish to get out of the car.

A rare video of me shooting.  I don’t usually bug Brian to do it because I want him to think about his shooting.   In cases where he had already shot, he took some of me with his phone but he hasn’t uploaded them yet.  This came from my phone which Kevin Acuff (Sin City Shooters) used to video me.

I believe this is Stage 5, but I’m not sure…

Scores can be found here.

Ken placed 126th with 55%
Brian placed 154th with 52%
Gary, who had gun problems much of Day 1, finished 176th with 48%.
Jeff, alas, DQ’d on Stage 2 (Day 2).

My compliments to Jeff, by the way, on handling his DQ. He came back the rest of the match and was the hardest worker in the squad. An EXCELLENT role model for my 13 year old to hang out with.

I videoed Brian on all but 2 stages. They follow.  He did pretty good for his age and experience.  His best finish was 39th on Stage 9 (of 250 shooters).   His CR-Speed kept hitting his mag release on the draw, so on 5 or 6 stages you will notice a mag hitting the dirt on the draw.  And on Stage 17 he skipped 2 targets for HUGE penalty points and effectively zeroed the stage.  You don’t get much chance to airgun the stages at Nationals, so you really have to get it in the 5 minutes they give you. You will see him hesitate and wonder “what’s next” a few places in the videos.  Lessons learned!

Most of those attending said that the stages were exceptionally tough this year. Jerry Miculek, in his speech as the revolver champion, asked for a partial match refund because he had shot at “partial” targets all week!  All in jest of course… but look at the target below in the first video. See much of it??? (-:

Area 1 results can be seen here.

Here are videos of Ken N. and Jim M. for your enjoyment. These are stages 1 – 6, 7-12 will be uploaded later.

As you can see these stages are long and have lots of positions/reload options. We shot with 6 GMs in our squad (a nice learning experience) and you could see even them backing up, missing reloads, and forgetting stuff. Fun!

Sorry… no news on the range, but maybe a funny will cheer you up (-:=

In the meantime… Drex is having a match up in Cedar tomorrow. E-mail me if you don’t know how to get there. I’m not attending, but I can send directions.

The targets are IDPA, but the movement and other things he discusses certainly apply in USPSA as well.

One thing, a bit controversial, is round dumping. He talks about shooting “3 into the first moving target” to “make sure he got a zero”.  This is so he will go to slide lock and not have to do a retention reload (slower).  This practice is somewhat controversial in IDPA circles. You’ll note that when he actually runs the stage, he drives down the first popper with 3 shots, instead of dumping three into the first target while moving.   I’ve SO’d stages in IDPA where round dumping would be a “Failure to Do Right” (FTDR) penalty of 20 seconds – effectively zeroing any stage.   You would issue it if you found 3  zero (A zone) hits in a target and the shooter had a slide lock reload.

Rules like this keep IDPA from growing, IMHO. IDPA has a lot to offer practical shooters, but in trying to introduce a controversial tactic (tactical reload) they cause a lot of shooters to shy away because of concern over learning an unsafe tactic. Better would be to stick to certain tactical advantages – like shooting from cover, from odd positions, weak handed/strong handed, and while moving.

But hey… I just like to shoot and if they want to make me reload and keep my bullets, I’ll oblige. (-:

This video, also of Bob Vogel has some interesting grip and arm advice to maximize recoil management – he keeps his left arm higher than the gun and explains why:

You will recall that I have a custom STI 2011 that many consider to be the best Limited race gun available.   That pistol is now Brian’s.  We’d made an agreement that when he got better than me, he’d get the best pistol.   Right now we are about even, but he is moving up fast, so I went ahead and handed it over.

About this Glock…  It pretty much checks the box on improvements over a standard Glock 35:

• Mag well to speed up reloads
• Dawson fiber-optic front sight
• Dawson adjustable rear site
• extended magazine release button
• squared trigger guard to prevent slippage
• notched back of trigger guard to permit higher grip
• race tape gritty grip
• Zev trigger and connector. A smooth and crisp 2 lb trigger
• titanium striker, mainly smoothes out the trigger pull and reset
• lighter IMSI recoil spring
• T.H.E. tungsten guide rod which puts weight up front to minimize recoil
• grip backstrap plug – again for weight

The only things left to do, perhaps, would be a KKM or Bar-sto, match barrel. And perhaps more slide lightning (it already has a ported slide).

So I’ll compete with this or a Springfield XDM configured similarly going forward.  Which ever I like better, I’ll use.  The other will either be sold or used as  a backup gun.

BTW: I’ll try to remember to bring some white backdrop material to matches. Then we can photograph your gear and describe it here similarly.

Here he puts it into use on a 4.54 second El-Presidente: