Man-on-Man Steel Challenge Match, May 18th 2008

Today was the Man-on-Man Steel Challenge, where each person directly competed against someone else. In the morning was the pistol section, and after lunch was the shotgun section. There were also shotgun and .22LR pistol side matches.

Pistol Division Rules: Competitors shot against each other on identical arrays of steel. First one completed wins. To advance to the next round, you have to beat your opponent 2 out of 3 times. The array had 2 plates (one large, one small), two small poppers, two large poppers, and one stop plate. The stop plates were arranged at angles so that at each competitor shot theirs, they feel at an angle such that whichever stop plate ended up on the bottom denoted the winner.

The pistol divisions were Production/Revolver, Limited, and Open. The pistol competitions were double-elimination.

Shotgun rules: Almost the same, except that we dropped the two plates, and merely shot the four poppers and the stop plates. The divisions were separated by action type---pump-action and semi-auto shotgun.

The day wasn't particularly conducive to video, but I managed to get a couple of short clips that were decent. Here is the video of a few runs. Remember, for someone to actually win against their opponent, they had to win two out of three runs.

I won the Production/Revolver Division! Of course, that would be a bit more impressive had there been more than two people in it. :) Terry and I ran against each other once to determine the "Production Winner", then I unilaterally stuck us ALSO into the Limited Division.

Whereupon, to my shock, I managed to place second! Lost to Dennis (of course) --- matter of fact, I lost to him twice. He was the one who knocked me out to the loser's bracket a couple of matches in, then I won back to the winner's bracket for the first/second place match---and he won again. [sigh] Amusingly enough, both of us were shooting weapons/equipment that qualified for Production division---neither of us had firearms and gear customized like the Limited folks.

In shotgun, I won the pump-action division again! (I won it last year.) After which I went up against the winner of the semi-auto division and got thoroughly spanked.

There were also two side matches---shotgun on a plate rack (fastest run wins) and a .22LR match where the targets had a whole deck of playing cards on it---reversed so that you could only see the backs of the cards. For the .22 match, you get twelve shots on the target, after which you turn it around and pick out the best poker hand you could. Best poker hand overall wins. I may end up winning that one, as I ended up with a full house, aces over fives. (I don't know yet--I left before everyone was done shooting the side matches.)

Overall---a fun day. My shooting was decently quick, my accuracy good enough, though I had moments of random trigger-pulling. The shotgun went rather well. Again, I can shoot the darn thing nice and fast (and accurately) I just can't reload it quickly.

Two weeks to the next pistol match. Time for some dry-fire practice.

WWGC 3-Gun and May Monthly Pistol Match...

So, yesterday I went to the Weeping Water Gun Club to participate in their 3-Gun match. It is very different from the ones here at ENGC---the WWGC matches are man-on-man, which means you have to beat an opponent each time, and each time it gets harder. (They run a bracket system with double-elimination rules.)

For each run, you start with all of your weapons on various tables, each slide-locked and unloaded, with all ammo on the table with them. You begin with the pistol, and on the command load and drop 6 plates, mandatory reload, then drop 6 more plates. You immediately clear your weapon, lock the slide back, and leave it there, running to your shotgun table. Once at the shotgun table, you load and drop 4 full-size steel poppers, slide your weapon and again leave it behind with the slide open.

You run at full speed to your rifle, and now that your adrenaline is going, your heart is racing, and you are short of breath--you have to knock down 5 bowling pins set 200 yards away.

And if you manage to do all that faster than your opponent, you will then have to do it again later.

I'd never done this before, and my precision rifle (it arrived! Yay!) hadn't been sighted in yet--so I had to borrow someone else's. Chris Zeeb was kind enough to let me use his, and it ended up working really well. The first time I was shooting, I lost, which immediately put me into the loser's bracket. This didn't surprise me---the only things I've ever shot at 200 yards are deer (twice) and human silhouette targets (once). Not really good training for hitting bowling pins with someone else's rifle.

That being said---I got better. As a matter of fact, out of the 19 people that were there competing, I actually ended up in 2nd place! After being sent to the loser's bracket, I won five more matches (I think 5--may have been six) then lost to the winner of the competition. The last three of my matches were all in a row with no breaks. That was tiring! (But a lot of fun.)

Here is a video of some other people running through parts of the match (I kept forgetting to ask someone to record my runs):

...and either Zeeb's gun is outstandingly accurate so that anyone could win with it, or my distance rifle shooting is pretty good, because I didn't have much trouble knocking down the pins at 200 yards. Fairly quickly, too.

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Today we had our monthly pistol match at ENGC---it went pretty well. There weren't a whole lot of shooters in Production, but Dennis was shooting, and Joel Park came back from a fairly long hiatus, so there was some good competition. Here is the video of the stages from today:

Again, I shot a no-shoot target ON MY OWN STAGE. Maybe next time I just won't put any no-shoots up? Perhaps instead I'll learn to aim. (Hmm. That's a lot to ask.)

Very annoying.

The first stage was pretty slow, but other than the no-shoot, not too bad. I think I was second in Production on that one. The second stage (the distance one) went pretty darn well, but it was the third one that really rocked. The standards stage (for once) went exceedingly well. I was fast, very accurate (except for the farthest target, and I still got all of my hits) and my reloads were smooth and quick. I was pleased---particularly when I saw that I placed third out of everyone on that stage. Not bad for Production compared to Open!

The last stage, though---[sigh]. Something about Texas Stars gets to everyone, and I was no exception. It was BAD---and scarily enough, some other people still did worse than I did. It took me over 20 shots to clear 10 plates. NOT good. I need to pull out the stars this summer and just practice knocking them down. Same with the plate rack. Unlike last year, this year I have a key to the equipment shed, so I can do just that.

In the meantime, more dryfire practice. The first Rock-Your-Glock match of the year is this Saturday in Lincoln, so Julie and I are going down to both shoot it, and help run it. (Zeeb needs the help.) So we'll be there all day. We'll see how my times are compared to last year...

Man-on-man Steel Challenge match on two weeks---should be fun!

(And I need to officially attach my scope to my new precision rifle. And then get to the range to practice 200 yard shots!)