Tuesday, June 21, 2005

IPSC in Oregon: June, 2005

Last Sunday I attended an IPSC match at Tri County Gun Club (TCGC) in Sherwood, Oregon.

This is notable for four reasons.

First, for some reason I was ON. It was probably the best performance I have ever turned in, and at my age probably the last time I will ever shoot as well, in the 22 years I've been competing in IPSC.


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Second, I managed to catch a couple of great snapshots of SWMBO.

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Third, SWMBO was running the camera when one of the competitors ("Fish") got hung up on a spike which was used to fix a obstacle (a plastic barrel) to the ground, and he took a tremendous spill. Thanks to years of practice, Fish managed to keep the muzzle pointed down-range and finished the stage with an excellent time, considering that he spent half of it rolling in the dirt. (Sorry I can't find a host for the *.MPG file.)



Fourth, it was only FIVE stages instead of the usual SIX stages. TCGC is in the midst of a major restructuring of their range ... blowing up rock outcroppings, making over their bays and expanding their parking lot in readiness for the Columbia Cascade Section (CCS) Tournement. They only had five bays available, so the match was a lot shorter. Perhaps this explains why I did so well, as we had 83 competitors (as opposed to the usual sixty-some) and we had a lot of sitting-around time between stages. Plenty of time to rest up.

Maybe this is why this old man managed to look good in the final standings; I often run out of steam before the last stage, and this time they took OUT the last stage.

I say, let's have some more five-stage matches.
Okay, so let's not say that. I like shooting, and the more I get to shoot, the better I like it -- even if I don't do as well.

(I'm a liar, I LOVE shooting a hot match well!)


Man, I sure wish you could have seen it. It was a good match with a good mix of stages.

Did I mention that I did good?

3 comments:

Cowboy Blob said...

Screw the MPEGS...post screen captures! Six stages! Must be nice, our league does four, including one USPSA classifier. I must say that our non-classifiers are usually a lot more fun than the ones out of a book. They also throw in one riotgun and one carbine stage (for extra fees).

This coming weekend, we have the practice 3-Gun which is the only time we get to play the real 3-Gun game.

Anonymous said...

The reason you were "on" is that it was a "hoser match"

Jerry The Geek said...

Cowboy Blog, you gotta get up to Oregon and try your hand at the REAL IPSC. Sometimes it's an endurance contest.

Mark, thanks for the compliment ... implying that I'm a hoser. It suggests that I at least do something well.

You may have a point there, even though I know you're just jerking my chain. It's a LOT easier to shoot well when you don't get distracted by those annoying sights. Fact is, I got my only miss on the stage (#4) which kept me over 10 yards from the target.

(sigh) I guess I ought to get me one of Nolan Smythe's HoserCams. I sure wish I had a film of the last stage, where I knocked down 5-for-5 of those pepper poppers at a dead run.

Okay, it was a shamble, or perhaps a "dead mosey". And it would have been embarassing to replay the last target, where I took six shots to get two in the scoring area.

But I had fun.