Monday, May 12, 2008

ARPC May, 2008: I Love Steel

After an extended period of not-shooting-many-matches, I think I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'm way out of practice, but assuming I can get the minor problems with my XL650 (decapping die 'broken') fixed soon I'll be shooting at least 3 times a month in the near future. Unfortunately, SWMBO is still fighting the "Walking Pneumonia" which has plagued her for the past month, so while it's fun to shoot the matches, it's not as much fun to attend without her.

This match, the March, 2008 Albany Rifle & Pistol Club match, was a gas!

The weather was just about perfect ... warm (60+ degrees) but overcast, no wind, no rain.

We had 86 competitors turn out, which was expected because MD Mac had broadcast a 'local' alert that it would be an exceptional club match. And it was. I'll be blogging about this match for a couple of days, time permitting, and providing some video as well.

Just for a teaser, here's a video which Squad Member Mitch posted on You Tube this week.


_______________________

I was especially interested in this match because most of the 13 students we hosted at the Certification Class last weekend would be competing, as well as some of the OSU Pistol Club members who have been turned on to IPSC competition by Mac (Mike McCarter, USPSA Junior Coordinator). We are all glad to see so many new shooters, and are determined to see that they have a safe yet rewarding Certification Match.

(FYI: Match Results are available here.)

It's difficult to demonstrate the full flavor of a single club match in one article, without making it too long and eventually too boring. So for now, we'll focus on the single most exciting stage of the match:

Stage 6: I Love Steel
Two Texas Star targets, seven other steel targets (Pepper Poppers and U.S. Poppers, mixed), and two cardboard IPSC targets are combined to test accuracy, reward hits with falling targets, and include some Cardboard which (in real life) are easy to forget because they blend in with the cardboard-brown background of the berm.

This was our last stage, and in many ways it was the most challenging because it forced the competitor to shoot accurately yet quickly.


How did I do? Not so well; I ended up 35th out of 86 competitors, and I felt that I was lucky to do that well. I definately need to practice.

In fact, while we were leaving the range at the end of the match, I caught up with one of the Certification Shooters, Jan (pronounced "Yawn".)

"Well, Yawn, what do you think?" I asked.

Jan didn't slow down his trudging, but turned to me and said: "What do I think? I think this IPSC shooting is a gas. And I think I need to practice!"

Well, Yawn, you've been hooked. And you think exactly that which you should think.

Welcome to the USPSA.
This video can be downloaded (15MB) here. All videos from this match can be downloaded here. All still photos and all available videos from this match can be downloaded here.


The evolution from camera to website may take a while. I'm lazy.

You Tube is "down for maintenance" right now, so we'll show the Blogspot version.



UPDATE: Tuesday, May 13, 2008


The YouTube version of the video is now available here.

No comments: