The weatherman was not our friend when we showed up at the Chehalem Valley Shooter's Club (Dundee, Oregon) for our regularly scheduled Saturday match on January 28, 2006. He had predicted up to an inch of rain, and high winds.
Rain is awkward; wind is unendurable. It blows over the cardboard IPSC targets, which catch the wind as handily as sails on a schooner. In extreme situations, it can blow over Steel Pepper Popper targets unless the stage setup crew has set them so 'heavy' that it's difficult for Minor Power rounds to knock them over when hit fairly.
During Oregon Winter matches, you can gauge the wind without ever being out in it. The lowest level is "D", for "Damn, there goes another target". A more severe wind is labelled "S", as in "Oh Shit, targets down ... hold up while we go reset them and add a few more sandbags to hold the target stands in place." The most sever winds, of course, are typified by the expression: "Damn! What the shit? There's another Friggin' Pepper Popper down!"
You can tell how strong the wind is without ever being outside, if you can hear the the jabber.
We got lucky this time.
The rain was intermittent, never very strong, and the wind did not attend. Thank You, Jesus!
We can handle a little rain. We've been learning how to deal with it for twenty years.
In fact, the weather was so clement that not only did we get through the match with no rain delays, I even got my GeekCam out and took a LOT of pictures ... most of them movies.
You can see the movies at Jerrydgeek's Shooting Gallery. In fact, I even have raw film uploaded here.
You can see the scores here.
I didn't film the entire match. We (our 12-man squad, including SWMBO) started out on Stage 5 in the Rifle Bay, followed by Stage 6. I had left my camera in the car because I expected heavy rain. But the weather was so nice, I picked up the camera when we went back up the hill to the Croc Bay and filmed as many shooters as I could for the rest of the day. I was unable to reconcile shooting pictures with meeting my obligations as a squad member, so I didn't get all of the very interesting pictures (such as when Pelican Bill skidded through a turn on Stage 2), but I got enough to make it worth bringing to your attention.
As difficult as it may be for some dedicated CCS readers to comprehend, others may not be entirely captivated by the following play-by-play narrative. However, after you view the videos, please feel free to come back here and read not only the description of the stages but also the evaluation of the relative merits of each stage.
Briefly, here's a description of the stages which I DID photograph:
CROC BAY:
The Croc Bay would be called Bay 1 at most ranges, as it is physically situated at the 'top of the hill'. Dundee gives credit to the unique L-shaped configuration of the bay by giving it a special name.
Today, the stage presented in that bay ("Steel From The Boxes") didn't take particular advantage of the shape of the bay. Instead, it was designed so it could be presented in any bay that was at least fifty feet on a side. Here, you engaged four Pepper Poppers from about 50 feet, plus two IPSC targets (bagged, of course). Then you moved to the right to a corner, represented by a "snow-fence" vision barrier, and after rounding a corner you were presented with four IPSC targets. Finally, you move downrange about 20 feet and engage the five small plates on a Texas Star at 30+ feet. The trick is to be able to engage long-range Pepper Poppers, the paper 'on the move', and have enough breath control to get the tiny Texas Star plates without succombing to the adrenaline rush generated by the time constraints.
Believe me, the Star is tough under any circumstances. And long-range Pepper Poppers are challenging to iron-sighted guns. When you put them together with a run in between, broken by hoser-mania inducing IPSC arrays, it's HARD to get back into the accuracy mode.
Here we see people who clean the initial Pepper Poppers, but who make otherwise unaccountable misses on the Star plates. Also, we see people who can't hit the long-range Pepper Poppers without a reload, but by the time they get down to shooting the Star . . . they knock 'em down by the numbers. I don't claim to understand it, but it's worth the time to look at the videos.
Bay 1:
Stage 1 (Bay 1 - Rainy Day Shuffle) is a technical stage. A 'memory course', you have to realize that you can't see every target from the same place, yet remember which IPSC targets you've already engaged from an earlier position.
The stage requires the competitor to start in the embarassing position of "holding a target over your head to protect you from the rain", a nod to the inclement weather conditions. It also forces the competitor to start from an awkward position, and ensure that the prop be tossed far enough away that it doesn't become a slipping hazard later in the stage.
Actually, it's possible to shoot a few targets from one position (not in the starting box), then move to another position and engage the rest of the targets. It's a 24-round stage, and most Open Shooters with big-stick mags were unwilling or unable to shoot the whole course of fire without a reload -- usually a standing reload. I only saw one person shoot with a single Big Stick, and the was the Amazing SWMBO.
Course description: there are five stacked plastic barrels (vison barriers), and there are US poppers behind four of them at 10 yards from the fault line; they can't all be seen from the same position. There are two Pepper Poppers in mid-range, and they MAY be seen from the same position.
At long-range (15+ yards from the fault line?) there are 5 IPSC targets, which may or may not be seen from the same position; but there are also six small plates on a plate rack which are not only a challenging target array but they tend to distract you from keeping track of how many of which targets you've already engaged.
This stage was, admittedly, not visually interesting. However, it was technically challenging and it certainly bit me badly as I had to admit, at the end of the exercise, that I lost track early-on where I was. It turned out that I was not as confused as I felt, but I did manage to rack up a miss on one of the IPSC targets. Just another reason why I have always asserted that "Steel Is My Friend". (I can tell whether I hit Steel targets ... if I'm standing where I can see them.)
Bay 2:
The stage named "Easy Run" was deceptive because it SEEMED like a 'hoser stage'. Shoot down two 10-yard US Poppers from the starting box, the run up to a four IPSC target array and engage them from perhaps 3 yards. Run around a vision-barrier corner, down an alley, and shoot four more IPSC targets. Turn the corner, shoot 3 more IPSC targets at ranges which vary from 20 feet to point-blank range, depending on how fast you run (or whether you choose to run.)
What's not to like?
First, I managed to miss the second US Popper, so had to back up to re-engage it from the box.
Second, I got a finger-freeze on the last IPSC target in the first array, and had to back up to re-engage it legally from a distance of less than 10 feet.
Because all of the IPSC targets were full-size targets, with no hard-cover or penalty targets, most of us chose to treat it as a hoser stage. The number of D-zone hits was astounding; one A-Open shooter in our squad got SEVEN D-zone hits on the 11 IPSC targets on this stage. Most Open Division competitors in this squad came off the stage swearing that the wanted a reshoot so they could "this time, use the sights!"
And one of the best B-Open shooters managed to spin out on the first turn, going to his knees without, fortunately violating a safety rule. He lost some time there, but still managed to beat all the other competitors in his class.
Incidently, I will note that in this 110-point stage, the highest raw-points score was 107, and none of the targets needed to be engaged at more than 10 feet distance.
Hoser stage indeed!
Bay 3: Paper Poppers
This was the Classifier Stage. CM 03-05 is a 12-round Comstock course. Two IPSC targets in one array, six Pepper Poppers in another ... the Steel targets are bounded by the Cardboard. Engage one array (your choice), reload, engage the other array.
Most of us chose to engage the two cardboard targets first, because we were confident that we could HIT them in a short time. After the reload, we engaged the steel so we could make up misses without having to make another reload. (You sorta had to be there to feel the pressure to go fast!)
This was probably my very best stage of the day, and definately the best Classifier stage I've shot in months. It's a matter of
Proud as a peacock, I strutted up to the Wailing Wall to learn that I ended up in . . . SIXTH place out of 36 competitors in a club match!
This is a tough stage!
My friend, Norm, had a magazine-drop malfunction which slowed him down to 5.85 seconds. Well, he's an A-Open shooter, and has much higher standards than I do.
He also got some bad hits on the paper, and got only 45 points (raw score).
He bought a 'reshoot', which goes into the classifier database but doesn't show up on the match scores.
He shot it in 5.17 seconds, dropping only one point, which puts him at 85+ percentile. Awesome, and the video is available here. The video starts as he engages the 2nd IPSC target, but shows teh reload and also the last two Pepper Poppers hitting the ground at approximately the same movment.
This could put him up to Master Class, and I hope it does . . . the sandbagging sonovagun!
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