Saturday last (February 11), we competed in the Albany (Oregon) club match and were pleasantly surprised by the clement weather. Coming off a 38-day cycle of unremitting RAIN, we woke up to high cloud layers which didn't present any raindrops at all. If this is Global Warming, I'm all for it!
Match Director Mike McCarter, who designed and set up the match only to spend the rest of the day at WORK . . . presented a six-stage match which can only be described as a "Hoser Match", because most of the targets were easy to hit and easy to see. This which encouraged us to run&gun as quickly as we could, and therefore screw up by the numbers Big Time.
Which we did. Results are available here.
There were 64 competitors at this match, which has to be some kind of record for a "don't-mean-nothin', just come out and shoot for the fun of it" match.
The first indication that this was to be an atypical match was when Ed D. suggested that I not take photographs of him, even though we were squadded together. He had seen the photos I took a couple a months ago, the last time we were in the same squad, and announced that he didn't recognize the "fat old man" he saw. I agreed to that condition, because frankly I don't recognize the fat old man I see in pictures taken of me at IPSC matches. After all, the pictures I take depict us at our most vulnerable moments, and the embarassement factor is high. Some of the most interesting videos show us when we make mistakes, and I don't blame anyone for objecting to this sort of imagery.
We're all friends here, and while we come to shoot, we don't necessary expect to be 'shot' at our worst.
Unfortunately, I managed to fall into that trap myself.
While we were engaging the Classifier, TAKE 'EM DOWN CM03-03, I was filmed missing the T4 target (far right-hand side) incompetently. Instead of putting two shots into the edge of teh A-zone,k I put them into the penalty target which overlapped the shoot-target. I scored two misses, and two no-shoot penalties. Because I didn't call the shots as misses, and didn't even notice them until I was far downrange to Box B where I was to shoot three Pepper Poppers, I just continued my run and finished with a decent time (9.45 seconds) and a terrrible score (41 points minus 40 penalty points = ONE point for the stage!).
I ended up the lowest score of the day, except for the single DNF score which garnered zero points because the competitor didn't actually even shoot the stage.
I missed really fast, but that doesn't peel the banana.
SWMBO was right there with the camera, and I'll present the video soon. Unfortunately (or fortunately, from my personal point of view) you can't see the no-shoot hits. This distracts from the impact of the video. I can't say that I'm disappointed. When I get around to editing and posting the film, I'll link to it here. In the meantime, you can assume that I did what I said I did, and I present it here if only to serve as a good example of someone who engaged a difficult target in a risky manner (already leaning to "get out of the shooting box quickly"), gambled, and lost.
In the words of Marlon Brando, in "On The Waterfront": I could have been somebody. I could have been a contender ... instead of a palooka, which I am."
All of that is true, but the weather was fair and the companionship was excellent. I don't mind losing to people who are better than I am. I had a GREAT time, and this day will be remembered not because of the stages I screwed up on but because of the company I kept.
And if Doug S. ever reads this, I have a few words of encouragement:
Get a GOOD gun for your wife, and let her shoot it competitively. She spent all day taping targets. Such enthusiasm should not go unrewarded. It took SWMBO three years of observing, brassing and taping before she said "SCREW THIS! GET ME A GUN!"
I will guarantee that SWMBO will happily spend as much time as is needed to coach your good wife, and she will beat you at a regular club match before the year is out.
And that will be one of the best days of your life. There is no day better than a day at the range, and there is no day at the range so good that it can't be improved by the companionship of your wife.
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