It's over.
I didn't compete.
I really can't see those itty-bitty sights on The Beloved Kimber well enough to acquire an accurate sight-alignment in a competitive time, so for the first time in nine years, I didn't sign up for the Single Stack Match.
However 123 people DID, and 118 of them actually showed up to shoot.
Of course, I couldn't just ignore it, so I showed up at 8am, my cup of Dutch Brothers coffee in hand and a camera bag on my shoulder. One way or another, I was determined to shoot that match.
The FIRST thing that happened was that I stood in the Stats Shack to eat my Burger King Breakfast and watch the competitors go through the registration line to get their squad sheets, their t-shirts, their order slips for the deli-sandwich bag lunches, and their tickets for a post-match drawing of FIVE Springfield Single-Stack pistols.
The second thing I did, as soon as I dumped my breakfast bag in the trash barrel, was to wander into the path of Match Director Mike McCarter.
"Jerry", he said, "I wonder if you can help me out. We need someone with experience. Someone needs to set a few targets and then walk around the stage to see how it needs to be tweaked".
Okay, maybe I can't shoot worth a darn, but I still run a mean staplegun. I wandered over to Stage Two and found ... nobody. I did find a stage completely set up except for the targets, which were lying on the ground in front of the targets stands where they were suppose to be stapled. Picking them up, I noticed that they were all full-face targets: no hard-cover. Checking the stage setup instruction sheet, I found that 7 out of the 12 required hard-cover painting. I found Mac and asked him to unlock the paint-locker so I could get a can of black paint. He made a run, and I started using black masking tape to block out the hardcover areas of the targets.
While I was painting, Mark Kruger came into the bay and started helping. He grumbled a little when he discovered that the paint was still wet on the targets ... I was still spray-painting them as quick as I could. We finished the painting, stapled the targets as best we could (Range Master Tom Chambers stopped by long enough to mention that one of the arrays was to be engaged through a low port, so they should be set fairly close to the ground to prevent rounds directed at the targets from going over the berm.)
When we finished, we walked the course and found that the competitors could avoid stopping in at least two of the for designated shooting positions, because the arrays could be seen from the other two positions ... as well as the arrays in front of them. We dragged some more vision barriers onto the stage, until at least ONE target in each array could only be seen from each shooting position. Had we not, it's possible that someone loaded with a 10-round magazine could skip a reload. We knew that wasn't in keeping with the Spirit Of The Game.
Mark and I helped out with final setup on a couple of other stages, and then it was time for the Pre-Match Shooter Meeting.
While McCarter and Chambers addressed the shooters, I speed-marched back to my car to pick up my camera bag, folding field chair, tripod and water cooler. I made it back in time to not only film the crowd scene, but also to take photos of each stage as "establishing shots".
(IPSC stages are really boring without people in them; I hope I never need to use them. In fact, IPSC isn't much of a spectator sport and even the movies I filmed are probably of interest only to the people who were actually involved.)
After the shooting started, I wandered from stage to stage, filming at least one shooter in each stage. I didn't get all of the photos I wanted, but I got 1.5GB of still and motion pictures on most of the stages. The last of the 10 stages was a long-distance accuracy stage (a trademark of the Range Master), and I didn't bother trying to film anybody shooting it. I know a lot of people had problems with it, as you can see in the Match Results found here.
The first stage I watched was Stage 2: Setup Standards
I had wanted to film The Smurfette shooting Singlestack. I know how difficult it is to transition from Limited or Open Division to L10 or SS divisions, and I was looking forward to seeing her again because she is an entirely charming lady.
Unfortunately, the only stage I was able to film was not her best one. This video illustrates the problems when we are shooting an 'unfamiliar gun'. In fact, on this same stage, I witnessed another Master Class shouting "What's the matter? My sights are WAY off!" while he was shooting this stage.
The stage was a 26-round stage with four shooting positions, lots of targets, lots of hard-cover, and the first target array had four IPSC targets bunched around a "No-Shoot" Penalty target.
There are a lot of targets, awkward shooting positions, and most of the targets are severely restricted by either hard-cover zones painted on the targets, or penalty targets placed in close proximity. It was the first stage I helped set up at the start of the day.
The next video was somewhere in the middle of the match.
Stage 8, "Up You Go", required target engagement only from "The Ramp" or "The Platform". The competitor runs from the shooting box to a ramp, which leads to a platform. There are IPSC targets on both sides of The Ramp, and from the platform one must engage eight Pepper Poppers.
Rob does a good job on this stage, as is appropriate for a Local Hero. He wasn't entirely happy with his performance, and indeed his stage time was extended for a few makeup shots and he didn't get as many A-zone hits on the IPSC poppers as he would have preferred. But very few shooters managed this24-round stage in under 15 seconds, which included some non-productive travel time.
The final video was among the last I filmed.
Stage 2, "Triple Time" features a Texas Star and six IPSC targets. Every IPSC target must be engaged with at least 3 rounds
Since most IPSC stages only require engagement with two rounds, this is a 'play with your mind' stage. Throw in the Texas Star (I witnessed one shooter who used 3 8-round magazines to drop the 5 8" plates from the star"), and you have a lot of potential problems.
And then there is the matter of SS reloads ...
Rich (who drove down from the Seattle area to compete in this match --- we were squadded together in the Ice Cream Squad at the Area 1 match last month) encountered a common problem: the 10-round magazines often jam when reloaded in a SS pistol which has been shot empty. The slide locks back, the shooter rams another magazine into the gun, and the gun refuses to allow the slide to move forward to chamber the first round. It has happened to me many times, and it's always embarassing.
However, I've never managed to handle the situation with such penache.
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