Match results here.
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On Saturday, February 10, 2007, 78 competitors gathered in the overcast morning to compete in a means-nothing local club match and take their chances of shooting in the rain.
We were not disappointed.
The weather held at cloudy-but-dry and about 50 degrees temperature until around10:30am, and then the rain started.
Nobody went home.
This was an astonishing turnout for this time of year. A year ago, 60 shooters was about as many as were likely to show up for a Points Match. This match was a definite "Means Nothing" match. No honors, no Points toward winning a slot to the 2007 Nationals (the next points match is at Dundee on the usual Fourth Saturday match) and no reason to show up.
Except ... it has been a long yucky winter, and we have been hungry for some IPSC shooting.
One more thing. Due to the aggressive marketting efforts of ARPC Executive Office Mac McCarter, there were 15 ... FIFTEEN ... New Shooters trying for their finish their Columbia Cascade Section IPSC Certification. They went through the training, now they have to finish one match without a safety violation to acquire their Certification Card which allows them to compete in USPSA matches in this section without being identified as a New Shooter.
The certification course is rigorous, of course, and includes both an extended lesson in the IPSC/USPSA rule book and some practical range work to insure that each applicant understands the practical rules of IPSC competition as well as special safety rules and practices, as well as the protocol and ethics of the sport.
Usually, this is a cheerful chance to meet new people with similar views and values. Unfortunately, it is also and always a challenge to meet the standards of gunhandling expertise which are not commonly enforced in a 'open range' environment.
Since there were 78 people at the match, and 15 of them new shooters, the inexperienced pariticpants were distributed among the SIX squads. Our squad had 3 new shooters, and we were glad to get them.
We love to see new people joining The Sport, and usually we have no problems helping them to assimilate the techniques needed to safely negotiate even the toughest stage.
Unfortunately, as we become aclimated to competitive shooting, we tend to forget that we're Playing With Fire.
We failed to adequately coach at least one of our new friends, with the sad result that he broke one of the primary safety rules ... keeping the muzzle downrange.This was a personal failure which came home to me when the muzzle of his pistol swung lazily across the crown of my head during a reload. I was perhaps understandably disconcerted, and we were both unhappy with the situation and (he at least) with the resulting Match DQ.
The video of this event is included here, which is a 12MB compression of 44MB of video. For a much more compressed (and consequently less detail is viewable) version of the film, watch this:
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