The Agony and The Ecstasy: Part 2

The Ecstasy
When you've been in pain some discomfort for a while, the absence is as if an incredible burden has been lifted from your shoulders.

I feel so much better tonite than I have for the past four or five days, I have definitely decided to take The Hobo Brasser up on his invitation to join him at the "Tactical Three Gun Match" this Sunday.

This is a part of the regular "Tactical Rifle" presented at Tri-County Gun Club in Sherwood, Oregon. I think. Or, it's a special match; I never really understood where it fit in with the program.

As it was explained to me, it sounds something like the Pistol-Caliber Carbine match I shot there in May of last year.

But not quite. As The Hobo Brasser explained to me, it is very '3-gun' in that I will be using a rifle (the Mech Tech), a shotgun (the Mossberg 590 I bought last April in a "Buy-A-Gun Day" excess of testosterone, and haven't had a use for since), and a Pistol (the 10mm STI Edge, the front sight of which I haven't seen clearly since 2003.)

If all goes as as expected, there may be six stages:

• Rifle only
• Pistol only
• Shotgun only
• Rifle and Pistol
• Rifle and Shotgun
• Shotgun and Pistol

There may even be another stage: Rifle/Shotgun/Pistol. Who knows. I don't; I'm just making it up as I go along, based upon the description of previous matches I listened to with half an ear when The Hobo Brasser is talking.

This should be an interesting match. I've never done '3-gun', although I've done a grueling "All-Shotgun, All Day Long" match (and paid for it in Pain). Um, well, I'm use to that. (Note that the image shown on the left is much uglier in full-size, so don't click on the picture to see the bruising.)

Another point of interest is that The Hobo Brasser has offered to provide the shotgun shells if I attend. That's nice, but it's not fair. I bought two boxes of #6 Remington 2-3/4" and three 5-round boxes of slugs for the match, and I have various buckshot on the ammo rack in the garage. Surely it won't take more than that. Will it?

I also have 100 rounds of .45acp, and another hundred rounds of 10mm. And spare batteries for the archaic Pro-Point1 on the Mech Tech, and a semi-racegun holster for the STI Edge.

That holster doesn't always release right, though. It's hard finding a holster that will retain a pistol with a full-dust-cover. I hope I don't give myself a wedgie when I attempt to draw the pistol from the holster.

As for the problem with the blurry pistol sights, I will be wearing my bifocular reading glasses I had made up last year. They're specifically ground to allow me to focus on an object 4" from the end of my extended hands, and they incorporate "Phoenix" lenses, which is the improved Trivex (much like Polycarbonate, but better) as I mentioned in my boring series on Shooting Glasses.

Yeah, I think I've got it covered. Except that I need another chamber flag ... I only have one. Hopefully, I can buy one at the range.

I'm getting kind of excited about this. I'll definitely be re-reading my December, 2006 article on the Mech Tech to remind myself how it works. I don't expect to impress anyone, but I'll have a good time and take lots of pictures, and probably some video. If any of it turns out well, maybe I'll post some of it here so you can see what it Three-Gun looks like when performed by amateurs.

Or, as we say in the business:

Geeks & Geezers!