Up You Go!

Last weekend's ARPC Club Match was a delightful 'Retro' experience.

MD Mike McCarter dragged out some tried-and-true stages from earlier days, and leavened the mixture with new stage designs which were both challenging and fun. (Match results here.)

Unfortunately, I was entered in the wrong division during sign-up; as this was the first match that I had shot in a long time when I shot 'clean' (no misses, no penalties), I would have preferred that I had been classified correctly. I had a lot of fun, I was squadded with all good people, so I don't really care. It's just that my posted results made me look better than I really was, considering that I was posted in "Limited 10" division rather than "Open". It has been a long time since I shot that well in L10.

One of the "Retro" stages was Stage 5: "Up You Go".

This basic stage design requires the competitor to engage some close cardboard ("Metric") targets, and some far. You must move a short distance on the level part of the stage, then move up a ramp to a platform which allows you to engage 6 steel targets (5 Pepper Poppers, on US Popper) around a barricade constructed of plastic barrels stacked three high. It's a test of balance, and figuring out your personal best way of choosing when and where to engage the paper targets.

This design has been included in at least two Single Stack matches, and a couple of club matches. It's not new to us, but the minor variations are sufficient to make each iteration a new challenge.

The following video shows a half-dozen or so competitors who each choose their own way to shoot the stage. The greatest variable is whether they find a 'sweet spot' in which to engage six targets (four close, two far downrange) or to take the downrange targets from the ramp or the platform. It provides each shooter the option to shoot 'on the move' or from a static position.

And when you get to the top of the platform, all huffing and puffing out of breath, it's a test to see if you can get all six steel targets without having to make up misses. I required eight shots to knock down the six steel targets; the highest round-count shown here was 12 shots to knock down six, but that shooter missed faster than I could hit them. Only one shooter in my squad shot the steel 'clean', and Kevin R. has been getting better and better with his new Open gun.

Here's how it looks. You can see the shooters with limited magazine capacity, because they shot the stage much different from those who only have 10 rounds in their magazines.