Sidebar Tour

While I was procrastinating (I still have at least one article to write about the CCS Sectional Match), I decided to up date my sidebar.

It's kind of like in college, when I had a paper due the next day so I decided to clean my desk. Then I found my checkbook, which I hadn't seen for WEEKS (since the last paper was due 'tomorrow') and sat down to balance it. Then I started looking for a pen and found it resting on a half-finished letter to Mom, so I finished it, then balanced my checkbook, then finished cleaning the desk, stared at the typewriter and my notes for a while, and went off to the post office to buy stamps.

You know how it goes. Sometimes, when you sit down to Write (capitalized), you decide to just write (lower case).

My sidebar features both books and movies, because I'm interested in reading things that other people have written, and . . . and . . . and watching movies because it takes neither imagination nor effort. That's partly why I gave up my Cable TV subscription five years ago and never missed it; when I had TV, it was too easy to do absolutely NOTHING for hours at a time.

But I still have the TV, and a VCR and a DVD player. I buy the movies I like, and watch them from time to time. By now I have a pretty good library, so it's no problem deciding that tonite I feel like watching "ZULU", and a couple of days ago I watched "Gross Point Blank", and before that "Young Guns", and before that I watched "Point of No Return" with Brigit Fonda as well as "La Femme Nikita" in the original French version, and before that "Last Man Standing" and "Silverado" and "Ronin" and .... well, you get the idea. And you know what kind of violent action movies I enjoy. So sue me.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, the sidebar.

MOVIES:
This week I put up the movie "ZULU", which is the story of how "a scarce one hundred fifty" British Soldiers and auxiliaries repelled an attack by over four thousand Zulu warriors at the Battle of Rorke's Drift on January 22-23, 1879. I very much admire this movie, and watch it every few months. It may differ from historic reality in some details, but generally it seems to be accurate, at least according to an online website which describes the battle. Some of the incidental details are ignored or distorted for dramatic effect in the movie, and some of the characters are depicted inaccurately (the Swedish Minister Otto Witt, for example, was not drunk nor banished and his daughter was not present at the scene). However, by all available accounts it was indeed a valiant defense and the unprecedented 11 Victoria Crosses were certainly earned the hard way.

BOOKS:
I'm reading S.M. Stirling again. More accurately, I am re-reading him. In the mid 1990's Steve Stirling wrote a 5-book series, called "The General", with David Drake. He went on to write the 3-book "Nantucket" series on his own; this is a "Misplaced Moderns" SF tale of his own origination and "The Oceans of Eternity" is the final book. The theme is that the entire island of Nantucket is (somehow) ripped from 1999 America and transported to the same site in the Bronze-Age.

Stirling went on to write two other books on the same theme. In one, "Dies The Fire", he supposes that the world left behind by this dramatic anti-juxtapositioning is left without the ability to support rapid combustion (e.g. guns don't work) and electricity no longer functions.

In the other book, "Conquistador", he presupposes a similar multi-millenial era which is reachable by means of what can only be described as a 'dimensional portal' (reminiscent of Heinlein's "Tunnel In The Sky", or "The Door Into Summer"). Here, the "Misplaced Moderns" are in control. Their guns shoot, their electricity works, and they move both into the primitive world and make it their own ... with some primitive but deadly opposition from the temporal natives.

Surely I do admire the work of Stirling, although I find his "Draka" series somewhat too cruel to re-read.


LINKS:
You have doubtless that in recent weeks I added "Truth Laid Bear", Syd's "Front Sight, Press", and "Trigger Finger" to my sidebar. Today I corrected the non-functional link to BEAR, changing it to the 'gun bloggers community'. And I added a new link to "Lay Lines". Marc (apparently a Californian, but I like his writing anyway) talks about an air-gun range he built in his back yard, going to the range for recreational shooting, and using IPSC targets. What's not to like? Well, the organization of his archive is a little weird for my taste. I think that's a BlogSpot problem, though, and has nothing to do with the author. Obviously I like his politics, especially his RKBA position. He's easy to read and I think you'll like him, too. Go check the link over on the right side of the page.

TEMPLATE:
I've often contemplated changing my template. The colors are a little muddy and I like the crisp clean look of a white background. Also, I would like a sidebar to the left side of the screen as I've noticed in some other blogsites. I have a lot more incidental crap to display and . . . hey, wait a minute! This thing takes too long to load already, and the links and archive go all the way down to the floor. This blog already sags like Mother Hubbard's breasts, and I want to make it BIGGER?

Okay, so there's a good reason not to change the template. Also, I'm not convinced that BlogSpot is set up to directly convert from one template to another, so I might lose either content or functionality.

And besides, I'm not sure I want to spend the time backing up the current template, trying to plug it into a new one, and possibly re-installing the current template just to get back to where I started.

I'll have to find a MUCH better reason for procrastinating, before I get into THAT project!

In the meantime, I need to get OFF the blogspot and update the winners of the CCS Points Race. I think I lost B-Open, in which division I led before my disastrous performance at the Sectional match last weekend.

No; before you ask, that has nothing to do with my procrastination. I'm just naturally lazy.

Blastorama and stuff

I know I said I was going to talk about 'funny things that happened during the CCS Sectional IPSC Match tonite, but I'm getting really burned out on that match. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe not.

Besides, my POS IP (which is AOL . . . can't you just smell the acronmyms?) is acting up tonite, and I don't know how much of this will actually be posted. FWIW, it turns out that I live too far out-of-town to receive a reliable signal from the WiFi transmiter, so I'm stuck with AOL until I can choose between two equally unpalatable options: QWEST and COMCAST. Bad choices. I hate telephones almost as much as I hate Cable.

Tonite, I just want to trip the light fantastic. I'd rather talk about tomorrow than about yesterday.

Phil at "Random Nuclear Strikes" has organized a Blogger Shoot for Saturday, August 20, 2005. It will take place in Portland, Oregon, and several of the RKBA Bloggers in the area will be there.

I'll be there. I hope I can talk SWMBO into being there, but it depends on whether A_Place_To_Shoot likes compensated .38 Supers bangin' & clangin' on their armor-steel backstop. FreddyBoomBoom (Prince Andrew of an earlier post) has said he will be there. Perhaps some of the Usual Suspects will be free that day, and come out for lunch, a range session, and even a dockside BBQ.

It's an opportunity to meet some of the most opinionionated private citizens in the PNW, have lunch and dinner, and shoot. What's not to like?



Here's some filler:

What's your IP? I'm at 17*.1*5.17*.*70
(You didn't think I was going to give out my IP for free, did you?)

HT to Tyler at .45 Caliber Justice, who also offers this T-shirt photo:

An Arizona Cowgirl, a friend of Cowboy Blob, blogs about her new gun. Caution: mauser photos, may not be work freindly.

Here's a Canadian who not only doesn't think Canada should enter a mutual defense agreement with America, not only doesn't like guns, but thinks that California's SB357 (calling for serialization of individual rounds of ammunition) is A Good Idea.

Finally ... I can't help it. I'm a proud father and a proud grandfather. Here's a photo of my daughter, "Foo", and her daughter, "Sam".


Okay, as long as I'm in a maudlin mode, here's a photo of my son, Ben, and his son, J-Bob.


(I'll have more recent pictures in subsequent posts. I love these kids. Deal with it!)

Keystone Kops II - Thematic Design Considerations

You may never have seen any of the Keystone Kops movies, which means you probably never saw movies by Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, or any of the other great comedic talents of the Silent Screen.

Too bad. You've missed something.


(Image Hosting by ImageShack ... click on thumbnail for full-size photo)

Even though the early Hollywood directors had no qualms about using sex to sell movies, their general approach toward comedy was to capitalize on sight gags. When your movie doesn't have a sound track, that's about all you have to work with. The only way they could communicate comedy was with sight gags, or by flashing 'title frames' on the screen. That only distracted their audience.



Consequently, the main characters who became STARS had their own schtick. Buster Keaton was "The Great Stoneface".



Harold Lloyd played characters who found themselves in impossible situations, often in dangerous places. He always did his own stunts and in places which were NOT studio props. There was the time he found himself hanging from the hands of a steeple clock ....

But the Keystone Kops just ran back and forth, often with disastrous results.



For the Section Match, we had originally thought to use "Television Cops" as the theme. You know, Miami Vice, Kojak, Peter Gunn, 77 Sunset Strip, and even Dukes of Hazard (okay, so they weren't exactly cops, but there was a cop in the show if you count Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane and his deputy Enos Strate.)

On second thought, we changed the theme to "Keystone Kops", just because it was a more lyrical name, and for the alliteration.

This developed into a theme. What if many of the stages required the shooters to run back and forth across the shooting bay, in a manner reminiscent of the Keystone Kops?

This sounded like more fun, and so the stage designs were 'tweaked' by Match Director Mike McCarter ("Mac" to his friends) and especially to his evil alter ego, "Mikey". Also, we had valuable input by the Dundee Club Representative "Barsoom", who needs no alter ego to work his mischief when building stages.

Remington Steele
Thus we had "Remington Steele" (designed by the Hobo Brasser) which was completely altered by Mikey so that the competitor starts in the middle, runs to one side of the stage and then runs to the other side of the stage.



Dukes of Hazard
The Dukes of Hazard stage required the shooters to drop a whiskey jug into a barrel, which activated a disappearing target with a hang time of approximately one half second. (The DT is seen at the right edge of the photo, partially obscured by the barrel.)


Miami Vice
The Miami Vice stage let the competitors kick open doors ... except of course you couldn't actually kick them, lest the Airstream Trailer prop be damaged during the match. The problem was, there were two doors. When you open the left hand door, a swinger was activated which was visible only from a port on the right side. When you open the right hand door, a swinger was activated which was visible only from a port on the left side. There was no alternative to moving back and forth across the stage. Here Scott Springer is working out the best way to shoot the stage.


Starsky & Hutch
"Starsky & Hutch" was a pure hoser stage. Put up a wall, with gaps in it. Targets on the ends. Add ground traps in each of the wall gaps, to activate moving IPSC targets. Throw in steel Poppers, stacked up so you have to knock one down to see the one behind it, and a couple of partially hidden targets for you to forget to shoot.

Match Winner Glen Higdon is shown here, walking through the stage BEHIND the wall so he can count the targets.



It was a good idea to make sure you knew how many targets there were, and where you had to be standing to see them, because there were more targets than there seemed to be, if you only considered that the score sheet listed a mere 24 rounds.



Match winner (GM) Glen Higdon finished the stage in 12.83 seconds with 107 points.


Stage Winner (GM - no photo available) Yong Lee finished the stage in 12.38 seconds with 115 points.

Thirteen year-old C-Open shooter Ryan Leonard finished the stage in 17.42 seconds with 102 points,

beating sixty year-old B-Open shooter Jerry the Geek who finished the stage in 19.21 seconds with 112 points.


(I never liked that kid!)

It's a young man's game, when youthful talent so readily beats experienced treachery.

Keystone Kops I - Burned Out!

You know what it's like, when the passion is spent and you're completely spent and lying in a pool of sweat? You're ecstatic that you did it ... Finally! ... but you're glad it's over because you just don't have any juice left inside you?

That's how I feel today.

The Columbia Cascade 2005 Section Tournament is over, and I have literally sweated gallons over the five days of its duration.

Well, the match was only two days long . . . Saturday and Sunday, August 6&7.

I took Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off work to help with the setup. That may have been a mistake, because I have never worked harder in my life. Still, there's a certain amount of satisfaction in having accomplished something that worked out so well.

The match was held at both the Croc Dundee range and the Tri County Gun Club (TCGC) range this past weekend, August 6 and 7, 2o05. There were 83 competitors (which is a bit disappointing, as the match could have accommodated a 50% higher turnout), and everyone who competed fought to do their best against world-class stages.

The theme for the match was "Keystone Kops".

You may remember this jolly bunch of British-style movie police. Their signature scene was a collection of helmeted police running around in complete disarray, back and forth trying to go somewhere but not sure where or why. This describes many of the stages in this IPSC match operating under USPSA rules in two ... count 'em, 2 ... ranges in NW Oregon.


(Left to right: SWMBO, Stan G., Geek. Click on image for HR view)

The match was too big to host on a single range. There were ten regular stages, plus a classifier stage, plus the Chronograph stage. Dundee hosted four stages and the classifier, and the schedule allowed each squad to shoot the Classifier and then go through the Chronograph in about the same amount of time as everyone else was shooting a regular stage. TCGC hosted six BIG stages. Each squad spend one day on each range; half of the squads started at Dundee on Saturday, the other half started at TCGC. On Sunday, the squads switched ranges.

Essentially, the Dundee range only had 5 stages, because it took about as much time to shoot the classifier stage AND go through Chrono as it took to shoot any other stage on the range. This allowed the folks who shot at Dundee to finish earlier.

This was important to the schedule, because on the second day of the match (Sunday), the folks who were shooting at the Dundee range needed to go through all of the stages, and the Chronograph, and have time to drive back to the range at TCGC. The drive distance was about ten miles, taking about 25 minutes including loading up and parking at TCGC, but they were in a hurry because the penultimate event of the match was the BBQ catered by Buster's BBQ at the TCGC range. After the catered lunch (included in the $65 match fees), the awards ceremony was held on Bay 1 at TCGC ... a few feet from the BBQ.

This match was a USPSA National Points Match, and as such it attracted five GMs.

David Sevigny won Production and Glenn Higdon won Open Division.
Yong Lee won Limited, John Hill was 2nd Limited, and Ken Jacobe placed 4th Limited (falling 4% behind B-Limited Ernie Hockens, who had won Limited Class in the NW Classic in Washington the weekend before.)

We had two dauntless Revolver Division competitors; C-Class shooter Jerry Vanderwerf was 2nd in his first year of competition, and A-Class Dan Carden came in next-to-last.

There were three Junior shooters: Ryan Leonard WON C-Open against fierce competition, while Chris Cardoza WON C-Production. Andrew Wesley was shooting Unclassified Production, also in his first year of competition.

Sandie Smith (SWMBO) was Top Lady in Open Division, Erica Scarbrough was Top Lady in Limited 10, and Nancy Mars WON D-Open.

Joe DiSimone won Top Senior, Jerry the Geek was top Super Senior.


The complete results are available at the Columbia Cascade websitee.

I have a LOT to say about the match, but just don't have the energy or the initiative to go through it all now.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'll talk about the stage designs and how they reflected both the Keystone Kops theme and the USPSA National Points Match challenge.

Wednesday we'll hear about the funny things that happen during what we Local Folks consider a Major Match.

And Thursday, we'll discuss rules applications in real-time. You can expect to see discussions about the number of no-shoot hits, use of tools to clear a jam, match disqualification, and loss of hearing protection while shooting a stage. (I am personally looking forward to this subject, because I LOVE talking about the rules!)

The volume of content in this relatively short article is below my norm, but I have an excuse for not providing much 'color'. After five days of 90+ degree heat, I'm entirely too resource-depleted to discuss the details. It doesn't help that I've just received a new Rolling Stones CD from Amazon.com (via USPSA.ORG, of course, so they get a percentage of the sales price) and would rather listen to new/old music than to indulge my predilection for creative writing.

Fish Down!

Last month I may have mentioned that one of The Usual Suspects tripped over a prop and fell while shooting an IPSC stage.



I should mention that this is remarkable because the competitor (Fish) managed to keep his pistol pointed safely downrange and complete the stage with no penalty other than having taken a LOT of time (well, a couple of seconds) in excess of the stage completion time turned in by people who did NOT trip over a spike hammered into the ground. My congratulations to Fish for his superior gun-handling skills.)

I wasn't able to host this scenario over the web, because my available software will not store MPG files, especially those which are more than 1MB in size.

Things have changed!

At great personal expense, I have purchased software * which permits me to created Animated GIF files from the whatever.MPG files which I film with a digital camera during IPSC matches. With due respect for BandWidth, I have carefully chopped it into a sub-1MB file that you can see here.

(It's a lot smaller, faster, and easier to see than the original 2+MB file in whatever.mpg format, because I reduced the image size. Also, I cut out every other frame, so it will appear a little 'choppy'.)

Not everyone wants to see large animated GIFs, so I leave it to your discretion whether you choose to load the animated pictures.

Note that it still requires over 3 minutes to download on a 56kb modem.

Look for more animated GIF files on this website ... as soon as I learn how to make this sucker work!

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

[ * NB: For folks who care, the software which I bought to support this option is Corel's Paint Shop Pro 9, which includes a subsidiary application named "Animation 3". This latter software application is the part which actually converts movies to animated GIF files. Maybe someday I'll spend some time learning how to use Paint Shop Pro. In the meantime, "Animation 3" is available from the Corel website for $40 as a stand-along application]

[NB 2: maybe someday I'll learn how to apply Anchors to my blog enries, and I can quit using the cheesy asterisks to refer to notes.]

Day of the Evil Drawstring

FOX 12 OREGON Drawstring blamed for deputy's accidental shooting

It's official.

Marion County (Salem, Oregon) Sheriff's Deputy Steven Cooper was not mishandling his sidearm when it accidentally discharged, striking him in the leg.

Instead, it was the drawstring on the waistband of his jacket which somehow, mysteriously, for no apparent reason but with obvious malice aforethought worked its evil way into his holster and around the trigger of his service pistol.

When he raised his arm to open the door of the car in which he was riding, this increased the tension on the drawstring, which fired into his leg.

Rube Goldberg, move over!

The story, if true, is the most preposterous excuse I have ever heard to account for an accidental discharge. And Deputy Steven Cooper is either the biggest storyteller most creative unfortunate self-victim I have ever heard of, or the unluckiest police officer.

This is a clear case for drawstring control.

If a million gang-bangers can manage drive-by shooting without shooting holes in their legs (have you seen the hooded sweatshirts? They have drawstrings at their waistbands!), why can't professional Law Enforcement Officers exercise the same Drawstring Control?

People don't shoot people. Drawstrings do.
_____________________________________
UPDATE:
This is what I write when I don't know what I'm talking about. Please see the correction, and my apology on Day of the Evil Drawstring Part II.
__________________________________________________
UPDATE: 13-JUL-2008
This article contains broken links. For the complete story, see "Day of the Evil Drawstring - Part III".

Portland, Oregon Bloggerfest

The Analogue Kid (see sidebar) is organizing a shooting event which is a thinly disguised reason for are bloggers to get together. The idea is that people who write, and people who read (no, you don't need to have a Web Log to be welcome), have an excuse to meet&greet.

He got this idea because he plans to attend the Practical Shotgun match at Tri-County Gunclub (TCGC) on Sunday, August 21. He figured he would come down early Saturday and spend that afternoon playing 'mine is bigger than yours' (firearms version) with like-minded folks.

The Practical Shotgun match is scheduled on the regular IPSC match day, which has been cancelled because the range will be co-host (with Dundee) for the Columbia Cascade Section Match on August 6-7. The IPSC folks at TCGC will be busy the week before, and the entire 2-day weekend, putting up stages and administering the match. Nobody is very interested in putting together another IPSC match two weeks later, and I don't blame them.

Unfortunately, the August 20 calendar for TCGC is full; There's a Cowboy Action match (surprising, since Albany is hosting their annual 2-day SAS match that weekend), Hi-Power, and a Hunter Ed class scheduled for the same day. Besides, the Shotgun match will be in the process of being set up that afternoon. The implication is that it will be difficult for TCGC to provide range facilities for this informal range session ... not the least because nobody associated with the event is a member of TCGC.

For various reasons, it appears that other ranges in the area will also be extensively utilized (Geek-speak for "they're all too busy to shepherd a bunch of strangers") during the planned time period, so the only remaining available range is "The Place To Shoot" (TPTS) in Delta Park. This is a certified bummer, becase TPTS is an indoor range and folks can't trot out their shotguns and rifles. Worse, you can't draw from the holster at TPTS.

The point of this whining is that I would REALLY like to find a better range for the event. It's not so much that TPTS range fees are $25 per person, as it is that they only allow a limited variety of firearm types to be used there.

BEGGING ALERT!

If you are a member of a gun club in the immediate Portland area, and would be willing to acquire permission for this informal Saturday Afternoon shooting event, I would be eternally grateful if you would step up and identify yourself as a potential host.

I will be there, I suspect I can talk SWMBO into attending, and the list of guests includes may folks who are referenced on the sidebar. Right now, minimum attendants are AK, Rivrdog, Your Humble Geek, Perhaps SondraK and Mr. Completely. Again, readers are always invited and welcome ... this is not an exclusive event. It's just a bunch of experienced and well-mannered firearms folks getting together to meet, throw a bunch of rounds downrange, and Do Lunch.

You can reach me via the comments section (see below) for this post.

The General, Part II

Six months ago I wrote of my friend, Michael R. Jones, who had passed away and who had left a legacy which will long be remembered by all of his friends.

This week another of his friends, Randy S., announced the First Annual Mike Jones Memorial Classic Battle Rifle Match. This well be held August 13, 2005, at Tri-County Gun Club.

Rather than clutter up the announcement with my own proselytizing, I'll just present the entire email message. You will find that it not only describes the match and sets the background, it includes many accolades the the United States Marine Corps. Well deserved, and thank you, Randy, for including it. jB)

[NB: the following is the entire, unedited text of the announcement]

Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 12:08 AM
To: practical-rifle
Subject: [Practical-Rifle] Classic Battle Rifle Match August 13th! (Modern rifles welcome, too.)

Classic Battle Rifle Match

This match is intended to honor the memory of our friend and warrior, Mike Jones.

The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!

Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, 1945

Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem. Ronald Reagan, President of the United States; 1985

Marines I see as two breeds, Rottweilers or Dobermans, because Marines come in two varieties, big and mean, or skinny and mean. They're aggressive on the attack and tenacious on defense. They've got really short hair and they always go for the throat.

RAdm. "Jay" R. Stark, USN; 10 November 1995

On August 13^th, 2005, Practical Rifle will have the first annual Mike Jones Memorial Classic Battle Rifle Match. As you know, Mike Jones was a former Marine and was active in practical pistol, tactical and practical rifle shooting at Tri-County Gun Club for decades, actively competing until his death at age 76 earlier this year. He was truly an inspiration to all shooters who begin to feel the effects of aging.

The Marine Corps was very important to Mike. Every year, on November 10th, Mike organized a get-together of former Marines to celebrate the Marine Corps birthday. In a movie, R. Lee Ermy once said, "Marines die, that's what we're here for, but the Marine Corps lives forever and that means you live forever."

Mike was a man of incredible depth, intelligence and experience. I remember once when we were having lunch together at a Chinese restaurant when Mike struck up a conversation with the restaurant owner in Mandarin Chinese! Mike will live forever in the memory of all of us who knew him well. If you are connected to the Marine Corps in any way, contact me so we can continue the birthday tradition that Mike Jones organized for so many years.

You may shoot this match with either a classic battle rifle or with a modern rifle. A trophy will be awarded to the top battle rifle, and plaques awarded to the 2-5^th place battle rifles and top manually operated rifle. As usual, certificates will be handed out for the top ten, regardless of rifle type.

The Classic Battle Rifle is a military rifle that was manufactured and in service between the years of 1900 and 1945. For the purpose of this match rifles will be in unmodified service rifle configuration. There will be two categories: manually operated rifle and semi-automatic rifle. <>
NOTE: Modern rifles are welcome to compete in the Classic Battle match, but will be scored separately from the classics.

Examples of manually operated rifles are U.S. Springfield 03 or 03A3, Lee Enfield #1, #4, #5, any Mauser, Mosin/Nagant, Schmidt/Rubin K-31, etc. Examples of semi-automatics are U.S. M-1 Garand, 30 carbine SVT-40, G-41, Johnson Automatic, etc. I believe the SKS fits this description but the AK does not.

This match will use only cardboard targets. Therefore, our usual ban against steel-core or steel-jacketed ammo will not be enforced, as there are no steel targets to damage.

This match requires 76 rounds to complete if you don’t miss. Bring 84 if you plan to miss any shots. I don’t think anything will be over 50 yards.

Below are the stages as I envision them so far. They are subject to change, but I thought you’d want to see them in their draft form.

Classic Battle Rifle Match stages:

All targets are cardboard so steel core ammo is okay for this match only.

Stage One – Eight cardboard targets are 25-50 yards out. Two “step” barricades are placed 10 yards apart, with one 5 yards ahead of the other. Each barricade has five possible shooting ports. You must take at two shots only from only four different shooting ports at each barricade. Each target must have two scoring hits to be neutralized.

Score is your time, plus 10 second penalty added for each target not neutralized, plus 10 seconds for each procedural (less than four ports, or less than two shots from a port, or more than two shots from a port, etc.)

Stage Two – A table will be set up near the starting point so the next shooter can load and make ready while facing the rock wall (with the supervision of an auxiliary range officer.) On signal, you will run to each of 12 shooting areas and engage one target from each area. You must use any available cover. Each target must have two scoring hits to be neutralized. Extra shots are okay.

Score is time plus 10 seconds added for each target not neutralized and 10 seconds added for each failure to use available cover. (To avoid penalty for failure to use cover, do not expose your nipples to the targets.)

All targets will be quite close (5-15 yards). RO and scorekeeper will score and tape while returning to start position. Next shooter will be loaded at prep table, waiting for RO to return.

Stage Three – Eight targets face you at about 35 yards away. From standing, you will hit each target one time only from a standing position, move to a kneeling position, reload, and hit each target once more, then move to a prone position, reload again and hit each target a third time.

Score is your time, plus ten seconds for each target that has more or less than three scoring hits. Failure to reload when required is another 10 second penalty added to your time. If you have a bolt action, or any gun with a capacity less than eight, you may reload only when necessary, without penalty.

Stage Four – Start position is standing, fully loaded, behind a large barricade with six different shooting ports, numbered 1-6. On signal, you will pick up the two dice from inside a box, and roll them, inside the box. You will shoot the single target that faces you with one shot from each of the shooting ports designated by the dice. Repeat this sequence for a total of six times, shooting only 12 shots at the target.

Score is your time, plus penalty of ten seconds added for each hit more or less than twelve hits on the target, and each procedural, such as shooting from the wrong port, shooting more than one shot from port (unless you roll doubles), failing to remove finger from trigger guard while moving, etc.

The Marine as seen by.........

Himself:

A Stout, Handsome, Highly-Trained Professional Killer and Female Idol, who wears a star sapphire ring, carries a finely honed K-Bar, is covered with a crisp cammie cover, and is always on time due to the reliability of his Seiko Diver's Watch.

His Wife:

A stinking, gross, foul mouthed bum, who arrives home every 6 months or so with a seabag full of filthy utilities, a huge ugly watch, an oversized knife, and a filthy hat.

Headquarters Marine Corps:

A drunken Brawling, HMMWV stealing, women corrupting liar, with a star sapphire ring, Seiko watch, unauthorized K-Bar, and a screwed up cover.

His Commanding Officer:

A fine specimen of a drunken Brawling, HMMWV stealing, women corrupting bullshitter, with a star sapphire ring, fantastically accurate Seiko watch, finely honed razor sharp K-Bar, and a salty cammie cover.

Congress:

An over paid, over-rated, tax burden, who is however, indispensable since he will volunteer to go anywhere, at any time, and kill whoever he is told to, as long as he can, drink, brawl, steal HMMWV's, corrupt women, kick cats, lie, sing dirty songs, wear filthy cammies, big sapphire rings, over-sized knives, Seiko watches and really screwed up covers.

Ronald Reagan, former President of the United States:

"Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don't have that problem. "

General Douglas MacArthur, U.S. Army:

". . . these Marines have the swagger, confidence, and hardness that must have been in Stonewall Jackson's Army of the Shenandoah. They remind me of the Coldstreams at Dunkerque."

Admiral Chester Nimitz, U.S. Navy, of the Marine Corps battle for Iwo Jima:

"Uncommon valour was a common virtue"

General Douglas MacArthur, US Army:

"I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world!"

Lieutenant Colonel T.R. Fehrenbach, US Army in "This Kind of War":

"The man who will go where his colors will go, without asking, who will fight a phantom foe in a jungle and mountain range, without counting, and who will suffer and die in the midst of incredible hardship, without complaint, is still what he has always been, from Imperial Rome to sceptered Britain to Democratic America. He is the stuff of which legions are made. His pride is his colors and his regiment, his training hard and thorough and coldly realistic, to fit him for what he must face, and his obedience is to his orders. As a legionaire, he held the gates of civilization for the classical world... today he has been called United States Marine."

An Anonymous Canadian Citizen:

"Marines are about the most peculiar breed of human beings I have ever witnessed. They treat their service as if it was some kind of cult, plastering their emblem on almost everything they own, making themselves up to look like insane fanatics with haircuts to ungentlemanly lengths, worshipping their Commandant almost as if he was a god, and making weird animal noises like a band of savages. They'll fight like rabid dogs at the drop of a hat just for the sake of a little action, and are the cockiest SOB's I have ever known. Most have the foulest mouths and drink well beyond man's normal limits, but their high spirits and sense of brotherhood set them apart and, generally speaking, of the United States Marines I've come in contact with, are the most professional soldiers and the finest men I have had the pleasure to meet. "

General Pershing, U.S. Army:

"The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle! "

General Mark Clark, U. S. Army:

"The more Marines I have around the better I like it! "

General Johnson, U. S. Army:

"I can never again see a United States Marine without experiencing a feeling of reverence. "

Richard Harding Davis, war correspondent (1885):

"The Marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand. "

An Anonymous U.S. Marine:

"I recently attended a Kansas City Chiefs football game at Arrowhead Stadium. It was their annual Veteran's day salute so members of all the services were asked to participate in the festivities.

A color guard for the National Anthem was provided by the Buffalo Soldiers Association. They looked very sharp in their 1800's era U.S. Army Cavalry uniforms. Following that the U.S. Navy parachute team put on an impressive display that brought great cheers from the 78,000 football fans in attendance. Shortly after that we were treated to the truly awesome sight of an Air Force B-2 Stealth bomber flyover as well as a few other aircraft. All of these sights were truly appreciated by the crowd (especially the B-2) who let it be known by their cheers. I expected that was all that we would see of the Military that day.

I thought we would see a high school or college marching band during halftime. Few watch these shows anyway because they have to use the head or grab another beer (or two) during the intermission.

Shortly before half time, however, I looked down on the sidelines near the end zone and saw the Silent Drill Platoon forming up. As the halftime started the players left the field and the announcer came on the public address system and advised us of the Platoons performance. Many of us Marines have seen these performances in the past and they are always awe-inspiring. I did not expect that the large "civilian" crowd of football fans would be as appreciative of the Silent Drill Platoon as they had been of the high-tech B-2, or the daring of the Navy parachute team. I however was on the edge of my seat. As the Platoon marched onto the field it was very noticeable that the crowd was growing quieter. Soon the Platoon was fully into their demonstration and the stadium was silent.

From high in the stands upper reaches where my seats were I was able to hear the "snap and pop" of hand striking rifle. Both big screen scoreboards displayed close ups of the Marines as they went through their routine. As they completed their platoon demonstration and lined up for the inspection the crowd began cheering as the Marines twirled their rifles in impossible fashion. Then came the inspection. Again the crowd fell silent and watched intently as rifles were thrown, caught, twirled, inspected and thrown some more. Each well practiced feat brought a "wow" or "did you see that?" from those sitting behind me or next to me.

I sat there in my silent pride as I watched my brother Marines exit the field. A young girl behind me asked her mother a question about how the Marines learn to do the things they just did. The mother replied "They practice long and hard and they're Marines, so they're the best."

Semper Fidelis!!!

I hope to see you all at the range!

Randy

An Armed Society is a Polite Society

Fish Bait

One of my shooting friends, a member of The Usual Suspects, is a little dissatisfied with the flack he has to take on a semi-regular basis.

Why is he criticized?

He's altitudenally challenged
diminuetively statured
just a meter less than eight feet tall

???

He's short.

Not tall.

Short.

The reason this came up in discussion is, we both attended an IPSC match at Dundee last weekend, and one of the stages (Bay 1) featured a close-array of IPSC targets which were protected by a four-foot vision barrier which had been designated as 'hard cover'.
This was an issue because ... no, I'll let him tell it in his own words:

Put a 4-foot wall in front of a 5'2" shooter and hide targets down behind it and I'll ask for a step up every time. I shouldn't have to hang over a wall up to my armpits to shoot targets. That does not present the same challenge to all shooters as should be the case.

Let me see:
Five Foot Two figures out to 62 inches. Subtract four feet (48") from that, and you have 14 inches 'overhang'. I haven't done the math in detail, but since I'm 6' tall (72") this is roughly equivalent to requiring me to hang my frame over a five-foot fence. Because the targets were within three feet of the barrier, a shorter person has to hang his entire upper-body, from armpits up, over the barrier in order to get a clear shot at the targets. My armpits are 57" from the ground, which is 4'9". Fish's armpits are approximately 11" lower than mine, which means that he can easily address targets behind a (4'9" minus 11" = 3'10") vision barrier which is two inches shorter ... but NOT one that is 4' high!

Okay, my math may suck and you think that I'm making a mountain out of a mole-hill, but the fact remains that a target array which is easily and comfortably available for me is neither for Fish.

In point of fact, it is similarly uncomfortable for juniors and lady shooters who of similar stature.

What, aren't we trying (in IPSC and USPSA) to encourage these 'minority groups' to compete?
If so, why aren't we trying to encourage them?

...

In the actual event, Fish requested a 'step-box' which would allow him to achieve the height necessary to compete at the same level of his taller bretheren. Nobody helped him on this ... he's a man, he can deal with his own problems ... but he showed up when it was his turn to shoot the stage with part of a vision barrier build on a 2x4 frame with what was effectively a 2'x3' shooting platform (board) on top of it. He placed this in front of the tall barrier, and turned in a respectable time on the stage.

If he hadn't been able to find his own 'step-box', which allowed him to engage the target array with the same height advantage which most of us enjoyed, he would have found himself at a considerable DIS-advantage. His score for the stage would have suffered accordingly.

Here's the bottom line:

If you are the stage designer for a match, you owe it to your CUSTOMER BASE to make sure that there is no significant advantage in being "tall". By "tall", I'm talking about, say, five and a half feet from ground to pate.

The reason that the vision barrier was 4' tall, is that it's easy to build a vision barrier by cutting an 8' support stick in half. I don't think that there was a conscious effort to make the barrier 'too high' for people who aren't tall. I believe that it was an oversight. A convenience to the setup crew.

But when a shooter has to drag a platform onto a stage just to let him shoot the stage without incurring a disadvantage, two things happen:
(1) He makes a big disruption to the stage and within the squad,
(2) some folks think he's a dork because ... well, because they're dorks and the only way they can understanding THEIR shortcomings is to make a big deal out of the other guy's shortcomings.

So to speak. (I've already decided that there is no way to avoid the word "short" in this blog, so I'm not even going to try. So much for Politically Correct speech, which is just another way of saying "You're DIFFERENT from us, and we're going to rub your nose in it by SEEMING to avoid the word.")

The bottom line is, if you're a stage designer and you want to put up a 'low wall' on your stage ... how about avoiding the four-foot wall? Do your friends a favor and make it a 3.5 feet tall instead.

How hard is that?

_____________________


BTW, Fish send me this link, which purports to represent grafitti found on a concrete support column near the 2005 USPSA Nationals "Off I-72). I haven't bothered to follow up the Thread on the source (the Brian Enos Forum), but I'm inclined to believe it if only because it perfectly illustrates the informal rivalry between Limited and Open-Gun users.

Dundee in July

Now that we have the administrivia out of the way (see previous post), I can tell you some of what I have been doing since we last talked.

The BIG thing is, I went to a club match at the Dundee range.

Yeah, I had a great time, and that ornery SOB named Barsoom beat me again. I don't understand it, I was BRILLIANT! Unfortunately for my ego, he was even more brilliant. Also more accurate, and faster. It seems as if no matter how good (and pure and true) I am, there's always someone who is better ... faster ... stronger.

At least, I'm prettier.

(In a better world, I would post comparison photos here so you could see for yourself. But because I'm too lazy to resize the hi-res photos so they load in less than a half-hour on your computer, as a courtesy to YOU I will allow you to take my word for it rather than require you to judge for yourself. No, don't thank me. It's just part of the service here at Geekistan Central.)

Where was I?
Doing ... Dundee ... fun ... loser ... Barsoom ... prettier ... Geekistan ....

Oh, yeah.

The thing about Summer is that it's hot. Even in Oregon, we're talking about 85 degrees. As an Old Guy, I find that I don't handle heat as well as I use to. This sounds like an excuse even to me, but it's just a fact of life. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as an alibi this time. It wasn't all that hot, I just got beat, straight up. I only mention it because a hot day, with no rain, is such an unusual phenomenon in Oregon that I thought it worthy of mention.

As we were going through the walkthrough prior to the start of the match, Prince Andrew walked up and introduced himself to me. "Hey, you're The Geek?"

No, not the Prince Andrew you're thinking about. This is another Prince Andrew, a guy from Hillsboro who has read some of my work. (As usual, nicknames are used rather than Real Names, to protect the innocent in case anyone I meet or talk about here happens to be innocent. Hasn't happened yet, but it could!) We've exchanged some emails, Prince Andrew and I. He is a pistol shooter, but hasn't ever been to an IPSC match. I had invited him to come out to one of our local matches, and his appearance was in response to this.

Apparently, he posts as "FreddyBoomBoom", but I like Prince Andrew better, don't you? It has such a ... regal ring to it.

I invited P.A. to stick with us so we could chat during the match, and I would answer any questions he had about the game of practical shooting. He chose to do so, and I enjoyed his company. He's not as pretty as I am, and FAR less pretty than SWMBO, but he's still prettier than Barsoom!

It's unfortunate that I was pretty busy during the match, but I had introduced him to the rest of the squad (The Usual Suspects, plus Bob; not Bob the Contrarian but a local shooter who, if I'm not mistaken, also beat me in the match.) Since everybody knew him, I wasn't the only one who was filling his head with IPSC trivia, lore and legend.

As P.A. followed us around, he was privileged to view some of the fun moments in IPSC History.

For example, Big Dog has recently bought a Hoser Cam from Nolan Smythe. We had played with this at the match the previous weekend at Tri County Gun club, and I'm sure we'll enjoy it when Big Dog finally gets the DVDs cut and distributed. In the meantime, we're taking turns wearing the hoser cam. The first time I tried it this match, I was looking REALLY good on the first two target arrays, but by the time I got to the third array I had become aware that I was "On Candid Camera" so I tried to go REALLY fast. The result was that it took me 15 shots to clear a six-plate plate rack and two Pepper Poppers. That's one DVD I would pay real money to suppress.

When we got to the Classifier Stage (Six Chickens, CM03-02) we learned that someone had worked out that the hit-factor necessary to accumulate a B-open score was to clean the 12-round stage in under 12 seconds. Most of us who tried to achieve this rediculous goal caught one of the many no-shoot targets; some of us crashed even more severely. But I bet it was fun watching us trying to catch up with this mythical standard.

I know that I took a lot of pictures, and when I couldn't man the camera, SWMBO took over and got some GREAT movies. In all, we took about 50 movies of the squad shooting the match, and a couple of dozen still photos of individuals. Due to limitations on acceptible bandwidth (and threats of bodily harm from squad members), we won't be showing any of them here. But someday, I'll get some online storage so you can download movies of Great Moments in Usual Suspects Competition. My life won't be worth a plugged nickle from that time on, but I'll be able to post some of Big Dog's Hoser Cam cuts, too, so maybe he will draw the fire for me.

Moving along, we found that Stage Four, "Mean Steal", was a stage which required you to START in Box "A", but all shots must be FIRED from "Box B". Every shot fired outside of "Box B" was penalized ten points. There was no advantaged gained by shooting from "Box A", but you would be amazed at how many people forgot to move to the adjacent "Box B" before they started shooting. Most of them had zeroed the stage before they took the first step on this 125-point stage. One of our squad had a very fast trigger, but a slow sight-picture. It happens, but it's always scarey. There was no Match Disqualification, because the gun was pointed in a safe direction. However, it rattled him and he didn't shoot the rest as well as he usually does. Too bad, it's a major distraction when you have to shoot a stage under such a handicap. But P.A. got to see that even experienced shooters suffer a phychological condition called "Brain Farts" and throw their whole match away in a moment or two of slight distraction.

This stage was such a disaster to so many people, the Section Coordinator decided to include it in the Columbia Cascade Section Match, which occurs on August 6 & 7 of this year. It will be presented on the same stage, so (parenthetically speaking) if you think you have the presence of mind to overcome cranial flatulance I would like to invite you all to shoot the match, which will be called "Keystone Kops".

By the end of the day, we were all tired and happy. Lots of shooting, everyone had the opportunity to make a damned fool of himself or herself (and most of us did), and I told P.A. that the club had arranged to hire a crew to tear down the stages. This is a pretty good deal. The club charges each competitor an extra two dollars ... match fees are $17 instead of the usual $15 ... and we don't have to haul heavy steel and props up the hill to the Conex storage units. We decided to celebrate by adjourning as a squad to Abby's Pizza in Newburg (home of the world famous Linguica Pizza and Blitz Weinhard "Heffeweisen" wheat beer). Then we got the word that the tear-down crew was a no-show. P.A. had already left, along with more than half of the other competitors, before we got the word.

When the remaining competitor list was finally shook out, we had a dozen workers left, including the entire CCS Junior Team (along with Mike McCarter, Section Coordinator and Junior Team coach.) Surprisingly, it took no more than a half-hour to tear the whole match down, and nobody was particularly unhappy about the experience. Speaking personally, the extra labor helped work out some thigh-muscle spasms I was suffering from having to go to a kneeling position on TWO stages in the match, and I felt pretty darned good.

Sure, we missed the Pizza Fest at Abby's, and I could have used a tall cool glass of Wheat Beer. Would have liked to meet P.A.'s wife, too. (Would she be "Princess Andrew"?)

But the best part of the day was when the Match Director (Barsoom, who turns out NOT to be such a bad guy after all) pulled the extra two-dollars-per shooter funds out of the cash box and donated it to the Junior Team. Well, it was only fair ... they did the most of the work.

I think that kind of leadership is an investment in the future.

After all, when I'm old and grey (next year?) I want to know that there's a new generation already on the path to being as devoted to IPSC competition as we are.

This is especially important, when the new generation demonstrates such a clear willingness to do my work for me tear down the stages after the match.

Is This Thing Turned On?

Father forgive me, it has been three days since my last post.

It's not that I haven't been doing 'wrong' things which require confession and absolution, it's just that I've been busy shooting and working on "other projects".

In the spirit of catching up, and in keeping with the basic philosophy of "It's MY blog and I'll talk about things that I think are important", I'll start with something near and dear to my heart:

Reader Interaction.
AKA, Reader Response, or "Is this thing turned on?"

I received an email today from my old pal Bob the Contrarian, the IPSC-list poster formerly known as Antipoda. At the bottom, he asked a sage question of universal interest. I think it's appropriate to take some of your time and attention to provide an answer to his question:

Bob
P.S. how does one post to your blog?

Ahhh, good question!

At the bottom of each article, you will find the word "0 Comments".

(If someone has already commented, it will read "2 Comments", or whatever count is appropriate to reflect the number of readers who have already commented.)

Click on that 'link' (you can choose to open it in another window, if you right-click it), the article replaces the blog and at the bottom you can read all of the numerous comments which have already been posted.

At the bottom of the page is another link: "Post a Comment". Click on THAT link and another window replaces it. You can write whatever you have to say in the "Leave A Comment" window, preview it to see what it will look like when it is posted, and when you are satisfied with the results click on the blue Login and Publish button.

If you choose to remain anonymous, that's your choice. However, it's more helpful to ME if you identify yourself by clicking on the "Other" radio button and filling in your name.

All of the comments are permanently posted when you publish them. After that point, you cannot change them. If you have more to say, or want to make a correction, you have to post another comment.

Also, all of the comments not only publish to the website, they are forwarded to me as emails.
That has the salutatory effect of permitting me (if I happen to know the email address associated with that name, or if your email address or website URL is available) to reply to you privately. Otherwise, I have no alternative but to cut you to ribbons in the public forum.
Your choice.

Easy, huh?

The AnarchAngel: Fatwah

A lot of bloggers have recently been writing about The AnarchAngel, a blogger who has offended some muslim dudes with an attitude (but I repeat myself!) to the extent that they have declared a "Fatwah" against him.

I haven't actually bothered to look up the comments which initiated this absurdity, but I've been reading a lot about it in the blogosphere lately. AnarchAngel has become something of a celebrity because of his recognition by some undocumented wannabe terrorists.

In response, there are a SLEW of RKBA bloggers clammoring to be included on the Hit List.

There hasn't been this much testosterone in the air since junior high school gym-class showers. Everybody seems to want to dare the supposed fatwah-issuing terrorists.

Ho.
Hum.

Look, folks, I know that Islamist Terrorists (have I got the terminology correct?) are the Guy to Go To if you're looking for Bad, but this is ridiculous.

Everywhere you look this week, there are bloggers bad-mouthing muslims in hopes that some bored Arab will deign to post an email or a website entry to the effect that a Fatwa has been declared, demanding their death. We see each blogger listing his qualifications for withstanding a terrorist attack, daring the imaginary Terrorist to "come and get some of this!"

Holy RPG's, Batman! Don't we have enough crap coming our way without turning it into a sideshow?

Threats are cheap. Internet threats are like a side-street whore. "Hey, sailor, wanna party?"
It doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Anybody can say anything on the net. Anonymity guaranteed, and there are are a million high-school sophomores from Pasadena lurking around, just looking for the opportunity to scare the supposed grown-ups.

Well, maybe they're not all in Pasadena. Probably half of them are in Portland, Puyallup or Podunk. The point is, the culture war isn't just a matter of bombs and bullets. It's also a matter of the mind games we play with ourselves.

I swear, I don't know what's come into folks nowadays.

There are no hat-tips to be awarded here. And there's no glory to be had in bold talk and pissing contests ... which this entire Thread From Heck is, essentially.

Fatwah.
Good Grief, Charley Brown! You can take it seriously and quit the chest thumping, accept it as a real personal threat, or you can write it off as fluff and find something better to do with your time than telling the world how your winkie is bigger than theirs.

In either case, PLEASE quit trying to build a tempest in a teapot. Imagine how embarassed you will be, in a couple of years, when (despite all of your expectant preparations) nothing happens. Will you be disappointed if there is no actual follow-up?

Betcha.

Oh, sure, I only HOPE it's all a sophomoric road show, but I don't really KNOW, do I?

Even if it's a real threat, right now all of you bloggers who are strutting and challenging look more like j-high classmates of the supposed fatwah-issuers than men.

Men don't strut. Unless, of course, they own a closet-full of Opera pumps.

I Hate Golf

I hate Golf.

For 20 years, I tried to play Golf.

I bought the clubs, both woods and irons. I bought the bag, and the funny shoes. (That old saw about "never join a game that requires special shoes" ... it's true!) I bought tees, and the little tools that repair the divot. I bought golf balls. Man, did I buy golf balls! I'm the guy they tell the joke about "why don't you use an old ball to chip over the water hazard?" I never had an old ball. I had new out of the package balls, or I had new in-the-water-and-I'll-never-see-them-again balls. When I went to the driving range, I had to sneak out because I left more rented golf balls outside the wire than inside. Yes, my slice WAS that bad. The only reason I left any golf balls on the driving range was that I skulled almost half of my driver hits ... the golf balls never got off the ground.

I once got a Birdie playing golf. The ball was a brand new (of course!) Titlist II; the birdie was a robin, I think. The worm he was trying to eat was probably grateful.

But my brother-in-law played golf, and when we went to visit him and my sister, this was the only way we manly men could get out of the house for a few hours. My sister indulged us both, and it was a difficult choice whether I would sit around the house discussing the most recent maladies afflicted upon relatives I hadn't seen for ten years, or go golfing. I admit it. Sometimes I was so appalled that I went golfing with my brother in law.

Even though I hated Golf.

However, I liked shooting.

I had a fair collection of guns, and even a couple of pistols. Trouble is, I had grown tired of hunting after my father got too old and half-blind to hunt any more, and I had NEVER found a good excuse to go play pistol-shooter.

One day a notice appeared on the bulletin board at work:

A PLACE TO SHOOT!

Someone had opened an indoor shooting range, and some brave (if anonymous) soul had brought one of their 5x7" billboards to the office and surreptitiously pinned it to the cork. That intrigued me: if it was an INDOOR range, you could obviously shoot pistols there even if it was raining.

I took my .41 Magnum Blackhawk there, and they objected to the noise. Besides, the rounds kept dimpling the 'armor plating' of their backstop. I took my .22 "Convertible Six" there a few times, but it was tepid stuff.

One day (this was in 1983) I met someone at the range who was talking about a new game played with pistols. He called it "Ip-Sick". He knew it was being played at a local club (Tri County Gun Club), and not much else.

I called the club, and they gave me a little information ... when the next match would be held, and how to get to the range.

I went to a match, where I learned that the game was called IPSC (for International Practical Shooting Confederation) and where I could stand around for several hours and watch other people shoot .45 ACP pistols and .38 Special revolvers very fast. The targets were great huge chunks of cardboard, and I couldn't see how ANYBODY could miss them. They also shot at big ol' steel targets, which I learned were called "Pepper Poppers". From where I was standing, it looked easy. I could DO that.

So after I chatted with a few people there, I discovered that they were all pretty sane, friendly folks. They told me to show up next month on a given Saturday and somebody would train me. Then I could go shoot a match, and if I didn't scare anybody too much, I could come back and shoot IPSC as often as twice a month.

On the appointed day, I was there. They gave me a rule book, and walked me through the drill. After a couple of hours of indoor instruction, they walked out to the range and started showing us how to shoot IPSC.

I was all ready for that. I had all of my gear ready. It was a .45 acp Colt, army surplus 1911 (not a 1911-A1; mine was built in 1913). I had an army surplus leather holster, the kind with a flap that fastened down. It was attached to an army surplus web belt, as were two army surplus canvas magazine carriers that snapped shut. I had five army surplus seven-round magazines, filled with ammunition I had loaded on my bright orange Lyman single-stage press using cast lead bullets I had cast myself.

I was ready!

The instructor inspected everyone's gear before we started. He looked at my belt and gear, stifled a smirk, and said "well, yeah, you can shoot with that. You maybe can't actually compete, but it's all safe and it's all legal."

So I passed the certification training and at the next match I was there EARLY and signed up for the match. Every time I started to shoot a stage, I made sure to tell the Range Officer that I was a new shooter and he should watch me carefully. Invariably, they said something to the effect that they had noticed I was new and they would certainly watch me carefully. This made me feel so accepted that for the next three months I told the Range Officers that I was a new shooter. (Eventually, this wore thin. They started saying things like "Come on, Jerry, I seen you here last month and the month before. You don't get no more free rides, either stoke 'em up or go sit down but I KNOW you know the rules by now.")

Eventually, they changed their tune.
Perhaps it was the fact that my handloaded ammunition wasn't very well crafted, but for some reason after I completed a stage they encouragingly said "You know, you wouldn't be half bad if you didn't have such crappy equipment."

Eventually, I got tired of hearing that.

I bought a brand new Llama in .45 acp, some more army surplus seven-round magazines, a Chapman Hi-Rider competition holster, and a few Bianchi magazine carriers. At gunshows, I looked avariciously at the 10, 11 and even 12 round magazines, but I had seen other people use them at matches and they caused a lot of jams. I was already getting a lot of jams. I didn't need any more.

That didn't work too well either, so in 1988 I sold the Llama and bought a S&W 659(9mm Crunch'n'ticker in Stainless Steel) for $700, 3 extra 14-round magazines, two Bianchi two-mag magazine carriers, and a Bianchi leather holster. Someone did me the great favor of burlarizing my house and stole my Lyman press and my bullet-casting setup, so I bought a Lee Turret Press and a set of 9mm Lugar dies for $110, total. I figured, I couldn't compete with a single-stack pistol because those great huge cardboard targets were FIENDISHLY hard to hit. Maybe with more rounds between reloads, I could make up all those misses without having to make TOO many reloads.

I didn't think about the "minor power" aspect of the 9mm, or that it would cost me a lot of points on every stage.

That didn't work out too well, and I dropped out of IPSC for a few years. Instead of shooting pistols on weekends, I played Golf.

Yech! Golf hadn't become any more fun, and I hadn't become any more skilled.


In 1991 I got back into IPSC, with my S&W. But I just didn't seem to be able to get the hang of it. I started bad-mouthing myself to my friends, who quickly tired of THAT little head-game I was playing on myself.

One day a friend (who was a Master Class shooter) took me aside for a little friendly counseling.

He said to me "You know, you shouldn't get discouraged about your shooting. You just have a different style. We go 'bangbang I think I got it!'. You go 'bang. bang. I got it.' It works for you, and who cares whether you win or lose. It's just nice to be out here shooting with your friends, right?"

That made me think about actually playing the game to COMPETE, so I started paying more attention to the things that weren't working for me. One of the problems was that I kept shooting at targets when I got a C-hit. I wanted to get an A-hit, so I took the time to make up perfectly good hits, and usually my make-up shots weren't any better. And I started practicing. The Lee Turret Press wasn't keeping up with the demand, so I bought a Dillon XL650 press, which came with a set of Dillon carbide dies in 9mm, and a case feeder! Man, I'm ready for the big-time now,

In 1995, I won D-Limited at a State Match. Then I got up to C-class (the next month) and stayed there for a couple of years. I decided I could go far with this game, if I just had the right equipment .....

In 1997 I learned that there was a computer 'user group' called "The Unofficial IPSC List", where people exchanged emails about IPSC competition. I subscribed to the list, lurked for a few weeks, then started asking questions ... very cautiously, and very respectfully.

What I wanted was to learn what was the RIGHT equipment, so I asked the list members to suggest a pistol which would cure all of my ills and wouldn't cost too much. Eventually, people said a lot of good things about a new American gun manufacturer called Kimber of America. I was surprised to learn that the factory was located in Clackamas, Oregon ... less than a hundred miles from where I live.

The good things about the Kimber pistol (in .45 acp) were that they already came with the extended beavertail, an adjustable trigger, a Commander-style hammer, etc. And they were cheaper than their competitors.

I'll say they were! The Springfield 1911 was being sold at prices between $700 and $1000, and they didn't have the extended beavertail, etc. You had to buy them extra at after-market prices, and then find a gunsmith to install them.

I contacted Kimber, and learned that the demand was so great for their pistols that none were currently available in Oregon ... unless I wanted to pay extra for such frills as adjustable sights and stainless or hard-chrome finish.

But I made some friends, and eventually I learned that Keith's Gun Shop in Gresham had been sent two Kimber Custom pistols, and could expect to receive them in the next week. I called the store, they said they would call me when the pistols came in. A few days later they phoned me. I said I had to work the next day in Corvallis, but could I come to their shop at 8am to pick up the pistol? They don't open until 9am, usually, but they agreed to open their store early for me.

At 8am the next day I was sitting in my car outside their door when they came to work early ... just for me. They let me in and showed me the pistols .. two Kimber Customs, consecutive serial numbers, and the price was $239. Each.

In one of the worst decisions of my life, I only bought ONE of the guns even though I had the cash to buy both of them.

I also bought 3 used Chip McCormick 8-round magazines, two new Chip McCormick 10-round magazines, and a thousand rounds of Giochi (sp) ammunition. I also had to buy a set of Dillon dies in .45acp (the old dies had disappeared with the Lyman press).

That gun worked so well for me, I made B-Limited with it in 1999. I started referring to it as "The Beloved Kimber". I have since used pistols which were AS reliable, but I never found one that was MORE reliable. What can improve on a gun that runs perfectly, every time you pick it up, and seems indifferent to gun cleaning? The only thing I have changed on the gun was to install a Smith&Alexander Mag-Well adaptor, and some hex-head grip screws.

In 2000 I got the bug for a 10mm, and when Dave Skinner of STI announced that the STI Edge in 10mm had a production run large enough to qualify for USPSA Limited Class, I ordered one the same day and paid $1650 for it. I also bought a set of Dillon 10mm dies. Then I learned that 10mm brass was much more expensive than 9mm , and that buying Glock brass off the range didn't work because the Dillon dies didn't size the brass down small enough to chamber in the STI. Bought a Lee sizing die, which was suppose to size 10mm brass down another couple hundredths of an inch, and ground down the cartridge holder so the die would size down a little closer to the base. Eventually I found a cheap supply of once-used brass; the FBI range in my state was littered with 'em, and I had a contact who could get hold of a few thousand rounds now and then. He resized them to original specs, solvent-cleaned the deprimed brass so it looked like new, and sold them to me for $45 a thousand.

Have you noticed that every step I took in looking for 'the right equipment' has got more expensive than the step before? Yeah, I noticed that, too.

I've made other equipment changes since then, but I never got out of B-class with the STI Edge.

This was my fault, not the fault of the gun. Due to the natural effects of aging, my eyes got so bad (far-sighted) I couldn't make out the iron sights. I now shoot open Class using a STI Competitor equipped with a C-More dot-sight. I have magazines which hold as many as 26 rounds. I carry up to 66 rounds on my belt every time I enter a stage, and most times I don't make a reload unless the round-count on the stage is over 24 rounds.

Somewhere in this chronicle of IPSC progression, I gave my golf clubs to my Brother in law. I also gave him the goofy golf shoes, the golf bag, the tool for repairing divots, a bag of tees and a box of brand new golf balls.

He gave it all to his grandson, except for the box of brand new golf balls and the graphite drive I had bought from him in 1993 (and only allowed golf balls to bounce a few more times when I topped them.)

I don't have anything against my brother in law. It's just that I'm so glad that I can spend my weekends shooting IPSC matches, and I don't have to resort to Golf just to get out of the house.


I hate Golf.