Off To Another Match.......

This time of year it seems like every weekend we're off to another match, but it's not quite as busy as it seems. Tomorrow, Sunday, KeeWee and I are headed to Puyallup for a fun steel match at the Paul Bunyan Club, followed by lunch with the gang at the cool restaurant at the local airport.

I think I'm almost there with the Tanfoglio, as it's running more and more reliably each match.

I've replaced the walnut grips with a Hogue wrap-around grip with finger grooves that fits my relatively small hands perfectly. I'm hoping they will make it a little bit easier to get a proper grip when drawing from the holster. So far in practice it seems easier to get the proper grip with them.

I've also replaced the temporary over-sized left side safety lever with a slightly different shape, but almost the same. This time instead of the aluminum I used for the prototype, I made this one out of solid stainless steel. It should out-last the gun!

I've also taken some time to go through the gun and do a little polishing and smoothing on some of the inner bits, and the trigger feels a bit better. I still haven't got the load dialed in, but it's not too far off, although I'm shooting an estimated power factor somewhere around 135 or 140, which is still way too high. My goal is for a power factor about 125 to 128. Minimum required for major steel matches where they use target sensors is 120.

It's barely five weeks to the World championships in Piru, CA., and there's two major matches between now and then. I'd sure like to have the gun dialed in so all I have to worry about is my shooting!

See you all on Monday!

(Don't forget to send in your registration and book your hotel room for the Gun Blogger rendezvous, it's only seven weeks away!)






 

Kitsap Classic Steel Match Report

So we could help with setup and pre-match details, Keewee and I headed over to the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club range a day early. We planned to spend Friday night at the range, and then shoot the match on Saturday. A lot of the work was already done when we got there, but Friday afternoon we helped to get all of the target stands set up and located so all we would have to do on Saturday morning was to haul all of the plates out to the bays and hang them on the target stands. We don't put the target plates out until the morning of the match as we don't want someone shooting them with a high powered rifle and ruining them by putting holes through them!

Pre-match setup went smoothly, and I sure do like the 5/16" AR500 steel target plates they got from MGM Targets. Not only are they standing up well under a lot of usage, they are also a lot lighter than the 3/8" plates and they seem to ring louder when you shoot them. They seem to be well worth the cost in the long run.

Friday evening after the setup was complete a few of us headed over to the Red Apple Diner for dinner. After dinner we went back to the range and settled in for the night in our mini-RV. Saturday morning the weather looked like we were in for a very nice day, and that's exactly how it turned out!

The match went smoothly, and we all had a grand time. I shot the new 9mm. Tanfoglio race gun in Open Division, and also shot my High Standard in Rimfire Optic. In the final results our squad did very well, with James Austin winning Revolver, and also winning the Centerfire Division overall. I managed a win in Rimfire, and also the fastest time of the day for all entries. Will from the Paul Bunyan club won the Iron Sight Centerfire division, and was second overall in centerfire. The new Tanfoglio and I were third overall in Centerfire, and "Won" the Open division. The reason "Won" is in quotes is that I was the only Open division gun entered, so I was not only first, but also dead last in Open division! Maybe it sounds better to say I finished right in the middle? KeeWee was fourth in Rimfire, and top Rimfire Lady.

The new Tanfoglio is coming along, and although it's not ready for "Prime Time" yet, it's just about there. I've got a couple of other bullets to try next week, and the gun is feeding and cycling pretty well. I modified a Hogue wrap around grip to fit the Tanfoglio, and I think it helps me find a good grip while drawing. I'll give it a try this weekend at Paul Bunyan's Steel Match. There's not too many more matches before we leave for Piru, CA. and the World championships, and this year I am planning to shoot both Rimfire and Centerfire Open divisions there, so that should be interesting. The fast guys certainly have nothing to worry about, but maybe I can sneak up on some of the super Seniors? Who knows, but it should be fun! (Except for the heat, of course.)

After the match we caught the ferry from Port Townsend back to Whidbey Island, and then home. We got a chance to ride on the brand new ferry that they just put in service on that run. What a pathetic boat. They say that the platypus is what you get when an animal is designed by a committee. The new ferry is what you get when you have a ferry boat designed by a State Government Committee. It's definitely a floating platypus. However, that's a subject for another post......

Project Valour-IT

All of the money we can raise at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous goes to Project Valour-IT, a division of soldier's Angels. What exactly is Project Valour-IT? Let's let Maj. Chuck Ziegenfuss, the founder and first recipient, explain it:



Chuck has attended some of the Gun Blogger Rendezvous' in the past, but now that he's stationed in Hawaii, it's a bit far to travel for him. There WILL be someone at this year's Rendezvous representing Project Valour-IT, and although specifically who it will be has not been confirmed, it's going to be someone you will enjoy meeting if you are there!

Get your registrations in ASAP. You don't want to miss out on all the fun!

A hat tip to True Blue Sam for showcasing Chuck's video!

Gun Blogger Rendezvous - 8 Weeks Away!

This year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous is going to be a blast, with lots of raffle prizes, including several guns, lots of door prizes, two range days, food, conversation, lack of sleep, pizza, the NRA, special offers from sponsors, and a ton more cool things. Even with all the fun things going on, the best part is the chance to meet up and spend some time with all of the Gun Bloggers attending the Rendezvous. Although it is a fun event, a charity event, and a shooting event, more importantly, it is a social event, a feature often overlooked by other gatherings. The primary attraction is not the events and activities, it's the attendees themselves, and that makes a huge difference. You can not imagine what an interesting bunch of folks make up the Gun Bloggers gang!

The Gun Blogger Rendezvous is September 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th. A number of us show up on Wednesday, though, and don't leave town until  Monday morning, the 12th.

You do not have to be a Gun Blogger to attend the Rendezvous. The Rendezvous is open to anyone who reads the Gun Blogs, is involved in shooting sports, follows and participates in 2nd. Amendment and RKBA issues, is in the industry, or is in any way interested or involved in the stuff we write about on the Gun Blogs.

To Attend the Rendezvous there are two main things you need to do, and do soon! First, you need to send in a registration along with your thirty bucks.Here's the
 

2011 Gun Blogger Rendezvous Registration Form

Second, you need to contact the Silver Legacy and book your room. To reserve your room, give them a call at the Silver Legacy at 1-800-687-8733 and give them the Gun Blogger rendezvous Group Code of GBLOG11. When you are making your reservation, you might ask them if you can get a room that faces McCarran Park, so you can watch the hot air balloons from your window. The earlier you book your room, the better chance of getting a room facing that way. Sure, there are cheaper places in Reno, but staying in the event hotel is a big advantage, and the rates are reasonable for the quality of the room, and free internet in your room is included.

For lots more info on the Rendezvous, and schedule of events and pictures from previous years, check out the Gun Blogger Rendezvous website.

Go for it!

Kitsap Classic Steel Match Saturday

Shoot the outside four targets first, then shoot the one in the middle, as fast as you can. There will be shooters at the match shooting all five in less that three seconds total!

The big Steel Challenge match of the year is coming up this Saturday, and I'm really looking forward to it. The Kitsap Rifle & Revolver club is a great club with great members and a really nice range.  Since my "home" gun club doesn't have the facilities to shoot steel matches, the KRRC club (of which I am also a member) is my "Home away from home" club for steel matches. Granted, I also joined the Yakima Rifle & Pistol club for basically the same reasons, but the mountain passes doesn't always let me get to the Yakima matches through the Winter.

Since this will be a full eight stage match, it will be a good match to use as a "benchmark" to track my progress with the new Tanfoglio Open class gun. If I can do reasonably well at Kitsap with the Tanfoglio, then I will probably take it to Piru to the World Championships and enter both Rimfire Optic and Centerfire Open classes. I have absolutely no chance of winning either class overall at the World Championships, but I would sure like to give the Super Seniors a little competition!

I'm still experimenting with loads for the Tanfoglio, and I think I'm getting pretty close to what I need. Last week in Yakima I was shooting close to maximum loads and the recoil and noise were significant. For this week I've got it turned down quite a bit, and it seems to still be running the gun without problem. The proof is in shooting the match, however, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

KeeWee and I are still nursing head colds, although mine is now on the decline. Hers, however, is a bit worse right now. I hope the weather turns nice for the weekend, as it's much less miserable with a cold when it's not wet and rainy.

Our plans are to head out on Friday afternoon and take the Whidbey to Port Townsend ferry. From Port Townsend it's just over an hour's drive to the range. We should be there early enough to help out with last minute setup and details. We plan to spend the night at the range, and shoot the match on Saturday. After the match, we hope to catch an evening ferry back to Whidbey Island, and then home.

If you have never been to a Steel Challenge match, you might want to come check this one out. Steel Challenge is very "Spectator Friendly" and there is no charge to come and watch the match. You DO want to bring some eye and ear protection, though.

Why not come have a look?

e-Postal Match "Common Problems"

We had some last minute changes in the e-Postal Match hosting Schedule, and I am going to host this month's match right here.

We all have problems with our shooting from time to time, and it's common to hear "Hmmmm, I'm shooting low and left. I wonder what I'm doing wrong?" or something similar at the range.

Well, this month's e-Postal target is designed to not only give you problems, but to also help you solve your problems, too! How cool is that?

RULZE:

This month we have seven classes, so there's a place for just about everything.

TARGET: The same target is used in all classes.  Don't try to print the target from the image in this post. It won't be the right size. The outside circle should measure just over 7 3/8". With some PDF software you might need to select "No Scaling" and other software you may need to select "Fit To Paper" to get the size right.

The target should be downloaded from here:

Click here to Download the PDF file "Problems"

It is an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.

CLASS ONE: Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, iron sights.

CLASS TWO: Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, optic sights, no magnification.

CLASS THREE: Any centerfire (non-revolver) handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, iron sights.

CLASS FOUR: Any centerfire (non-revolver) handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, optic sights, no magnification.

CLASS FIVE: Any revolver with no more than a 12" barrel, iron sights.

CLASS SIX: Any revolver with no more than a 12" barrel, optic sights, no magnification.

CLASS SEVEN: Any handgun with no more than a 14" barrel, any sights, scopes, laser, whatever. This class is primarily for target pistols.

If you have something interesting to shoot that doesn't quite fit in the above classes, go ahead and enter anyway.

DISTANCE : 25 feet, or Ten yards, which ever is available at your range.

SHOOTING POSITION: Standing, un-supported, off-hand, one or two hands on gun permitted.

SCORING: In each class you are allowed ten shots at the target.

• The inner circles are valued as numbered. 
• A shot touching any of the "Problem Areas" counts as a -1, a one point penalty.  
• Outside of the outer circle, but still on the paper is a -2, a 2 point penalty. 
• Touching the outermost circle will be considered as being entirely inside the circle.
• Missing the paper completely is a -5, a 5 point penalty.  

 Touching a line, or touching two or more areas with one shot counts as hits in all of the areas touched. For example, a hit that touches the intersection between two "Problem Areas" and the 1 ring gets 1 for the 1 ring, plus 2 penalties of -1 each, for a score of  (+1 -1 -1) or -1  for that shot. However, hitting the line between any of the center scoring rings (Rings #2 through #5) counts only as the higher of the two rings, not their total. For example, a shot hitting the line between the 4 and the 5 ring scores as a 5.

Ties will be decided based on the least number of problems.

Mark your score on each target with a legible pen, along with the class and type of gun used. Don't write your name on the target, only the name you want to appear in the results, as your target may get posted on Mr. Completely.

I suspect that this target will be, like most of the e-Postal matches, a lot harder that it looks. Don't throw away your targets in disgust when you think you did poorly. Send them in! You will probably be surprised to find out that you did a lot better than you thought.

STRATEGY: Beats me.........

MULTIPLE ENTRIES: You can enter more than once, in fact, it is encouraged. Shoot everything you own, and everything you can borrow! Take a buddy to the range, get him entered, then borrow his gun and enter that! The only restriction is that you can only enter once for any given gun, in any individual Class. You can shoot the target as many times as you like, and send in the best one.

Different calibers in the same gun count as one gun. For example, .38SPL and .357MAG are considered as one, as would be .44SPL and .44MAG. Different guns of the same caliber and barrel length can be entered.

PRIZES: Nope, it's just for the fun of it and the bragging rights!

SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY: Take a digital photo of, (or scan) your targets, and email the picture, along with:

1. Your score.

2. The name you want used when we post the results.

3. Gun description - Brand, model, semi-auto, revolver, black powder, caliber, barrel length, and type of sights

4. Class: Class One, Two, Three, four, five, six, or seven.

5. Anything interesting or unique about your entry that other shooters might enjoy hearing about.

Email it all to b l o g (at) w h i d b e y (dot) c o m

If you can't scan or send target pictures, send everything else to me in an email, and we'll arrange for either fax or snail mail for the targets.

The rules are subject to revision as needed, should the need arise.

All entries must be received by Midnight on Monday, August 1st, and results will be posted within seven days, or less.

If you have any questions, leave the question in the comments to this post, or send me an email, or both.

Have fun!!

Not A Bad Weekend, Considering......

Last Friday mid-day  I was still scrambling back and forth between the range and the loading bench, trying to figure out a good load and bullet combination for the Tanfoglio for Saturday's steel match in Yakima. The powders I had been experimenting with were too fast to burn, and I couldn't get a recipe that would reliabily cycle the gun without getting close to exceeding allowable pressures.

One powder I had experimented with seemed to be pretty close to what I needed, but I was just about out of it. My friend Lou, of the "Mad Gun" blog, also a Tanfoglio Gold Team 9mm. owner, suggested I try Power Pistol, a powder which had been working well for him. Fortunately on Thursday I had made a quick trip (two hours each way) and bought a couple of pounds of power pistol to try it out.

I didn't have time to work up to an ideal load, so I decided to go with one a bit on the hot end of the range, but that worked well for Lou. I loaded up ten or twelve rounds and scurried over to the range. Although they were loud and had some recoil, the accuracy was good, and the gun ran without problem. I I rushed home and loaded up forty more, and went back to the range to run them through the gun. Ten rounds was no where near enough testing to have any confidence in the load. The forty rounds ran fine, so back to the bench to load a couple of hundred rounds for the match. After getting the ammo ready, it was a rush back into the house to get packed, a shower, and put on some clean clothes.

Our plans had been to try for the 2:30pm ferry over to America, but even with all the delays and last minute stuff, we still managed to get out the door in time to catch the 3:00pm boat. We wanted to get at least past Bellevue before traffic got really ugly, being a holiday weekend, and Highway 405 through Bellevue can be one of the worst in the US when it gets ugly. It was starting to get heavy, but was still passable when we went through Bellevue, and just past Bellevue we pick up I-90 which takes us across Snoqualmie Pass and into Eastern Washington. I-90 was also starting to get loaded too, but we were just early enough that the giant Friday afternoon Seattle Exodus to Eastern Washington for the weekend was still building. Once across Snoqualmie, we passed Cle Elum, and continued East to Ellensburg, where we pick up a different freeway headed South towards Yakima. Once we hit Yakima we turn East again for a few miles, past Moxee, and then a couple of more miles to the range. For a bunch of good pictures of the scenery and stuff along the way, check out KeeWee's post at KeeWee's Corner. We arrived a couple of hours before sunset, and parked our mini-land-yacht for the night. We were treated to a really nice sunset.

The next morning we were up bright and early, and I helped to get the plates hung on the target stands in the range bays in preparation for the match. After signup and a short shooter's meeting, we broke into squads and got to the shooting part! We had a little over fifty guns entered, so not a bad turnout, considering a number of shooters were taking the weekend off as they had been to the USPSA Area 1 championships the previous weekend.

This was going to be an interesting match for me, as it was the debut of my Tanfoglio 9mm. race gun, and the Rescomp CR Speed holster. I hadn't had a lot of time to practice the draw, and I was expecting to be slow out of the holster. I had never shot the Tanfoglio at steel, and it was only approximately sighted in, so I figured I may be doing some point of aim compensating in the match. For the Tanfoglio this was going to be more of a "Shakedown Cruise" rather than a match, as I was mostly interested in just having some fun shooting it, and finding out what was working, and what wasn't. Next weekend at Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club is the Kitsap Classic, and I really want to have things running smoothly for that.

The weather, although a bit warm for us Western Washington types, was nice, with temperatures in the mid to upper eighties. KeeWee had an umbrella to keep her out of too much sun, and I had bottled water and Gatorade powder to mix into the water to keep from getting dehydrated.

It seemed like the match was over in no time, but KeeWee and I both felt seeking a cooler place would be nice! The Tanfoglio had run well all day, in spite of the recoil and noise. My draws were nothing spectacular, but not excessively slow for just getting into it, either. My split times between plates with the Tanfoglio were better than I was expecting to do. All things considered, it had gone very well. In the Open class, we only had one other entry, so I either won Open, or came in next to last, depending on how you look at it! As a reference though, my time was about the same as the winning time in Centerfire Limited, so it's a good starting point, and hopefully with enough practice I can get some reasonable scores. I am seriously considering taking the Tanfoglio to Piru, California for the Steel Challenge World Championships in August and entering Open as well as rimfire. It will all depend on how it goes this weekend in Kitsap. That will be the first real test to see if I can shoot it well enough that I don't embarrass myself in Piru!

After the match was over, several of the guys wanted to try out the Tanfoglio and I hadn't used up all the hastily loaded ammunition, so we emptied a bit more brass just for the fun of it.

We wanted to get on the road home before it got  too late in the day, so we loaded up and headed out. We made a stop at the Dairy Queen for ice cream, a gas station for some fuel and a big diet Pepsi for me, and headed home. A little over five hours later we pulled into the driveway at Castle Completely. It had been a fun weekend, and Murphy only showed up a couple of times!

Next weekend, on to Kitsap for the Kitsap Classic! It's gonna be fun!!

Head Cold, Yakima, Tanfoglio, etc.

A few days ago i started coming down with a cold, and with several matches coming up soon, l that didn't cheer me up much! Fortunately it kept out of  my lungs, mostly, and I'm still dealing with a stuffed up head. Bleh...

I've been making lots of trips to the range getting a good load worked up for the Tanfoglio so hopefully I can shoot it tomorrow in Yakima at their monthly steel match. A custom race gun is to some extent experimental, and is definitely modified to do well in a specific set of conditions. The ability to accurately and reliably run whatever ammo is on sale at the moment is not a consideration. The primary attributes are reliability in firing and feeding, power factor, felt recoil, muzzle rise, velocity, and amount of gas produced to run the compensator. Depending on the type of competition, different attributes are more or less important.

I think I'm getting close to a good load, and I'm going to head over to the range at least once more before we leave this afternoon to do a little more testing. If it works, then I'll load up a couple of hundred rounds for the match on Saturday.

After I get it dialed in I'll look at doing a post just on picking loads for competition.

In the meantime, though, I'm off to the range for some testing.

Have a fun and safe Independence Day!

Our Guy James Does Good!

I just saw this press release come through, and thought I should get it posted.  James is a fellow GunUp team member, and an amazing revolver shooter.

Austin 3-Peats With Area 1 Revolver Win

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. - For the third year in a row James Austin of Fox Island, Wash. has claimed the Revolver division title at the USPSA Area 1 Regional Handgun Championship, Presented by Springfield Armory.

Austin, who won seven of 12 stages, led the field after winning the first two stages but fell to second behind Brian Noel of Mercer Island, Wash. Austin reclaimed the lead from Noel on the fifth stage and held it through the remainder of the match. Austin finished with a final score of 1160.8658 points.

"With seven stage wins, and his third consecutive Revolver division title, James is proving hard to beat when it comes to the Area 1 wheelgun match," said Chuck Anderson, the USPSA Area 1 director.

Noel, who won two stages, finished in second place with 1101.3063 points. Third place went to Sam Keen of Gallatin, Tenn. who also won two of the 12 stages in the match and finished with a final score of 1074.7420.

Rounding out the top five were Dan Short of Elk Grove, Calif. in fourth with won one stage and a score of 953.9938, and Alan Kies of Tacoma, Wash. in fifth place with 822.9192.

Kies' fifth place finish put him atop the senior competitors to take the Senior Revolver title. Ron McGraw of Cottage Grove, Ore. finished as the top Super Senior in the match with a final score of 639.9367 points.

The 2011 USPSA Area 1 Regional Handgun Championship, Presented by Springfield Armory, was held June 22-26 at Albany Rifle and Pistol Club in Shedd, Ore. and drew 318 top pistol shooters from around the country, as well as Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, the states that make up the Area 1 region.

To learn more about practical shooting, or join the 20,000 members of the U.S. Practical Shooting Association in the most dynamic and fast-paced shooting sport around, visit USPSA.org, follow @USPSA_Shooting on Twitter, like USPSA on Facebook or read the Practical Shooting blog.

Contact:

GunUp to Host Rendezvous Dinner

More great news! At this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous, coming up in mid-September in Reno, GunUp.com will be hosting our dinner on Friday night. We plan on going to the truly spectacular Buffet Dinner at the El Dorado hotel, part of the complex where the Gun Blogger Rendezvous is held. GunUp

CEO Dan Hall is planning on being there in person, and there's a good chance Caleb Giddings, who now works for GunUp, will also be there. No decision has been made yet as to if any of the GunUp Pro Staff and shooting team will be there. If you would like to meet Kelly Bachand (from the first year of Top Shot), Molly Smith, or James Austin in person, drop Dan an email at dan@gunup.com and let him know.

While you're at it, you might mention how much we appreciate the support for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous from GunUp!

This Month's e-Postal Match

With all the running around I've been doing lately, I completely forgot to update the link at the top that takes you to this month's e-Postal match. This month's match "Get Schooled" is hosted by Phil at Random Nuclear Strikes. 

Phil was one of the first hosts when I took over the e-Postal matches from Og, the Neanderpundit. Og wasn't getting very much participation, so he decided to let it go. Phil and I thought they were so much fun that we decided to keep the ball rolling and run them ourselves. Phil is the one who actually coined the phrase "e-Postal".

Participation has been lighter this year compared to previous years, so if you are a blogger we'd sure appreciate your help in spreading the word and getting participation back up where it ought to be. If you are a blog reader and shooter, and you haven't entered for a while, (or never?) why not print out the targets and head out to the range!

Clicking absolutely anywhere on this entire line (Ain't technology wonderful?) will take you to Phil's post where you can get the rules and targets.

See you at the range!

Tanfoglio Gold Custom 9mm. Race Gun

Tanfoglio Gold Custom 9mm.

 Shooting Steel Challenge in the Open Division was something I've always wanted to do, but the cost of a competitive race gun combined with the cost of all the ammunition you need to shoot to be competitive had kept me in the Rimfire Open class. Now, thanks to Hans Wigger of Dutch Firearms Trading, I will be able to give the Open Division a go! Hans made me an offer I couldn't refuse on a used Tanfoglio Gold Custom 9mm. pistol that had been shot a lot and needed some new parts, but was still in very good condition. Getting it here from Holland was a challenge, but not at all where you would expect it to be challenging and difficult. The ATF folks were friendly and helpful for applying for the import permit. Once I got the import permit, an export permit was fairly straight-forward in Holland.

Once I had all of that paperwork taken care of, I figured it would be straight-forward to actually get it shipped to my local FFL to have it transferred to me. Boy, was I ever wrong! None of the major shippers such as UPS, FEDEX, DHL and some others would ship a pistol. I checked with the airlines that flew from Amsterdam to Seattle, such as Delta and a few others, including a freight only airline, and no luck. I finally had to hire a freight forwarder to coordinate the shipment, and that brought on a whole lot of folks with their hands out for a piece of the action, fee-wise.

After many months of frustration, I got notice that the package had finally arrived in Seattle, and I had to take the papers to Customs to get it cleared into the country. The Customs folks looked over the paperwork, and stamped it OK. It didn't take ten minutes, and it would have been even quicker if there hadn't been someone in line ahead of me.

From Customs I drove to the Continental Airlines air freight office and handed them the paperwork. They charged me another $35 handling fee, and then handed me the package. Finally it was here!

After getting home, I eagerly unpacked it and started to get it set up for left-handed use. I installed the standard ambidextrous safety, but with my small hands I couldn't reach the safety lever on the right side. I made a prototype safety lever for the right side of the gun that I could reach, and mounted it instead of the Tanfoglio part. That's the new one in the picture. By making it sit farther rearward and also lower, I could now reach it.

I just got back from the range after putting forty or fifty rounds of assorted/leftover 9mm. through it, and it's obvious that when they fixed it up for me they must have figured I was going to be running some heavy loads, as the only ammo that would regularly cycle the gun were some old bowling pin loads! I will put in a bit lighter spring, and then it should work just fine.

When I finally get this Gold Custom dialed in and the right load worked up, this is clearly going to be one sweet shooter!

I can hardly wait........

A little fishin', and stuff

KeeWee and I were planning to fire up our mini land yacht and head over to Banks lake in Eastern Washington on Friday morning. At the last minute the one client she had scheduled for Thursday canceled, so we decided to load up and head over a day early. Getting there a day early makes the trip a lot more relaxing, and you get in a lot more sitting around, eating, sleeping, and of course, fishing! We pull a 12' aluminum boat along on a trailer behind us, and you can barely tell it's there when you are driving. Backing it up is a challenge, though, to launch it, as you can't really see it behind you, and when it gets sideways enough that you CAN see it, it's time to start over.

This was the Fishin' Club annual Banks Lake outing ,and we always have a great time. On Saturday afternoon we even had some pan fried walleye, caught the day before. Boy, is walleye ever delicious!

KeeWee has a post up, along with some pictures over at KeeWee's Corner, so for more on our trip, have a look!

The weather even cooperated all weekend ,with no wind and no rain. I can deal with the rain, but when the wind comes up, you don't want to be on Banks Lake regardless of how big your boat might be.

It made for a nice R&R weekend, but it was over WAY too soon...

Saul Kirsch Wins European Steel Challenge

The competition was stiff with shooters from all over Europe competing for the European Steel Challenge Championship title. This year's overall winner was Saul Kirsch. Saul also won the title two years ago, with Jorge Ballesteros winning all the marbles last year.

I've got some pictures, results,  and lots of stories from the match, but this weekend KeeWee and I are taking a quick vacation to Banks Lake in Eastern Washington for a little sunshine, fishing, and relaxation.

In the mean time, try to stay out of trouble, and we'll be back Sunday night.......

Report From Winterswijk

It seems like I've been going continuously for the last few days, or asleep, one or the other! The traveling to get here in Winterswijk was long and tiring, including a couple of hours on the shuttle bus to get to the airport, hanging around the airport for four hours, explaining to the airport ticket counter lady what her airline's firearms policies were since she didn't know them, ten hours on a Boeing 767 (way more comfortable than the Airbus) meeting friends at the Amsterdam airport, another couple of hours drive, and we were finally in Winterswijk. WHEW! As we had planned, I met up with Robin Taylor at the Amsterdam airport, and we traveled together, and are now sharing a hotel room to keep costs down. Robin puts together the Front Sight MAgazine, and is also a very good competitive pistol shooter.

The first night we had dinner with all of the range officers and families that are running the match. It was really great to again see all the wonderful folks that I have met here in Winterswijk the last two years.

Friday morning we had an outstanding breakfast at the hotel, then walked to the range, only a few minutes away. Since I hadthings fall into place at the alst minute so I could also shoot the Centerfire Open class, I had to get the paperwork sorted out for my start time and such. I had originally been scheduled to shoot Rimfire Open ay 8:45am on Saturday, but it worked out best to schedule Centerfire Open in that time slot and move rimfire to that afternoon at 3pm.I hung around te range visiting with everyone for a while, then walked back to the hotel to get my gun and equipment for shooting rimfire.

 Although I struggled a bit on the first two stages, I managed to keep a handle on it and not let it get out of control and ruin my score for the day. As I moved through the stages I continued to get stronger and stronger, and the last few stages went extremely well. I tried to stick to the game plan, which was to shoot a little bit conservatively and be sure of my scores, rather than to go for broke and have the match possibly come apart completely.

After finishing shooting, I took a break in the lounge above the indoor range and waited for the days provisional results. When the day's scores were posted I was happy to see that I was in third place, significantly faster than last year. Granted, there are a whole lot of really fast shooters who have not yet shot the match, so I will most certainly move well down the list. Even so, since one of my rimfire team mates also shot well, he was right behind me in 4th., also much better score than last year. Hans, the best shooter in our team, would shoot on Saturday afternoon. Our team is called "Fast & Furious fifties" since we are all also in the Senior Division.

For me to shoot the Centerfire Open class, I needed to borrow a pistol, and Hans had offered me the loan of his, once he had finished using it on Friday afternoon. Just before leaving the range for dinner, Hans loaned me the gun to give me a chance to adjust  My CR Speed holster to fit it. The pistol was a beautiful Tanfoglio 9mm. Gold Custom Team model, and it had be fully tuned and set up by Willie Van Mulekom, a Tanfoglio wizard who does all of the warranty work for Tanfoglio. Even with adjustment to the holster, the gun was almost impossible to get it fully into the holster. We fiddled with it as best we could, and I decided that after dinner I would have to do some modifications to thepart of the holster to get it to work properly. I also discovered that the safety on the right side of the gun was almost unreachable as my left thumb was too short! I decided that I would have to reach for the safety with both thumbs and hope one or the other would be able to hit the safety. This was going to be interesting!

We all had dinner at the Chinese Buffet Restaurant across the street from the hotel, and enjoyed a pleasant evening of conversation. After dinner Robin and I headed back to the hotel so I could tinker more with the holster.I scraped and carved on the holster to the way I hoped would do the job, and then we turned in for the night.

After another hearty breakfast at the hotel, we walked out to the range. Robin was also shooting with the same start time, but starting on a different stage. My plan was to shoot the match as smoothly and safely as possible, and not to worry about times at all.With an un-familiar gun, holster, and class, that was the only plan I even considered! Considering all of that, the match went fairly well, although I lost a lot of time on a couple of stages. It turns out that the gun was sighted in to shoot high at the farther plates, and to hit them you have to aim very low. I shot over the top of a number of plates until I figured that out. It also turned out that the magazine release was under recoil, trying to be at the same place as my trigger finger. The end result was that some times after a couple of shots the magazine would fall out! On my own Tanfoglio I will make sure the magazine release is short and that it has a fairly heavy spring, so that won't happen again. Even with those problems, when the day's scores were posted, I wasn't dead last, only next to last! In fact, if you take out the time lost shooting over the top of the far plates and the time lost putting the magazines back in, I was not far from the middle of the pack, and as far as I'm concerned, it was a very successful match, and I learned a lot about the gun and how it needs to be when I am setting up my own. In spite of all of the problems, I also had a whole lot of fun shooting it, and I can hardly wait ujnti lthe next time!

That's the end of my report for now, but I'll try to get more posted later.

Winterswijk, Here I come!

In a little over four hours I will board the shuttle bus for the hour and a half bus ride to the Seattle-Tacoma airport. At six thirty my flight is scheduled to take off for the ten hour flight to Amsterdam, arriving at 1:30pm Amsterdam time. Robin Taylor, the editor of Front Sight Magazine will arrive at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam  thirty minutes before I arrive, and we plan to meet there, then ride with Hanneke Vermeulen out to Winterswijk, where the European Steel Challenge match is held. It's about an hour and a half by road to get there. Hanneke is the co-editor and publisher of a magazine in Europe covering IPSC and Steel Challenge shooting, unfortunately I can't remember the proper name of their magazine. (Note to self: Write down the name of Hanneke's magazine so you can remember it!)

To help keep costs down, Robin and I will be sharing a room in Winterswijk. The hotel is barely a block from the range, so we don't need to rent a car while we're there. Unfortunately KeeWee will not be making the trip this year as she is planning to travel to New Zealand this Fall to visit family instead, and we just don't have to money to pay for both trips. In fact, if it were not for my sponsor GunUp.Com, I wouldn't be able to go, either!

Robin will be shooting Centerfire Iron Sight class, and I will be shooting the Rimfire Optic and Centerfire Optic classes. Monday morning after the match I will be heading back to the airport to fly home, while Robin will be staying one more week and shooting an IPSC match in Germany before flying home.

This will be an interesting match for me, particularly my venture into Centerfire Optic Class. This will be my first major match in Centerfire Optic class (also called Centerfire Open). I haven't competed in any of the centerfire classes for years due to the cost of the ammo it takes to become competitive, and also the cost of a competitive gun for the Open class. Since by far the most important factor in shooting is trigger control, with all of the rimfire shooting I do, trigger control should be OK. The main things I will need to concentrate on are things like drawing the gun from the holster, remembering to take the safety off, and remembering to watch the red dot when I'm trying to remember other things at the same time. With practice the draw becomes almost automatic as it becomes a "Muscle Memory" action, but for now, I haven't had enough time to practice it to that level so I will have to think about it each time. Since it was only last week that I even learned that I would be shooting in Open, I haven't had much time to practice for it. Since it's all just for fun anyway, I'm not expecting any spectacular scores, but if I can manage to shoot the match smoothly and not make any big mental mistakes I should not be last, at least!

I am really looking forward to seeing all of the great folks I've met in Winterswijk the last two years, including, but not limited to Hans, Jolanda, Jeroen, (hope I spelled that right) Chris, Peter, Jeffrey, Jan, Harry, Melissa, Sascha, Karin, Lucien, Andre, all of the great German guys, and a lot more that I'm forgetting!

I'm not looking forward to the traveling part, and I wish I could afford to go over a few days earlier and get over the jet-lag a bit, but beyond that, I can hardly wait to get there. In the Steel Shooting world, the European Steel Challenge Championships is by far the best and most fun match of all!

I'll try to post updates from Winterswijk, when I can.......

Need Pepper spray?

I got an email from a guy named Joe who went through all of my sidebar links and identified all of the dead ones. He asked if  I would put a link to his commercial website on the blog.

I don't link to  ANY business unless I am personally knowledgeable about them, and in most cases, have actually done business with them. I have had no contact, business or otherwise, with Joe and his Pepper Spray business. I can say nothing either positive or negative about his operation since I just don't have any info either way.

It WAS nice of him to check the dead links, though......

http://www.buy-pepper-spray-today.com

Shooting OPEN in Holland

My beat up old Charles Daly 1911 in .45ACP, fitted with a brand new OKO red dot sight and OKO mount.

As I've mentioned before, Dutch firearms Trading in Holland is making it possible for me to own a custom tuned Tanfoglio Gold Team 9mm. race gun. Getting it from there to here, however, has been far more time consuming than I ever imagined. The original plan was to have in here a couple of months before the European Steel Challenge Championships so I could get in a lot of practice. Then, take it back to Holland and shoot it in the Championships. However, we have completely run out of time. In fact, it's entirely possible the gun and I will pass each other on our way to or from Holland!

So, on to plan "B". Hans at Dutch firearms Trading will let me shoot his own personal Tanfoglio Gold Team in the match. That means I won't have any time to practice with it at all. My friend Lou has a Gold Team, and if possible we are going to try to get together on Monday morning so I can get in at least a little bit of practice.

Since I am a bit "rusty" when it comes to drawing from a holster in a hurry, I put together a practice gun, starting with an old Charles Daly 1911 that I used years ago to shoot bowling pins. I drilled and tapped the dust cover and tapped the holes to 8-32 thread, and drilled and countersunk  the brand new OKO mount to match. On top I mounted a new 6 MOA OKO red dot sight. Now I have something similar to the Tanfoglio that I can practice drawing, finding the dot, getting it on the target, and firing.

I went over to the Holmes Harbor range this morning and sighted in the OKO sight. I sure do like how quickly the OKO sights are to dial in. Much quicker than the C-Mores I used to use. After getting it adjusted, I practiced drawing and firing using the timer buzzer as a start signal. My times were nothing to brag about, but at least I was able to get it out of the holster and get a fairly accurate shot off with some consistency. In the time I was taking to draw and fire, the fast guys could probably draw, fire, re-holster, and pour a cup of coffee, but at least I think I'm on the right track. My biggest concerns are getting the first shot off smoothly and accurately with decent trigger control. Speed, as they say, will come. Not, however, in less than a week! I'll settle for smooth, slow, and accurate!

Time will tell...........

Latest Excuses for not blogging.......

Wow, almost a week since the last post! Where does the time go?

I've been trying to get out to the range at least every day if I can, and try to shoot four or five hundred rounds of practice each time. Today I managed to get in two sessions, although the first session was only about three hundred rounds since the extractor broke off in the practice gun. Yes, I have two race guns set up as close as possible to each other, so the practice gun gets all the hard usage, while the main gun is used primarily in the matches. Interestingly enough, when the extractor broke off, the gun continued to run and extract without any problems. I ran about sixty rounds through it with no extractor! I didn't even notice that the extractor was gone until I partially pulled the slide back to check for a round in the chamber and the round stayed fully in the chamber rather than being partially pulled out by the extractor.

Why all of the practice? On June 1st. I fly out to Holland for the European Steel Challenge Championships. So far this year I have shot two major matches, and a bunch of club matches, and to tell the truth, I haven't been too happy with my shooting. I know I can do much better than I've been doing, but it takes tons of practice to get it to work every time. In a sport where one or two tenths of a second per five shots fired can move you ten spots or more in the final standings, you need to practice a huge amount to get the consistency.

There's a story about Jerry Miculek, the revolver master, where someone asked him how many rounds of practice did he have to shoot before he could shoot as fast and accurately as he does. His answer was that it took one hundred thousand rounds of practice to get to where he could shoot like he does, and another one hundred thousand rounds until he could do it every time. Probably a true story! Most of the top shooting competitors shoot at least fifty or sixty thousand rounds of practice a year!

Another activity that's been taking up a lot of time is working on the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. If you've never put on an event, you have no idea how many loose ends there are to take care of. Talking with sponsors, arranging shipping, coordinating with the hotel, handling registrations, making range arrangements, and more. If I was getting paid to do this, I think I'd ask the boss for a raise! There will be some big announcements coming up soon regarding the Rendezvous. 

I've been doing some development work on some new sight mounts for the OKO Red Dot Sights , and not too far down the road we should have a wide range of mount choices to cover just about any of the handguns out there without needing to use a Weaver style rail.

The new on line shooting supply store Magnum Shooters Supply is growing, and the sales of the James Austin Moon Clip Server around the world has been a pleasant surprise.

I'm also looking into setting up a small plastic injection molding press for making some small parts, and if I can find the right one at a good price, or possibly even build my own, that should be a handy capability to have. I've just about got my own anodizing setup dialed in, and I've run a couple of small runs with good results.

Now, if I could just find a small NC milling machine I could afford to automate building some of those sight mounts........

e-Postal Match Reminder

Don't forget there's an e-Postal match going on right now, and you've got until the end of the month to get your entries submitted. The number of entries has been down a bit lately, so for these matches to be worth the effort, you need to get out and shoot the targets, take pictures, and send in your scores.

The Gun Blogger community hasn't been promoting the e-Postal matches too much lately, either, so if you are a blogger, how about putting up a post about the matches? The matches are always very creative, and a lot of fun to shoot. However, they are just about always a whole lot harder than they look, so if you DO shoot the targets for the match. send in your entries, no matter how badly you THINK you did. Believe me, in previous matches some targets that would have scored well up the list never got sent in because the shooter had erroneously thought he had done terrible when he had actually done quite well.

This month's e-Postal match is underway over at Sand Castle Scrolls so head on over and print out some targets for the match.

Click Here to go to the match information.

Good luck, and have fun!

Mr. Completely Nominated for GUNNIE Award

I got an email from the good folks at LuckyGunner.com telling me that I had been nominated for a Gunnie Award for the best gun blog in the Entertainment" category.

Voting is only open until the 28th. (Only 12 days)  to determine the winners in each of the 9 categories. There are a whole lot of really good gun blogs in the running, so I need to get every single reader to go vote for Mr. Completely, and then if each reader would get 750 more people to vote, and if each of those would get 750 more to vote, and so forth, I would at least be kept from total humiliation caused  by being dead last!
If you can't get 750 people to vote, any help is still appreciated!

Voting is done via the online ballot here:

 http://www.luckygunner.com/2011-gunnie-awards

Each category winner gets an engraved, really nice Italian-made 30mm replica round trophy from Technoframes. Winners will be announced on Saturday night at the Lucky Gunner Memorial Day Blogger Shoot during the banquet.  Also, every winner gets their choice of 100 free rounds of ammo from LuckyGunner.com, since Technoframes and Lucky Gunner are sponsoring the awards ceremony. The winners do not have to be present at the Shoot to win but whoever wins in each category will get their engraved trophy + free ammo along with some good ole fashioned bragging rights & a cool badge to show that they were the highest vote-getter.

You can only vote once per computer, as the voting thing watches to see where you voted from.  If you have more than one computer, though, you can vote once from each one.

Please help Mr. C. from being totally humiliated by a crushing defeat at the ballot box, so EVERY ONE OF YOU NEEDS TO VOTE!

Anyhow, I could use the ammo.........

Not As Planned, again.........

Ah yes, best laid plans, etcetera, etcetera. KeeWee and I planned on driving over to Ephrata on Friday during the day, spending the night at the Oasis Park Campground in Ephrata, shooting the Washington State Steel challenge Championships on Saturday, then right after the match driving back to the West side of the State to Puyallup, spending Saturday night at the range in Puyallup, then shooting the Paul Bunyan Club's Club championship on Sunday, then driving home Sunday night.

Well, it followed the plan as far as getting to the Oasis Park campground. We were parked next to John and Jeanette Davidson from the Kitsap club, and we shared a pleasant evening of conversation, campfire, and hotdogs and marshmallows. Not long after we got to the campground James Austin pulls in, so James joined us around the fire for a really nice evening. So far, everything according to plan.

We decided to turn in a bit early and get a good night's sleep, so we did. KeeWee had been feeling a bit crummy earlier in the week, but some antibiotics seemed to have sorted that out OK. Unfortunately, she ended up getting sick during the night, and neither of us got a whole lot of sleep.

We decided to head out to the range and see how she felt. She didn't feel well enough to shoot the match, but she figured she could stay in bed in the nice warm RV just as well as being home in bed, so we decided I'd shoot the match, and we'd head straight home after, instead of going to Puyallup.

The morning was raining steadily, so it didn't look like it was going to be a whole lot of fun, anyway, and for KeeWee to get wet and cold when she was already feeling lousy would be a really poor idea. So, we made sure the furnace was turned up and she spent the day either reading or sleeping. I went out and sleep-walked/sloshed my way through the match.

I often have trouble getting focused on the very first stage, so I really tried to ignore the lack of sleep and other distractions, and it worked, at least for the first stage, and I turned in some pretty good times. From there, though, it really looked like I was out of gas, and things didn't go well.

By lunch time I was wet, and not very happy with the way I was shooting. It had not been a good morning. At the lunch break I again checked in to see how KeeWee was doing, and the comfy bed and warm RV was keeping her as comfortable as possible. I put on dry clothes and ate a little bit, but I wasn't really very hungry. I just sat in the RV, drank some hot coffee, and tried to re-charge the batteries a bit. Just getting dry and warm made me feel a little better.

I could have taken a nice long nap very easily, but I still had four more stages to shoot, so off I went to the next stage. The rain had just about stopped and it was a little warmer, so that in itself was a nice improvement. I decided that this could be a good learning experience for me, as I was certainly  not in the best condition, but I needed to work on staying focused and doing as well as I could without digging any more big holes to jump into! I think I did learn a little more about getting focused and the final four stages went fairly well. Three went very well, and I even had the fastest time of the match on one of the stages, and it was even on one of my weaker stages.

After the final stage was completed I helped to put away the targets and stands, and then headed to the RV to see how KeeWee was doing. She seemed to be holding up pretty well, considering the circumstances.

As the scores were being finished up, they had a fast draw against the clock competition for cash prizes, but I was completely worn out from the match and didn't have any interest in entering. I just wanted to find out how I had done, and then hit the road for home.

A very nice laser engraved Spyderco knife.

 

 

Finally they got to announcing the scores, and although the terrible morning had done it's damage, I still had posted the second fastest pistol time of the match, and had even won one of the stages overall! I ended up 2nd. in Rimfire and the Top Senior. If I could have shot in the morning like I did in the afternoon I would have been right there at the top. James was the fastest revolver shooter, and Debbie, also from Kitsap, was the top Rimfire Lady. The Kitsap club had done rather well, considering the conditions.

Right after the awards we fired up the RV and headed towards home. Once we got out onto the road the wind was gusting and blowing us around, so it was a wrestling match right up to where we started to climb the East side of the Cascades to get across Snoqualmie pass. When the wind stopped, it started raining heavily, and rained all the way home. The rain was coming down hard enough that the raindrops were bouncing off the pavement, and there were lots of areas of standing water to hydroplane across. To add to the fun, there was a layer of ground fog across the pass, making it nearly impossible to see where the lanes were supposed to be. Bleh....

By the time we got home I felt like I'd been in a fight and had lost badly. Even though I continued to drive in my sleep, at least I was warm, in bed, and asleep.

It had been an interesting weekend, to say the least!

Gettin' Ready For Ephrata and Puyallup

It certainly is getting to be the busy time of the year! Two weekends ago we were in Oregon for the Man of Steel Championships, last weekend we were in Yakima, WA. for a steel match and last minute "Tune-up" before this weeke3nd, when we head over to Ephrata, WA. for the Washington State Steel Challenge Championships.

I just got back from the Holmes Harbor range, where I double-checked the zero on my OKO Red Dot sight, and it was right on. Just to warm up the gun a little bit, my first shot was at a 4" square swinging target at 50 yards, and I hit it on the first shot. Definitely more luck than skill, but it was kinda fun to hit it first try. I set up a sheet of paper with a spot in the middle at 25 yards, and took ten shots at it off-hand steel challenge style, to see if I was approximately centered around the spot, and it was, so I should be good to go for Ephrata. Last weekend at Yakima I had four or five stove-pipes, and re-sharpening and case-hardening the extractor seems to have resolved that problem, I hope. I've run about 200 rounds through it without a problem, so it seems OK.

We are taking the RV over to Ephrata on Friday (tomorrow) and will be staying at an RV park in Ephrata, along with some folks from the Kitsap club. Saturday is the Championships, and right after the match we are going to hit the road for Puyallup, where we will spend  Saturday night at the Paul Bunyan range. Sunday is the Paul Bunyan Club Championships, and I always try to make it to that one, even if it's not a steel match. The club championship is essentially a nan-on-man falling plate match. To shoot falling plates well you need to be shooting them regularly, and most of the hot-shots there shoot a falling plate match every week. Even though it's a double-elimination format, I will end up shooting against the falling plate specialists early in the match, so I'm not expecting to last very long before I get eliminated. I hope I can stay in the match for a while, though, as the longer you can go before elimination, the more shooting you get to do!

I've still got to service the RV and give the guns a final cleaning and checking before leaving tomorrow for Ephrata, so I better get to work!

Shootin' News

KeeWee and I went East to Yakima, Washington this last weekend for a Steel Challenge match, and unlike last month, the weather was nice going over, at the match, and not too bad getting home. Other than a little rain on the way back, it was a huge improvement.

This match was our last chance for a tune-up prior to next weekend's Washington State Steel Challenge Championships in Ephrata. I've been working all Winter trying to improve my shooting and making some minor changes, and this would be a good final rest to see if the changes in technique were a good idea or not. It would also be a good test to be sure the gun was running reliably.

We arrived on Friday afternoon in Moxee, WA., just a few miles East of Yakima, in time to stop by Red's Diner for burgers. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Yakima and looking for a hamburger, making a detour to Moxee for one at Big Red's is worth the effort. I don't know beans about fancy foo-foo gore-met food, but I DO know a good burger when I eat one, and Red's are some of the best I've ever had. The 50's diner decor is kinda cool, too!

Saturday morning bright and early I helped Ty and Steve set up the target stands and hang the plates prior to signup. We also had to nail down the shooters boxes and put paint at each stage, along with clipboards and pens.

After sign-up and a shooter's meeting, we broke up into squads and got to the shooting.  We had a good turn-out, with fifty guns entered. Since it was only a five stage match I entered once with my regular Steel Challenge name and number, and once under an "assumed name" (so it doesn't mess up the scoring) and shot the entire match twice.The match went smoothly, but on the fourth stage the gun started to stove pipe once in a while, and I ended up with some terrible times on two or three of the shot strings. That ended up messing up my times a bit on a couple of stages. Fortunately most of the disastrous times got thrown out, but not all.

Last week at the Man of Steel Championships I shot just a little bit to conservatively, and this time I tried to push the envelope a bit more, while still keeping it under control, and that's mostly how it went, excluding the stove-pipes of course!

The reality of it is that I put a huge amount of time on my two primary race guns, and things wear out. I try to put most of my practice time on my backup gun, and save the main gun just for the matches. Even so, the extractor on the main gun was starting to wear, and wasn't consistently holding the rim so the ejector could sent the empty flying overboard. I'm glad it started to malfunction now, though, rather than next week in Ephrata, or worse yet, in a few weeks in Holland!

As always, it was great to see and visit with all our friends in Yakima, and we look forward to seeing them again next week in Ephrata!

GLOCK Donates Gun To Gun Blogger Rendezvous

Great news for our fund Raising efforts at this year's Gun blogger rendezvous! GLOCK will be donating a GLOCK pistol certificate for our fund-raising raffle. This certificate will be good for a new basic model GLOCK of your choice. For a small upgrade fee, you can also step up to the fancier models. We will have all of the raffle rules available before you buy any tickets at the Rendezvous, but the new GLOCK will be won by someone actually attending the Rendezvous, so you must be present to win!

A big thanks to GLOCK, and particularly to Randi Rogers (El Supremo Lady Shooter!) at GLOCK for arranging the details for us. Maybe someday Randi will be able to join us at the Rendezvous......

2011 Man of Steel Championships

The shooting season is now upon us, and the first big match of the year for KeeWee and I is the Man of Steel Championships held just South of Portland, Oregon at the Tri-Counties Gun Club range. Nick and Ryan Leonard have been putting this match on for years, and they always do a great job. This year's match had nine stages, and a full house with ninety shooters entered.

KeeWee and I drove to the range, about four and a half hours on the road, and spent the night at the range in our mini-RV. The weather forecast was for near seventy degrees and partly cloudy, and match day morning looked like that was what was in store. It was just a little chilly first thing in the morning, but it got better and better as the day went on.

James Austin and I in our brand new GunUp jerseys.

One of the first people I met on match morning was our friend Kevin. Kevin, KeeWee and I have been on the same squad the last few years and we always have a ton of fun shooting with him, since his sense of humor fits so well with our own brand of craziness!

Those new jerseys really look good!

That's me, hard at work, spraying lead in the general direction of the plates! It's not easy to shoot when a squirrel is laughing at you. (See below)

Zach shooting his rimfire carbine.

D.W. "Death Wish" Squirrel. The little guy sat there and watched us all shoot. It didn't seem to bother him a bit.

Rian, a very accomplished revolver shooter, and James.

Dick, also shooting a rimfire carbine.

Our friend Kevin shooting in the Rimfire Carbine class.

James was amazing with the speed and smoothness of his shooting.

The stages were either out of the Steel Challenge rule book, or stages similar to steel challenge stages, for the most part, but a couple of them were definitely different. The stage "Fallers" had four plates in a row, and at ground level in front of the four plates were five six inch round plates on metal bases that had to be knocked over. The five plates on the ground were the stop plates, so you had a different stop plate on each run!

Another unusual stage was called 4T5. On this stage you shoot four plates, then run to another position, reloading on the way, then shoot the four plates again, and finally, shoot the stop plate. Not my favorite, but I muddled through it anyway!

After shooting five stages we all broke for lunch. At lunch they had the drawing for all of the prizes, including ten guns and a bunch of nice knives. James won a Ruger Mk. III, KeeWee won a Tactical Solutions 10/22 barrel, and I won a H&K pocket knife. Every entry won something, and it was all by random drawing.  After lunch, we headed back out to the range to finish up the match.

Once we had shot the final stage, we packed the targets and stands from our stage to the storage area. The match results wouldn't be available until later that night. We had a long drive ahead of us, and we were already tired from a long day, so we said our farewells and hit the road for home.

The drive home was uneventful, and just how I like it. When we got home Bun the rabbit was glad to see us. You can tell she's not happy when we take trips!

After a night of driving the RV in my sleep, we got up to check to see the match results. I was fourth overall, fourth in Rimfire Open, and Top Senior. KeeWee was 19th. in Rimfire Open (out of 36) and was the top Lady. James won the Iron Sight Revolver class, and his time was fast enough that he would have been 3rd. in Open Revolver, and on top of that, there was only one Limited Centerfire entry faster!

Next week we're off to Yakima for a last "Tune-up" before the Washington State Steel Challenge championships in Ephrata the following weekend. After Ephrata I've got a couple of weeks to practice before leaving for Holland and the European Steel Challenge Championships.

It's gonna be fun!

May e-Postal Match - Underway!

Danno at SandCastle Scrolls has the May e-Postal match up and running, and it features REACTIVE targets! Is that COOL or what! Sure, using the reactive targets is optional, but even so, what a great idea!

1. Go here to print out the rules and get some targets.
2. Go get everything you own that shoots.
3. Load up all the ammo you've got on hand into the car.
4. Go to the range and perforate a bunch of targets.
5. Take pictures, then send 'em in!

Oh yeah, stop by the candy store on the way to the range. Check out the rules to find out why.

Be safe, have fun, remember to brush after.......

My New GunUp Jersey Has Arrived

My new GunUp shooting jersey has arrived, and it got here just barely in time, since we leave for Oregon and the Man of Steel Championships in the morning. G2Gemini, the company that made the jersey did a really nice job. All of the logos and writing are actually dyed into the fabric, rather than being silk-screened, and it's made of a special rip-stop material, so it should stand up and also look good for years.

Now if I could only shoot as good as the jersey looks........

Here We Go!

"Drag Strip" at Last year's Man of Steel.

Well, the first big steel match of the year, the Man of Steel Championships, is this Sunday, just south of Portland, Oregon. We plan to drive our Land Yacht to Portland on Saturday and spend the night before the match at the range. The match is put on by Nick Leonard and his son Ryan. If the name Ryan Leonard kind of rings a bell, Ryan is the current Rimfire Overall World Champion in Steel Challenge. Ryan beat out none other than Dave Sevigny for the title.

The Man of Steel Championship is basically an eight stage Steel Challenge match, although most of the stages will be similar but different from the official stage layouts.  Several of the stages are very very fast, with plates close together, large, close in, or all three. Some of the stages require double or even triple-taps!

One of the stages,  named "4T5" , is REALLY different. You shoot four plates, then run run to another shooter's box, reloading as you go, then shoot the same four plates again, then shoot a stop plate. It's not so bad for the "Run & Gun" USPSA/IPSC shooters shooting center fire guns, but for rimfire it's a whole lot more difficult.

Most of the magazine releases on  rimfire pistols is awkward, at best, and practically impossible, if you are in a hurry. Furthermore, if you drop a rimfire magazine in the dirt, you can forget about it running reliably for the rest of the day. I set up a ring on the bottom of my magazines and put a lanyard around my neck so when I drop the magazine it doesn't end up full of dirt at least. At least it keeps it out of the dirt, but I still have to shoot the plates, reload while moving as quickly as I can to the second shooting position, then shoot five more plates. I have to do this three times, with the two best runs being counted towards my score for the day. That's going to be an interesting stage, for sure!

I wish I was a bit more confident in my shooting, though. This is the first year I haven't taken a break from practice through the Winter. Since January I've gone through somewhere between ten and fifteen thousand rounds of rimfire ammunition, and I think I'm shooting a little better than I was last Fall. I made some subtle changes in my grip last Fall that allow more speed, but make accuracy more difficult, so I have been trying to work on the accuracy while still carrying the higher speed. Some of the matches so far this season have been encouraging, but it's way to early to see if it's going to work better or not.


This Sunday will be a good test........

Felice Pasqua a tutti! Happy Easter to all!

I got this from Tanfoglio, and I thought it was a nice touch on their part.

Hopefully in the next week or so I will have my new (to me) Tanfoglio Gold Team 9mm. so I can start shooting in Centerfire Open class. I'm looking forward to it!