CWSA Hanging Plate Shoot -08/27/05

25 Yards, 7" plates, 6 shots, 6 seconds, a piece of cake, right?
Rainey smackin' a few plates.

It wasn't all just old geezers, either! You gotta beat these kids while we can. They just keep getting better!

3" plates at 10 yards, 6 shots in 6 seconds.

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We had great weather for the plate shoot, mild temperature and no rain. The competition was as close as it's ever been, with only a few plates separating the top finishers.

I had been practising a bit with the High Standard iron sight gun, trying to get to the first plate quicker. It feels like it takes me forever to get the first shot off, and then I barely have time for the next five shots. It seems to have helped, as I hit just about every first plate, and having more time, it allowed me a little more time to get off the remaining shots with a little more accuracy.

To my amazement, when the scores were totalled, I had edged Al by one plate! Probably a bad idea, in hindsight, as anything that gets Al pumped up for a pin shoot is never a good thing, and there's a pin shoot tomorrow!

Optical sight class was also very close. I haven't had a mis-feed all year, but I can't say that anymore. Why does it always happen on the first or second shot, rather than the fifth or sixth? One mis-fire or mis-feed, and you don't have time to clear it and get the remaining shots off. Bummer!

All of the iron sight practice didn't seem to help me with the first plate in optical class. I think I missed most of them. Fortunately plates two through six were easier to hit.

Going into the final eighteen plates at twenty-five yards, it was just about even. Fortunately I had finally "found" the first plates, and ran a string of seventeen straight, missing the very last plate low and to the right by about an inch. That was good enough to get by Al by about four plates.

Now I'm definitely on the top of Al's list for tomorrow at the pin shoot.

Maybe if I set up lights and practice all night?