CWSA Rimfire Handgun Hanging Plate Shoot - 10/09/05

Yesterday's CWSA Hanging Plate shoot was a bit different from previous plate shoots. We still shot at 10, 15, 20, and 25 yards, and it was still 6 plates, but this time there was a "stop" plate you had to shoot last, and there were penalties if you shot it before shooting the other five plates. The stop plate wasn't always in the same spot, from round to round, either.

Instead of having six seconds to shoot six plates, this time scoring was based on total elapsed time, less penalties. Since time was now critical, you had to shoot the five white plates in the sequence that should take the least time without having to come clear back from the far end to shoot the stop plate. Some rounds you would shoot right to left, other times left to right, and if the stop plate was in the middle, you'd shoot one side, shoot the other side, then back to the middle for the stop plate, all against the clock.

As we've done in the past, rimfire handgun was split into two classes, optical sight, and iron sight. A number of us entered both classes.

I had just done some major maintenance on my Optical Sight High Standard, including a new hammer spring and slide spring. Both were really getting tired, and needed to be replaced. Apparently the new springs were just enough different that I started having feeding problems, and it looked like I had more or less knocked myself out of the competition for optical sight class. Of course ,when it'd mis-feed, it would jam the mis-fed round in so I had to drop the magazine to get it out, then put a magazine back in to resume firing. Fortunately that's something I practice, so I didn't lose as much time as I could have, but lost plenty, nonoe the less.

I made some changes, and figured I'd just press on and take a few chances, since I had nothing to lose, as it looked like I was way out of it. As the match went on, other shooters seemed to be having little malfunctions too. It was like a pre-Halloween curse was on everyone's handguns for the day!

I started shooting as fast as I could with any hope of hitting the plates, figuring on wasting a few shots for the sake of speed. It must have been the right decision, as I kept gaining and gaining on the early leaders, and eventually got to the top of the pile by the last round! WHEW!!

KeeWee got back into form a bit, and shot a solid seventh place with her trusty little Beretta Neos.

Iron sight class was a whole lot closer, in the final standings, with JimP beating me by only fifteen hundredths of a second overall, out of over one hundred and nine total seconds! That's CLOSE!!

The weather held off from raining all day, and ther than a little gusty winds at times, we all had a great time.

After the plate shoots, Lou, Pegi, and I set up some targets on the ten yard target stands to shoot a few more entries for the e-Postal Handgun match "Jack-N-Jill". After shooting my High Standard 22's all morning, shooting the 44 Magnum was quite a change!

Got some more entries in, however, and called it a day.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, I'd say!!

(There's no pictures, since sme dummy left the camera at home. SHEEESH!)