CWSA First Pin Shoot of the Year

Some center fire pin shooting action!
I wonder what kind of powder he's using?

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KeeWee and I are now back from the first CWSA pin shoot of the year, and like most of the previous pin shoots, it was an interesting day! Kinda like the Irish curse "May you live in interesting times!"

We got there early enough to watch the timing in for the centerfire and revolver classes, and to watch their matches. In centerfire "Evil Al" pretty much owns the place unless Gerald or Kim come down from Custer to compete. No one from the Custer club made the trip today, so Al basically "kicked butt and took names." Most of the competition was for second place.

In rimfire timing in, I had a horrible time with rounds failing to fire. When I could still get them, I used Winchester Dynapoints, with fairly good results. Dynapoints don't seem to be available anymore, so I switched to Federals, but have had more problems with them not firing.

Timing in with my S&W 422 in Optical sight class, and with my High Standard iron sight gun in iron sight class was a nightmare. I couldn't get through a clip without one or two not firing. The firing pin was putting a good dent in the rim, so they should have been firing. Even with having to clear several rounds, I still managed to qualify faster than dead last, but not by much!

Fortunately my High Standard optical sight gun must have been hitting them just a little bit harder, and they were firing OK. Al and I were timing in side by side, taking turns, so we had a little bit of a competition between us for the fastest table times.

Al managed a 3.22 seconds for 5 pin tops, which beat the best I could come up with, a 3.53. Al's next two table times were slightly slower than my next two table times, so I ended up with a 11.93 seconds for 3 tables combined, compared to Al's 12.18 seconds for three. One quarter of a second difference over fifteen pins, that's close!

We only had five shooters for rimfire iron sight class this time, and I won my first matchup, then lost the second matchup to JimP, the eventual winner. That gave me a third overall. I always struggle with iron sights, so I can't complain!

One of down sides of timing in fastest at CWSA is that you get to shoot against the next fastest shooter in the first round, and since it's single elimination, one of you gets knocked out in the first round. That means that Al and I met in the first round.

I managed to shoot possibly two of the best tables I've ever shot in my entire life, and very narrowly took two tables straight! It was some of the closest pin shooting I've ever participated in, and my blood pressure and adrenalin levels must have been clear off the gauge! WOW, what a rush!

I managed to work my way up to the finals with my High Standard, where I would shoot against the winner of the lower half of the elimination chart for the overall win. Due to the nightmare in qualification with misfires, I was down in the lower half with the S&W 422. With all of the problems I had been having with the Federals not firing, I didn't hold out much hope. I grabbed some other ammo I had, and figured I'm give it my best with that instead of the Federal. No chance to test it, however, so it was right into the match we go!

Wonder of wonders! It seemed to fire OK. I won my first match, and moved to the second match. It continued to fire, and I won the second level match too. On to the third round matchup. Win this one, and I'm into the finals with the 422. With a little help from a misfire in the other guy's gun, instead of in mine, and I was through to the final.

The other shooter in the final was also me but with the High Standard, so there was no final to shoot! I ended up in first with the High Standard, and second with the S&W 422!

Considering how badly the day started out, I couldn't have been more surprised.

KeeWee timed in respectably, and ended up drawing LouG in the first round. Lou is a fine shooter, and never an easy opponent. Lou narrowly won the first table, KeeWee tied him on the second, and lost the third table, giving Lou the round. She made him earn it, however!

It feels great to have the pin shoot season going again, as it's been a long Winter. KeeWee and I have both been suffering withdrawals from no pin shoots since November.

Although the weather looked threatening all day, it wasn't as cold as yesterday, and we were just finishing up for the day when it started to rain.

Great Fun, Perfect Timing!