Missoula Pin Shoot Trip 2006 - Part 2

After a fun evening of music and a somewhat too warm night's sleep, the sun came up and it was time to get the old act together! After making sure everything was loaded up, Gary, Ty, Michael, KeeWee and I all headed to the East side of Missoula to the Deer Creek Range. We parked the RV in the shade, and helped out a bit in the final setup. KeeWee and I had a quick breakfast, and started to get the gun cases and range box out and ready to go.

As we were getting set up and ready, "Evil Al" and Rainy Lindell drove in, just returned from the World Handgun Championships in Montrose, Colorado. Just after they arrived, Al Slader, also from the CWSA club on Whidbey Island rode in on his Goldwing. How cool! We had five shooters from CWSA here for the pin shoot!

Gary called the shooter's meeting to order, so to speak, and went over the safety rules and basic rules and procedures for the match. That's Ty Marbut in the Blue shirt, with KeeWee to his right, then Rainy in pink, and Evil Al in the shadows at the right edge.

"Any safety rules violators will be hung from that tree over there....."


There was a special class for 9mm., nine pins as fast as you could shoot!



Justin Ritter (11?) shot in several classes, and missed out winning the .22 rifle class by only .17 of a second.


Mr. C. going after some pins with the 9mm. Taurus Econo Race gun. Note the water soaked wash cloth under my hat, trying to keep cool!


"Evil Al" Lindell in the double action revolver class.


Ron Hunter with the 12 Gauge pump, with Jason Ritter timing.


Jason timing and KeeWee shooting.

The weather just got hotter as the day wore on, but everyone drank lots of liquids and tried to keep in the shade as much as possible. There were six "iron men" who shot in all eleven events to compete for the overall match winner. In spite of having to run the match, Gary Marbut also managed to put on a masterful performance to take over all honors.

It was great to see the family involvement at the match. In a couple of cases there were three generations of the same family competing. Brothers, sons, Grampas, everyone having a great time.

The single action revolver class was won by Jason Ritter. I was shooting my Taurus Model 66, and although I was hitting the pins fast enough, my Plus P ammo wasn't hot enough to always take the pin off the table on the first shot, since the pins were set on the front of the table. The really successful shooters were shooting either .44 Magnums, .44 Special, or or 45ACP in their revolvers, and using BIG bullets. Even with having to reload a couple of times, I managed a fifth place, much to my surprise.

The double action revolver was won by Gary Marbut, with "Evil Al" who also had to reload twice, managed a very respectable 4th in class.

The .22 Pistol class was tightly contested, and Central Whidbey Sportsman's Association did themselves proud, taking 1st., 2nd., 4th., 5th., and 11th. Al Lindell was 2nd., Ty was 3rd., KeeWee shot some of the fastest times she's ever done for 4th., and Rainy Lindell was 5th. Al Slader came in at 11th. I had the fastest combined time for two tables of five pins per table at 5.54 seconds, which was also the fastest time of the match. My fastest individual run was 2.57 seconds, but Ty Marbut with a .22 rifle shot a 2.27 for overall fastest single run of the day.

The 9mm. 9 pin class was a lot of fun to shoot, but this was the first outing with the "not yet ready for prime time" Taurus 9mm. Econo Race Gun. I suspect that there's something a bit loose in the sight, as even from a rest it didn't always shoot where it was pointed. I wanted to try it anyway for some further evaluation as to what else needed to be done. Over all I'm pleased with how it's coming along, and especially with it's reliability and ability to chamber and shoot just about anything you throw at it. In the 9 by 9 class I ended up in the middle of the pack, with an 8th. place finish.

After the awards ceremony it was back on the road again. We drove straight from the range back through Idaho, and then into Washington, stopping at a rest area just West of Moses Lake for some sleep. The next morning we drove the remaining way home, covering the last leg in a bit over five hours.

It was a very long weekend, with lots of heat and road miles, but the Pin Shoot was great fun, and we plan on being there again next year.

Even so, it sure was great to be back home!