CWSA Steel Challenge -- 08/27/06

"Evil Al" with the "Lawrence of Coupeville" hat running the shot timer.


The shade was a big help! You can see the shooting station and one of the stages behind.


A little "Iron Sight" Action.

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Sometimes you just have to be careful what you wish for. I had been hoping for a nice day this past Sunday for the CWSA steel Challenge match, since there's no cover for you if it's raining, and it can get kinda wet and sloppy. Well, we got weather, all right! 90 degrees of it! We locals were suffering mightily, trying to keep out of the sun, not dehydrate, and still remember that we were shooting a match. Yes, I know that 90 isn't all that warm for those of you who are used to it, but for Western Washingtonians, that's about where it starts getting miserable. Fortunately Chris and Tony brought a temporary shade tent thingie, and that, plus a big umbrella and the sides of several vehicles gave us a bit of shade.

Since I had done better than I had expected in the first tryout for the county inter-club match team, I decided I better shoot three classes, even though the Taurus PT92 "Econo RAce Gun" wasn't really ready, and there was still work to be done to it. I signed up for Open Revolver, Open Centerfire, and Open Rimfire. We only shot two stages, but with the good turnout, it still turned into a long day. The stages were both basically standard Steel Challenge stages, although "Evil Al" substituted some 10" plates for some of the 12 inchers, and I think one of the stop plates was supposed to be 18" by 24" instead of a 12" round one, but that just made us all aim a little more carefully.

It was a long day, and to make it even worse, I forgot my lunch! At least I remembered the thermos full of ice cold pop. By afternoon everyone was starting to fade, and trying to focus on the match became more and more difficult. The good thing about shooting a match when it's hot is that it makes you work harder on focusing on you shooting. If you work on staying focused when you are miserable, it makes it a lot easier when the weather is more pleasant. At least, I kept telling myself that!

KeeWee skipped this match since her shoulder is still bothering her a bit after bruising it a bit when she tripped stepping over a low rabbit fence around one of the flower beds.

In Open Revolver, Evil Al is so much faster than the rest of us, it's usually a battle for second, third, and fourth, with first being a foregone conclusion. Now that Al has a new 8 shot revolver, it's even more so. After the scores were totalled up, Al had indeed walked off with it without much pressure from the rest of us mere mortals. Young Tony was in second, I had managed to tuck in right behind him for third, and LouG was right behind me in fourth. Considering that I was the only revolver shooter shooting single action, I certainly couldn't complain!

In the Open Centerfire class, it was obvious that I hadn't had time to do much practicing with the 9mm. Taurus. My times varied widely, but I got in a few reasonably fast runs to offset the slow ones. Al shot his new revolver in the Open Centerfire class too, and also won this one. I surprised myself by ending up in second place, but still way behind Al.

Once I get a trigger shoe on to the Taurus to effectively move the trigger farther forward, and get used to the grip angle, it should start being more consistent, at least, if I get out and practice with it!

Open rimfire ended up just the same as it has in every Steel Challenge match this year, with Al winning with his S&W model 41. I was second ,and LouG (I think) was third. Actually, I was pretty well wore out by the time the match ended so that I didn't take a very close look at the scores. I helped break down the stages and put everything away as fast as I could so I could head home for some food and something cold to drink.

Next weekend CWSA has a Hanging Plate Rimfire match on Saturday, and a Bowling Pin Shoot on Sunday, so I need to get in a little practice and work a bit on accuracy over speed before next weekend.

For those of you who have been thinking about coming over to one of the CWSA matches, or haven't been to one in a while, this next weekend will be a good one. Mark, Lisa, AK, RD, the folks over at Kitsap, the Douglas Ridge shooters, the welcome mat is out!

Hope to see you there......