CWSA Bowling Pin Shoot - 10/15/06

All night long we could hear the rain pounding on the roof and the wind howling away. This morning a look out the window confirmed our first impressions. The weather outside REALLY sucked! KeeWee's first words this morning weren't "Good Morning!", but rather, "Have a nice time at the pin shoot!"

Gusting winds and near horizontal rain makes outdoor shooting much less fun than it is on a nice sunny day. I considered pulling the blankets over my head and saying "To heck with it!", but then decided to get some breakfast first, then give LouG a call and see if the match had been rained out. Since the shooting stations at the pin range are covered it was unlikely, but you never know. A phone call could save me a drive.

KeeWee decided to get up and create some pancakes (YUM) and we had a good breakfast and some coffee to try to get the circulation going. After breakfast I called Lou, and yes, the shoot was on. I loaded the van and drove up to Coupeville

When I got to the range I could see that KeeWee wasn't the only one to stay home where it was warm and dry. All of the hardy types were there, however. When the weather is lousy all the fast shooters are the only ones who show up!

In Revolver class qualifying, LouG and I TIED to the hundredth of a second for combined times for three tables of pins! I've never seen that happen. Being tied for fastest times, we met in the first round. Last time we met with revolvers, I squeeked a win. Today was Lou's day as he knocked me out in the first round. I have a long memory though, and I'll be gunnin' for him next time! Lou met the same fate however, when he ran up against "Evil AL" in the next round. Al went on to take all the marbles in the revolver class, as is usually the case.

Optical sight Center fire was an interesting class today. The new compensator I had scratch-built for the Taurus PT92 Econo Race Gun was deflecting a LOT of energy upward, as it should, but it was blasting hard enough that it was bending the blast deflector, and yesterday it ripped the heads off of a pair of stainless screws that held the blast deflector on, sending the deflector flying. Last night I built a somewhat more stout blast deflector and bolted it on with some larger grade 8 bolts. That seemed to hold all day just fine.

I didn't notice exactly where my qualifying placed me with the 9mm Taurus, but I think it was something like third or fourth. My fast qualifying table was a 3.77 second run. Not exactly a world beater, but starting to get respectable, none the less. In the first round I met Rainy with her new very trick STI 9mm. race gun. The Taurus did it's stuff and I advanced to the next round, where I ran into "Evil Al". "This will tell me if the Taurus competitive or not, I thought!"

I shot some of the fastest centerfire tables I've ever shot, but Al wasn't exactly shooting slowly himself. Final count for that matchup showed one tie table, I got one table, and Al got two tables to advance to the next round. All of the tables were within tenths of a second between the winner and loser! Any time I can even stay close when shooting against Al I consider it a victory! Al really IS that good! Thanks to a first round bye, that was still good enough for second place in Optical Sight Semi-Auto. WOOO HOOO ! ! !

JimP and I were the only two signed up for Iron Sight Rimfire, so we went ahead and shot our qualifying tables anyway, just for fun. We then shot a couple of tables against each other, again, more for the fun of it than anything else.

Optical sight rimfire only had seven entries, but all have won at least one rimfire pinshoot in the past, so there were no easy opponents. I don't remember exactly who shot against whom, but I do remember that Rainy knocked out Evil Al, which was an upset, as Al doesn't get knocked out very often. Rainy has been showing steady improvement over the last few months.

LukeN, who has been absent from most of the shoots this year due to working out of town was back for this shoot, and shot well enough to make the final, where we had a couple of close tables, but I finally got by him for the win. Luke hasn't been shooting all Summer, nor has he had time to do any practicing. I hope he doesn't start practicing!

Although the weather was less than optimal, we all had a good time and managed to stay dry.

If I win the lottery (you gotta buy tickets? ....bummer....) I'll hafta fly JimmyB the Conservative UAW Guy out here for a pin shoot.

The more the merrier!!

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UPDATE: LouG at Mad Gun has his post up on the match. Dang, I HATE it when he gloats like that.......... (well, not really!)