CWSA First Pin Shoot of the Year

All pictures can be clicked on for a bigger view

Rainy and I, Centerfire Optical Sight - First Table.


Rainy and I on the second table.


Chris and I, Revolver class, tied on our first table.


Chris and I, Revolver class, very close on the second table.


Chris and I, Revolver class, very close again on the third table.


Tony thumping me solidly in revolver class. He's already finished! SHEEESHHH!!


LouG and I on the first table of Big Bore Revolver. It was close!

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Saturday morning the weather looked really lousy, with high winds and rain. Saturday was also the first pistol shoot at holmes Harbor Rod & Gun club, and the Custer Club was also shooting a handgun match, I think. All of that combined to produce a really low number of shooters at our first pin shoot of the year. The good news about the weather was that although it was raining and blowing both to the North and South, at the CWSA range it was only windy, and not very cold, so it wasn't a bad day for shooting at all!

"Evil Al" had caught a terrible cold or something, and was just to miserable to shoot, although he stopped by to handle the initial shooter's meeting. Shortly thereafter he went back home to recuperate. Rainy and LouG did a fine job running the shoot, and everything went smoothly. After getting through shooting the tables for time to determine the first round matchups, we got right into the matches.

I didn't get much time to watch the Centerfire Iron Sight class, but LarryF, with an injured left shoulder, was shooting his CZ75 one handed, and I think he ended up second in the class.

Centerfire Optical Sight class, usually one of the bigger classes, only had two of us sign up, Rainy with her new 9mm. STI, and me with my Taurus 9mm. Econo Race gun. We decided to go ahead and shoot it anyway, and my "Budget Blaster" prevailed, two tables in a row.

Revolver class had a better number signed up, but still only seven or eight shooters. LouG met Tony the Kid in the first round, and was quickly turned into a spectator. I met up with Chris, Tony's dad, and pulled off a mild upset, and Chris usually beats me. The bad news, however, is that now I got to shoot against Tony. I was really close on the first table, but the second one he smoked me big time. I even shot a pretty good time, at least for me. Usually only Evil Al beats up on me that badly! Tony ended up winning the class handily.

In the new Big Bore Revolver class we had three shooters, LouG, AlS, and myself. Lou had fastest qualifying times with his Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 magnum, followed by me with my Ruger .480 Super Red Hawk, and AlS right behind with his Ruger Red Hawk .44 Magnum. I went up against AlS in the first round, and progressed to the final against LouG. Now LouG is a good friend, and a darn fine shooter. He has shot his .44 in pin shoots in the past and has done well with it.

Our first table was very close, but I narrowly got the pins on the ground first. The second table, we both threw caution to the wind and shot as fast as we could. Lou got his 6 shots off faster that I, but left one pin laying on the table. and I had one shot to go, with one pin standing, one rolling towards the edge, and one on its side. The rolling pin continued to roll, and finally rolled off the table. YAHOOO! The best I could do was to get one of the remaining pins off the table with my last shot to make it a tie table with each of us leaving one pin on the table. There was no hurry, all I had to do was hit the one standing pin squarely. With everyone watching, this was not a shot I would want to miss! To my great joy the 370 grain hard lead bullet found the body of the pin, and it went sailing off the table.

The pins were re-set, we re-loaded, and got to do it all over again. The last table was close, but I narrowly squeaked out a win to take the first Big Bore Revolver class at CWSA. What a ball! By down-loading the ammo a bit so it wasn't painful to shoot, the big bore revolvers become really fun to shoot, and big lead bullets really send the pins flying. I hit one pin and it must have gone four feet straight up, end over end!

We had better numbers of shooters in the Rimfire optical classes, with several new faces giving pin shooting a try for their first time. By this time of day I've started to lose track of individual matches, but in the Rimfire Optical Sight class I entered my 12" barreled High Standard and my Smith & Wesson 422. In the semi-final I ended up against myself, and retired the 422. The final was a blur, and I don't remember who I shot against, although I do remember that I did manage to pull off the win. By now I had shot a LOT of tables!

KeeWee timed in somewhere in the middle, and ended up against Rainy in the first round, a repeat of the final at the last match of the year. Rainy beat KeeWee by about half a pin on both tables, but it was close.

In the Rimfire Iron sight class I met JimP, my old nemesis, in the first round, for another one of our close rounds. In the next round I met RandyN, a new shooter who was really shooting well. I shot two bad tables in a row, and Randy shot two excellent tables to win the round. Randy went on to win the class handily. (Gotta watch this guy!)

Hopefully with a little better weather our Saturday, April 7th. pin shoot will have a better turnout. If you weren't able to attend, I hope you can make it to one of our next shoots! We have a good time!

Next Saturday, March 17th., will be our first Rimfire Falling Plate match. The rimfire falling plate matches are very similar to pin shooting. The steel plates have to be knocked over, and it's head to head competition. The plates are larger than pin tops. We will use a round robin format rather than a elimination format, so every shooter will shoot against every other shooter. You should bring LOTS of ammo!

Come give it a try!

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A BIG thanks to KeeWee for taking the pictures, as I was too busy shooting to do much photography!