Idaho & Montana Road Trip - Part Three

Saturday morning came way too early, but we both slept fairly well, and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day, and hopefully, a bit cooler than the day before. We grabbed a quick breakfast, then got out the range box, range bag, and our gun cases, giving everything a last minute check-over prior to the match. We headed up to the covered pistol range for the shooter's meeting and to get signed up on a squad of shooters we would be shooting with for the day.

"Show Down" - Shoot every plate once, then shoot the stop plate, which is the one with the yellow ribbon on it's stand. Shoot three runs from one shooter's box, then shoot two more runs from the other box. The layout is quite a bit different from one box to the other. Your four best times are added for your score on this stage.

We ended up on squad three, which meant we started on the third stage, then shot the fourth through the seventh, then went to the other end and shot the first and second stages last. Every stage was shot five times, with your slowest run thrown out and the remaining four added to your total score for the day.

Although Zig-Zag is no longer one of the current stages in the latest Steel Challenge rule book, it's still a whole lot of fun to shoot. The stop plate is the one at the top, and you shoot the others in whatever order you like, as long as you shoot the stop plate last.

Our squad was a super bunch of folks to shoot with, with all levels and ages of shooters. I doubt if anyone had any more fun than we did!

Becky shooting, with Rick running the timer.

Becky and Rick's daughter Kira looking for the red dot. She shot very well!

Robin Taylor, author of "The Glock in Competition" demonstrates that he can shot just about anything well! If you shoot Glocks you should pick up his book, It's excellent!

Becky and Rick's son Ryder. Give him a couple of more years and he's going to be tough to beat!

KeeWee shooting her way to second place in Rimfire and top rimfire lady.

The night's sleep seemed to have done both of us a lot of good, and we were both shooting well, posting good times, and not missing very many plates. The weather was steadily getting hotter, and we both were drinking liquids to keep from getting dehydrated from standing out in the sun. KeeWee had an umbrella attached to a light weight folding chair so she could stay in the shade as much as possible. Half way through the match we all took a break and went to the clubhouse where we had cold drinks and barbecued pork sandwiches. Very Tasty! After lunch it was back out to the stages to finish the match.

It seemed like the match was over way to quickly, but KeeWee was definitely starting to feel the heat, so it ended at just about the right time! We walked back to the RV, loaded up our gear, grabbed some cold drinks, and walked up to the covered pistol range to find out how we had done.

Bill, the match Director, handing out prizes from the prize table.

When they got to announcing the rimfire results, I was surprised to find that I had shot well enough to win the class, with KeeWee right behind me in second place! Far more important than that, however, was that in spite of the heat, we had a whole lot of fun and got the chance to shoot with a really great bunch of folks. After all, it isn't about winning and losing, it's about enjoying yourselves and doing the best you can do, wherever you end up.

We all owe Bill S. a big THANKS for doing such an outstanding job of putting on the Eddie Brown Memorial Metal Match. Everything went smoothly, and it was a great shoot!

After the awards and prizes were handed out, we bid farewell to the folks we had met, and climbed into the RV for the drive to Missoula for Sunday's Montana Shooting Sports Association's Celebrity Bowling Pin Shoot and Fund raiser.

Three hours later we were in Missoula, parked at Gary's place, and sound asleep!!!

-- End of Part Three --