KRRC Steel Challenge - A Big Success!

Friday morning Keewee and I headed out in our only slightly ostentatious land yacht towards Bremerton, Washington and the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club's range. Last week I had thoroughly checked over the RV and verified everything was working properly. Lights, brakes, furnace, engine, cooling system, charging system, everything worked just like it should. We barely traveled a quarter of a mile and things started failing! It started with a bearing in the speedo making noise, and things continued to break down all weekend. Although we had planned to spend Saturday night at a State Park Campground, we decided to limp our way home late Saturday afternoon before we broke down completely and needed a tow truck! For the full story of our adventure, check out KeeWee's post at KeeWee's Corner.

In spite of all the mechanical problems, we managed to arrive at the KRRC range on Friday around Noon, just as planned. I spent afternoon helping to measure out and set up the stages for the Steel Challenge match. With several of us working to set it all up, and with the use of the front bucket on the club's Kubota tractor to haul the heavy stuff around, everything was set to go by late Friday afternoon.

After getting everything set up, John Davidson, the Match Director, his wife Jeanette, KeeWee, and I headed out for dinner at a favorite local restaurant, the Red Apple Diner. The food was good, and the fifties decor was fun too.

Saturday morning  we were up and at 'em bright (nor really) and early. Thanks to the load of John's battery charger we were able to keep enough of a charge on the RV battery that we had a functional furnace for the night, otherwise we would have froze, as it was below freezing with ice on the surface of any of the standing water in the area.

John covered the range safety rules, and explained the differences in rules between the regular fun steel matches run every month and the Steel Challenge rule book. For the most part, the rules are pretty close, with only a few exceptions.

Of the eight Steel Challenge stages, there are only two that are miserable to start on, Smoke & Hope and Outer Limits. Fortunately, we had several stages to warm up before we got to those stages.

KeeWee shooting and John Mills Sr. running the timer. That's the new barrel and compensator I just built a couple of weeks ago. It works sweet!

KeeWee and I were fortunate to be on the same squad as James Austin, the revolver shooter, and it was worth the trip just to watch him shoot. James shot the fastest time of all the centerfire shooters, and he did it starting from the holster. Even the low ready centerfire shooters were unable to keep up. James is also an acomplished USPSA/IPSC revolver shooter, and is the current USPSA Area One Revolver champ, so his score at a Steel Challenge match is no surprise!

The weather was a bit cold for the first part of the match, and James had brought along his wagon and propane heater to help keep warm. By afternoon the weather was still a bit cool, but the sun had come out and it was quite pleasant.

James Austin just leaving the shooter's box on Outer Limits. He had several good runs on this one.

Photo by KeeWee

Mr. C. at full speed (.003 MPH) entering the center shooter's box on Outer Limits.

Even though it was a full eight stage Steel Challenge, we shot straight through without a lunch break, and it seemed like the match was over in no time. KeeWee's new barrel assembly had worked perfectly, and she shoot her best Steel Challenge time ever, good enough for third in rimfire optic class, and fifth overall. 

Although this was John's first time running a Steel Challenge match, his previous experience running Glock Classic matches and fun steel matches was helpful, and this match was well organized and ran smoothly. John Mills Jr. did a great job of getting the final scores out quickly, and it was an excellent job on all counts. Great Job, guys!

If you are interested in seeing the scores to compare them with your own scores on Steel Challenge, here's the complete scores, both overall, and by class. Click on the April 2010 Steel Challenge link.

It's just a matter of time before they run a full Championship level match over at KRRC, and as well as this match was run, I can hardly wait!