Glock Match - Great Fun

It may sound kind of contradictory, but I had a grand time at the two day Glock Classic this last weekend, even though my true indian name is "Sukswithaglock". Once a year I drag out a couple of Glocks and reconfirm what I already know, I should never shoot an iron sight gun in public! Even though my score wasn't much to write home about, I had a lot of fun running stages, keeping score, and helping new shooters. I even got a really cool Glock Range Officer shirt and hat. Is that cool or what!

Lots of credit is due  to Glock for getting behind these matches and donating so much stuff for the prizes. Yes, you do have to join GSSF, and you do have to shoot a Glock, but that's the whole idea. It's all about Glock, by Glock, and for folks that shoot Glocks. Kudos to Glock for putting these on! Glock even has a Glock Armorer on hand to go though your Glock and replace anything that's getting worn or needs to be updated, all at no charge, either! The only thing they won't replace is the frame, slide, or barrel. If the armorer doesn't like the looks of anything else, you get a new one free. Very nice.

If you see a Glock Match coming up in your area, go give it a try.I think you'll have a lot of fun. Here's the schedule for the upcoming Glock Matches. For more information, check out GSSF On Line.

GSSF Match Schedule

(Last updated on March 20, 2010 6:05 PM Eastern Time)

September 11 - 12, 2010 Hallsville, Missouri Green Valley Rifle & Pistol Club Midwest Regional Classic XIX	September 25 - 26, 2010 Atlanta (Conyers), Georgia South River Gun Club GLOCK Annual Shoot XVII
October 2 - 3, 2010 Milwaukee, Wisconsin Schultz Resort R&G Club Badger State Regional Classic IV	October 23 - 24, 2010 Lexington, Kentucky Bluegrass Sportsmen's League Bluegrass Regional Classic XIII
October 23 - 24, 2010 Tucson, Arizona Tucson Rifle Club Duel in the Desert IV	October 30 - 31, 2010 Albany, Oregon Albany Rifle & Pistol Club Pacific Coast Halloween Challenge IV
November 6 - 7, 2010 Piru, California International Shootists Institute ISI Ballistic Challenge XIII	November 6 - 7, 2010 Pensacola, Florida Escambia River Muzzle Loaders, Inc. Northwest Florida Ballistic Challenge V
November 20 - 21, 2010 Oxford (formerly Creedmoor), North Carolina The Range Tarheel State Regional Classic XIV	December 4 - 5, 2010 San Antonio, Texas Blackhawk Shooting Range STAPC, RCS Remember the Alamo Ballistic Challenge XIV
January 22 - 23, 2011 Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas Metro Police Range Vegas High Rollers Challenge V	February 12 - 13, 2011 Orlando, Florida Central Florida Rifle & Pistol Club Central Florida Ballistic Challenge IX
February 26 - 27, 2011 Griffin, Georgia Griffin Gun Club Griffin Classic I

Go check them out, you might just have a ball, and meet some nice folks while you're there!

Glocktail - Beavertail for the Glocks

Glocktail from Mike Gibson Manufacturing

If you have fairly good sized hands, you may find the slide can bite you once in a while, since the Glock's don't have much protection for the top of your hand. Mike Gibson of Mike Gibson Manufacturing and MGM Targets, has the answer for you. It's called a "Glocktail" and it fits on the rear of the Glock grip and frame, providing a generous beavertail for your protection. It comes in several colors, too.

In the picture above I haven't installed the rubber sleeve to hold theGlocktail in place so you can better see what the Glocktail looks like. The provided rubber sleeve looks like a section cut out of a bicycle innertube, but it should do the job. A better solution, in my opinion, would be to use a Hogue HandAll grip sleeve in place of the piece of inner tube.

For more information contact Mike Gibson Manufacturing at 888-767-7371, or visit the Glocktail website at http://www.glocktail.com

Glock Match Results

Mr. Completely's new slogan?
(Shirt seen at World Steel Challenge Championships)

First off, I should probably get the name of the match correct, at least once! It is officially call ed the "Glock Northwest Regional Classic XIV". It is actually quite a big match, drawing Glock shooters from several states. I don't know the actual number of competitors, but it was probably somewhere around 200.

With a 5.5 lb. trigger, short sight radius, and total unfamiliarity with Glocks and how to shoot them, I didn't hold out much hope of any sponsorship calls from Glock! In fact, with the little bit I did shoot the Glock Model 17 9mm. two days before the match, I was genuinely concerned about not being able to even hit the farther out targets at all, let alone hit them accurately.

I have never been one to let not knowing what I was doing prevent me from participating, I decided to shoot the match, enjoy myself, and not worry about the final results.

Did I enjoy myself? YUP! Sure did! I shot the whole match twice, in two different classes in fact. I entered the "Civilian" class, which is sort of a stock gun or limited class, and shot that first. They also had a class called "Competition" which apparently allows somewhat more "Race-gunnish" Glocks, but without optics. Whatever the differences, the "Competition" class times were noticeably faster. Shot that one, too.

All of the scoring is done by laptop computer, and the results are then posted on the Glock Sport Shooting Federation's website. Now that the results are posted, I was able to cruise through the scores and see how it came out. In the "Civilian" class I ended up 51st. out of 73 entries, and 10th Senior. Not too bad!

Interestingly enough, penalty points for lack of accuracy moved me way down the list, even though my times weren't bad at all. In fact, my time on two of the stages was faster than the class winner's times. I wondered at the time why the RO kept showing me my time on the timer!

In the "Competition" class I ended up 44th. out of 51 shooters. Again it was penalty points for lousy accuracy that moved me so far down the list, as my times were reasonable, I just was shooting with marginal accuracy. I guess that's to be expected shooting something as different as the Glock for the first time.

John D., who talked me into shooting the match, shot very well, finishing in 19th. place and 3rd. Senior in the "Civilian" class, and scoring well in a couple of the other classes, too. Debbie K., who I often see at the KRRC Fun Steel Matches, also shot very well, finishing 40th. and 3rd. Lady.

Yup, the shirt slogan "Speed is everything - Accuracy will come" sums it up, at least, I HOPE that accuracy will come.

It certainly is a lot better than being known as Mr. "Can't hit S*** With a Glock" Completely!

I can see some "Glock-Smithing" in the near future, getting something set up for next year. In fact, maybe it's about time to start on a sequel to the Econo Race Gun series. Maybe tune up the Model 17 a bit for the civilian class and the Competition class, and turn the Model 22 into a full race open class gun? Could probably get some improvement by working a bit on loads, too....

It sounds like a good Winter project!