HHRGC 11/25/2012 Steel Results

It was a little foggy and cold in the morning, but as the day progressed, a bit of sun peeked out, and best of all, we didn't see a single drop of rain! We ran the same six stages that we ran yesterday, and everyone had a ball, especially on one of the stages that I made up just for the match. I LOVE stages that are big, close, and fast!

Here's the results for the match:

Name	Class	stg 1	stg 2	stg 3	stg 4	stg 5	stg 6	total
Mike Gallion	RF-O	9.26	9.37	11.59	14.94	9.93	6.14	61.23
Ron Wigger	RF-R	11.45	11.93	14.46	15.34	11.41	6.18	70.77
Josh Hansen	RF-R	11.80	14.77	14.92	13.84	12.31	5.84	73.48
Ron Wigger	CF-P	19.12	18.22	19.51	19.49	11.65	6.24	94.23
Jennifer Kelly	RF-O	17.82	14.76	20.12	21.98	13.55	8.72	96.95
Mike Gallion	CF-O	18.07	15.23	20.97	19.76	14.44	16.02	104.49
Josh Hansen	RF-I	20.87	19.45	32.15	25.44	18.33	6.93	123.17
Ron Wigger	CF-SA	36.83	22.97	23.62	24.73	18.13	14.78	141.06
Michael McIerney	CF-P	30.44	27.51	33.04	30.21	16.64	13.89	151.73
John Hamilton	CF-L	24.11	24.97	44.82	34.40	19.65	17.65	165.60
Bob Kolesar	REV-I	29.01	25.28	42.07	30.84	21.09	20.25	168.54
Jeff Sparks	CF-L	23.31	30.78	47.30	41.18	22.86	11.86	177.29
Jim Dyment	CF-L	27.70	34.50	37.98	40.66	24.88	20.15	185.87
Brian Lawson	RF-I	28.86	31.32	70.05	41.50	23.89	19.24	214.86
Thomas Alldredge	RF-I	120.00	120.00	28.92	28.33	10.72	7.47	315.44

Next month, December 22nd. and 23rd. we'll be back out at Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun for more fun on steel! Why not join us?

For schedules, reports, and results related to Action Pistol Shooting in the Pacific Northwest and South Western Canada, Northwest, check out South Whidbey Action Pistol.

Cowboy Style Fast Draw Match This Sunday

Along with all my other projects currently underway, one of my favorites is coming to the top of the pile this Sunday at the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club here on the South end of Whidbey Island. The match starts at 9am., but getting there a little early for signup is a good idea. Everything is provided for your use, including guns, and ammo. We do suggest that you bring your own eye protection. It's not required, but definitely recommended.


The entry fee is only $5.00, and you will definitely get a number of chances to see how you match up against other shooters in the head to head competition.

Don't worry if you have never tried Cowboy Fast Draw before, as just about everyone there will be also new at it. There will be instruction before the match, and a chance to practice a bit too. To quote the Cowboy Fast Draw Association's slogan, it's "Safety first, fun second, and competition third." This match is not a CFDA sanctioned match, but we will be basically following the CFDA rules and using CFDA approved targets and timer.

So how does the match work? It's what's called a Three X Elimination, which means you will shoot against another shooter, side by side, in a best of five shots format. If you win, you move to the next round. If you lose, you get one "X" on your score card. If you get three X's, you are through for the day, and you become a spectator, so to speak! It will finally boil down to two shooters, man-on-man, for the final match of the day to decide the match winner. If we have at least three ladies, we they will also get to have their own "Ladies Only" match to decide who's the fastest lady. Of course, the ladies will get to shoot the main match too, so when it gets down to the Ladies Only match, the ladies are going to be dialed in, so it should be really close competition.

How about the equipment? The guns are Colt single action replicas, normally called the Colt Peacemaker, also called the 1873 Single Action Army. They are in 45 Colt caliber, and we use a special wax bullet, propelled by a shotgun primer, in specially modified 45 Colt brass. The guns are basically stock, although you are allowed to smooth up the action a bit. Although it's a wax bullet and a very light load, at close range it will go through 1/4" plywood, so all gun handling and safety rules will be followed. The holsters are all leather, and very similar to what a cowboy in the old West might have used. The only difference is that there is a small steel deflector at the bottom of the holster to deflect a bullet, should a round be fired while the gun is still in the holster.

How should I dress? As "Cowboy" and "Cowgirl" as possible, of course! Hats, boots, Western shirts, whatever you've got along those lines! Cowboy dress is not required, but it kinda adds to the fun!

After the match you can join us in the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun club's restaurant and bar for a little nourishment, refreshment, and re-hashing all the "Woulda-Shoulda-Coulda's" from the match.

Just like in Cowboy Action Shooting, shooters will not be using their own names. Instead,  at signup you will choose your "alias" for the day. Me? "Mr. Completely", of course! You can pick whatever alias you like, maybe something from a favorite Western movie or TV show, then maybe change it a little to make it your own. KeeWee becomes "KeeWee Belle". Watch the video and you'll get a pretty good idea about aliases.

At the match on Sunday we  will be using targets and a timer that times the shots to the 1/1000 of a second, just like in the video above.


For more information about Cowboy Fast Draw, check out the Cowboy Fast Draw Association's website.

Come on out and give Cowboy Fast Draw a try. It's a whole lot of fun!!

Idaho, and Back!

Since my last post, KeeWee and I have driven to Nampa, Idaho, near boise, for the Idaho State Steel Challenge Championships. We left for Idaho last Thursday morning and got as far as Huntington, Oregon, where we stopped for the night. We parked our mini-land-yacht behind a hedge on the back side of a very small park that's maintained by the local Lion's Club. Behind the park was a large area with some train cars parked on the far side, a few hundred yards from us. What I hadn't noticed was that there were two main line set of rails barely a hundred feet from us. It looked like a large parking lot, and the rails weren't raised above the surrounding ground level at all, so they were just about invisible. During the night, though, we found out that there were quite a few big freight trains traveling that set of tracks! We were so tired, though ,that we barely heard them!

The next morning, Friday, we drove the last couple of hours to the range, and I help the guys to get all of the targets and steel set up for the match. Friday night we spent the night at the range. Saturday we shot the match, and right after the awards ceremony we drove as far as I could go until exhausted, which was the rest area in Yakima, Washington. After some sleep, we drove the remaining several hours home. It was a lot of long hours on the road, but the match was excellent, we met some great folks, and (except for the driving) had a great time!

How did we do? All of the final results are not posted yet, but KeeWee shot Rimfire Optic class, and ended up Top Lady. I Won Rimfire Optic overall, and shooting my Tanfoglio 9mm. in Centerfire Open Division was Top Super Senior. Since the entire results aren't up yet, I don't know where I placed overall in Open. Our squad was a really amazing bunch, with our squad also winning Centerfire Production, Centerfire Limited, and Overall Match Winner, too!

John Shaw was the overall Match Winner and Limited winner, and he has only recently come out of retirement and started competing again, as his son has gotten interested in competition shooting. With a Dad like John, he's got a super coach, as John won the very first Steel Challenge World championships about thirty years ago, and he's still to this day an outstanding shooter!

KeeWee has a post up showing some pictures from our stay in Huntington, and has a lot of match pictures on the way in future posts.

I'll try to get more posted on the trip, when I get some time!!

All At The Same Time?

Someone once said that man invented time so everything wouldn't happen all at once, and some days it seems like it didn't work, at least around here! For example, I've been trying to get some posts, pictures, and videos posted from the World Steel Challenge championships, held a week or so ago in Piru, California. When we take off for a few days, like to go to Piru, the work load overflows back at home, and when I get back I've got to work like a beaver to get caught back up. On top of that, the Gun Blogger Rendezvous is only a bit over a week away, and I'm scrambling to get the last minute details wrapped up for that. Believe it or not, I'm already working on things for NEXT year's Rendezvous! I've also got to shoot this month's e-Postal match today, and get that sent in.

KeeWee has already got two posts up on the Piru trip, including a lot of pictures, so you might want to go have a look at Part 1 and Part 2.

This year Dave Sevigny was shooting a High Standard pistol in rimfire. It used to be I was always the only one, but there were at least three High Standards this year, and probably more. Now if I could only shoot like Dave does!

In the meantime, here's a short video of BJ Norris shooting "Outer Limits" at the World Championships. On this run he actually had to take an extra shot to make up for a miss, but even so, his time was in an area seldom reached by mere mortals. Pay particular attention to his draw, and how little time and motion is used getting from the holster to the shot. Simply amazing!

It's no wonder BJ won Rimfire, Open, and was second in Limited, being narrowly edged out by Dave Sevigny, I think. With two overall wins and a second place, BJ was declared the "Steel Master", the overall champion. He's also a blogger, at least, when he finds time!

Congratulations to a nice guy who's also a totally amazing shooter.

KeeWee thinks he's cute, too.......

Tanfoglio Gold Custom Progress Report

For those of you who have been following along with the progress of the new Taqnfoglio 9mm. Gold Custom race gun, I can finally say that it's just about where it needs to be. The ammo load I've worked up shoots nice and soft with very little muzzle rise, yet I'm getting a power factor over 145. I tried shooting a few bowling pins with it, and it can really send a pin flying!



This video was taken by KeeWee yesterday at the Yakima Classic Steel Challenge match. I had a couple of stove-pipes, but that was with some ammunition that I wasn't quite happy with. The latest ammunition, though, ran beautifully all day. In spite of the stove-pipes costing me a bit of time, I still managed third place in Open Division, not very far behind second place.

Yes, my draw is still dreadfully slow, but that's mostly because I haven't been practicing it much. I've been spending most of my spare time getting the gun tuned and the load perfected.

I'm really getting to like the Tanfoglio, and as I continue to tweak it, it's just going to get better and better!

Paul Bunyan Steel Report - July 2011

Even though it rained most of the day, at least it wasn't cold, so keeping warm wasn't a problem, just keeping dry! We had seventy guns entered, so the turn out was pretty good, considering the weather. The way the classes are set up is a bit unconventional, as there is no traditional Steel Challenge style Open class. Open class at Paul Bunyan includes all rimfire pistols, and anything else with an optical sight, and it's shot from a "Muzzle on the Barrel" start position. Shooting the Tanfoglio and starting with it in the holster costs you some time since you have to draw, but it's all for fun anyway, and I really need the match draw practice. There is a draw class at Paul Bunyan, but it is limited to centerfire iron sighted guns.

The Tanfoglio is still not quite where it needs to be, and I was getting double-feeds every so often which didn't help my times much! Even with that, though, I ended up 32nd. out of 70 overall, and a lot of the shooters ahead of me were shooting a rimfire gun, not drawing from a holster, or both. I've still got a long ways to go, but progress is being made, and I was reasonably satisfied with the progress with the new gun so far.

I don't have a lot of time to get it dialed in as the World Championships are next month, but I'm getting there. I just hope I can get it perfected in time!

After the match we stopped by the restaurant at the nearby airport to eat, relax, BS, and watch airplanes come and go.

After lunch we headed home. It was a fun day!

Off To Another Match.......

This time of year it seems like every weekend we're off to another match, but it's not quite as busy as it seems. Tomorrow, Sunday, KeeWee and I are headed to Puyallup for a fun steel match at the Paul Bunyan Club, followed by lunch with the gang at the cool restaurant at the local airport.

I think I'm almost there with the Tanfoglio, as it's running more and more reliably each match.

I've replaced the walnut grips with a Hogue wrap-around grip with finger grooves that fits my relatively small hands perfectly. I'm hoping they will make it a little bit easier to get a proper grip when drawing from the holster. So far in practice it seems easier to get the proper grip with them.

I've also replaced the temporary over-sized left side safety lever with a slightly different shape, but almost the same. This time instead of the aluminum I used for the prototype, I made this one out of solid stainless steel. It should out-last the gun!

I've also taken some time to go through the gun and do a little polishing and smoothing on some of the inner bits, and the trigger feels a bit better. I still haven't got the load dialed in, but it's not too far off, although I'm shooting an estimated power factor somewhere around 135 or 140, which is still way too high. My goal is for a power factor about 125 to 128. Minimum required for major steel matches where they use target sensors is 120.

It's barely five weeks to the World championships in Piru, CA., and there's two major matches between now and then. I'd sure like to have the gun dialed in so all I have to worry about is my shooting!

See you all on Monday!

(Don't forget to send in your registration and book your hotel room for the Gun Blogger rendezvous, it's only seven weeks away!)






 

Kitsap Classic Steel Match Report

So we could help with setup and pre-match details, Keewee and I headed over to the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club range a day early. We planned to spend Friday night at the range, and then shoot the match on Saturday. A lot of the work was already done when we got there, but Friday afternoon we helped to get all of the target stands set up and located so all we would have to do on Saturday morning was to haul all of the plates out to the bays and hang them on the target stands. We don't put the target plates out until the morning of the match as we don't want someone shooting them with a high powered rifle and ruining them by putting holes through them!

Pre-match setup went smoothly, and I sure do like the 5/16" AR500 steel target plates they got from MGM Targets. Not only are they standing up well under a lot of usage, they are also a lot lighter than the 3/8" plates and they seem to ring louder when you shoot them. They seem to be well worth the cost in the long run.

Friday evening after the setup was complete a few of us headed over to the Red Apple Diner for dinner. After dinner we went back to the range and settled in for the night in our mini-RV. Saturday morning the weather looked like we were in for a very nice day, and that's exactly how it turned out!

The match went smoothly, and we all had a grand time. I shot the new 9mm. Tanfoglio race gun in Open Division, and also shot my High Standard in Rimfire Optic. In the final results our squad did very well, with James Austin winning Revolver, and also winning the Centerfire Division overall. I managed a win in Rimfire, and also the fastest time of the day for all entries. Will from the Paul Bunyan club won the Iron Sight Centerfire division, and was second overall in centerfire. The new Tanfoglio and I were third overall in Centerfire, and "Won" the Open division. The reason "Won" is in quotes is that I was the only Open division gun entered, so I was not only first, but also dead last in Open division! Maybe it sounds better to say I finished right in the middle? KeeWee was fourth in Rimfire, and top Rimfire Lady.

The new Tanfoglio is coming along, and although it's not ready for "Prime Time" yet, it's just about there. I've got a couple of other bullets to try next week, and the gun is feeding and cycling pretty well. I modified a Hogue wrap around grip to fit the Tanfoglio, and I think it helps me find a good grip while drawing. I'll give it a try this weekend at Paul Bunyan's Steel Match. There's not too many more matches before we leave for Piru, CA. and the World championships, and this year I am planning to shoot both Rimfire and Centerfire Open divisions there, so that should be interesting. The fast guys certainly have nothing to worry about, but maybe I can sneak up on some of the super Seniors? Who knows, but it should be fun! (Except for the heat, of course.)

After the match we caught the ferry from Port Townsend back to Whidbey Island, and then home. We got a chance to ride on the brand new ferry that they just put in service on that run. What a pathetic boat. They say that the platypus is what you get when an animal is designed by a committee. The new ferry is what you get when you have a ferry boat designed by a State Government Committee. It's definitely a floating platypus. However, that's a subject for another post......

Kitsap Classic Steel Match Saturday

Shoot the outside four targets first, then shoot the one in the middle, as fast as you can. There will be shooters at the match shooting all five in less that three seconds total!

The big Steel Challenge match of the year is coming up this Saturday, and I'm really looking forward to it. The Kitsap Rifle & Revolver club is a great club with great members and a really nice range.  Since my "home" gun club doesn't have the facilities to shoot steel matches, the KRRC club (of which I am also a member) is my "Home away from home" club for steel matches. Granted, I also joined the Yakima Rifle & Pistol club for basically the same reasons, but the mountain passes doesn't always let me get to the Yakima matches through the Winter.

Since this will be a full eight stage match, it will be a good match to use as a "benchmark" to track my progress with the new Tanfoglio Open class gun. If I can do reasonably well at Kitsap with the Tanfoglio, then I will probably take it to Piru to the World Championships and enter both Rimfire Optic and Centerfire Open classes. I have absolutely no chance of winning either class overall at the World Championships, but I would sure like to give the Super Seniors a little competition!

I'm still experimenting with loads for the Tanfoglio, and I think I'm getting pretty close to what I need. Last week in Yakima I was shooting close to maximum loads and the recoil and noise were significant. For this week I've got it turned down quite a bit, and it seems to still be running the gun without problem. The proof is in shooting the match, however, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

KeeWee and I are still nursing head colds, although mine is now on the decline. Hers, however, is a bit worse right now. I hope the weather turns nice for the weekend, as it's much less miserable with a cold when it's not wet and rainy.

Our plans are to head out on Friday afternoon and take the Whidbey to Port Townsend ferry. From Port Townsend it's just over an hour's drive to the range. We should be there early enough to help out with last minute setup and details. We plan to spend the night at the range, and shoot the match on Saturday. After the match, we hope to catch an evening ferry back to Whidbey Island, and then home.

If you have never been to a Steel Challenge match, you might want to come check this one out. Steel Challenge is very "Spectator Friendly" and there is no charge to come and watch the match. You DO want to bring some eye and ear protection, though.

Why not come have a look?

Not A Bad Weekend, Considering......

Last Friday mid-day  I was still scrambling back and forth between the range and the loading bench, trying to figure out a good load and bullet combination for the Tanfoglio for Saturday's steel match in Yakima. The powders I had been experimenting with were too fast to burn, and I couldn't get a recipe that would reliabily cycle the gun without getting close to exceeding allowable pressures.

One powder I had experimented with seemed to be pretty close to what I needed, but I was just about out of it. My friend Lou, of the "Mad Gun" blog, also a Tanfoglio Gold Team 9mm. owner, suggested I try Power Pistol, a powder which had been working well for him. Fortunately on Thursday I had made a quick trip (two hours each way) and bought a couple of pounds of power pistol to try it out.

I didn't have time to work up to an ideal load, so I decided to go with one a bit on the hot end of the range, but that worked well for Lou. I loaded up ten or twelve rounds and scurried over to the range. Although they were loud and had some recoil, the accuracy was good, and the gun ran without problem. I I rushed home and loaded up forty more, and went back to the range to run them through the gun. Ten rounds was no where near enough testing to have any confidence in the load. The forty rounds ran fine, so back to the bench to load a couple of hundred rounds for the match. After getting the ammo ready, it was a rush back into the house to get packed, a shower, and put on some clean clothes.

Our plans had been to try for the 2:30pm ferry over to America, but even with all the delays and last minute stuff, we still managed to get out the door in time to catch the 3:00pm boat. We wanted to get at least past Bellevue before traffic got really ugly, being a holiday weekend, and Highway 405 through Bellevue can be one of the worst in the US when it gets ugly. It was starting to get heavy, but was still passable when we went through Bellevue, and just past Bellevue we pick up I-90 which takes us across Snoqualmie Pass and into Eastern Washington. I-90 was also starting to get loaded too, but we were just early enough that the giant Friday afternoon Seattle Exodus to Eastern Washington for the weekend was still building. Once across Snoqualmie, we passed Cle Elum, and continued East to Ellensburg, where we pick up a different freeway headed South towards Yakima. Once we hit Yakima we turn East again for a few miles, past Moxee, and then a couple of more miles to the range. For a bunch of good pictures of the scenery and stuff along the way, check out KeeWee's post at KeeWee's Corner. We arrived a couple of hours before sunset, and parked our mini-land-yacht for the night. We were treated to a really nice sunset.

The next morning we were up bright and early, and I helped to get the plates hung on the target stands in the range bays in preparation for the match. After signup and a short shooter's meeting, we broke into squads and got to the shooting part! We had a little over fifty guns entered, so not a bad turnout, considering a number of shooters were taking the weekend off as they had been to the USPSA Area 1 championships the previous weekend.

This was going to be an interesting match for me, as it was the debut of my Tanfoglio 9mm. race gun, and the Rescomp CR Speed holster. I hadn't had a lot of time to practice the draw, and I was expecting to be slow out of the holster. I had never shot the Tanfoglio at steel, and it was only approximately sighted in, so I figured I may be doing some point of aim compensating in the match. For the Tanfoglio this was going to be more of a "Shakedown Cruise" rather than a match, as I was mostly interested in just having some fun shooting it, and finding out what was working, and what wasn't. Next weekend at Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club is the Kitsap Classic, and I really want to have things running smoothly for that.

The weather, although a bit warm for us Western Washington types, was nice, with temperatures in the mid to upper eighties. KeeWee had an umbrella to keep her out of too much sun, and I had bottled water and Gatorade powder to mix into the water to keep from getting dehydrated.

It seemed like the match was over in no time, but KeeWee and I both felt seeking a cooler place would be nice! The Tanfoglio had run well all day, in spite of the recoil and noise. My draws were nothing spectacular, but not excessively slow for just getting into it, either. My split times between plates with the Tanfoglio were better than I was expecting to do. All things considered, it had gone very well. In the Open class, we only had one other entry, so I either won Open, or came in next to last, depending on how you look at it! As a reference though, my time was about the same as the winning time in Centerfire Limited, so it's a good starting point, and hopefully with enough practice I can get some reasonable scores. I am seriously considering taking the Tanfoglio to Piru, California for the Steel Challenge World Championships in August and entering Open as well as rimfire. It will all depend on how it goes this weekend in Kitsap. That will be the first real test to see if I can shoot it well enough that I don't embarrass myself in Piru!

After the match was over, several of the guys wanted to try out the Tanfoglio and I hadn't used up all the hastily loaded ammunition, so we emptied a bit more brass just for the fun of it.

We wanted to get on the road home before it got  too late in the day, so we loaded up and headed out. We made a stop at the Dairy Queen for ice cream, a gas station for some fuel and a big diet Pepsi for me, and headed home. A little over five hours later we pulled into the driveway at Castle Completely. It had been a fun weekend, and Murphy only showed up a couple of times!

Next weekend, on to Kitsap for the Kitsap Classic! It's gonna be fun!!

Our Guy James Does Good!

I just saw this press release come through, and thought I should get it posted.  James is a fellow GunUp team member, and an amazing revolver shooter.

Austin 3-Peats With Area 1 Revolver Win

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. - For the third year in a row James Austin of Fox Island, Wash. has claimed the Revolver division title at the USPSA Area 1 Regional Handgun Championship, Presented by Springfield Armory.

Austin, who won seven of 12 stages, led the field after winning the first two stages but fell to second behind Brian Noel of Mercer Island, Wash. Austin reclaimed the lead from Noel on the fifth stage and held it through the remainder of the match. Austin finished with a final score of 1160.8658 points.

"With seven stage wins, and his third consecutive Revolver division title, James is proving hard to beat when it comes to the Area 1 wheelgun match," said Chuck Anderson, the USPSA Area 1 director.

Noel, who won two stages, finished in second place with 1101.3063 points. Third place went to Sam Keen of Gallatin, Tenn. who also won two of the 12 stages in the match and finished with a final score of 1074.7420.

Rounding out the top five were Dan Short of Elk Grove, Calif. in fourth with won one stage and a score of 953.9938, and Alan Kies of Tacoma, Wash. in fifth place with 822.9192.

Kies' fifth place finish put him atop the senior competitors to take the Senior Revolver title. Ron McGraw of Cottage Grove, Ore. finished as the top Super Senior in the match with a final score of 639.9367 points.

The 2011 USPSA Area 1 Regional Handgun Championship, Presented by Springfield Armory, was held June 22-26 at Albany Rifle and Pistol Club in Shedd, Ore. and drew 318 top pistol shooters from around the country, as well as Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, the states that make up the Area 1 region.

To learn more about practical shooting, or join the 20,000 members of the U.S. Practical Shooting Association in the most dynamic and fast-paced shooting sport around, visit USPSA.org, follow @USPSA_Shooting on Twitter, like USPSA on Facebook or read the Practical Shooting blog.

Contact:

Gettin' Ready For Ephrata and Puyallup

It certainly is getting to be the busy time of the year! Two weekends ago we were in Oregon for the Man of Steel Championships, last weekend we were in Yakima, WA. for a steel match and last minute "Tune-up" before this weeke3nd, when we head over to Ephrata, WA. for the Washington State Steel Challenge Championships.

I just got back from the Holmes Harbor range, where I double-checked the zero on my OKO Red Dot sight, and it was right on. Just to warm up the gun a little bit, my first shot was at a 4" square swinging target at 50 yards, and I hit it on the first shot. Definitely more luck than skill, but it was kinda fun to hit it first try. I set up a sheet of paper with a spot in the middle at 25 yards, and took ten shots at it off-hand steel challenge style, to see if I was approximately centered around the spot, and it was, so I should be good to go for Ephrata. Last weekend at Yakima I had four or five stove-pipes, and re-sharpening and case-hardening the extractor seems to have resolved that problem, I hope. I've run about 200 rounds through it without a problem, so it seems OK.

We are taking the RV over to Ephrata on Friday (tomorrow) and will be staying at an RV park in Ephrata, along with some folks from the Kitsap club. Saturday is the Championships, and right after the match we are going to hit the road for Puyallup, where we will spend  Saturday night at the Paul Bunyan range. Sunday is the Paul Bunyan Club Championships, and I always try to make it to that one, even if it's not a steel match. The club championship is essentially a nan-on-man falling plate match. To shoot falling plates well you need to be shooting them regularly, and most of the hot-shots there shoot a falling plate match every week. Even though it's a double-elimination format, I will end up shooting against the falling plate specialists early in the match, so I'm not expecting to last very long before I get eliminated. I hope I can stay in the match for a while, though, as the longer you can go before elimination, the more shooting you get to do!

I've still got to service the RV and give the guns a final cleaning and checking before leaving tomorrow for Ephrata, so I better get to work!

2011 Man of Steel Championships

The shooting season is now upon us, and the first big match of the year for KeeWee and I is the Man of Steel Championships held just South of Portland, Oregon at the Tri-Counties Gun Club range. Nick and Ryan Leonard have been putting this match on for years, and they always do a great job. This year's match had nine stages, and a full house with ninety shooters entered.

KeeWee and I drove to the range, about four and a half hours on the road, and spent the night at the range in our mini-RV. The weather forecast was for near seventy degrees and partly cloudy, and match day morning looked like that was what was in store. It was just a little chilly first thing in the morning, but it got better and better as the day went on.

James Austin and I in our brand new GunUp jerseys.

One of the first people I met on match morning was our friend Kevin. Kevin, KeeWee and I have been on the same squad the last few years and we always have a ton of fun shooting with him, since his sense of humor fits so well with our own brand of craziness!

Those new jerseys really look good!

That's me, hard at work, spraying lead in the general direction of the plates! It's not easy to shoot when a squirrel is laughing at you. (See below)

Zach shooting his rimfire carbine.

D.W. "Death Wish" Squirrel. The little guy sat there and watched us all shoot. It didn't seem to bother him a bit.

Rian, a very accomplished revolver shooter, and James.

Dick, also shooting a rimfire carbine.

Our friend Kevin shooting in the Rimfire Carbine class.

James was amazing with the speed and smoothness of his shooting.

The stages were either out of the Steel Challenge rule book, or stages similar to steel challenge stages, for the most part, but a couple of them were definitely different. The stage "Fallers" had four plates in a row, and at ground level in front of the four plates were five six inch round plates on metal bases that had to be knocked over. The five plates on the ground were the stop plates, so you had a different stop plate on each run!

Another unusual stage was called 4T5. On this stage you shoot four plates, then run to another position, reloading on the way, then shoot the four plates again, and finally, shoot the stop plate. Not my favorite, but I muddled through it anyway!

After shooting five stages we all broke for lunch. At lunch they had the drawing for all of the prizes, including ten guns and a bunch of nice knives. James won a Ruger Mk. III, KeeWee won a Tactical Solutions 10/22 barrel, and I won a H&K pocket knife. Every entry won something, and it was all by random drawing.  After lunch, we headed back out to the range to finish up the match.

Once we had shot the final stage, we packed the targets and stands from our stage to the storage area. The match results wouldn't be available until later that night. We had a long drive ahead of us, and we were already tired from a long day, so we said our farewells and hit the road for home.

The drive home was uneventful, and just how I like it. When we got home Bun the rabbit was glad to see us. You can tell she's not happy when we take trips!

After a night of driving the RV in my sleep, we got up to check to see the match results. I was fourth overall, fourth in Rimfire Open, and Top Senior. KeeWee was 19th. in Rimfire Open (out of 36) and was the top Lady. James won the Iron Sight Revolver class, and his time was fast enough that he would have been 3rd. in Open Revolver, and on top of that, there was only one Limited Centerfire entry faster!

Next week we're off to Yakima for a last "Tune-up" before the Washington State Steel Challenge championships in Ephrata the following weekend. After Ephrata I've got a couple of weeks to practice before leaving for Holland and the European Steel Challenge Championships.

It's gonna be fun!

Here We Go!

"Drag Strip" at Last year's Man of Steel.

Well, the first big steel match of the year, the Man of Steel Championships, is this Sunday, just south of Portland, Oregon. We plan to drive our Land Yacht to Portland on Saturday and spend the night before the match at the range. The match is put on by Nick Leonard and his son Ryan. If the name Ryan Leonard kind of rings a bell, Ryan is the current Rimfire Overall World Champion in Steel Challenge. Ryan beat out none other than Dave Sevigny for the title.

The Man of Steel Championship is basically an eight stage Steel Challenge match, although most of the stages will be similar but different from the official stage layouts.  Several of the stages are very very fast, with plates close together, large, close in, or all three. Some of the stages require double or even triple-taps!

One of the stages,  named "4T5" , is REALLY different. You shoot four plates, then run run to another shooter's box, reloading as you go, then shoot the same four plates again, then shoot a stop plate. It's not so bad for the "Run & Gun" USPSA/IPSC shooters shooting center fire guns, but for rimfire it's a whole lot more difficult.

Most of the magazine releases on  rimfire pistols is awkward, at best, and practically impossible, if you are in a hurry. Furthermore, if you drop a rimfire magazine in the dirt, you can forget about it running reliably for the rest of the day. I set up a ring on the bottom of my magazines and put a lanyard around my neck so when I drop the magazine it doesn't end up full of dirt at least. At least it keeps it out of the dirt, but I still have to shoot the plates, reload while moving as quickly as I can to the second shooting position, then shoot five more plates. I have to do this three times, with the two best runs being counted towards my score for the day. That's going to be an interesting stage, for sure!

I wish I was a bit more confident in my shooting, though. This is the first year I haven't taken a break from practice through the Winter. Since January I've gone through somewhere between ten and fifteen thousand rounds of rimfire ammunition, and I think I'm shooting a little better than I was last Fall. I made some subtle changes in my grip last Fall that allow more speed, but make accuracy more difficult, so I have been trying to work on the accuracy while still carrying the higher speed. Some of the matches so far this season have been encouraging, but it's way to early to see if it's going to work better or not.


This Sunday will be a good test........

Yakima & Back - Interesting Trip!

Friday mid-morning I fired up our Toyota pickup based "Mini-LandYacht" and headed towards Yakima, WA. for their five stage Steel Challenge match to be held on Saturday. KeeWee had to work, so she stayed home.

I haven't made the trip across the mountains to Eastern Washington the last few months as the mountain pass conditions were not very good, and I really don't want to get caught in a heavy snow situation with the RV. The pass reports and weather conditions called for low temperatures around 37 degrees at night, so I figured even if it snowed a little bit it wouldn't stick and it would mostly be just wet roads across the pass. It rained steadily all the way from home across Snoqualmie Pass, but as I neared Cle Elum it cleared up a bit and was partly sunny. When I got to the range in Yakima, or more precisely in Moxee, WA. four miles East of Yakima, the weather was quite pleasant, except for some gusting winds.

I met Josh and his wife, the new range masters, and we had a nice visit. Josh mentioned that they were having some problems with what they referred to as Sage Rats digging holes around the range areas. Then badgers would dig out the holes at night, looking for dinner. The result was some pretty good sized holes that then needed to be filled back in. Josh asked me what I was shooting in the match the next day, and when I said "A .22 Pistol" he asked if I'd like to go have a look for some sage rats.

That sounded like a lot of fun, so I grabbed my race gun and a couple of magazines of hollow point practice ammo and off we went. Josh had been through the area shortly before, and had shot a few already, so when we walked into the area they were somewhat few and far between. "There's one over there!" he exclaimed, but with my eyesight I'll be darned if I could see it. I looked and looked, but no luck. Finally he directed me from bush to rock to branch to dirt pile, until I could finally just barely make out the outline of the critter. I allowed about an inch and a quarter hold over for that particular distance, and waited for a time between wind gusts to take the shot. The wind slacked for a moment, and I squeezed off the shot. A perfect head shot! (Yes, luck was involved, but I'll take it!) It never knew what hit it. Perfect! We walked around a bit more, but that was the only one we saw, so we headed back. Next trip I am going to plan to go look for some more of them.

By now dusk was approaching, so I got everything settled down and organized  in the RV and then conked out for the night. It's amazing just how quiet a gun range is, once everyone goes home for the night.

The next morning I helped set up the target stands and hang the targets. After helping with setup, I headed over to the clubhouse and paid my entry fee and got signed in. KeeWee had telephoned one of the club members and asked that he relay a message to me about mountain pass conditions. Apparently the conditions had deteriorated a lot, and chains were required. Not much I could do about it until after the match, and one of the other club members had a phone with a pretty good screen on it so we could check the pass condition by looking at the pass cameras. Gotta shoot the match first, then worry about it later.

After a quick shooters meeting we broke up into squads and headed out to the individual shooting bays to get started. The wind was still gusting pretty good, and it made it a bit chilly, but as the day progressed it got quite pleasant.We all had a great time, and since it was only five stages, they allow me to enter twice so I can shoot every stage twice. It's a pretty long drive round trip for only five stages, but ten stages in a day is plenty for me!

Around 2pm. we had finished the match, and I helped to put some of the steel and stands away. We did a quick check of the pass cameras, and we discussed the options. It was now only "Traction Tires Recommended", and although they pass didn't look to good, it looked like I should be able to get through it OK. White knuckles maybe, but it should be drivable. The pass report radio was reporting that it was snowing, and temperature was in the low thirties. Clearly it was deteriorating.

The weather was still windy and gusty until near Cle Elum, and then it started snowing. By Easton it was starting to come down pretty good, and the road was turning white. Not far past that it started to turn into a white-out condition with huge snow flakes and almost no visibility. I tucked in behind a semi, figuring his tires would squeegee off the road a bit for me, and if I stayed in his tracks I should be OK. Past lake Keechulus the visibility was so bad you couldn't even see the lake, and the road is right on the shore of the lake. The long grade up to the East Summit was slippery, but the cars were still climbing it without sliding, so we got up over the summit without much problem. Traffic was moving about fifteen to twenty miles per hour, and I really didn't want to go any faster than that!



About an hour and a half later they closed the pass completely Eastbound due to all of the spun out cars, and required chains if you were going West. There was a little window of time to get through, and I had just barely got over the pass before it got really nasty! WHEW!

The rest of the drive home was uneventful, except for a Washington State Ferries Ticket taker who was a jerk, but  where in years past they were all really nice, they are now about half and half. The nice ones are still nice, but since they are all union, no matter how much of a jerk they might be, we're stuck with them.

When you don't have any competition, you don't have to be nice to your customers, and you don't have to provide very good service. They aren't, and they don't.

It sure did feel good to get home and hit the sack. It had been a long day!

If anyone's interested, match results are here.

Shooting Your First Steel Match

So you’ve been out shooting a bit, you’re keeping them mostly in the black, and you’re confident you can shoot safely and responsibly. Then your friend says “Hey, there’s a steel match this Saturday at the club. Why not give it a try?” Why not, indeed?

Club match shooters are some of the friendliest and most helpful folks you could ever hope to meet, and they’re always glad to help out a new competition shooter. Sure, every so often you run into a grouch, but believe me, they are few and far between! Over the last many years I’ve only met a couple of them, and that’s shooting matches all over the place, and just about every weekend! I’ve heard stories about some snobbishness in some of the shooting disciplines, but it’s just about unheard of in steel shooting. Everyone is helpful, and everyone wants you to do your best and have a good time. It’s not at all uncommon to see USPSA and IDPA Masters and Grand Masters helping brand new shooters and sharing in the fun as the new shooters improve visibly through the day.

For your first steel match, it’s not a bad idea to check with the club in advance and see if a draw from a holster is required. In true Steel Challenge it is required for centerfire guns, but at many club matches it is not, or they may have a centerfire draw class and a separate centerfire “Low Ready Start” class. Most, if not all steel matches do not require a holster for rimfire guns. Typically, the start position for rimfire will be with the muzzle pointed at a marker on the ground in front of you, or with the muzzle resting on a up-ended barrel.

If you have never shot in a steel match before, rimfire is a good place to start, even if you’d like to move to a centerfire class later on. It’s also a lot cheaper in terms of ammo, and you will definitely use some ammo, so bring plenty. If you figure a six stage match with five shot strings per stage, and five targets per stage, the absolute minimum amount of ammo would be 150 rounds. I would recommend an absolute minimum of 200 rounds, and you can easily run out when you cut it that close. Personally, I take at least 300 rounds per class, and even more if there are more than 6 stages. You can never have too much ammo! Too much to carry, maybe, but too much? Never happen!

Show up at the match a bit on the early side. This will give you some time to meet some of the other shooters, and perhaps have a look at the stages to see what’s in store for you for the day. Sign up early, don’t wait until the last minute. You can also make things easier for the signup folks by bringing the exact amount so they don’t have to make change. When you sign up, tell then that this is your first steel match, and you’d like to be squaded with some experienced shooters. Ask the signup person to point out the Match Director, and go introduce yourself to him. Tell him too that it’s your first steel match, and  that you would appreciate his help to get you squaded with some experienced shooters for your first match. 

After signup is completed there is usually a shooters meeting where the Match Director will explain the rules and details for the day. After the meeting everyone will break out into squads and head out to the stages to start shooting the match.

Remember, in just about every case, the matches are “Cold Range”. That means ALL guns (yes, even your concealed carry gun) MUST be unloaded unless you are in the shooters box, under the direct control of a range officer, and you have been given the instruction “Load and Make Ready”. All guns must be either holstered, in a closed and latched gun case, or in a zippered gun run with the zipper zipped closed. The only exception is if you need to work on your gun, you make take it to a designated “Safe Area” and work on it. It must be re-holstered or cased before you leave the Safe Area. You cannot carry ANY ammunition into the safe area with you, not in your pocket, not in the case, not on your belt – NO AMMO!

Make sure that you understand the 180 rule, and if you are unsure, ask one of the range officers to explain it to you. Basically, imagine standing in the shooters box looking down range. Hold your arms straight out to each side. That’s approximately the 180 degree line. You must keep the muzzle of the gun pointed down range in the direction of the targets and backstop berm at all times. If the muzzle should get pointed to where it breaks that 180 degree line you will be disqualified from the match. No refunds, either!

Where a new shooter can get into trouble with this rule is if they hold the gun to the side to rack the slide. That will get you a match DQ (disqualification) sometimes referred to as a trip to the Dairy Queen. If you have to have the gun to the side to rack the slide, turn your body 90 degrees so the muzzle remains pointed straight down range, then rack the slide.

Another way to get a DQ is from an accidental discharge, or firing a round over the top of the berm. If you keep your finger off of the trigger until the sights are on target, you should never have a problem with this.

When you get to the first stage, get your magazines loaded, if you haven’t already loaded them earlier. Hopefully you have five magazines. If you forgot and left your magazines in the case with the gun, ask the range officer if you can go to the line, under his supervision, and get the magazines out of the case. Next time remember to not put your magazines inside the gun case!

When others are shooting, be quiet. They don’t need any distractions. After each shooter has finished, the Range Officer will announce “The range is Clear”. Grab a spray can and head down range to re-paint the plates. Usually the plates get repainted after every shooter, and the shooters take turns doing the painting. DO NOT go down-range until you hear “The Range is Clear!”

When you are called to the line to shoot, bring your cased or holstered gun and your magazines up to the line. Step into the box, and wait for instructions from the Range Officer. At your first steel match it’s not a bad idea to let him know that this is your first steel match. That way he won’t assume you know what you are doing, and will usually be extra helpful. If you are unsure of the course of fire, or aren’t sure which plate is the stop plate, ask. Most of all, listen carefully to the range officer, do what he says (and ONLY) what he says. Don’t assume anything. If you are not sure, ask.

Most of all, shoot safely and have a good time! Always try to shoot only as fast as you can consistently hit the targets, regardless of how fast anyone else may be shooting.

When the match is over, ask the Match Director if they need any help putting the targets and target stands back into storage. It can be a lot of work to pack all of the steel and stands back into the storage shed.  If a number of shooters all help, it only takes a few minutes. If more shooters would help after the match, it’s usually very much appreciated. It’s also a great way to say “Thank You” to the Match Director and the other volunteers that put on the match. 

Puyallup Steel at Paul Bunyan

Well, we finally got through a steel match without getting frozen, rained out, or blown away! Although it was a bit chilly at times with the ground being frozen at the start, it was overall a pretty nice day in terms of weather. It didn't start raining until we started home.

As to getting to and from the match, there's a story in itself. The Washington State run ferry system has two docks on the Whidbey Island side, but only one on the mainland side, so if they ever need to do dock repairs on the mainland side, they have to shut down the dock. However, just a few miles South on the mainland dock in Mukilteo there is another ferry dock in Edmonds. It's close enough to the Mukilteo - Clinton Route that you can easily see the Edmonds dock just down the shoreline a few miles. When the State decides to shut down the dock in Mukilteo, they run the regular ferry from Clinton, on Whidbey Island, to the Edmonds dock instead. It seems, though, that they try to make the longer run on the same amount of fuel. The normal crossing time is fifteen minutes, but to go a few miles farther South, it takes them fifty minutes! For a big part of the trip the boat wasn't running much over a fast idle! Since they were running the boats much slower, they also had to cut way back on the number of trips per day they could run, potentially causing long waits to get onto a boat. And the ferry system wonders why they are so universally hated by those of use that depend on them as part of our state highway system!

Anyhow, It took us a bit longer to get to the match than it usually does. The Paul Bunyan club only has five pistol bays, so there could only be five stages set up. There were almost 100 entries though, and this for a local club match! Steel shooting is definitely catching on. The large number of shooters meant large squads, and a long day. When the match was over, it was late in the afternoon, and we were all starving, so a few of us headed over to the nearby airport restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. The food and conversation was great, and it was almost 8pm by the time we hit the road towards home. Not wanting to spend a bunch of time waiting for a ferry, and then an additional fifty minutes to make the crossing, we decided to drive North to Burlington, then West towards Anacortes, and finally South across the Deception Pass bridge to ge to Whidbey Island. From Deception pass it was still another hour to travel the entire length of the Island to the South end to get home. It ended up taking us somewhere almost four hours to get home.

Oh, the match? I forgot about that part! KeeWee wanted to squad with her friend Jeanette, a new shooter from the Kitsap club, and I wanted to shoot with my usual squad mates James and Scott, so we ended up on different squads, but our squads were side by side for most of the day, so we were able to watch each other shoot. She shot very well. Me, not so much.......

Click ---> for  KeeWee's story about the match, including some pictures.

Last Sunday KeeWee and I loaded up our gear and headed South to Puyallup, WA. to the Paul Bunyan Gun Club for their monthly fun steel match. The weather forecast was for chilly temperatures, but a few sun breaks, and no wind, rain, or snow. Although it doesn't always work out that way here in the Pacific Northwest, the weather-dudes got it right this time, and that's exactly what we got.

Caleb, Phil, Tim, and James, early in the match, and already having fun!

The match was five stages, and we had a pretty good turnout, with 68 entries. More and more folks are finding out just how much fun it is to shoot a fun steel match. Will, the match director, set up the stages and determined the layout for the targets, or plates, and the idea for this match was for it to be blazing fast all day. Boy, was it! It was the kind of a match that can really give you a lot of bad habits, as the targets were big and close, and in some cases were double taps, or more! Every stage required a minimum of five shots per shot string, yet a number of the shooters averaged less that two seconds per shot string!

We had a great squad, with blogger Phil, Caleb, Shelley, Dan, James, Tim, KeeWee, John, Jeanette,and myself. (Who am I forgetting?). Jeanette, John's better half, was shooting her very first steel match and was a bit nervous, but she did just fine, shooting accurately without rushing. That's not easy to do at your first match! This was my first chance to shoot with Caleb, my GUNUP.COM Pro Staff team mate, so that just added to the fun!

It seemed like the match went by quickly, but my fingers and toes were glad that it was over, as there were definitely starting to get cold. After the match was over and all of the targets and target stands were put away, we headed to a restaurant at the nearby airport for food,refreshments,  conversation, airplane watching (particularly James and I) and warmth!

After a good meal, we headed home, except for a couple of shopping stops along the way. We were able to catch the 6:30pm ferry bach to Whidbey Island, and then home to a warm bed and a good night's sleep.

It was a fun day!

My 2011 Match Schedule

I finally got around to putting together my match schedule for 2011. Not everything is on the list as some dates have not been set. There are also some dates listed that are matches that will be upgraded to club or regional championships, but I haven't got that information yet. I may not be able to attend all of the matches shown, primarily for financial reasons, but I plan to get to most of them if I possibly can.

It looks like I better stock up on a lot of ammo, as I'm going to be busy!


Feb. 20th      Paul Bunyan Fun Steel
March 5th     Yakima Steel Challenge
March 12th    KRRC Fun Steel
March 20th    Paul Bunyan Fun Steel
April 2nd       Yakima Steel Challenge
April 3rd        Holmes Harbor Fast Draw
April 9th        KRRC Steel Challenge
April 17th      Paul Bunyan Fun Steel
May 1st         Oregon Man of Steel Championships
May 7th         Yakima Steel Challenge
May 14th       KRRC Fun Steel
May 14th       Washington SCSA Championships
May 15th       Paul Bunyan Fun Steel
June 3,4,5      European Steel Challenge championships
June 11th       KRRC Fun Steel
June 18th       Steel Challenge Regional – Piru
June 19th       Paul Bunyan Fun Steel
July 2nd        Yakima Steel Challenge
July 9th         KRRC SCSA & Club Team Championships
July 16-17th Wyoming SCSA State Championships
July 17th       Paul Bunyan Fun Steel
Aug. 6th       Yakima Steel Challenge
Aug. 13th      KRRC Fun Steel
Aug. 17-20   SCSA World Championships Piru   
Aug. 21st      Paul Bunyan Fun Steel
Sept. 3rd      Yakima Steel Challenge
Sept 8-11     Gun Blogger Rendezvous – Reno
Sept 18th      Paul Bunyan Fun Steel
Oct. 1st        Yakima Steel Challenge
Oct 8th         KRRC Steel Challenge
Oct. 16th      Paul Bunyan Fun Steel
Nov. 5th       Yakima Steel Challenge
No. 12th       KRRC Fun Steel
Nov. 20th     Paul Bunyan Fun Steel
Dec. 3rd      Yakima Steel Challenge
Dec. 10th     KRRC Fun Steel
Dec. 18th     Paul Bunyan Fun Steel

  

Kitsap Steel Match/Mud & Rain Festival

As I've been a bit under the weather for the last five or six weeks, I haven't been getting in any shooting, so I was wondering just how rusty I was going to be when I got over to the Kitsap steel match.  KeeWee, seeing that the weather forecast called for a lot of rain, decided to stay home and stay dry. Probably wise! The two ferry boat rides and the drive over to the KRRC range was uneventful, but gray and rainy most of the way. Fortunately the ferries were close to being on schedule, and I arrived just before the shooter's meeting got underway.

The regular monthly KRRC steel matches are six stages long, with some Steel Challenge layouts, some similar to Steel Challenge, and usually a couple of  John's special "Creative/Evil" stages. Imagine four round plates, each partially overlapping the 18" x 24" stop plate. Since everything is really close together you have to shoot it fast, but a miss may well hit the stop plate, adding three seconds penalty for any of the four plates you hadn't hit yet! Actually, it was a fun stage to shoot. The temptation is to shoot it as fast as you can go, trying to shave off that extra few tenths of a second. There's a good lesson here for new steel shooters, though. You are always better off to slow down just a little and shoot it without any penalties since slowing down a little on a very fast stage will cost you very little in overall time. However, letting it all hang out for that super fast time and ending up taking some penalties is the exact opposite of what you want! In short, don't take high risks when the benefit is small.

By the time we got underway, the rain had increased a bit, and it steadily rained harder and harder as the day went on. The weather guys say that this is a "Pineapple Express" rain storm, which is why it was really raining, but not all that cold. Fortunately there was no wind, or the wind chill would have made it miserable. There was some shelter at each stage, so we could stay out of the rain most of the time. By the end of the day we were soaked to the skin, though.

It really felt great to get back out and do some shooting. Most of the regular gang was there, and I hadn't seen most of them for a couple of months, so that was good, too. Considering the time of year and the weather, we had a pretty good turnout, with 32 entries. I saw Brian there, from Liberty News blog, but didn't get a chance to visit as we were in different squads.

After the match some of us usually go get some lunch and socialize a bit, but since I was soaked and starting to get cold, and it would soon be getting dark, I opted to get  on the road headed home and try to get in as much of the drive as possible before dark. I expected some parts of the drive to be "White Knuckle" anyway due to the rain, and they definitely were all of that! It takes me about 3 hours to get home from KRRC under normal conditions, and I figured the weather was going to add a bit to that. It took me only an extra half hour, and that wasn't bad considering the conditions. I was glad to be home, but it had been a fun day!

If you are interested in who was there or the scores, KRRC has the results posted here.

Thanks to John D. for putting on the match, and keeping steel shooting growing i n Western Washington.

Great Job, John, we really appreciate your work, even if it did rain!







http://kitsapscores.com/Fun_Steel_December_2010.pdf