Kitsap Steel Challenge Report

Yesterday I got the chance to venture over to the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club in Bremerton, WA. for a full eight stage Steel Challenge match. I had to be out the door at 5am to be able to be there just a little bit late at 8:20am for sign up and the shooter's meeting. It was raining and snowing when I left home, and didn't look to promising for the rest of the day. After two ferry rides and some driving, I arrived at the range. It was close to freezing, a wind was blowing, and it was raining. It didn't look like it was going to be a very pleasant day weather-wise, but since I hadn't shot since late October except for a few rimfire rounds a couple of days ago, I definitely needed the practice to get back to where I was last Fall.

About midway through the match the rain stopped, and a lot of the cloud cover went away. The wind stopped blowing too, and that by itself makes it seem a lot warmer. With a bit of sunshine peeking through it was still cold, but in comparison, almost balmy!

My first few stages weren't too good, as I was clearly rusty! As the day progressed and the weather improved, so did my shooting, and by the end of the match it was going much better. Not great, but better! Usually after a match I hang around to help put away the targets and target stands, but since the weather was starting to close back in and snow was forecast, I decided to head home as quickly as possible. It was a good thing I did, as part way home it started snowing pretty good, and it was sticking. It was snowing enough that I passed a snow plow going the other way, and he was plowing. Fortunately the snow was coming from a relatively small cell, and ten or twelve miles later I was out from under it and it wasn't snowing.

By the time I got home my back was really starting to hurt, as drawing from a holster uses some muscles that apparently don't get used for too much else, and they were really getting sore. Once home I lay down on the heating pad for a while, until it started hurting less. Once the pain had subsided, went out like a light. It had been a very long day, and I was bushed..........

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.......

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?

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!

Shootin' News

KeeWee and I went East to Yakima, Washington this last weekend for a Steel Challenge match, and unlike last month, the weather was nice going over, at the match, and not too bad getting home. Other than a little rain on the way back, it was a huge improvement.

This match was our last chance for a tune-up prior to next weekend's Washington State Steel Challenge Championships in Ephrata. I've been working all Winter trying to improve my shooting and making some minor changes, and this would be a good final rest to see if the changes in technique were a good idea or not. It would also be a good test to be sure the gun was running reliably.

We arrived on Friday afternoon in Moxee, WA., just a few miles East of Yakima, in time to stop by Red's Diner for burgers. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Yakima and looking for a hamburger, making a detour to Moxee for one at Big Red's is worth the effort. I don't know beans about fancy foo-foo gore-met food, but I DO know a good burger when I eat one, and Red's are some of the best I've ever had. The 50's diner decor is kinda cool, too!

Saturday morning bright and early I helped Ty and Steve set up the target stands and hang the plates prior to signup. We also had to nail down the shooters boxes and put paint at each stage, along with clipboards and pens.

After sign-up and a shooter's meeting, we broke up into squads and got to the shooting.  We had a good turn-out, with fifty guns entered. Since it was only a five stage match I entered once with my regular Steel Challenge name and number, and once under an "assumed name" (so it doesn't mess up the scoring) and shot the entire match twice.The match went smoothly, but on the fourth stage the gun started to stove pipe once in a while, and I ended up with some terrible times on two or three of the shot strings. That ended up messing up my times a bit on a couple of stages. Fortunately most of the disastrous times got thrown out, but not all.

Last week at the Man of Steel Championships I shot just a little bit to conservatively, and this time I tried to push the envelope a bit more, while still keeping it under control, and that's mostly how it went, excluding the stove-pipes of course!

The reality of it is that I put a huge amount of time on my two primary race guns, and things wear out. I try to put most of my practice time on my backup gun, and save the main gun just for the matches. Even so, the extractor on the main gun was starting to wear, and wasn't consistently holding the rim so the ejector could sent the empty flying overboard. I'm glad it started to malfunction now, though, rather than next week in Ephrata, or worse yet, in a few weeks in Holland!

As always, it was great to see and visit with all our friends in Yakima, and we look forward to seeing them again next week in Ephrata!

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.

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

  

KRRC January 2011 Steel Challenge Report

I was kinda nervous about heading over to Kitsap for the Steel match considering the weather report. They were talking about freezing temperatures and possibility of some snow. Mix that weather in with over two hours each way, including four ferry rides, freeway, some major hills, and a number of winding back roads, and it had the potential to be a miserable drive. When I got up early Saturday morning, though it didn't look bad at all, although it was below freezing. The drive to the range was wonderfully uneventful, with no snow or black ice, and no traffic problems.

Last month's KRRC match was cold, wet, and sloppy. Everyone was pretty well soaked. This month the weather looked much better, even if it was a bit colder. In fact, even with the colder temperatures, with no wind and no rain, it was not bad at all.

I wasn't sure what sort of turnout we were going to get, considering the questionable weather, but we ended up with around thirty entries, so that was not bad at all! John tried something a little different this time, and instead of a few larger squads, he split it up into more squads of fewer shooters. This allowed more stages to be underway at any given time, and more shooters shooting. It also reduced the wait until you got to shoot, which was nice. It also allowed us to get the entire match completed more quickly, and since it was cold, that was certainly welcome.

Ever since I cracked a slide in Arizona and replaced the slide with a new one, I've been having a some problems with feeding and stove pipes. Only Once in a while, but always when it would mess up your score the worst! Last week it was running pretty well, but still, once in a while it would act up. I was reading a gun review the other day, don't remember where, but the writer was reviewing some .22 semi-auto pistol or other, and he commented on how reliable the pistol was, as it had only stove-piped twice in 100 rounds fired!  I had to laugh! I figure if I get a stove-pipe more than every 5,000 rounds or so, something's wrong with the gun!


When I first set up the race gun at the start of the season, I try to fit everything up on the tight end of clearances so by the end of the season when it loosens up, it will still run reliably. The extractor was just a little too tight, so a little bit of light stoning  resolved that. Still, I was getting a stove-pipe every so often. I was pretty sure the gun was working OK, so I took all my magazines and a brick of ammo out to the range and started rapid firing magazine after magazine full into the bullet trap. Sure enough, all of the stove-pipes were happening with the same magazine. That's strange, as usually magazine problems show up somewhere in the process of getting the round chambered. Once it's chambered, the magazine is pretty much out of the equation, and other things, such as extractors, ejectors, spring rates, and so forth are usually the culprit. I haven't had time to tinker with the troublesome magazine yet, but it looks like the rim of the casing was just barely touching the top of one of the feed lips on the magazine, dislodging the rim from under the extractor. Since it only happens once in a while with the suspicious magazine, I need to spend some time with it to find out for sure what's going on.

The good news is that the gun ran like a clock all day, just like it usually does. The bad news is that since I've been so busy with work, getting Magnum Shooters Supply set up, and a few other things, my shooting was really inconsistent. Jerry Miculek has been quoted as saying that it took him 100,000 rounds to shoot as well as he does, and another 100,000 rounds to be able to do it every time. As modest as Jerry is, I suspect he shot more rounds than that! You have to practice a lot to be consistent.

This was only the second match I shot using the new OKO red dot sight. Until now I've used primarily the C-More sight, and the OKO has a lot of similarities. Since I am now importing and distributing the OKO sights (they are made in the Czech Republic), of course I'm biased, but I really do like the OKO better. The lens has a very slight tint, and unless someone pointed it out you probably wouldn't notice, but it makes the dot stand out a bit brighter, especially when making a large movement and the background has a lot of variation that tends to make it easy to lose the dot.Don't get me wrong, the C-More sight, particularly the ones with the click style brightness adjustment, are a very good sight. There's a reason so many of the top shooters have been using them, and that's why I used them for the last few years. However, if you are looking to upgrade your red dot sight, or are setting up a new gun, I'd sure give OKO a good look.

As usual I've kinda wandered off the track again, but I guess that's part of the territory when you venture into the Super Senior division. OK, back to the match!

We had a fairly small squad, and the day went by quickly. James, bless his heart, brought a propane heater and towed it from stage to stage on a wagon. Boy, was that nice to be able to get some feeling into your fingers before shooting. The light was excellent, with a fairly bright day but no glare of shadows, perfect for both iron and optic sighted guns. It was interesting to see a couple of shooters shooting Ruger Chargers, using the "Up Close" shooting technique like I do. I think it's great to see new ideas and techniques being tried out. Innovation is what advances the sport. After all, if everyone shot exactly the same equipment, and exactly the same way, it would be kinda boring. Might just as well dress 'em all the same, too!

Once we had finished shooting, we all (or at least some of us) pitched in and helped to get the targets and stands put away. After that we cruised down to a local pizza place for a late lunch, refreshments, and socializing. The after match socializing is one of the best parts of the sport!

Once we were filled up on pizza, it was a few hours drive back across two ferries, then home. KeeWee was smart, as she stayed home and took it easy in front of a cheery fire in the fireplace. I think we all had a good day!

Mr. C. Joins GunUp.com Pro Staff

 Generally speaking, I don't usually drop entire press releases into the blog as a post, but in this case I am making an exception. It's pretty rare (unheard of?) that I get to be the subject of a press release, so this one is kinda special! 

The partying, celebrating, and carrying on will be well underway this evening, even until maybe 8:30 or 9pm., when It's my bed time.......

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GUNUP.com announces the launch of their ‘Pro Staff” program and “My GunLocker”

SEATTLE, WA (December 14, 2010) GunUp.com, the authoritative community for gun enthusiasts to share, discuss, review and compare guns, is excited to announce the launch of their GunUp Pro Staff program and the release “My GunLocker.”

"My GunLocker" allows enthusiasts to favorite guns they like and share their collection with their friends. The total worth of the guns they favorite will also be calculated using our real time gun pricing tool, GUestimate, to give our users a sense of what their collection is worth. “We feel that this is a huge benefit to our users and we are pleased to provide them this great tool to solve a problem so many gun owners face,” says Dan Hall, CEO of GunUp.com. 

GunUp is also announcing the launch of their GunUp Pro Staff through their sponsorship of Steel Challenge shooter, Mike Gallion (bio).

“Besides promoting GunUp at competitive Shooting events, our Pro Staff will also be contributing to the GunUp.com Question and Answer section on our website which will launch on December 20th,” says Dan Hall, CEO of GunUp.com. ”One of our goals at GunUp is to support the growth of shooting sports, our Pro Staff program allows us to do just that while providing new shooters access to community and industry recognized experts. Every week our Pro Staff members will answer selected questions from our users on competitive shooting and the industry as a whole.”

Mike Galllion is a perennial World and European Steel Challenge Champion in his division, a veteran blogger (author of the Mr. Completely Gun Blog), and organizer of the Gun Blogger Rendezvous.

"When I heard about Gunup.com, I knew it was going to be something special, they're a great bunch of folks, and Gunup is definitely going to provide a lot of fun and useful things for shooters of all skill levels, from those just getting started through the experienced veterans.” Mike Gallion adds, “I am proud to be chosen to represent Gunup.com as a competitive shooter!"

“We are excited to announce Mike as the first member of the GunUp ‘Pro Staff’”, says Dan Hall, CEO of GunUp.com. “Not only is Mike a terrific competitor and all around great guy, he also embodies many of the values that are important to our organization. He has a great enthusiasm for the sport and is consistently seeking opportunities to teach new shooters and invite them to competitive shooting events. Mike also has given a lot of his own time, energy, and money to the online gun community as the organizer of the annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous. We felt he was a natural fit to launch our Pro-Staff.”

Learn more about Mike at GunUp.com and register today to start asking questions to GunUp Pro Staff.

About GunUp, Inc.:

GunUp, Inc., located in Seattle, Washington, was founded in 2010 by Dan Hall, a combat veteran and firearms enthusiast. Working with a team of like-minded, internet savvy technicians and programmers, they created the only online firearms community where new and experienced gun owners can access current product information, gun prices, and access subject matter experts in the firearms industry. www.gunup.com

GunUp.com now has advertising opportunities available, providing companies with a low-cost, effective avenue to reach tens of thousands of firearms enthusiasts.

For Advertising inquires please contact:

info@gunup.net

1-888-511-705

Media inquiries please contact:

Laura Burgess
Laura Burgess Marketing
252-288-5805
laura@lauraburgess.com

www.lauraburgess.com

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

Prescott Report

Our travel to Prescott Arizona went just about exactly as planned. Our flight out of Seattle left right on time, and we qarrived in Phoenix a few minutes early. We picked up our Renta-Jeep at the airport, and the drive to Prescott even was uneventful. We even had our choice of three Jeep SUV's. The motel where we are staying has a Mexican restaurant attached, and we had dinner there on Wednesday night. Thursday we had quite a good buffet breakfast at the motel (included in the room charge). After breakfast we drove the roughly 25 minutes from Prescott out to the range.

We arrived just as they were getting the final settup completed for the first day's shooting. They were going to shoot their regular Thursday "Mini'Steel" match and also the first day of the three day Arizona State Steel Challenge Championships all on the same day. For Championship entrants entering three classes, they would shoot their first class on Thursday, their second class ofn Friday, and their third class on Saturday. If a Championship entrant was only shooting two classes, they would shoot on Friday and Saturday, and Championaship entrants only shooting one class would shoot their match on Saturday. Since KeeWee and I are both only entering one class, we will shoot the Championship on Saturday. That meqant that we could shoot the Thursday Mini-Match if we wanted to. COOL! Small problem, though. We only brought enough ammo for the main match, but not enough for two matches, even if one of them is a small one.

We had about an hour and a half until the shooter's meeting, so we decided to drive back into town and pick up some more. One of the guys at the range told us about J&G Sales in Prescott, so that's where we headed. J&G Sales is a little bit off the main road and it sits back aways from the street, but their sign was big enough tyhat we spotted the place and pulled in. Although it was just before Noon on a Thursday, their parking lot was almost full. When we entered the store it was quite busy, with a number of customers at the counter and several firearms sales underway. There appeared to be an excellent selection of hand guns and long guns in stock, although I didn;t have time to do any browsing on this visit. Looking behind the counter I saw what appeared to be and excellent selection of ammo, and few, if any, empty spaces on the shelves. Although there was a short wait to be helped, a very courteous young man waited on us, and even apologised for having to wait. I've been in gun shops that weren't at all busy and it still took much longer than that to even get an employee to help you! We were both impressed, to say the least! I picked out a brick of Federal for KeeWee, and 200 rounds of Eley Sport 40 gr. for myself. I haven't used much Eley Sport, but I ran a few hundrede rounds through my race gun a while back, and it seemed really similar to CCI Standard Velocity. Strangely, J&G Sales had no CCI on hand at all.

We quickly paid for our ammo and scurried back out to the range. We arrived just a few minutes before the shooter's meeting, so I had a few minutes to assemble the guns and get all of our gear sorted out for the match. The mini-match, or "Thursday Steel" as they call it, would be five stages of Steel Challenge, but only three runs on each stage, with one throw-our run per stage. It should go by qiuckly, but it would also be a good chance to get in a little shooting before the main match, so we could be sure everything was working as it should.

After we had everything ready to go we walked over to the covered area to sign up and for the shooter's meeting. I looked up from the signup sheet t osee a familiar face, but for just a second I was drawing a blank. ""I move 2,000 miles tp Prescott so I wouldn't have to shoot against you anymore, and you show up down here anyway!" he says jokingly! It was Jasn Schmaling whom I used to shoot against in the rimfire bowling pin matches in Custer, Washington, up near the Canadian border. Jan is a great guy and an excellent shooter, and I remember having some very close matches against him several years ago. It seems Jan moved to Prescott, and has been doing very well in the local matches. What a great surprise to run into Jan here in Prescott! We didn't get to squad with Jan on Thursday as he was shooting three classes in the Championships s ohe was in one of the Championship squads and we were in one of the Thursday Steel squads.

The Eley Sport ammo was a definite question mark for me, as ammunition definitely performs differently at altitude than it does at sea level.Most of the time I'm shooting within a few hundred feet of sea level, and the Prescott range is close to 6,000 feet. That's a big difference! Some powder produces higher energy at altitude, and some produces less. Why? Beats me, but it all depends on the individual powder.

One the very first shot string on the first stage the second round didn't feed properly. I cleared it, and finished the string, but the time was terrible, and I was wondering if this Eley was going to be a nightmare all day. The second string went fine, though. The third string I screwed up the time all by myself, and even with the throw out of the worst string, I had a lousy time for the first stage. The rest of the match everything ran perfectly, and in no time the match was over. I had managed a couple of decent stages, a couple of OK stages, and the first stage nightmare! Fortunately this was just a fun match, but it was a good tune-up. The light is very bright and there's a lot of glare, so it was good to shoot in those conditions a bit.


we loaded up our gear, and headed back to Prescott for dinner. We had heard there was a Golden Corral Buffet nearby, and we both like buffet dinners, so that's where we ate. After dinner it was back to the motel for a good night's sleep. When I got back to the motel I fired up the netbook, and the results from the Thursday Steel match were already on line. The guys at Prescott Action Shooters have definitely got it together!

Friday was planned to be a big day, starting out with a tour of the Ruger factory, followed with some sight-seeing. We also will need to get the race guns cleaned and checked over for the big match on Saturday.

Stay tuned.........

Amphibious Steel

Our trip over to the KRRC Steel Challenge match was kind of interesting. We made reservations for the Whidbey Island to Port Townsend ferry a couple of weeks ago, and when we go that way instead of going across the Clinton-Mukilteo and then Edmonds-Kingston ferries it saves us about $40 in ferry fares. The problem with the Port Townsend ferry route is that if the wind is blowing, or it's foggy, or the tide is too low, or whatever, they cancel the run. The weather forecast looked like fog shouldn't be a problem, but there was some wind forecast. Not a big wind storm, but some wind, none the less. The ferry did leave almost on time though, and even through the whitecaps we only got hit with salt spray a couple of times. Because of the rough water the skipper took a longer route across to Port Townsend, avoiding much of the worst areas. We arrived a bit late, but not bad considering conditions. The one hour plus drive to the range near Bremerton was uneventful. After stopping by the range for a bit, we headed down to the Big Apple Diner for dinner, one of our favorite places to eat. After a big dinner we headed back to the range for the night. Even though gun ranges are pretty noisy during the day, they are usually very quiet at night, and  the KRRC range was nice and quiet all night. We hit the sack early and got a good night's sleep, although one of the outdoor parking lot lights would turn on and off every so often, and that woke KeeWee up a few times. I didn't notice it at all.

Saturday morning I pitched in and helped get the steel plates and target stands put out into the various pistol bays for the match. The wind from Friday had disappeared, but was now replaced by heavy mist alternating with rain. It looked like it was going to be a wet one, for sure. Fortunately there were covered areas at each bay so you could keep out of the rain most of the time.

After the short shooter's meeting we headed out to shoot the match, and try to keep from getting totally soaked in the process. Although it was raining most of the day, the temperature was mild and there was no wind, so even when you got wet it wasn't all that cold. Ty, Aaron, and Steve (?) from Yakima came West to give KRRC a try, and we squadded together, along with Scott, Matt, Matt's Mom Liz, and KeeWee. Even though we all got pretty wet, we had a great time!

After the match most of the shooter's took off, leaving just a few of us to break down all the stages and haul everything back into storage. If you shoot IPSC, SASS, IDPA, or steel matches, you should make an effort to help set up and break down the match. Those of us that set the match up would like to go home right after the match too, and if you hang around after the match for a bit and help us put everything away, then WE get to go home sooner, too. At least ASK the match director if he needs a hand. If he's got enough help already, that's fine, but most of the time it's the same folks doing all the hard work, so why not show a little appreciation and help out a bit?

By the time we had put everything away, we had run out of time to get something to eat before driving back to Port Townsend to catch the ferry back to Whidbey Island. I had a breakfast roll left over from morning, and Keewee had some peanut butter and bread, so that was our "On the Road" dinner as we drove back to Port Townsend. The ferry ride back to Whidbey was much smoother, and by 8 p.m. we were back home, tired, still a bit soggy, and ready for some sleep.

A long, soggy day, but a lot of fun in spite of the weather!

Next match: Paul Bunyan Steel in Puyallup on October 17th.

Mr. C. on KING TV

Just before I left for Piru, California for the Steel Challenge world championships I was contacted by Mike King from KING TV in Seattle, the NBC local affiliate. He was interested in filming a short piece for their locally produced Evening Magazine program. We didn't have enough time to schedule a half day to shoot the story before I left for Piru, so we decided to get together at my practice range after I returned. Once back home from California we set a time to get together at the range.

That morning Mike (the interviewer) and Mike (the camera guy) and I hit the range for a little interviewing and a bunch of shooting. It was a lot of fun watching how something like that is filmed. It was obvious that they were really good at it, and that they had a pretty good idea of what shots and angles would tell the story best.



After they had completed the filming, I brought out a somewhat more conventional .22 caliber competition pistol and let both Mikes have a go at shooting the steel targets. They both did very well, probably well above average for first-timers!

After putting all the toys away it was lunch time, so we stopped by a local cafe and had lunch. KeeWee was now home from her morning job, so she joined us. The lunch was good, the conversation was good, and we kinda hated to see Mike and Mike leave.

Now that I've seen their final results, I think they did a fine job. If this story encourages others to get out to the range and continue in the sport they enjoy even if their eyesight isn't as good as the young guys, that would be great!

Maybe we'll see you this Saturday at the range over at the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club's Steel Challenge match.

Why not give it a try?

Steel Challenge World championships - 2010

Thursday morning we were oft to the range, perhaps a half hour drive from Valencia West on the Ventura highway to Piru, then seven or eight miles up the valley to the range. By the time we reached the range it was already starting to get hot. It was going to be a hot day. They provide3 bottled water at each stage for the shooters, so I figured if I drank lots of water and kept in the shade as much as possible I'd be OK.  Unfortunately I didn't take into consideration that if you drink enough water and sweat enough, your electrolytes can get seriously depleted. Hey, I'm from Washington State! What do I know about hot weather. Mold, mildew, rain, that I know about. Heat, not so much!

My match plan was to shoot the first two stages conservatively and not make any mistakes. I didn't want to put myself in a hole early and spend the rest of the match trying to make up for it, which usually never works. I figured I'd be better to use a little extra  time early, then let the tempo build as the day wore on.

That was a good plan, and the first stages went as planned. The next few stages I pushed a little harder and started getting better times. On about the fourth or fifth stage, though, I started struggling. I just couldn't seem to quite get up to speed. I didn't blow any stages badly, but I just couldn't turn it up at all. I was also starting to get a headache and wasn't feeling to well. I was even getting a bit fuzzy headed. Not a lot, but a little. I had also stopped sweating. I was still drinking water, though, so I figured I'd just "Cowboy Up" and get through the match.

What I didn't realize at the time was that with lots of water going in, and the lots of water and electrolytes going out in perspiration, I was getting low on salt, potassium, and stuff like that in my blood stream. Generally not a good thing! Unfortunately I was just fuzzy headed enough that it didn't dawn on me at the time. By the last two stages I could tell that something was wrong by the way I was shooting, but I couldn't tell if I had changed something in technique, or what was going on. I struggled through the last stages trying to not make any big mistakes, even if my times were a bit slow.

Soon the match was over, and we climbed into the car for the drive back to the hotel. I stopped at a small grocery store in Piru and bought a couple of bottles of Poweraid to drink on the drive back. By the time I was at the hotel I felt a little better, but not all that great, so I turned the air conditioning all the way to max cold and took a nap. A couple of hours  later I felt better, but it wasn't until the next morning that I really felt back to normal.

Friday morning we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and then headed back to the range to be spectators. We particularly wanted to watch Molly Smith and Ryan Leonard shoot. When we got to the range they had the rimfire results posted, and I hadn't done as badly as I had thought, and my "Don't make any big mistakes" approach had worked well to keep me from really trashing my score. The final scores for the rimfire world championships showed 86 total shooters. Ryan Leonard, a junior shooter from Portland, Oregon, had beaten all of the pros, winning first overall! Good for Ryan!! Ryan then went on to win Top Junior in both the Optic Sight and Iron Sight divisions, too.

I showed up in 35th place overall, but that was good enough to win the top spot in the rimfire Super Senior division. Rimfire Super Senior World Champion - WOO HOOO! Being old does have some advantages, but not a lot.

To see all of the results and times,  click here.

  Ryan Leonard. You think he's having a good day?

Ryan and Todd Jarrett.

BJ Norris.

L to R. Phil Strader, JJ Racaza (behind Phil) Angus Hobdell, JJ's Dad, Rob Leatham, and Dave Sevigny. WOW!

Tod Jarrett on Outer Limits.

Jerry Miculek - Amazing!

Angus, JJ, JJ's Dad, and Dave.

Todd Jarrett.

Phil Strader, a Range Officer ( I forget his name), and JJ.

Angus, (not sure who's behind Angus), BJ, Rob, JJ's Dad, and Dave.

JJ Racaza.

Molly Smith.

Molly's ammo box. Molly is also a blogger, at The Molly Minute. If you'd like to meet Molly in person and watch her shoot, she'll be there at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. You ARE going, aren't you?

Molly showing why she's sponsored by Smith & Wesson!

One of the Japanese shooters. I didn't get his name.

Some beautiful workmanship on one of the Glocks brought to the match by one of the Japanese shooters.

After the Friday shooting we headed back to the hotel for the match banquet and socializing, sponsored by NSSF. The dinner was a lot of fun, and we got a chance to visit with a lot of the shooters.  After dinner we got everything packed up for our Saturday morning flight back home.

Saturday morning we drove back to Burbank and dropped of the rental car. We checked in our suitcases at Alaska Airlines and declared the firearms. I have learned to not go directly through security and out to the gate. Instead ,wait a while, as more often than not they will page you to bring your key to your gun case to the ticket counter so they can look in the gun case. Sure enough, it wasn't ten minutes and they paged me to the ticket counter. There was a TSA guy waiting when I got there. He asked me to give him the key to the gun case, and he was a little surprised when I told him that under TSA regulations I couldn't do that as I was required to keep the key in my possession at all times, but that I'd be glad to unlock the case for him. The two of us walked into the back and I unlocked the case for him. As we were walking back to the inspection area I told him I was returning from the Steel Challenge World Championships and the case contained my competition pistols. Once the case was opened the case he swabbed the guns for gun powder residue! I could have told him that I hadn't cleaned the guns yet, but I was kinda dumbfounded that he'd even check for it. Guess what? He found gun powder residue on the guns! After finding the residue, he re-locked the case, put everything back into the suitcase from which it had come, closed it back up, and sent it down the luggage conveyor belt to find its way to our airplane. I wonder if he was just curious if the machine would actually detect anything? Who knows.....


From there on, the trip home was uneventful, which is just as I like it.