Pin Shoot After Action Report ! ! !
This is what "getting your butt kicked" looks like!It was kinda gray and gloomy looking as we headed out towards the CWSA range for the pin shoot. Knowing that Al was going to be really pumped after yesterday's plate shoot didn't cheer up my mood much either.
Don't get me wrong, Al is a super guy and a super competitor, but NOBODY makes you sweat like Al does, and when Al's on his game, about all you can do is to try not the be totally embarrassed by him!
We arrived at the range in time to watch the center-fire semi-auto shooters, and the wheel-gun class finish up. It wasn't the sort of thing to cheer me up!
Al, shooting a wheel-gun (!) mowed down the pins and the competition like you would have had to see to believe. He even sent two of the fastest shooters from the Custer club packing, and didn't even look like he had to work at it. The wheel-gun class went the same way. AL WAS ON A ROLL! (dang........)
The center-fire shooters wrapped up, and we set up the pin tops for the rimfire classes. After qualifying Al had fast times both on iron sight and optical sight class. No real surprises here, the way Al was shooting.
I had entered my High Standard Long Barrel and my Smith & Wesson 422 in the optical class, and a second High Standard with a 7" barrel in the iron sight class. I qualified second with the High Standard, Jim was third with his Ruger, and I was fourth with the Smith & Wesson. KeeWee was somewhere around eighth in the optical class with the Beretta Neos.
That meant I got to face Al in the first round. Oh Joy! I came close to a tie table, but lost the first one, and got totally smoked on the second table. Now I have to shoot against Jim, using my Smith & Wesson. Lost two straight. Not by a lot, but by enough. I had now been transformed into a spectator. grumble......mumble...........razzen-frazzen-bazzle.........
KeeWee managed a bye out of the first round, but ended up against Jim in the second round. She just calmly turned Jim into a spectator too.
Next was Rainey (Mrs. Al), KeeWee beat her the first table, and totally smoked her on the second table. Notice the picture above. Rainey has one pin just starting off the table, and KeeWee has pin three almost on the ground, pin four hit and moving towards the back of the table, and pin five about to go away.
I keep telling everyone that it's due to her excellent coaching and gunsmithing, but no one's buying it....
All good things must come to an end, however, and in the finals KeeWee had to face Al. She shot well, but Al was still acting like he was bionic, and Al got all the marbles. KeeWee, however, beat some good shooters, and ended up a well-earned second place!
We only had three shooters in the iron sight class, so by mutual agreement we decided to shoot a round robin match, so everyone would get to shoot against everyone else. The good news was that I had only two other shooters to beat. The bad news was that it was Al and Jim! Al thumped Jim, and I think Jim's head was still spinning when I faced him, and narrowly squeaked past. That, of course, put me against "Bionic Al" for the money, marbles, and chalk!
To my absolute amazement, I took the first table from Al! YAAAA -- HOOO! It was starting to look like I was going to be "Two - and - out" once again, but at least I was no longer totally skunked! Second table, I got by Al again!! I had gotten by Al two tables to zip! Total Disbelief!!
I have no idea how I managed to beat Al, but I figure Jim had softened him up a bit, and Al was probably getting worn out from shooting against, and beating, Washington's best shooters all day.
By now the weather had cleared off and it was pleasantly sunny, so we decided to shoot a couple of fun pin contests. Five full size bowling pins were set on the very rear edge of the table, and eight pin tops were set about a foot in front of them. You had to shoot all of the pin tops off the table first, and then shoot the full size pins. If you knocked a pin top into a big pin, it would knock the big pin off the table, and you were done at that point, and scored for however many pins you were able to get off the table.
What made it hard was that several of the pin tops were lined up with the big pins behind, so you had to lean as far as you could to either side, and then try to hit the pin top slightly off-center, so it wouldn't hit the big pin behind it. I got lucky and managed to run the table, so to speak.
Then Al decides to add empty shotgun casings to the mix, making it even harder. Since these pin tops were the same ones we had been putting lead into all afternoon, they weren't very balanced, to make it even tougher. Even if you hit it dead center, you couldn't tell exactly which way it would go. My luck ran out after about the fifth pin, as it went sideways instead of straight back, and knocked a big pin off the table.
KeeWee had the luck going her way on the second fun match, and she ran the table without a bobble. Not bad for a shooter who'se only been shooting for about a year? (Did I mention that it's the coaching and gunsmithing? I did? oh........)
As we were driving back from the range, it clouded up and started raining again.
How's that for perfect timing!!
Be sure to check out KeeWee's Corner for more on this shoot, along with several more pictures, including one of yours truly.
Click Here to read her report.
Don't get me wrong, Al is a super guy and a super competitor, but NOBODY makes you sweat like Al does, and when Al's on his game, about all you can do is to try not the be totally embarrassed by him!
We arrived at the range in time to watch the center-fire semi-auto shooters, and the wheel-gun class finish up. It wasn't the sort of thing to cheer me up!
Al, shooting a wheel-gun (!) mowed down the pins and the competition like you would have had to see to believe. He even sent two of the fastest shooters from the Custer club packing, and didn't even look like he had to work at it. The wheel-gun class went the same way. AL WAS ON A ROLL! (dang........)
The center-fire shooters wrapped up, and we set up the pin tops for the rimfire classes. After qualifying Al had fast times both on iron sight and optical sight class. No real surprises here, the way Al was shooting.
I had entered my High Standard Long Barrel and my Smith & Wesson 422 in the optical class, and a second High Standard with a 7" barrel in the iron sight class. I qualified second with the High Standard, Jim was third with his Ruger, and I was fourth with the Smith & Wesson. KeeWee was somewhere around eighth in the optical class with the Beretta Neos.
That meant I got to face Al in the first round. Oh Joy! I came close to a tie table, but lost the first one, and got totally smoked on the second table. Now I have to shoot against Jim, using my Smith & Wesson. Lost two straight. Not by a lot, but by enough. I had now been transformed into a spectator. grumble......mumble...........razzen-frazzen-bazzle.........
KeeWee managed a bye out of the first round, but ended up against Jim in the second round. She just calmly turned Jim into a spectator too.
Next was Rainey (Mrs. Al), KeeWee beat her the first table, and totally smoked her on the second table. Notice the picture above. Rainey has one pin just starting off the table, and KeeWee has pin three almost on the ground, pin four hit and moving towards the back of the table, and pin five about to go away.
I keep telling everyone that it's due to her excellent coaching and gunsmithing, but no one's buying it....
All good things must come to an end, however, and in the finals KeeWee had to face Al. She shot well, but Al was still acting like he was bionic, and Al got all the marbles. KeeWee, however, beat some good shooters, and ended up a well-earned second place!
We only had three shooters in the iron sight class, so by mutual agreement we decided to shoot a round robin match, so everyone would get to shoot against everyone else. The good news was that I had only two other shooters to beat. The bad news was that it was Al and Jim! Al thumped Jim, and I think Jim's head was still spinning when I faced him, and narrowly squeaked past. That, of course, put me against "Bionic Al" for the money, marbles, and chalk!
To my absolute amazement, I took the first table from Al! YAAAA -- HOOO! It was starting to look like I was going to be "Two - and - out" once again, but at least I was no longer totally skunked! Second table, I got by Al again!! I had gotten by Al two tables to zip! Total Disbelief!!
I have no idea how I managed to beat Al, but I figure Jim had softened him up a bit, and Al was probably getting worn out from shooting against, and beating, Washington's best shooters all day.
By now the weather had cleared off and it was pleasantly sunny, so we decided to shoot a couple of fun pin contests. Five full size bowling pins were set on the very rear edge of the table, and eight pin tops were set about a foot in front of them. You had to shoot all of the pin tops off the table first, and then shoot the full size pins. If you knocked a pin top into a big pin, it would knock the big pin off the table, and you were done at that point, and scored for however many pins you were able to get off the table.
What made it hard was that several of the pin tops were lined up with the big pins behind, so you had to lean as far as you could to either side, and then try to hit the pin top slightly off-center, so it wouldn't hit the big pin behind it. I got lucky and managed to run the table, so to speak.
Then Al decides to add empty shotgun casings to the mix, making it even harder. Since these pin tops were the same ones we had been putting lead into all afternoon, they weren't very balanced, to make it even tougher. Even if you hit it dead center, you couldn't tell exactly which way it would go. My luck ran out after about the fifth pin, as it went sideways instead of straight back, and knocked a big pin off the table.
KeeWee had the luck going her way on the second fun match, and she ran the table without a bobble. Not bad for a shooter who'se only been shooting for about a year? (Did I mention that it's the coaching and gunsmithing? I did? oh........)
As we were driving back from the range, it clouded up and started raining again.
How's that for perfect timing!!
Be sure to check out KeeWee's Corner for more on this shoot, along with several more pictures, including one of yours truly.
Click Here to read her report.
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