(with a little help from our friends in Idaho...)
This was the 6th year that I was fortunate enough to join friends at the Deer Creek Range near Missoula, Montana for the annual Al Kimery Memorial Trophy Match. This year the match was held on July 1. Attendence was down from past years, maybe because this was very close to the July 4th holiday. The trophy you see in the picture above is not the actual Al Kimery Memorial Trophy, but instead is the trophy awarded to the highest shooter in the USPSA's "D" class shooting a Limited pistol. I was very surprised to receive this trophy in the mail after returning from Montana. This was the first time in six years that I have won anything in a shooting match. I always used to wonder how people could make a living selling small trophies like this, but once you get one, for anything you did, you understand how important symbolic things like these can be. Now I need to see if the Virginia vanity license plate that says "WINNER" is available.
This year's July match schedule allowed for a little practice the day before Missoula at an EIGHT STAGE 3 gun match in Idaho Falls. The 3 gun match was organized by the South Eastern Idaho Practical Shooters. The Idaho Falls match started around 9:30 a.m. and I had to leave, with two more stages left, at close to 5 p.m. in order to get to Missoula at a reasonable hour. Here are some pictures from the Idaho match.
These Idaho guys are serious rifle shooters.
The rifle only stage had reactive targets placed at 100, 200, and
maybe 230 yards in addition to some standard IPSC targets about 20
feet below the shooting position. Starting from a sitting
position, you had to fire at the closer targets then engage the
distance targets. One rifle got so hot that it
melted the plastic sling. You haven't shot a rifle in a serious
way until things start to melt and you have to change your grip
between shots to avoid serious burns. In the picture above, the
only targets that are easy to see are the IPSC targets close to the
camera. The ones that are hard to see in the picture, off at
the end of the road, were just as hard to see when looking through
the rifle sights.
This photo shows one of the few "pistol only" stages. This is the Nuevo El Presidente stage. You draw, fire two shots at each target, reload, and fire two more shots at each target. The additional "hard cover" (the black paint on the left target) and "no shoots" (the white targets obscuring part of the brown targets) makes aiming a little more difficult than the regular El Presidente stage which just has three IPSC targets.
Neil and his son Jacob came to watch the match.
The SEIPS match provided a great opportunity to "warm up" in preparation for the match in Missoula. The weather near Idaho Falls on June 30, 2001 was hot, windy, and dry. There were times when targets were obscured by dust. Bottled water and cans of soda were big sellers, and anything that provided shade was in great demand.
Five hours and 5,000,000 bugs on the windsheld later, I made it to Missoula. Anyone who has wandered around this Web site should recognize the Deer Creek range backdrop in the following picture.
This year there we saw some serious competition in the Revolver class.
To paraphrase one of Billy Crystal's characters from "Saturday
Night Live,"
it is better to look good than to shoot good, but sometimes neither
is possible.
IPSC shooting attracts people of all ages.
These pictures were taken in October, 1998. This was Ty Marbut's first match.
This picture was taken July 1, 2001. Ty has some new shades, and now shoots a Glock.
When I wrote about my first Al Kimery Memorial Trophy Match, I had some kind words to say about parents and kids in Montana. In October '98, I mentioned that idea again after seeing so many adults, including his father, helping Ty learn to shoot. Today, I was watching a stage where Ty's dad was shooting, spotted a well dressed and serious young man, and asked Paul Miner if "that was the kid whose picture is on the Web site?" And it was. Note to Ty - you're going to be called a kid as long as you can get those hearing protectors around your waist. Later, when you can't remember what the hearing protectors are for, or where you left them, you'll be called a "senior."
This would not be a report on the match without a discussion of the hardware used this year. Looking back, I can't remember using the same gun twice in this particular match, but I'm having trouble remembering all of the different pistols over the years. The first year was the EAA Witness. Everybody was amazed when that stock pistol couldn't "make major" (power factor) with factory ammunition. Later I remember shooting a Beretta 92, and maybe a Kimber and Springfield 1911. Last year I had a Glock 35. This year I brought two pistols. I've learned that when you fly across America, and then drive through Bug Alley along I-90, you can't go back and get your other gun if something goes wrong. So, I had my trusty CZ-75B Single Action 9 mm, and a Glock 31 (.357 SIG), each with plenty of magazines. Being lazy, since I shot the CZ in the Idaho match, there was no point in switching guns and having to clean two instead of just one. Sound reasoning if you ask me.
The CZ has a small, but helpful modification. I went to Home Depot and bought some 1 inch wide tape with a rough surface, not quite as rough as "skateboard" tape, but rough enough to prevent the gun from moving around in my hand. This can be a problem even with 9 mm pistols. I put a couple of strips of that tape in the front of the grip in the area where rich people have checkering done by a gunsmith.
Although I'm still not happy with the holster or the front sight, the CZ did well today. The only misfeed was when I loaded 16 rounds in the gun, something I had not tried, and something I knew from shooting the Beretta a few years ago might not be a good idea. As it turned out, the misfeed was cleared in a hurry and I was starting to move to another position, so little time was lost.
It might have been fun to try the Glock 31 in spite of the extra recoil over the 9 mm, but there's always next year. Of course, CZ now has a .40 S&W version of the CZ-75B Single Action pistol, and Home Depot has plenty of that rough sided tape...and July 2002 will be here before you know it.