I hate IPSC barricades.  Ask anybody.  They force big people to stand in small boxes.  Today, however, I got serious about barricades and did better than usual.  The stage shown above provided a little more drama than I'm used to.  In order to get a couple of moving targets to move, you first had to knock down a popper.  I hit it, heard a solid hit, and moved my sight picture to the mover.  When I looked back, the popper was still up so I shot it again and got another solid hit.  The range officer stopped me at that point and I got a "re-shoot."  The popper was not calibrated for 9 mm, and I was shooting my old trustworthy Beretta 92 9 mm.  The next time through, the popper went down when it was supposed to.  One of the movers was in the open just one time, then stayed behind cover - except for the head.  I waited and got two "B" hits after the target stopped.

The occasion for all this was the Sunday, October 12th IPSC match at the Quantico Marine Base south of Washington, DC.  Back here on the east coast, there are a lot of IPSC shooters so you have to reserve a time slot at 9:30 or 11 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. to shoot.  Here we shoot in squads.  There were five stages today, but as shown in the photo, sometimes the stages were adjacent to each other and one stage comes right after shooting the first, or have two people ready to shoot on identical targets and save time.

Today's classifier was a timed event.  When the timer started, we had 4 seconds to shoot at different different targets.  Misses didn't count, but going past the 4 second time limit cost points.  Some of the strings on this stage were strong hand, then weak hand, and we had to shoot at different distances.  You'd be surprised how easy it is to count off 4 seconds as you're shooting.  Most of the people in the squad stayed within the time limits.

 The last stage was my favorite.  This stage required 16 shots Comstock and I made it with one magazine.  This may have bought back the time I always give up from 1) being old, 2) insisting on drawing from concealment with a stock type gun.  One of these days I'm going to send my high capacity magazines to Robar for plating.  After the recent match at Westlance and today, I appreciate having those extra shots.  In an IDPA match, with a limit of 10 rounds per magazine, this advantage goes away.

While standing around waiting for our squad to start, I talked to a Marine who was on duty checking out the range activity.  He had a Beretta 92 also.  Marines have always emphasized pistol and rifle marksmanship.  The ranges at Quantico are first rate, the best, but that's not surprising when you consider who trains there.  As a taxpayer, I want the first U.S. troops into a trouble spot to be able to shoot straight, protect themselves and win.  Since the odds are pretty good that the Marines will be there first, I was very pleased to see the high quality of their marksmanship training setup.

After we finished our stages at the IPSC match, several of us drove over to the adjacent rifle range to watch the "side match" there.  I can say right now that going over there is going to cost some money, because I've got to try this rifle stuff and soon.  The Marines have a computerized rifle range with moving targets that pop up at different ranges.  The computer records hits.  I'm still learning, but I think each shooter sees 30 targets, some close, some far away, some moving, and some standing still.  All look like read bad dudes with Evil Empire helmets and coats and the outline of AKs.  I'd try this in a heartbeat with the Bulgarian SLR-95 except that I'm not sure I'd hit the distant targets.  It's obvious I need a Colt AR-15 Lightweight Target Model in .223.

One of the things that impressed me most about this realistic computer controlled target range is that during the week days, young Marines are hitting these targets using M-16s with open sights.  This is excellent training.  Going to an IPSC match was a lot of fun as usual.  Getting a look at our Marines' training facility was icing on the cake.

No report on a match would be complete without sharing more opinions on what equipment works and what doesn't.  I thought my friend Jerry might want to shoot today so I brought a Browning Hi-Power .40 S&W.  When he decided not to shoot, I had to choose between going with the Beretta 92, or switching to the Browning with its "major" power .40 S&W loads.  I decided to stick with the Beretta.  The decision was based on my desire to work more on the "mental game," trying to lower my overall times, and not have the gun be a distraction.  This may sound strange since the point of all this is to shoot at targets, but I knew the Beretta would always work, that the sights were right on, and that I'd get a lot of good hits.  Not having to worry about reliability is a good thing.  Jams and misfeeds and dropped magazines are distracting.  I noticed today that the expensive guns had problems.  I see this at every match.  The Beretta just kept chugging along.  People may make fun of such a large pistol or make fun of the 9 mm caliber, but a handgun carried for personal defense has to be reliable and you have to be able to hit the targets.  If you don't believe reliability and accuracy are important, check with the nearest Marine.