After a decade of working for my club, I am now a free man. Don’t get me wrong, I am damned proud of what I did and fixing the custerflock that the scoring, website and forum was and managed to made it look somewhat professional. But it was literally 10 years that I shot as an after thought in between shuffling papers and updating a website.
As with anywhere were two or more people get together, you will find your small percentage of certified assholes, even in the shooting community. Even Jesus had a huge scumbag attending the Last Supper so you shouldn’t be surprised. These were the people that made working a “challenge” ( I wanted to say a “pain in the ass up there with rectal boils” but I wanted to keep this post classy) but the majority of people did not complain nd I call that a victory.
So I have been in a limbo-plateau shooting IDPA for a decade and I now face the challenge of improving at least somewhat. I am not gonna turn into a gamer since I never was and my speed overall has decreased so I am gonna aim for accuracy once again. The goal shall be a Zero Down Match and then repeat it as many times as possible. My best standing ever in this field was at a sanctioned match in Northern Florida where I took Most Accurate and I think I had some ridiculous 4 points down for the whole thing. That my total time was scored in eons is a different ball of earwax. 🙂
Tis Saturday, while many of my fellow Gun Bloggers will be partaking the joys of the NRA Annual Meeting, I shall be shooting my snub Rossi in .357 Magnum and shooting full power .357 magnum ammo just to piss Safety Officers off. Just kidding, I carry the Rossi whenever I don’t my full size Non-Glock plastic Wonder and I do need to get some practice on it with non-gaming rounds.
And I really need a portable chair with attached umbrella to use at the matches. Sun is gonna be a killer!
I might do a report on the match on Saturday. No, there will be no embarrassing videos of me snorting and flapping like a wounded whale trying to make shots from the ground. Walt does a good job with videos although the poor fella is deluded with IPSC. Go check them out, he does a great job on both the audiovisual and the after-match overview.
And, if you are not gonna be at the NRA Annual Meeting, Go Shoot!
Update: I just checked my stock of practice 3.57 mag ammunition and I don’t think I have enough for a stage. So the Official Word is PANIC!
Tumblers are already in the process of cleaning and polishing the cases.
Reatking?
Brain faster than fingers 🙂
PS: Should be “Spelling Nazi.” “Spell Nazi” makes me sound like a witch or something.
Which may have been intentional… 😉
I plea the 5th
I can only imagine how tough it must have been to shoot and enjoy it. At the clubs where I shoot, the guys running the match either don’t have time to shoot at all or they have to shoot through and wind up rushing from stage to stage.
Thanks for the kind words.
This for any shooting sport: If you work the match, you do not enjoy the match and sometimes not even shoot it. That is why there is a Match personnel Match before the main event for the working bees to “have fun.” In reality is a full dress rehearsal for the main event but counts as the real thing.
I always tell shooters going to sanctioned matches for the first time to shake the hand of every individual working every stage after you are done shooting. It is the only payment these people will ever get for working a match.
And of course, paste & set steel if required.
I think I will understand where you are coming from shortly.
Last month I made the mistake of taking the SO class for IDPA. This weekend I’m part of a group running our local 3gun match while the director is away at the NRA convention. The next week I’m obligated to begin SOing our IDPA matches. But we are only up to around 80 competitors at this point.
Michael Bane just blogged that IDPA is getting 800-900 new members MONTHLY. I say look for matches, both local and regional, to start getting a little stressed with participants. This is a good thing (I think). Don’t get burned out like I’ve seen others do.
My IDPA number is in the 11000s. I Joined about 10 years ago. In the last couple of years I seen it jump from the 30K to the 50K. Our matches regularly held 40 shooters on a good day now 70 shooters are not uncommon and the record stands somewehere in the low 90s. We don’t run more because the ranges we use SUCK. We do 2 matches a month in 2 different ranges so I’d say 200 shooters a month is close to reality. There are sanctioned state matches that have less people attending.
Oh hell, no wonder I was tired.
When I joined in Jan 2012 it was in the mid 49,000