Match Results - Take 2

So, GunDiva has chosen to bestow upon me the title of GunDude. With 37 out of 253 posts labeled “guns” in some form or fashion on this blog, I suppose I will have to be gracious and accept the moniker with all humility and endeavor to live up to expectations. What better way to do that than to report on the results of my second attempt at participating in an IDPA match?

A week ago today, I participated in my second ever IDPA match. This time at a very nice outdoor range here locally. This time, I invited Number One Follower and Cousin B to join me. NOF had to beg off due to work issues; however, Cousin B came out and brought a friend of his to boot. They both claimed they had a good time and cursed me for giving them more excuses to get out and turn money into smoke and noise, but that’s jumping ahead of the story a bit.

Before moving on, I have to tattle on myself. I had a sexist moment before the match. As we were all standing around waiting for people to pay their match fees, get their score sheets, etc., we turned around to find an attractive young lady standing in line wearing very fashionable platform, high heels. I raised an eyebrow and whispered while snickering under my breath to the person standing next to me (I can’t remember if it was Cousin B or someone else) that I really hoped she would shoot the match in those heels. Now, I am sure there are women how could shoot the match in those shoes and turn in a much better score than me in normal shoes, and it was really unfair of me to laugh and jest at her expense while making a prejudiced assessment of her abilities based on her choice in footwear. Shame on me. She and her husband appeared to be nice people from the limited interaction I had with them. However, she did have the good sense to change out of her hooker footwear before the match began, but don’t forget about her. She will resurface in our story a bit later.

The match consisted of four stages again.

The first stage went relatively well for me. I shot a 19.15 on 6 targets spaced from 3 to 15 yards using “tactical priority/tactical sequence” (meaning you fire one shot at each of the first 5 targets, give 3 shots to target 6 and return back giving two more shots each to targets 1 through 5). I did get a procedural here for shooting target three or four twice out of tactical sequence on the first pass through. I couldn’t help it. I got excited and double tapped the bang switch. I dropped two points down on targets 3, 4 and 5. So, accuracy wasn’t too shabby for this stage.

Then, the wheels came off in the second stage.

Stage 2 had a paper target, followed by two hanging metal gongs, followed by 6 falling steel plates, capped off by another paper target. Starting/shooting position was from behind a stack of barrels. Before I got up to shoot, the hanging gongs had to be removed as a shooter on the next bay over got hit by a frag coming off one of the gongs. From what I understand, he was alright, but it just goes to show that it’s all fun and games until someone gets fragged. A little more attention to stage set up will be used next time I’m sure. Anyway, I shot an abysmal 40.26 on this stage with two points down each on both paper targets. Where I ran into trouble was the falling steel plates. I got through the first four with one shot each at which time WARHAMMER ran dry. A sloppy mag change later, and I transitioned to the other side of the barrel (which, in hindsight, I really shouldn’t have done) to get the remaining targets. I shot steel number 5 in one or two shots before it fell. Then, I started in on steel number 6….which sat there….and mocked me. I swear that thing had a hole in it because, after the first couple of misses, I slowed way down, focused on sight alignment and trigger discipline…and still missed it. I could not tell where the rounds were going. ARRRGGGHHH!!!! I was almost to the point of walking up range and beating it with WARHAMMER when it finally fell allowing me to shoot paper target 2. The scorer had pity on me and didn’t charge me a procedural for not engaging paper target 2 before the remaining steels after transitioning sides of the barrel.

Stage three might as well have been a continuation of stage 2 for all the good it did me. Stage 3 had 6 paper targets more or less in a line abreast formation at about 15 yards. Course of fire was two center mass shots before moving to a second shooting position and putting 1 “head” shot on each target. I got procedural error here again for shooting a “head” shot from the wrong location. I also had a stove pipe malfunction. I am reasonably sure that resulted from limp wristing as it didn’t happen again the rest of the night. Just a couple of rounds later, I had a failure to feed from a nose down round in the second mag. 34 points down for incredibly bad accuracy. Raw time: 41.79 seconds.

Stage four saw a little bit of redemption. Same line abreast target set up. Starting position was gun on a barrel covered by a cloth with a number next to it. Don’t shoot the target corresponding to the number. Two shots to everything else. Simple enough. Raw time: 21.75 with 8 points down. There are worse ways to finish a match.

So, where did I fall in the standings? Second to dead last out of 34 shooters. Dead last in my division. Guess who I beat? Yes, that’s right. The nice young lady in the footwear of questionable morality who was shooting an M&P 9 and taking her sweet time on each target.

God was shaming me for my arrogance I am sure. Nothing like a lesson in humility to bring me back to reality.

Next match and opportunity for redemption and improvement is this Sunday.