As I mentioned elsewhere, it was too cold for pins, and so some impromptu steel stages were set up.
The first one was pretty simple, just five steel plate targets set up at varying heights and distances, but all around ten yards out or so; one shot per target, three runs, keep your best time. The third stage was an... er... I guess you'd call it a "cold-range El Presidente". (The loaded and safed gun was laying on the rail in front of you when you turned around, rather than shooting from the leather.) The second stage was a plate rack with six swinging plates, and a Pepper popper for a stop plate. This turned out to be just for fun, as we only had two timers...
I only shot each stage once, as I had a fairly boneheaded gear malfunction. Those Blackhawk! gloves that were so comfy in North Carolina in August? Yeah, well, they're not so hot for Indiana in February, and I'd forgotten my warm gloves at home. Once you can't feel your fingers, it takes the fun out of things.
Also on the topic of gloves, I noticed that they can cause problems with my usual high-thumbs hold. I'd been admonishing myself to choke up on the gun, and on my first run it was "BANG!BANG!... malfunction ...BANG!... malfunction ...BANG!BANG!"
...which doesn't do much for your score. I think it was a dismal ten seconds or so. Same thing on the second run. I figured out what was happening by the third run, and shot it clean in the low fives.
After the stage, someone offered me some CLP. But it wasn't lube that was the problem; it was the wrinkled fabric of the glove interfering with the slide stop and causing it to lock back between shots. I was happy that I had spent time practicing my malfunction drills. I noticed a few shooters who hadn't, and a stoppage would leave them staring at their gun like a duck in thunder, rather than keeping their head in the fight and reducing the malf.
Also, reload times varied widely among the shooters, although with the exception of the El Pres stage they weren't all that critical. A lot of folks took their head completely out of the fight to reload, and mine were a lot less smooth than they could have been.
Oh, well, just more stuff to practice. And Eagle Creek will reopen for the year this weekend! Hooray! Yay guns!
...staring...like a duck in thunder...
ReplyDeleteI can use that. Thanks Tam.
I also can use the "wrinkled fabric of the glove" on my no-slide automatic pistol design.
I had a blast when I was back that way visiting. Shot one of the 5 plate shoots,...with a Ruger SA .45. I was surprised at several guys that went thru a couple high cap mags and couldn't get all the plates down. I missed a plate on a couple runs, and picked it up with the spare round I had. Aiming really helps. "Slow" is fast. Heard a couple chuckles, and "Hey, look at this guy".....Then after a couple runs I heard someone say "hey, watch this guy". Was in the 4's and upper 3's after the first round or two. Couple of the Illinois Deputies were wicked fast with DA revo's. My times were about the same with the SA as I could do with the Smith DA....So long as reloads weren't a consideration.
ReplyDeleteWhat a blast!
no-slide automatic pistol design.
ReplyDeleteLuger... Ruger... Auto-Mag.
WV: primulte. "From Primary to Ultimate", "All the way", "A to Z".
Or maybe "ultimately prim"?
What? No word about falling in love (lust at 500 Guns) during the gun store crawl?
ReplyDeleteSaving this for the other blog are we?
Shootin' Buddy
I wasn't going to mention 500 Guns until after the Lotto drawing...
ReplyDeleteUnderstood. :-)
ReplyDeleteShootin' Buddy
Makes you consider a Winter Gun and a Summer Gun, for carry. I know that you're against playing the "Which gun do I feel like carrying today?" game, but why not seasonal, if you find that, say, one of your revolvers is outfitted with stocks and such that accomodate gloves?
ReplyDeleteI think all three guns in my CCW battery will be fine with the lightweight gloves. With the warm gloves...?
ReplyDeleteI'll have to come up with proper warm gloves TTP.