November USPSA match

Our last match of the year is now in the books, and it was a great one, capping off a great season. I want to issue a huge thank you to our many shooters this year. It was an enjoyable season and I'm looking forward to next year already.

Kevin M. really focusing on the targets as he heads into a reload.


Does Tom L. Look like he's having fun here or what?

Our very own John Z. tears into some targets.

Super Kirk ROs Pat C. as he he leans out to engage some targets.

Husband and wife, Tino and Barb run Fredericksburg, believed by many to be the best club in our Area.

Woe is us

By now we've all had time to reflect upon the election results. We all know how poorly the Presidential election went for gun owners, but what you may not have considered is how badly the Congressional elections went for us also. The anti-gun socialists also picked up members of the House and the Senate. Depending on ballots still being counted in close races the anits may have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.

We are in trouble, and I don't know what we can do about it. My best advice is that if you want new guns, mags, or ammo buy it now, before Obama takes office. He will quite likely have a "First 100 days plan" and it will quite likely include anti-gun legislation that will already be written up, likely passed by Congress, and ready to sign immediately upoin his taking office. Obama has repeatedly promised to pass a new tougher Clinton gun ban bill, and his history has proven that he is vehemently anti-gun. Especially the kinds of guns and mags we enjoy.

November USPSA match sign up

Once again it is time to sign up for our monthly USPSA match. It will be a 7 stage pistol match with about 150 rounds required. To sign up email Dave at yorksignup@gmail.com with your name USPSA#, division, and any squadding preferences. You should receive a confirmation email within a day or two.

You may elect to shoot a pistol caliber carbine this match instead of pistol. We’ll use the same stages as the pistol shooters, but there will be alternate start positions on some stages. If you plan on doing that please let Dave know. There will be two divisions, Open, and Limited. Basically, the difference is Open has optics. If there are enough carbines and usually there are we will do payouts just like pistol.

Entry fee for either pistol or carbine is $20. Food and drinks will be available for purchase. Please drive slowly entering and leaving the club grounds.

This will be our last match of the year, and it looks to be a good one. The stages look challenging and fun.

Don’t forget to vote Tuesday, your gun rights are at stake. NObama!

Shooting tip

One of the things Leatham taught us was that shooting really long fast groups will teach you a lot about the natural rhythym of the gun and your trigger pulls. He suggested 15-20 round groups at as close as 7 yards. Of course his were still one hole, but yours should be pretty good too. One thing you should notice is that your splits (the time between shots) get faster as you go. That's because you are learning how much you have to release the trigger to get it to reset. You will naturally start keeping more and more pressure on the trigger throughout the cycle.

An important thing to remember is that a firm grip is important and necessary to do this well.

Seems like a waste of ammo, but if Leatham says to do it, it must make sense. Try it and you'll know it does.

Carbine option?

Some of you may have noticed that the match schedule lists our November 9th match as a 7 stage pistol with a carbine option. What this means is that it is a standard 7 stage pistol match and it will be about 150 rounds. OR you may elect to use a pistol caliber carbine (no 223, 7.62x anything, or M1 carbines) to shoot the pistol stages.

This actually has no effect on the pistol shooters. We merely have alternate start positions, and some other options available on each stage for the carbine shooters. We have Open, and Limited divisions and will do payout for each like we do the pistol divisions if we have the required number of shooters.

Shooting the carbines is great fun and if you have one you should try it. It's really cool to see some of the stuff that comes out. 9mm ARs are most popular, but there are always some HKs, a Tommy Gun or two, some Mech Tech conversions, and some strange things as well. UZIs and MACs are good too. Get some of your weirdness out of the safe. It's the last match of the year. Carbines are excellent practice for rifle matches and they're generally cheaper to shoot than rifles. It is OK for more than one person to share a carbine. If you don't have one, but your buddy does, see if he'll share.

It is permissible to use suppressed carbines, and it is OK to use select fire weapons on semi-auto. I'd let you shoot full-auto, but it is against range regulations. The only problem with suppressed weapons is getting the timers to pick up the shots. Maybe if you used super-sonic ammo?

I normally squad the carbines together, but I'm thinking about distributing them among all squads to get maximum exposure among the pistol shooters, thus creating more interest in them. Leave a comment if you think this is a good or bad idea.

Poll results

The poll results are in. Now what do they mean? Overwhelmingly the people who voted chose the 5 stage pistol, and 4 stage long gun match every month. That was my choice also. It is actually the perfect compromise. The long gun peopl get a lot of shooting in. The pistol-only people not only get a good pistol match in, but they are on the road home at a decent hour. and they don't have to help tear down.

Realistically, things probably won't change much from years past.

First, at the winter meeting where we plan the year's schedule we'll talk about it some more and that's where the decision is really made. This actually is a democratic organization.

Secondly, when we factor in the Summer Blast, and a special classifier match or two, it deosn't allow us to shoot the long guns every month anyway.

If it is the will of the group and the schedule allows us, we will try to work in some more long gun shooting. I am already considering asking the board for additional dates to run special matches like the team three gun, which allow for no pistol-only option.

Meanwhile, if you like long gun get yourself a pistol caliber carbine. We shoot those a couple times a year on the pistol stages with no effect on the pistol shooters at all. They are great fun and inexpensive to shoot. Some of us will be shooting them in November. If you have a pistol caliber carbine you should use it, if you don't you should try one of of ours.

Range closures

The rifle range will be closed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

All ranges, including our back pits will be closed Friday and Saturday.

Rifle is having a big event. Don't bitch, we close their range a lot more than close ours.