Last week was the monthly defensive pistol match at Colorado Rod and Gun Club. It's pretty much the most fun you can have for $10 and 200 rounds of ammo. I was excited when we did the walk-through and found that we'd be shooting prone. While I've certainly shot from a prone position before, I don't recall doing it with a handgun. I love the challenge of doing new things (or doing old things in new ways).
The stages just got better and better and I got more and more excited to shoot.
Then we got to the bowling pins.
Bowling pins are my kryptonite.
(Unless you're from Top Shot and reading this. If that's the case, I love bowling pins. Oh, and you might want to skip this video.)
I only deflated a little bit at the bowling pins, because they had the Texas Star set up. There's no middle ground with the Texas Star - you either love it or hate it.
Once you hit one of the plates, it falls off and sets the star to spinning. It's fabulous and I love it - you can never shoot it the same way twice, as you can never predict how it's going to move. Of course, I got so excited about the Texas Star stage, I forgot to ask Mez to film it for me. I can tell you that I was the first in our group to shoot it clean and complete (and then, not to be shown up, Mez shot it clean with a damn five shot revolver).
I don't remember what this stage was named, but it was fun. We had to leave our gun in one area, our magazines in another and start while sitting at a table. I almost slipped and fell on my arse coming around the table, but recovered and managed not to make too big a fool of myself. Well, I mostly didn't make a fool of myself. I kinda shot a no-shoot target. Oops.
My Para's been acting up. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know she's kind of finicky and has had some temper tantrums, but I was able to keep her going with little office visits to the gun doctor. A hundred and forty-five or fifty rounds into the match, she gave up the ghost.
I broke her.
She didn't jam, she didn't booger, she didn't goober.
She broke.
I haven't taken her apart yet to look at the extent of the damage, but I can tell you that a free-swinging hammer is not a good sign. I can't say I didn't expect it, because I know she had parts that were wearing out and I was just being too cheap to buy new parts and have her overhauled. She does have something like 10k rounds through her.
However, because I knew she was on her last legs and might booger up on me, I threw RockCrawlinChef's gun in the car - just in case. It's a good thing I did. Once the Para went belly-up, I went to the car and swapped out guns. RCC shoots a S&W M&P 9mm. Lucky for me it's an M&P, because I easily swapped out the backstrap to the small size and it fit my hand beautifully.
So, off I went to shoot the last stage with a gun I'd never fired before. The shooting gods were with me on that stage, as I shot it well. I was more than a little pissed at the scoring, which you might hear on the video. I got penalized for a missed headshot, when, in actuality, the target didn't rebound in time to catch my second round.
I argued a bit, but decided to just go with being pissed. Whatever. I shot the stage well and did it with a gun I had never fired before. Guess I'll just have to be happy with that. There is a big difference between shooting a .45 and a 9mm, though. It's a lot harder to see the holes in the target, which is why I shot at the far target four times - I just couldn't see the holes in the cardboard.
So - a question for my fellow GunDivas (and GunDudes) - do you enjoy new challenges? What is the most challenging thing you have done shooting?
2 comments:
Hey I think you did a GREAT job! And sorry about your Para, that sucks, even though you knew it was gonna happen.
Yes I like learning new stuff and trying new techniques - but I don't think of them as challenges. My skills are solid to hunt with a variety of guns, and the rest is for fun. If at any time it isn't fun then I switch to something else, may go back and try it again later maybe not.
So far our biggest "challenge" is to find ways to make "shooting for fun" or even "practice shooting" affordable. We already reload, and hunt bargains at stores and on craigslist. But at the end of the day even if its fun I always cringe at the brass on the ground knowing how expensive it was and how much time went into it.
Stephanie - German Sport Guns (GSG) is now offering a 1911-style pistol in .22 cal for less than $400. My friend Mez just bought one and it shoots nicely out of the box. I'm seriously looking at getting one. That way, I can "train" with a 1911 that's really cheap to shoot and do my matches with the Para. It's a chunk of money initially, but I see it saving me money in the long run.
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