Steel Challenge 8-27-11

RockCrawlinChef, Mez and I shot the Steel Challenge last Saturday.  It was the first time I'd ever done it and it was a blast!  I've shot Defensive Pistol off and on for years, but hadn't bothered with the Steel Challenge.  In the interest of broadening my shooting horizons for my next application to Top Shot, I'm shooting anything and everything.

During a Defensive Pistol match, it's not unusual to go through approximately two hundred rounds, so I didn't realize how tiring shooting the Steel Challenge would be.  I shot it using my step-dad's Ruger MKII (.22 LR) and didn't think that two hundred plus rounds of .22 would be a big deal, since I normally shoot a .45 ACP.

The biggest difference, for me, is that the Steel Challenge feels like an endurance match.  Shooting the same stage five times, one right after the other, takes a lot more stamina than shooting each stage one time like you do in Defensive Pistol.

I wasn't sure I'd like it, since the stages never change month to month, whereas in Defensive Pistol the stages are different every month.  I can definitely see the advantage in being able to compare stage times each month - it's an easy way to measure improvement.

Another thing I learned is that I shoot better right to left than left to right.  Odd, isn't it?  If I hadn't shot the Challenge, I would have never known that.  For some reason, it's easier for me to pick up my sight picture moving to the left than to the right.

Since I videotape pretty much *everything* when I'm shooting now (more application footage), I have a video of some of the stages...



I think I've got Tara Janzen talked into shooting it with us next month - it's a good segue into shooting matches, something she's been talking about doing, but hasn't quite gotten there yet.

I took the Bosu out to the match, though I didn't shoot off of it.  When we were done with our stages, Mez and I asked if we could try to shoot the last stage from the Bosu.  Unfortunately, I ran out of memory on the video camera before we hopped up on the Bosu.  We both took a turn and decided that next month we'll be shooting from the Bosu, just to up the ante a bit.