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The Babes with Bullets 3-Gun Challenge is April 30 - May 1 at the Shootout Range in Princeton, LA. (Home range of Jerry & Kay Miculek) Don't let the name fool you...this match is open to male and female competitors. The first of it's kind, the BwB 3-Gun Challenge is a two Domain match. Our goal is to have an equal number of female and male participants. All competitors will shoot the same stages of fire, with the Women's Domain and Men's Domain scored separately. Initially there will be 100 slots reserved for each Domain. After March 1st, any remaining slots will be available to everyone, regardless of gender. These slots will first be offered to anyone on the waitlist. Each Domain will have separate prize tables with winners of Tactical Optics Divisions guaranteed $2,000 cash OR first pick off respective prize tables. Additional cash and products will be distributed between each Domain as equally and equitably as possible. Categories will be recognized in both Domains, e.g. Junior Girl, Junior Boy, Senior Woman, Senior Man. For full details and to register go to http://bwb3gun.com/

I am tired of using my husbands Rem 1187, 12 ga for 3 Gun competitions. I used a Light Weight 1100 in 20 ga. for years with excellent results. I had to make the switch to 12 ga. when the rules changed to limit Open Guns to a 10 round tube. I couldn't find speedloaders for the 20 gauge. I want my 20 ga. back! Does anyone make speedloaders for a Remington 1100/1187 20 gauge shotgun? Kay Clark Miculek

Wow, cool pic of Judy Woolley. I saw she didn't shoot the whole match...Was she there for only one day? Judy and I taught a ladies camp at her home range in Plains a few days before the start of the Nationals. We were having such fun we didn't want it to end so I managed to talk her into shooting the Nationals. Even though Judy hasn't competed at the National level in twelve years she was game. She dusted off an old 1911 single stack in .38 Super. We quickly loaded up some ammo and Judy had time to get in about 100 rounds of practice. Of course the gun worked flawlessly with those 100 rounds and ran for the first stage of the match. After that it had multiply jams and by the fourth stage it had turned into a single shot. Judy gave it up but still had a great time hanging with the Ladies Super Squad and meeting some old aquaintances. Kay

Don't give up yet Todd. Try a Remington 870 Lightweight 20 gauge Youth model. Get one with the wood stock so that you can cut it down. It is very important to make sure the stock is not too long for your small daughter. If the stock is even a little bit too long for her she is forced to hold the majority of the weight with an extended support arm. Holding weight with an over extended arm is hard for anyone. I'm guessing that right now when she tries to balance the gun she tends to lean back. Cut the stock down enough so that the center of balance of the shotgun is closer to her body and she doesn't have to lean back. This might not result in the perfect shotgun stance but it will make it easier for her to support the weight of the gun. (You've got to start somewhere!) Be sure to save the piece you cut off the stock. You'll be adding it back on in no time. Kay Try a Remington 870 Lightweight 20 gauge Youth model. Whoops.....scratch the 870 model. I meant to say a Lightweight 1100 or 1187. I'm not sure they make a lightweight 1187 in 20 ga. but you should be able to find a used 1100. Kay

OK, I'm not going to take it personally that most of you voted for Athena......actually that's where my money was too! I shot with Athena at several matches this year and I just couldn't stay with her. What can I say, she just had a bad Nationals.......it happens. But I'm sure she will be back with a vengence next year. I loved this match. It was made for me! Three stages that resembled the old 50 yard standards we used to see at every Nationals only shorter! And there were plus 25 yard shots thrown in on most of the otherwise squirt stages. You really had to be able to shift gears in the middle of the stages. There were no long field courses with long sprints either. Even the high round count stages were divided into short sprints and in most cases many of the targets could be shot on the move. Slower feet were not a huge disadvantage if you were willing to shot on the move. I too was impressed with Desiree who I soundly beat by .4911 points. Sometimes alot of luck mixed in with a little skill can make the difference! I was also impressed with Rebecca Jones who shot an amazing match considering it was her very first Open Nationals. Rebecca finished a strong third. Unfortunately I never got to see either of these ladies shoot. Along with Desiree, Rebecca and Athena there were several other ladies that came away with some excellent stage percentages. There were at least five women that had 80% to 87% on individual stages. Way to go ladies! You've got the horsepower......with time and lots of practice the consistency will come. I might add that I was not one of the ladies that had high overall percentages on any individual stage. In fact, I only won one out of eighteen stages. But I did stay in the top three on 2/3rds of the stages. This time around slow (but not too slow) and steady won the race!

I'm looking for a good club match to shoot on Sunday, September 10th that is somewhere along my route to Barry. I'll be driving north from Shreveport, LA. I usually take I-30 to Little Rock, I-40 to Memphis, then I-55 to St. Louis. But I could also head north through eastern Oklahoma or western Arkansas as far as Kansas City and then cut across Missouri to Quincy. Maybe something in northern Arkansas, northwest Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, western Tennesse, or just about anywhere in Missouri??? If you know of a decent club match anywhere in those areas please let me know. Thanks, Kay

Thanks eveyone. I was shooting for a 95 second match but got off to a rough (that means slow) start in the morning. It is so hard to stay aggressive when you are scared of missing! Even when I shot one-for-one my times were a quarter to a half second slower than my practice times. At lunch time Jerry gave me a pep talk and I was able to come back in the afternoon and truely shoot with no fear of missing. It was great! I still didn't consistently match my practice times but was only a few tenths of a second off on many runs. In the end I shot a 99.05 second match. That means I added about 5% to my practice scores. I'll take it! Athena shot well too considering she didn't get her gun until the Tuesday before the match and half of her ammo didn't show up until the morning before the match. And even though we are competitors Athena cheered me on the whole match. Thanks for the support Athena. I also have to mention the performances of a few other ladies. Lisa Munson won Limited division with her SVI. Julie Goloski won the IDPA Stock division shooting a S&W M&P. But I was really impressed with Julie's revolver shooting. That's right.....Julie shot the Steel Challenge with a S&W 627 revolver and did a great job! A couple of other ladies that impressed me were Rebecca Jones and Randy Rogers. Both of these ladies were shooting the Challenge for the first time. Rebecca finished third in Open and Randy finished second in the IDPA Stock division. We will be seeing a lot more of both of these young ladies. We also had a great time at the Ladies Steel Challenge Camp the weekend before the match. We'll do it again next year. Hope to see some new faces there!

Maybe I'll get to tell you about my own great match performance one of these days but today I have to brag on Athena again. We shot the Area 3 Championships this past weekend. Athena finished 9th overall, won A class, and had five top ten stage finishes. Max M. really blew the curve by beating the 2nd place finisher by 100 points. After that things tightened up. If you throw Max out of the mix Athena shot 86% of the 2nd place finisher. Congrats Athena. Enjoyed our weekend. The Steel Challenge is next! Kay

I installed a Tactical Solutions 6" fluted upper on my Ruger 22/45 for my nine year old daugher to shoot the Challenge a couple of years ago. However, during the match my model 41 started having some problems so I finished the match with her gun. I haven't gone back to the 41 since. In case you are not familiar with Tactical Solutions........they make a complete upper unit that will fit the Ruger MK II, MK III, or 22/45 frames. The whole upper is made of aluminum with the exception of the steel barrel (sleeved in the aluminum) and some small parts. I can't tell you an exact weight right now but on a 22/45 frame the complete gun is super light. Accuracy is good too. I tested it against a 5.5" Ruger bull barrel and a Clark Custom 6" bull barrel. It wasn't as accurate as the Clark Custom but it beat the factory barrel handily. I still love my model 41 for the Sportsman's Team Challenge where the targets are on a rack all lined up nice and neat in close proximity. But for the Steel Challenge where you have lots of fast gun movement with targets in a wide array I really like the 22/45 lower with the TS upper. Kay

I get to start this topic since I know Athena Lee will not do it herself. I shot the Space City Challenge yesterday with Athena. She was on fire!!! I have not seen the match results yet but I bet Athena easily won the woman's division as well as placing high in the overall standings. She was leaving me in the dust (or in this case the mud) all day long. I thought about tripping her but I don't think I could have caught her. Athena, it was a pleasure watching you shoot. It was a thing of beauty. You have once again inspired me to get off my butt and practice! I'll try not to make it as easy next time! With much respect, Kay

Jerry always closes his weak eye on longer precision shots or small targets. Bottom line....he's tried it both ways and gets the best results with an eye closed. The shooting glasses he uses for iron sights actually have magnification on the right lense but none in the left lense. I get dizzy looking through them. He's much more prone to closing the weak eye with iron sights but again he'll close it even with the dot gun on harder shots. Kay M.