Rio Salado: Practical Long-Gun Matches In October

[StealthyBlagga]

Here are the practical long-gun events we have scheduled this month at  Rio Salado:

3-Gun (Multi-Gun) Match: Saturday October 8th - PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED
Sign-in on Saturday runs 8am-9am, with first shots at 8am. New shooters should come in time to attend the New Shooter Orientation at 8:30am before they shoot. Our usual format is 3 short-range rifle, shotgun and/or pistol stages, plus 1 long-range rifle stage. Bring 150 rounds of rifle ammo, 50 shotgun birdshot (#6 or smaller), and 50 rounds of pistol ammo.

To facilitate efficient shooter registration, we want everyone to pre-register for the match. Online registration will open at 3pm on the Tuesday before the match at the Practiscore website. When you arrive on match day, come to the stat shack and pay your match fee as usual, then simply go and shoot - your info will already be in the iPads. Even if you are not 100% sure of making it, it is better to pre-register. Those who do not pre-register can still shoot; they will be assigned a shooter number only, with their name being added later.

We are fortunate to have four very generous sponsors for our monthly match: Carbon Arms provides "loaner" shotshell caddies for competitors to try, and they donate a $100 gift certificate. VLTOR donates two of their excellent AR15 rifle stock kits LUTH-AR send us one of their fine MBA-series rifle stocks. KE Arms provides a gift certificate each month. All prizes are distributed by random draw from the list of competitor who finish the match. With typical attendance around 75 shooters, your odds of winning something nice are pretty good.

Tactical .22 Rifle Match: Tuesday October 11th & 25th
Registration opens at 4pm, with first shots shortly thereafter. Location is the Smallbore Range right behind the Activity Center. The rules are simple: it's a straight time match with penalties for misses. Pretty much any .22 rifle is OK - the most popular guns are AR15-clones and Ruger 10/22s. We have two divisions: iron sight and optical sight. Our typical match format is one "long range" stage out to 100yards, and two or three shorter range hoser stages. This match is more fun than a barrel of monkeys... bring a bulk pack of cheap ammo (if you can find any) and you will leave with a smile a mile wide.

Red Mountain Action Rifle Match: Sunday September 16th
Registration opens at 12:30pm. This is a rifle-only match run over the same course of fire as the morning pistol match; maximum 60 yards, high-speed/low-drag, four run-n-gun stages. The equipment divisions accommodate iron and optical sights, rimfire rifle, centerfire rifle and pistol caliber carbine. Bring 150 rounds of ammo and a quick set of legs.

Tactical Shotgun and Pistol Caliber Carbine Match: Thursday October 20th
Registration starts at 4pm, with a new shooter orientation shortly thereafter. The match format is four practical scenario-based stages similar to what you would encounter at a 3-Gun match, except that you only need to bring one gun - you choose either shotgun or pistol caliber carbine. There will be separate divisions for shotgun (Open, Limited and Pump), centerfire carbine (Optic and Iron) and .22 rimfire carbine (Optic and Iron). Any tactical shotgun suitable for 3-gun competition will work well in this match, or you can shoot a pistol caliber carbine (straight walled pistol calibers only please) or even a .22LR rifle.

SPECIAL MATCH: Run-n-Gun Rifle-Pistol (2-Gun) Match: Saturday October 29th
This will be a RIFLE + PISTOL only match (no shotgun required). There will be five practical scenario-type stages; four CQB stages plus one longer range stage. Bring 150 rifle rounds & 100 pistol rounds. Almost any semi-automatic centerfire rifle and pistol will work, plus a safe, secure belt holster for the pistol. Sign-in runs 8am-9am, with first shots at 8am. New shooters should come in time to attend the New Shooter Orientation at 8:30am before they shoot.  Pre-registration is NOT required - just turn up and shoot.

USPSA Handgun/Pistol Caliber Carbine Matches
Lastly, we want to remind everyone that USPSA handgun matches now also have a division for Pistol Caliber Carbine. The courses of fire are short range and tight, testing your ability to maneuver around tightly confined stages and engage targets very rapidly... essentially, your CQB skills with a long gun. Check the Rio Salado Event Calendar for USPSA handgun match dates (they are held on most weekends).

Equipment Rules: Any semi-auto Pistol Caliber Carbine is OK (any magazine capacity, barrel length, muzzle device or sighting system). Sorry, no sound suppressors, pistol-braces or full-auto capable firearms. Permitted calibers: 9mmP, 357SIG, 40S&W, 10mmAuto, 45ACP only - maximum muzzle velocity 1600fps.

Conduct Rules: We suggest that you carry your PCC between stages in a case. A chamber flag must be inserted at all times except between “Make Ready” and “Range Clear”. Flags are $1 at Registration. When you come to a stage, place your cased PCC in the staging area with the muzzle-end pointing into the side berm. When you are the On-Deck shooter, uncase your PCC with the muzzle pointing into the side berm, check the chamber flag is still in place, raise the muzzle to the vertically-up orientation, then walk to the start position and wait for the RO. Keep the muzzle vertically-up. If you sweep anyone, or yourself, you will be DQ’d.

Remember to shoot accurately, because USPSA hit factor scoring values center hits much more highly than peripheral hits... tempering speed with accuracy is crucial to success on this match format.

[StealthyBlagga]

Yesterday's 3-Gun match was a bit constrained because we had to fit four stages on only three pistol bays (the High Power range was otherwise occupied). Still, it seemed like everyone had a fun time. The results are up on Practiscore, and here is the match video:

 

Our thanks go out again to our generous match sponsors: Carbon Arms, VLTOR, LUTH-AR and KE Arms. This month's lucky winners have been notified.

The next run-n-gun long-gun match will be Red Mountain Action Rifle on Sunday (10/16) afternoon. First shots at 12:30pm. No need to pre-register... just turn up and shoot.

Edited October 10, 2016 by StealthyBlagga

[StealthyBlagga]

We had a great time running two matches over the same basic course of fire this weekend... Rifle-Pistol on Saturday, then Pistol/PCC on Sunday, Here is the video from Saturday's festivities: