Carmoney

This was promised last year......did the 2004 SC video ever get made?

Hell, you only have to sell 100--just price them at five grand.

Gary, you're absolutely right--in order for Sammy to become truly successful at this wheelgun game, he's gotta work to develop that special muscle just above the beltline that helps tip the moonclip holders out for fast access. If you carefully inspect this photo depicting a group of fairly accomplished revolver shooters, you'll see what I mean:

The other Sam agrees with you:

Yep, I'd definitely say this trash-talking Jerry V--putting the boots to ol' Walt while he's got him down--fits in perfectly with the rest of us USPSA wheelers.

Keith, our local revolver participation dwindled quite a bit after we switched our match format. Our club used to have one match a month for L and O, and one match a month dedicated to L-10, P, and R. This pretty much forced everybody to find something different that the usual race gun and learn to use it, and we'd often get half a dozen revos at our local matches. Now it's two matches a month, shoot whatever you want--which is good for really grooving in with one gun, but there are only about three of us that are running the revolvers regularly now. That's one reason why I've hit so many bigger matches this year. (Next year I'm going to have to tighten up the belt some--my credit card bills are starting to look downright scary!) But hey--if everybody would just take their first-born son and do everything possible to commit the kid's life to the ancient art of mastering the revolver, we could breathe all kinds of new life into this division, right??

.....Craig T. with his open rimfire steel-killer.....

Here are a couple of our local Iowa up-and-coming junior shooters! Here's Brian G. shooting the Big Dawg Steel match...

How the mighty hath fallen.........say it ain't so, Sam.

Thanks Keith, Dave, and Cliff...... What a weekend! Up at 4 AM yesterday morning for the run out to the Eastern Nebraska Gun Club for the Great Plains Sectional--shot the match (great match, nice folks), and headed north to Hutchinson MN to the Gopher Campfire Club for the MN Sectional, rolled into the Bates Motel at 10:30 or 11:00 PM, just in time to drink a couple beers and reload the moonclips. In addition to me and young Sam, we took bottomfeeders Brad, Brian, Earl and Jim--all of us and all our gear in my wife's minivan! Great "ironmen", fun trip all the way around. When I checked the boards at lunchtime, I got the distinct feeling that Keith had shot a pretty good match the day before, and he and I are so closely matched everywhere we go I knew I was gonna have to do really well to get him. I managed to have no misses and no penalties for the day, which it turns out is what I needed to just barely squeak by him. I knew it was too close to call at the end of the match, so I snuck into the stats shack and wrote down all of Keith's scores so I could compare them on the way home--at one point he walked by me, saw what I was doing, smiling inwardly at my emotional fragility..... Wish I would have had the chance to shoot with the other wheelgunners, and hang around afterwards, but we still had many miles to go to get back home! I didn't know for sure who won until I read this post. Thanks for the mention of Sam's performance. Yesterday at the GP Sectional, I shot well, and Sam finished at 79% of me. And now again today. I know I'm just a new guy, but I still think he's really doing well. Actually, I have a funny feeling he's modeling himself after Pat Sweeney--with that long-barreled blue 25-2 and almost all A hits...... Anyway, we got to shoot two great matches about 450 miles apart in the same weekend! Can't do any better than that, right? (God, I'm tired.....) Mike

Hey now--having more cool toys is a good thing, right? But only if they work. And those DS-10 jobbies work great!

Hop, I've never been one to practice much, I just try to shoot a lot of matches. Plus I'm a compulsory workaholic (not by choice), and it's often dark by the time I get home from the office. But on the occasion when I do have the chance to practice, be assured it does NOT make a clicking sound! I live out in the country, and my nearest neighbor is half a mile down the road, so it's live-fire all the way. (Actually, I'm not a big believer that extensive dry-firing is all that helpful anyway....)

Y'know, EB is the reigning champ of Revo from the 2004 Illinois Sectional. (Never heard why he shot a round gun at that match....he must've lost a bet!) If he wants a repeat victory at that match, though, he's gonna hafta earn it!! Doubt if we'll convince him to shoot a revolver at the Fall Classic, but it would sure be great PR for our division if he did!

Absotively. Let's go, Tom, ride that big two-wheeler down here to Mitchellville, park it in my garage, and toss in with us. You can even wear your glove all the way down to Rolla and we won't giggle. Anybody else heading down to Rolla from up north, same offer. Ken, glad to hear you're in--be good to shoot with you again. Guys, this is really a great match at a first-class facility! I'm getting more excited by the day!

Ken, I'm sure Dan has already sent in his entry form! See you there! Keith, drive down to my place the Friday morning before the match and then you can ride down to Rolla with me and Sam!

Nice job, Snipe! You've made fast progress in a division that is becoming tougher and more competitive all the time!

Sorry, Sam, I really didn't mean to bring up a sore subject....it's just interesting how much one little stage can affect things when you reach the higher levels.

You'd be a Master right now if things had gone better for you on Stage 18. Don't worry--you'll get there.

I agree it seems to be a regional thing. It may have something to do with the perception of exposure to crime. Iowa is a "sheriff's discretion" state, not a "right to carry" state (unfortunately). If our state law were amended to "right to carry" or "must issue", I doubt much would change! Most of us who want to carry have found legal means of obtaining a permit. Lots of factors go into it, not the least of which is the relative health and popularity of other handgun shooting sports. Even with our low population density, I can find a USPSA or steel match to shoot most weekends within a 90-minute drive. That doesn't exist in many parts of the country. I do enjoy the tactical matches being run here in this area, and plan to continue participating. For reasons that don't need to be rehashed, though, I will not send any more money to Berryville. And I know that many, many others feel the same way.

Well Ben, by way of contrast, 2005 was also the very first year for the sanctioned USPSA Iowa Sectional match. It was also sort of last minute, like any new match, and it attracted 77 paid members! As another nice example, check out how many shooters participated in the the first annual Big Dawg steel match (the slots sold out almost instantly), held at the very same location which was to host the now-canceled IDPA state match (Lowell). People came from all around the country (including shooters from Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Massachusetts, to list a few) to shoot the very first year of the completely unknown Big Dawg match.....people here like to shoot! However, as of this year, there are only a small handful of Iowa shooters who have renewed their IDPA memberships. The Olofson and Boone clubs mentioned by Ozzy1038 are not IDPA clubs. The "tactical" matches offered at those venues are run by good guys (both of whom happen to be friends of mine), but these are definitely NOT sanctioned IDPA matches. In the whole state of Iowa, there are two IDPA affiliate clubs: Linn County IDPA (admittedly a new club), which has only been able to attract 7 or 8 shooters to their matches so far (2 or 3 being paid IDPA members), and Ames Ikes, which has only 4 or 5 IDPA members participating at any given match (along with a number of non-members). Suffice it to say that IDPA is in an extremely unhealthy condition in this area--I'd bet money that there are less than 15 current, paid, and active IDPA members in the whole state. Mike

......and ya'll guys have the audacity to call ME cheap!

Now we're talking!! Here's the entry form and information: 2005FCEntryForm.pdf

The "Randy Hammer" is on page 36, and the "Jerry Grips" are on page 44.....

Well, with only two weeks to go and the squad lists generated, it looks like revolver participation at the 2005 IDPA Nationals will be down more than 30% from last year. Sometimes hard cold numbers speak louder than the loudest rhetoric...