EaZeNuTZ33

Counds are highly frowned upon and could get you tossed into Open. A round count would be cool tho.

Pro-Am was awesome this year, my first year out, and is now my primary match to sign up for next year. The RO on stage 8 sexually harassed me tho, so I'm considering a restraining order against that Francis guy.

how many guns/serialized items will there be? I like to know where I will finish ahead of time. It's a +15 to +17 thing, you see. If there are 10 guns, I will place 25th to 27th......if there are 60 serialized items at the Pro-Am, I will place 77th.

After my first time at Rockcastle last weekend, I'm looking forward to this.......and wondering if 3 weeks is enough time to recover and get back after it following the Tough Mudder!

As a RO , I'd have no problem with that, what gets irritating is, the guy asking that, which I JUST clarified was OK/NOT OK, during the stage briefing, but he and his buddy were talking the whole time. I have started taking note of those guys and when they ask, I simply say "we just covered that in the briefing". When I do a stage briefing I try and stress the little diffenences between matchs , what is OK/NOT OK at THIS match. for example , After the buzzer can I load more rounds?, can I start with rounds in my hand? As a shooter and occasionally an RO.....it's disrespectful of a shooter to not come forward and pay attention to the stage briefing!

IF all the rules are specifically listed in a "rules" section of a website.....I 100% agree. A quick confirmation prior to shooting a stage is acceptable in my mind tho. 1st time at Rock Castle shooting the ProAm this weekend and I made sure to ask about loading beyond 8 rounds in the tube after the start to make sure it wasn't like Blue Ridge, I figured it was better safe than sorry to ask ahead of time. Doing it anyways, and acting surprised when busted is an entirely different story.

Misty, Just a thought....but the ole' spam folder may house a few of those e-mails. I haven't received confirmation that my refund request email was received, but also haven't received a notice that my funds were transferred to the AM match, so i'm taking that as a good sign for now since I'm already paid into the AM match. I've met and talked with Kirk a few times in the past and he seems like a good guy, I'm wish him nothing but the best right now. I'm paid into all the matches I'm attending for the year, so i'm not worried about money for that, just hoping things are processed before too long to free up funds for hotels and such for those matches. General frustration about a match that offered 3 Gun Nation Semi-Pro points with little to no pros present, vacation plans, hotel reservations, choosing to attend O3G over another match that is now full,...are all to be expected when cancelling this close to the match date. As far as asking for a reason, or speculating, it has to be expected and it's a public forum. It may not be anyone's business as to the why's....but people are still going to ask about WHY they are having to change their plans. I don't think it's anything personal against you or Kirk. -Dillen Easley

Side Note..........Chad Francis (RO on Pro-8) owes me a new pair of recently stained boxer briefs! After shooting my best, and last, stage of the match...Chad looks at me with a Hollywood-worthy sad face and says "that was a helluva run, but I've got some bad news" This was 4-5 shooters after a squad member had been DQ'd for shooting the bumper on that 4-seater Ranger. Then without missing a beat says... "You shot the.....zip tie" and smiles. Devious SOB...I owe my Missouri buddy some payback!

Sorry to hear about someone's car! First time out to this match, and it was both awesome and humbling! I botched two stages pretty bad, shot five stages at what I considered at or a little short of my ability, and one stage that I don't think I could have run much better at all if I had ten attempts at it. Got to watch some great shooters have runs that blew me away, and find out some of those shooters were human after all when they had rough runs due to equipment failure and/or non-equipment issues. LChico and all of the staff and ROs there......thank you for all the hard work! So when's registration for next year? :-)

BEAUTIFUL! I don't have to take an extra day off work, put in a hard day on Saturday, and get rewarded with an early time home on Sunday. Thanks Ken.

I had the FFP Bushnell 1-6.5 and hated it on 1x unless it was cloudy outside....just never could quite get the illumination bright enough. I now have a Vortex 1-6 HD Gen-II and have no intentions of looking back. For what you can get the Vortex for, and the ranges you shoot in 3-gun, why spring $3k for the 1-8.5 unless Bushnell is giving you one for free?

I started shooting 3-gun March of 2013, so I'm a newbie for the most part. I couldn't tell you what was/is the premier match out there, but here is what I've picked up on. Whether big or not, I constantly hear people talk about shooting at a Fort Benning match, and I've heard Fallen Brethren took it's place. Last year, I shot MW3G, Ozarks, Fallen Brethren, and a couple smaller USPSA multiguns in Arkansas and Rolla, MO last year. I had zero issues getting into any of those matches, even when registering somewhat late for Fallen Brethren and Arkansas. This year on the other hand, Fallen Brethren and the Pro-Am at Rockcastle were both using online registration and I had to sit and watch a timer roll down in order to get into them.....and they both have waiting lists now! I don't know if that makes them the premier matches or not, but they were the hardest matches to get into within the driving radius I was willing to consider from Kansas City! My favorite match so far this year is probably Noveske in CO......but I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 6am for the Pro-Am, so my answer may be different Monday.

Keep in mind....things were going to be "processed" Friday.......more than likely, that means they have to figure out who wanted a refund, who's fees were being forwarded to the US Amatuer match, and who's fees were forwarded to 2014 if there is a match planned. I ended up going the refund route since i'm already paid into the US Amateur match and 2014 sounds more and more questionable as to its chances of happening. If there were 100 people registered already and everyone went the refund route...... thats 100 checks to be written (or money orders retrieved), then 100 stamps, 100 envelopes to fill out, and worst of all 100 envelopes to lick and shut before mailing. I, myself, do not contain the saliva necessary to mail more than 20 per day without copious amounts of chewing gum. I wouldn't take "processed" as "mailed" with the number of things they are trying to process. I'm leaving for Rockcastle in the AM, and do not expect anything to be in my held mail when I come back on Monday, but would start to become more concerned if it isn't here by next Friday. i'm in Kansas City and receive stuff from the Ozarks and Midway in about the same time frame as Tactica.

Perfect.... ...thread wasn't going anywhere anyways.

Still working on the laws... Proposed dates for the Noveske (at CRC in Colorado) are August 29-31, 2014. As long as it doesn't interfere with the Pro-Am......count me in! Loved the AM/PM shooting schedule BTW.......much easier to do as a shooter, compared with shoot one/wait one.

StIhead.........we need to determine if it's a strip club's Friday/Saturday night crew.....or Thursday morning squad. MarkCO......to be honest, that WAS a great match! Regardless of your state's new crappy laws, I'm hoping I get to shoot that match again next year. If it were $250, I would still shoot it!

I had this very discussion with someone who put a big match on after last year as my first year shooting 3-gun, and how some friends who were interested in 3-Gun were scared away by the big match fees, yet did not waiver when it came to match fees for small matches. Here is the conclusion we came to: 1. Nobody can volunteer weeks of time off work in stage planning, setup, running the match, running scores, setting up prize tables, getting RO's lined out, setting up rule books, getting match packets designed and printed, squadding people together, getting match sponsors,........and be expected to do it for free or next to nothing. Remember how many HOURS are put into the match by the match director, how many props had to be built ahead of time, and how much sweat equity went into a match long before you ever showed up demanding you be moved to the squad of your desire or started complaining that an all shotgun stage was too long. 2. Very rarely does someone have access to their own land/range for a major match...and it is FAR from cheap to be able to rent out a range that you intend to, for the most part, shut down while the match is going on....or take over NON-range setup land for a natural terrain match, and convince the land owner their house won't be shot up.. This fee to the range may have to be paid FAR in advance. 3. You would be a fool to put on small matches or big matches without some sort of event insurance to cover possible liabilities. When you put the numbers of "200-300" and words "shooters" and "guns" into the same sentence with an insurance agent present, they are going to assess their liability in case someone gets shot....and that coverage isn't free. 4. If the prize table is not solely made up of sponsor donated prizes, prizes have to be bought from match fees. I make decent money, but I can tell you that there is NO way I could afford to go buy 10 AR's and 10 pistols out of my pocket because I wanted to make sure the prize table was awesome for the shooters, it would have to come out of the match fees. 5. TALK to the match director ahead of time. It never hurts to ask about entering multiple people in your family, and if there would be a discount for doing so. The WORST thing they would say is..........NO. I've been to matches that were $260/person, and been in the same squad with a father, mother, and two sons. That's $1040 in match fees before you ever figure in ammo, hotel, fuel, time off work......and they had ZERO complaints about it. 6. There ARE lower cost options for medium sized matches that do have prize tables.. Last year, I shot both the Arkansas USPSA Section Multigun and the Rolla, MO USPSA Area 3 (?) Multigun Championship. I think the highest match fee was $160, and combined, the two were less than I paid to shoot a match in Texas between them. I took 3rd in TacIrons at Arkansas and left with a 1-4x scope that was sold at Midway for around my match fee, and the division winners took home an xD 5.25 while a couple other guns were given out via random drawing. At Rolla, I took the 2nd in TacIrons and left with a Hornady powder scale (just the scale, not trickle charger) that was valued around $40 less than my entree fee. I was still happy as hell to shoot both matches, and would be shooting both again this year if they weren't overlapped with bigger matches that I've already paid near $300 entree fees to attend. Keep in mind, and I'm not trying to deerassasin....No one HAS to shoot big matches, no one is saying you HAVE to shoot them, and no one thinks less of you for only shooting small matches! You could easily just go shoot local monthly matches that are $15-40 around your area, and you're helping set up targets just the same as a big match, you have less investment, and noone has to worry about getting sponsors together to build up a prize table....because there isn't one. A big chunk of my friends shoot only small monthly matches, and the only time they shoot a big match is when it is close to them and they can volunteer as RO's and get to shoot the big match for free. I've opted to shoot 7 major matches this year, so I have $1500-2000 wrapped up into major match fees. Sadly, my ammo expenditures this year make that number look tiny.

Damn. Not how any of us wanted to place one spot higher!

and some change.......but you're in the right ballpark

what HotLoad said.....Jeff had one that was prewelded and ready to go when I ordered, and we just swapped them out. Great guy to deal with!

That's impressive! IIRC, there were several of you guys at this years Midwest 3 Gun and some placed very well.

I've shot both berm matches (USPSA matches you put on, in Rolla, MO, and Arkansas Section) and natural terrain. I've done well at both and noticed some big differences in the speed and layout. The berm matches I've been to often seem high speed, with lots of fast paper targets, and sometimes larger steel targets that can be shot with speed. I find myself barely having to focus on my front sight and putting two hits on paper as fast as I can pull the trigger....I have to admit, it's a bit of an adrenaline rush. The natural terrain matches I've been to (Fallen Brethren, MW3G to an extent, and Ozarks 2013) seemed to have smaller steel that forced you to slow down a little and make shots count more. I'm fairly new to shooting sports in General, having shot my first local match March '13 and first big match in May '13 at MW3G, so I couldn't tell you what I have as far as a style.....except maybe sloppy and hap hazard? I have a YouTube channel with some match footage from last year... http://www.youtube.com/user/eazenutz33 My name is Dillen in case there are videos of friends or misc videos I've liked or shared. The only 2013 videos that have been taken so far are here....February 2013 match at CMMG's range. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGSZfWgJ0ek&feature=c4-overview&list=UUNvpKu5p_QwiKIZ_zT7aVAA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOD9b7k0N7Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZG8pwhzc3M

I appreciate all the responses gentlemen! The problem I have around Kansas City, is the lack of 3-Gun shooters concentrated into any one area, that would allow me to put any kind of class together to draw in an instructor. Compound that with my traveling schedule for matches this year, and there isn't much time (or money left) to travel and take a course. Jesse, I may take you up on that offer if I can get someone to film some stages for me at some upcoming matches. I'm usually RO'ing at local matches anymore and rushing to grab my gear together as the last shooter on each stage, I RO'd the Gateway shotgun match, and I will likely RO a squad during the September Gateway monthly 3-gun match as a Gateway Team member. I am entered into the Pro match at Rockcastle in a couple weeks, Ken Flood's Amateur match at the end of September, Fallen Brethren, Blue Ridge, and the International match....so I would love to get some stage footage throughout those matches, and use the feedback to work on things through the winter. I have the advantage of having my own private range and am considering putting on some small semi-local matches for fun, so I have the place and resources to get practice in to improve where it's needed. My curiosity is also peaked as to how many of the really talented guys out there are using their talents to cultivate the next crop of 3-Gunners. I'm also curious as to what would qualify someone to teach basics to new people....the basic rules, etiquette of setting up and pasting, basic technique explanation and instruction, zeroing distances, and what would get you DQ'd..... not making someone a Pro shooter necessarily, but comfortable enough to not look like a fool or get tossed at their first match.

This match is the Saturday/Sunday before the 3GunNation International. No idea about the Walking Dead night match tho.

I don't like flying and drive everywhere. Weight seems to become the issue when I have all the mags loaded and ammo IN the case. It's not bad with just guns.