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Looking forward to another year! Reading the stage designs has a real Indiana Jones feel to it. Like I'm decoding some ancient manuscript

Sounds to me like you really want to be using photoshop! Activating and deactivating layers is very easy there.

Definitely! After 4am all the dust/smoke etc seemed to get that much denser! It could be a real obscurant for the targets, but a real highlighter for everyone's lasers

Wait, you guys clean your guns?

The mobile app actually works really well! Pretty slick

Starting to get excited! Hoping the custom holster makes it in time. Otherwise I'll be stuck with a soft-cloth velcro-mess to accommodate gadgets! Also curious to hear about the stage guns...

Has anybody found a ghost or race holster that works with these? It seems that the Cz75 compatibility ends here, as the trigger guards are shaped differently.

Mmmm, I'm not sure the RMR does that LoganbillJ. The Leupold Deltapoint does that. But I think the RMR just has ridiculous battery life, so you leave it on.

I've been toying with this. Has anyone actually done it yet?

Watching the experienced guys definitely helps a lot. It's easy to zone-out when other people are shooting, but you can get a lot out of it if you actually observe what they're doing and how. I try to watch as many as possible, and repeat the order of key points in my head, so that when it comes time to shoot, you know you're plan inside and out. As a beginner, I really want to eliminate choice from my run. Any time that I have to decide "should I do this now? Or that?" I slow down. If I know what is supposed to come next, that helps me a lot.

Canadian Tier One: so I've successfully bumbled from bathroom to gunsafe while only tripping twice. If there was some other incentive beyond "because you can" I could see wanting to try full NV.

So do some people shoot this match with PVS-14s and IR lasers? Do they do any better or worse than the guys shooting it with lights?

It seems like there's a ton of these sorts of videos on Eno's. But here's mine, because I can: If you think my taste in music sucks there is a naked version here: https://vimeo.com/98954587

Don't much around with embed code if you don't have to! This is much easier: Just grab the URL of your video and place it in brackets like this: [youtube] [/youtube]

There is literally no limit for the number of guns a trooper can carry. Some of the tough SOBs on my squad had 3 different shotguns with them, two rifles, a PCC, and a handgun. Those shotguns would all see use on a single stage too!

I was lucky enough to get to shoot the MGM Ironman this year. After hearing some awesome stories at Shot Show I bought some gear and made the plunge. This was my first year at Ironman, and my second officiated 3 Gun shoot. The short of it: I've never run my guns so hard, experienced so much shooting stress, or had so much fun. Driving from Calgary, Canada to Parma, Idaho took me nearly 18 hours with the border hassle of travelling with guns. Arriving at camp at 9pm and getting up to shoot at 6am the next morning was a poor choice. I had a pretty miserable first day, and learned my lessons about sunscreen, being first shooter, and planning a stage properly. Planning was a big component of the game that I didn’t understand going in. American’s shoot more, shoot farther, and shoot faster than the Canadian matches I’ve seen. Previously, my idea of planning was to look at the stage description and make sure I knew my zero at the furthest target. But the Ironman requires so much more. You need to have a mental map of what order you’ll shoot each target in, and know where in the stage you will be reloading. Will you go left to right, or right to left? Shoot the spinner first, or save it for the last? I learned the hard way that these things make a difference. While Canadian stage descriptions are essentially a walkthrough of every target, stage briefing at the Ironman went like this: "This is your rifle dump box, this is your shotgun dump box. Start here, and engage targets as they become visible." Things got better after that first day. I owe a ton of thanks to my squad preparing me before the start signal and coaching me after the timer started rolling. The Ironman was exactly what I’d hoped for, with ridiculous challenges like towers, slides, carts, and the zipline. Probably the hardest part for my bullpup rifle and me was a forced weak-hand stage that involved shooting underneath a vehicle. I had to deal with the unusual malfunction of hot brass bouncing off my face and back into the chamber! My favourite stage by far was the trench, which involved ditching the rifle after close quarters engagements and sprinting across the entire parking lot to get to the shotgun portion. That stage also involved a pair of the deadly MGM Spinners that must be rotated completely to score. These ones were shielded behind hard cover, and I had a lot of fun working the angles to get into a shooting position. I even enjoyed the "spool-stage" that required shooters to position themselves in a small enclosed space before engaging. Many of the heavier guys cursed up and down about wedging themselves under a chunk of wood. All the side-stages were a blast. I of course enjoyed the zipline, but also had fun using a suppressed .22 with no hearing protection to pop shots at a moving thermal target using FLIR’s infrared sight. I'll be doing lots of things different next year, but overall I’m pleased with my performance. Two shooters who I know and respect got disqualified this year, and I heard DQ horror stories from several veterans who didn’t make it through their first Ironman. My "coach" finished 34th out of 48 in the Open Division, and I took the 39th position not far behind him. I feel extremely fortunate. My question to other beginners (and veterans) is this: Should I expect similar intensity from other US 3 gun shoots? I'm concerned that I'll drive 6 hours to a Canadian match, put 30 rounds onto targets at 20 yards and go home disappointed. My ATF paperwork is good for the year, so I figure I may as well try to attend a few more stateside competitions before the snow sets in. Waiting for the load-and-make-ready command on the golf cart stage. Halfway down the zipline, you start pistol in hand with a mag in, then rack it once you pass a flag and hear the "load!" command. Then its all nuts from there.

Hey I know those guys! The m14.ca CASM mount is stellar I'm a big fan of the 1-6, but some days I can feel the weight and wonder why I didn't just keep my 1-4 PST

Not a bad idea on the dummy! I was lucky it was optional this year and zipped right past it.

Hah! Where's the fun in that? Interesting that you had your C-more's die on you though. Any chance your shoots have a high slug count? I picked up a spare C-more, only to discover it's missing a windage locking screw (here's hoping I didn't get a fake) and have been trying to decide what to put it on while I wait for a replacement. The Razor-Mka1919 combo did great in parma, but there was one morning stage that involved shooting directly into the sun (aka: the-longest-range-bonus-target) where I could have used a brighter dot.

I had no problem turning the spinner at the Ironman with 2 & 3/4 length 7.5 target load from a local manufacturer. Think they're close to 1300 fps? But I completely flopped when it came to turning the spinner with pistol and rifle. Need more practice! I've also used a force gauge to measure trigger pulls, but it's capable of way more than I use it for. I could definitely see some good use of it to calibrate these sorts of targets.

This was my first year at Ironman, and my second proper 3 Gun shoot. The short of it: I've never run my guns so hard, experienced so much shooting stress, or had so much fun. I had a pretty miserable first day, learned my lessons about travel time, sunscreen, and planning a stage, and things got better from there. I owe a ton of thanks to my squad for getting me through it. All the side-stages were a blast, and I even had fun with the "spool-stage" but the left-hand segment kicked my ass. I'll be doing lots of things different next year

Getting excited! Going to check the zero on the new slugs and start loading the car!

I have a razor that I keep meaning to try on a slide ride . . . But I like it too much on my shotgun

According to the MGM Ironman stage layouts I have to make a 140 yard shot with my 9mm. That'll be a new experience for sure. I'm calculating about a 18 inch hold over at that distance?

Shooting video of myself reveals all kinds of things I don't remember doing. Its weird, I can often remember stage layouts, but what I actually did is a big blank!