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TVpresspass

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Posts posted by TVpresspass

    New to 3 gun - how to improve my game plan for stages

    in Miscellaneous BEginners

    Posted · Edited by TVpresspass

    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.

    2014 Crimson Trace Midnight 3 Gun

    in Multi-Gun, Rifle & Shotgun Match Announcements

    Posted · Edited by TVpresspass

    A couple of people have gone all the way with NV but you will not be competitive due to FOV and lack of practice time (unless your Tier 1 in real life with a few hundred hours on the range).

    Canadian Tier One: so I've successfully bumbled from bathroom to gunsafe while only tripping twice. :ph34r:

    If there was some other incentive beyond "because you can" I could see wanting to try full NV.

    MGM Ironman: I Didn't Die!

    in Miscellaneous BEginners

    Posted

    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.


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    Waiting for the load-and-make-ready command on the golf cart stage.


    qEusYdR.png

    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.

    Best red-dot for open class shotgun

    in Shotgun - Technical

    Posted

    moral to the story shoot tac scope!

    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.

    MGM spinner targets, calibration?

    in Multi-gun Rules / Stage Design / Match Administration

    Posted · Edited by TVpresspass

    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.

    2014 MGM Ironman

    in Multi-Gun, Rifle & Shotgun Match Announcements

    Posted · Edited by TVpresspass

    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 :D

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