Lessons Learned - 3 Gun

[Zukeep]

Well, I have just spent the weekend at Rockcastle Shooting Center in Park City, KY for the 3rd annual AR15.com Pro-Am 3 Gun match, sponsored by Brownells. You can read the forum for the match to see just how GREAT it was. I came away with a few pearls of wisdom that fit the match screw-ups category, either done by myself or I witnessed in others, or both. Hopefully these will be little lessons that others can avoid.

Probably the one with the most impact on match score was done by a new found friend in our squad. His shotgun was staged, loaded to division capacity of 8+1. There were 11 steel plates to engage after the pistol part of the stage. So, do the math and it means you have to load 2, assuming no misses. Some decided to go ahead and load 3 as insurance. His pistol stage and transition to shotgun went fine. But, then he had a couple of misses with the shotgun. No problem, just load 4 instead of 2 while moving to a new shooting position, right? Wrong! Shooter forgot to put on his Load 2 belt. No Ammo!! In hindsight, he may have found 1 or 2 live shells on the ground, but at this point it wasnt top of mind.

Had a stage designed as shotgun to pistol and back to shotgun. Match director decided to change it to shotgun only 23 targets. Be advised, your shotgun gets very hot if you shoot a box of shells in under a minute. Several of our squad burned themselves when rolling the gun upside down for Load 2 reloads.

We are all trained to take our finger off the trigger when moving. That can cause a small problem with the AR if you place said finger on the mag release button in the middle of your run. Always remember your Oh S**t mag for just situations. (I did this one)

Got an illuminated optic that shuts off after a prescribed time? Remember that so you stage your guns such that you will get to the one with the optic in time, or remember to turn it on. Speaking of optics, if you leave your rifle with scope in the air conditioned car and bring it into the hot air right before your run, it WILL fog up. Best to bring it to the rifle rack at the stage and let it acclimate.

Hope this helps

RB