Sam Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 The 2004 International Tactical Rifleman's Championship is scheduled to show on the Outdoor Channel the week of Dec 27th. Yes, this is the Gillette, Wyoming match where the contestants shot from everything from a rubber dingy on a pond to a helicopter. I am relieved to report that the camera crew was never anywhere near my team's location. Team Random Dispersion- over and out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dunn Posted December 31, 2004 Share Posted December 31, 2004 I finally got to watch the match. I thought the show did a pretty good job of overall coverage. There was no footage of the shoothouse, which is too bad, as it definitely rates high on KAF. I was also puzzled on why the one shooter with the AD wasn't DQed. Only thing I can think of is that maybe the RO was looking through his binoculars at the target, and didn't notice the direction the muzzle was in when the round was torched off. Not good. I loved the footage of water getting dumped on the AR barrel! Anyone catch the show yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bret Heidkamp Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 John, I didn't get to see the AD - please describe what happened. Three years ago when we were shooting the "standards" part of the match the guy standing right next to me AD'd into the dirt probably 6 feet in front of me. Made me pretty mad that he didn't get a MDQ right then and there. Not a USPSA match, so the rules are kind of "flexible." That actually made me quite mad but I kept silent. The last thing anyone needs is a damn 308 that close. Turns out they were the clowns that ran up on us during the Bambi course, with one of the match officials egging them on. They shot a 740 or so out of 2600. I think they didn't even engage half the targets. They finished 35 out of 36 (I think the 36th was a no-show). Just figures they were sponsored by one of our best target companies. Then, two years ago I'm running through the shoothouse (which is a big labyrinth thing if you haven't shot this match) with my partner and one RO in tow, and it turns out the backup RO decided to come along. I'm blazing really fast (with my open gun!) and I hear someone yelling at me to stop until everyone is together. What the hell - where did that come from??? I stop and look back and sure enough here comes the second RO to watch me for who-knows-why. We've got something like 3 minutes left and so of course I'm shooting as fast as I can. So finally the guy catches up and we blaze on. Note this is after running through the school bus and probably two turns into the shoothouse. Sheesh, what am I supposed to do, walk? Too much IPSC maybe. Then I fire two makeup shots at a target (a no-no, but I'm on IPSC autopilot now and I called C's) and the guy yells at me that if I do that again he's going to DQ me (for taking extra shots - I yelled back, just score it as a miss and quit yelling at me while I'm shooting!!) The RO-ing at that match sadly needs work on consistency, because the rules are there as written. But hey, they are all volunteers and it's a ball buster to RO it. They just need to get everyone on the same page. The main complaints with that match are the rules change from year to year and aren't enforced consistently. I think it would be easy to fix, but the RO's aren't competitive shooters - just local volunteers from the community. Maybe that's the problem. I'm still probably going to attend again, the match is a blast even though it is sometimes really frustrating for those of us used to a more level playing field. FYI the match fee doubled this year, it's $500 bucks per person now ($1,000 per team!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dunn Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Bret, The AD was on the Hoblit Ranch course. The stage required you to row a rubber boat a few yards from shore (if stock ponds have a shore!) and engage 4 targets at around 225 yds. The footage shows a competitor taking a shot, bolting a new round into the chamber, and then switching to the weak side shoulder, as it looked like he was needing to aim further to the right than he could from the right shoulder. At some point in the transition the guy torches a round off with the muzzle elevated at least 30 degrees, butt lowered from the shoulder. Obvious AD. The ROing is a little inconsistent. I know for sure that I would be a better RO now, than I was 3 years ago. I probably bugged the crap out of Voigt and Cooley. I've since become a USPSA RO, have shot a couple of bigger matches, and have a lot more experience. I think the majority of the ROs at the match have never shot in competition. On the other hand, some of the ROs at the match flat out rock. Clint has been working the match for years (he is usually running the gulley course), and is extremely thorough and professional. It would be great to have a bunch of certified ROs running the teams, but I doubt it is going to happen anytime soon. I hadn't seen the price increase. You can blame the helicopter event for most of that. I think it is going to be much longer, much higher round count this year from the helicopter. When Dave polled the shooters at last year's match about increasing the match fees, a strong majority voted to increase the fees, to keep doing crazy stuff like shooting from helicopters. I also think the prize table suffered a little this year due to the high cost of putting on the match, although there was cash payout to the top 4 teams this year (1,000 to first, 750 second, etc.). Thanks to White-Davis Chevrolet for the cash prizes. I think doubling the price, will allow a good prize table and a great, one of a kind, match. It is a very expensive match no matter how you slice it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted January 5, 2005 Author Share Posted January 5, 2005 Bret, the match was even better in 2004 than it was in 2003! Yep, we all sat there at the awards ceremony where the vast majority voted to raise the match fee to get a better prize table and hopefully a bigger chopper. $500 is pretty steep for me, but I'll just appreciate the experience that much more and shoot one or two fewer matches elsewhere. We were all pretty pumped when we asked for a bigger match and harder targets, but heck, I'm still pumped. See you in August. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bret Heidkamp Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 I'm looking forward to shooting it again. Harder targets? Did you guys really say that? Oh crap. Is the Hoblit Ranch the one that was new for 2003 with the metal palm tree at the entrance? That course was tough as it was very gusty when we got to shoot. Plus, the LR targets were those plates on belts... we found it tough to spot any misses as the background was just bushes. Yeah, the RO-ing is totally variable. I think Clint RO'd us one year on the Bambi course, and he was great. I guess we started out on the wrong foot in 2003 because the first shot of the match on the Hoblit course was from me... BANG... WHACK! on an easy 300 yd. full size popper with the AR... silence from the RO... I bend around from prone and ask "are you calling out hits or not?" then, after a couple more seconds ... "miss" is the resonse. "WTF?? That wasn't a miss! What are you looking at?? You don't even need your eyes open - you could hear that one!!" First shot of the match and down 40 because of the RO. Anyway.... I might volunteer to RO just so this kind of stuff doesn't happen to others! Just out of curiosity what was the scoring on the helicopter stage / how was it run? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zak Smith Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Anyone know how I can get a copy of the the ITRC episode (DVD preferred)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zak Smith Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 Finally saw it (THANKS!) I wonder what happened to Jimmy's footage in the shoothouse, and mine on the HMMV? For the volume of shooting, it seemed like we saw only a few people and not very much action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dunn Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 Bret, Sorry to take so long to reply. The Palm tree course is the Arvada course, the Hoblit Ranch course took the place of the Bambi (long) course. Targets were the 8" plates on rubber straps. Misses continued to be impossible to call for some targets due to the sage brush background. The helicopter event was a separate sub-competition, totally optional, and the score did not go into the overall match. There were 5 Pepper Poppers on a hillside, both shooters were on the left of the helicopter, one in front, one in back. The helicopter then made two fairly slow low level passes, and each shooter dumped a thirty round mag at the targets. The winning score was 10 hits out of the 60 rounds fired, and the winning team received the two JP ar-15s that were generously donated to the match. The reasoning for the side match was that the conditions may vary significantly, some folks may be afraid of flying, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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