GunBugBit Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 (edited) I enjoyed it very much because: I was fortunate to go through all 8 stages with a nice group of experienced guys who gave me helpful coaching -- thanks Hazen, Scot and Scott! It's great practice for a new competitor like me The club in general is run very well and the facility is excellent I'm eagerly looking forward to future Steel Challenge matches! Edited July 20, 2015 by GunBugBit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickT Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 (edited) My wife and I have bumped into a number of friendly, helpful folks at SC club matches (and we do need help!). It's a "simple" sport with a lot of moving parts. How hard can it be to hit a barn door at 35 yards? Edited July 20, 2015 by RickT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackJones Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Welcome to the fun. Which division(s) did you shoot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 I shot Single Stack (.45). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Moneypenny Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 That's awesome, welcome to the addiciton, glad you liked it! Single stacks rock! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Thanks for the welcoming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpspeed Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 What club in Phoenix ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Club is CCML at Ben Avery, north Phoenix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photoracer Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I have shot in SS SC using my Dan Wesson Guardian Commander before at Peacemaker. It has really nice sights for shooting steel, a very wide U-shaped rear notch and an FO front sight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawmangr Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Welcome to the club - great to hear you had a good time! I have to admit that I have had few hobbies/sports where I have met so many genuinely nice people. Only thing that came close was private pilots . . . and there are even a few pilots who shoot regularly at our matches. Looking forward to reading your progress. Have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToddKS Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Awesome that you got to shoot all 8 stages. Which stages were your favorites? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Smoke & Hope was the most fun. It lulls you into shooting fast (which for me is never very fast) so you'd better be sharp if you decide to hit the throttle; your limitations will be revealed quickly. I looked at the stage diagram but when I saw it for real the target array is wider than I'd imagined. I had a couple of good strings on that one. I almost had more fun watching the other guys shoot it as shooting it myself. My best stage in terms of how I did compared to the other shooters at the match was Speed Option, and I liked that a lot. Probably because of the satisfying audio feedback of making that steel shiver at a nice smooth pace. I was really pleased with how consistently I hit the stop plate at 35 yards away. Yes it's a big target but still I'm happy about hitting it consistently. On Accelerator, Hazen suggested shooting the farther targets first, right-left, then going left to right to the stop plate. This made sense to be and I shot it OK. The challenge of targets at varying distances and spread out laterally is a pretty new thing for me, and if I learn from it intelligently, it will make me better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1gcountry Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Steel matches ate my favorites. It has made a great improvement in my shooting. It exposed a lot of flaws I didn't realize I had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Exactly! Steel Challenge shows you a lot about your shooting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 ...very wide U-shaped rear notch and an FO front sight. I love that sight setup, I saw it on someone else's .40 Single Stack gun I handled. My Springfield Mil Spec has a u-notch rear with a plain staked sight in front. The painted dot wore off years ago and I keep it black, I like it that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9x45 Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Exactly! Steel Challenge shows you a lot about your shooting. The Challenge was invented by Mike Dalton and Mike Fichman in 1981 so they could improve their IPSC shooting. It was the biggest money match in the US. GunBugBit, you sure look alot like this guy.... know who it is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Ha ha, Todd Jarrett. I guess there is a general resemblance, Mr. Jarrett is more trim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9x45 Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 proabably a little faster too........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Not a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 Shot my second Steel Challenge yesterday. My total time was faster, by 0.02 second. Two one-hundredths of a second. That seemed hard for me to believe, but I checked all the total stage times against the 39 string times shown in photos I took of the score cards. The total time is correct. Overall, things went better than the first time. For example, I never shot the stop plate prematurely and I never missed so many times that I needed to reload. One time I ran an 8-round mag dry as I hit the stop plate, so I know that the max times I missed on any stage was 4 times, having started that string with 8+1 rounds in my gun. I was thinking I had done better time-wise but the shot clock does not lie. With only two Steel Challenges under my belt, I can already see where people would get bored shooting the same stages again and again. However, it is excellent practice and will serve as a marker of my progress. I'll keep shooting these matches for some time to come, I expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 Yay, SCSA classified me as a "Steel C." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted March 19, 2019 Author Share Posted March 19, 2019 Am 'B' in Single Stack and Limited now. It's hard to believe it's nearly four years since my first Steel Challenge. 2017 was a rough year, hardly shot any matches. 2018 was a little better. This year is very good in general, so far, and my match attendance should improve despite the upcoming Phoenix summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old558 Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 Glad to see you are still at it. I joined USPSA/SCSA this year myself and am looking forward to it. Hope I can do as well as you have. Best of luck this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzShooter Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Glad you have been enjoying the CCML Steel Challenge Matches. It sure fills up fast now with all 8 squads filled by Tuesday before the match. Eighty shooters per match is a nice change compared to last year. Everyone is helping out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 On 3/23/2019 at 5:07 PM, AzShooter said: Glad you have been enjoying the CCML Steel Challenge Matches. It sure fills up fast now with all 8 squads filled by Tuesday before the match. Eighty shooters per match is a nice change compared to last year. Everyone is helping out. No kidding, Steven. Not too long ago we had 4 or 5 people per squad, maybe 45 to 50 total shooters. It has recently grown very fast at our club. I don't enjoy it any less, just get a little thirstier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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