La State Idpa Match

[standles]

Report from the LA State Championship

Short Version:

I went, I participated, I got the shirt, It was a blast.

Slightly Longer Version:

65.00 match fee

15.00 t-shirt

170.00 gas and hotel

Blowing the very first stage and then being able to relax and just enjoy the match…

PRICELESS.

Narrative:

Well it all looked good. I got there bright and early to make sure I was signed in and ready to go. My brother went with me as my official videographer and picture taker as well as brotherly advice giver. The range was setup well and the competent staff made the match run seamlessly. I thought I would dislike open squadding but it worked fantastic. Everything flowed and moved right along.

The stages were straight forward and did a good job of testing skills apparently I don’t practice enough. Examples of this would be walking and chewing gum at the same time as well as NOT shooting the targets with the hands painted on them and leaving the threat target untouched. Also I re-learned that tactical order (even after verbally verifying before start that that means near to far) does not mean whatever way I WANT TO SHOOT THEM.

Stage two was the bug-a-boo for me. I shot it in 24.71 seconds and had 24 seconds of penalties. Walking out behind the barricade while reloading and getting COVER yelled at me. Shot the hostage twice in the heart dead center between the hands. I tried to get points for grouping and style but it was disallowed. While accomplishing this I also decided to leave the threat target untouched. Add a procedural for a reload and a failure to neutralize and I would have been better off taking a DNF LOL.

Now that the pressure was off it was time to have fun. This included:

• Deciding to shoot strong hand only as I was backing away from a target that I could have used two hands on

• On a target that required only six rounds.. forgetting how many I had shot and just deciding to shoot to slide lock. I started counting swings of the swinging target instead of rounds.

• Hesitating on a string of targets because I wanted to shoot from far to near instead of near to far.

• Having a hiccup because I had to shoot the targets three times each instead of two.

• Having your slide hit the plywood cover over the bbl that your shooting under is not good for reliable cycling of the action.

Other things learned included:

• Jerry Miculek is a very nice fellow and he can shoot that fast it is not just camera angle and video editing. I also learned he is human as he actually bobbled a reload when shooting the stage before me.

• Lou Wagner is a character everyone should meet at least once in their life.

• I want to live on my own range.

• You get over your failings fairly quickly by laughing at them along with others.

• You can get mad all over again when you watch the video and start picking things apart.

• The camera really does add 40 or 50 pounds to you.

Well I figure that is enough to give you a taste. When I get the video transferred to digita (currently vhs) I will send it along if you want it.

Later, Steven

[revchuck]

Steve - I feel better. I only shot the NT once, and it was a -1. It was one of those "front-sight-BANG-Oh-sh!t!" moments. I actually nailed another one on stage 4, barely but clearly breaking the perforation. They were the first two NTs I've shot in a major match.

It was an outstanding match, though. A combination of good SOs and cooperative shooters led to the shooting being finished before lunch. Stats folks had the scores soon after we finished the burgers (cooked by Kay Miculek's excessively pretty daughter) and most of us were on the road by 2 PM. There was whining, but it was confined to how poorly one shot instead of how the match ran.

[firewalker]

Match was first class, fast and furious was the pace. The staff , SOs, and COFs were all very good. As for my shooting? i survived

Frederick Haring

[southpaw dan]

Great match!

When you consider that this was the first LA state match & the crew was inexperienced at putting on a big match......things went very,very well.

I liked the straight forward no hocus-pocus stages as well.

As for my experience......

No PE's

No HTN's

Only 37 pts down

2nd SSP/MM

.........and got bumped to SSP/SS

Even though shooting in the same squad as Matt Sims (1st CDP/MA 2nd best score behind Jerry M) & Scott Randolph ( 2nd CDP/MA ) made me feel really, really slow!

Daniel Tripp