Wobble Board

[kevin c]

Club match this weekend. BBQ builds a 12' by 16" wobbler shooting platform: bolted together 2x8's suspended from chains. Both feet must be on the platform, no bracing or touching the ground or surrounding framing while shooting. The secret seems to be keeping a steady center of gravity, taking your time on the targets, and moving with a minimum of fuss. The targets are ranged behind several ranks of large barricades - one step in any direction along the platform hides the targets you just shot and presents new ones from different positions, and you have to use the whole length of the platform from at least five spots to get all the targets.

My run was all programmed in. I knew exactly where each target was. I'd practiced in the walkthru and I moved as smooth and slick as ice on teflon. I'd visualized the perfect run. I step off, take the first 8 shots, and have a death jam. I try to clear the jam and make the mistake of trying to move to the next position and clear the jam at the same time. As my upper body and arms contort to lock back the slide, drop the mag, reload and rack the gun and reacquire the targets, my center of gravity keeps shifting and the platform begins to ocillate. My legs and hips start to gyrate to compensate, which makes the platform move even more violently. Pretty soon I'm up there doing the Hula. I've got a loaded mag in one hand desperately trying to get the the other holding the gun, slide locked back, but both hands are making cute little pinwheel circles. Imagine a middle aged mild mannered Asian American pediatrician acting like somebody jammed a live wire up his posterior and you'd have a pretty good idea how it looked. At least the muzzle is still down range. Eventually I load the gun and try to shoot, but the platform is still rocking to the beat of the world, and I hit mostly the barricades. As the wood flies, I see the MD of the major match we're prepping for and our main prop builder turn pale as I splinter the stuff we'd built for the match. I manage to forget about a third the targets. I end up with a time that literally was four TIMES the winning run's (Short Round), with about half the points.

...

...

...

and all I had to do was step off the platform, fix the jam, and step back on....

I hate you, Billy!!!

[D.Hayden]

What? No pictures... Billy? Short round, someone?

It's amazing how we can get so focused we forget the obvious...

[ErikW]

That thing looked like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge for some people, including Indiana James.

[BigDave]

I shot on one of those down in So. Florida. It gives you a really good indication of how stable your own shooting platform is.

I've thought lately of getting one of those exercise balance boards and drying to do some dry-fire draws from it.

[XRe]

One apparently made a consistent appearance at the FIPT. I've only shot on one with an Open gun - it wasn't a cake walk, definitely a test of your ability to call shots. I imagine with a Limited it's a little bit more challenging. Clearing a jam while standing on one??? Sheesh

[sargenv]

Oddly enough, when I shot that stage, someone mentioned that the lower half of my body was doing the jitterbug while the top half of my body was steady as a rock. I managed to do ok on that stage, and except for an edge hit on a no shoot, I shot it clean. Personally I thought I'd forget a target as I usually do, and I had an extra reload somewhere in the middle, but for the most part I did ok.

Dang Kevin, that sucks. Karma seemed to be against BBQ though, he zero'd it with a squib.

Vince

[michaels]

I have the video of our squad doing the "hulabulu walk" on the cat walk...some things should never be shown in public, this is one of them...

and it was hard to get that squib round into BBQ's mag without him knowing, but you know, you build something like that, you know it's gonna come back and bite you in rear end...

I think that's where I hurt my back trying not to fall off....

but it was fun, BBQ did a really good job...that was really soft wood the barraicades were built with, they splinter'd like crazy when you hit them (only twice, same n/s)...

I gotta go lay down, my back hurts..

michaels

[iweiny]

I might get thrown off the list for saying this but I though the platform was actually the easy part.

That distracted from the hard part which was finding all the targets. I managed to miss one entirely. I guess during a step/reload move? I shot it first in my sqad which made it hard to figure out all the angles, but managed to not shoot any of the baracades/no-shoots.

Actually now that I think about it, Kevin where you in my squad? If so, you are right about that platform taking off. I felt sorry for you, but since I went first I know I was NOT laughing.

Ira

[splashdown]

Big Dave,

That platform you speak of was in Ft. Myers wasn't it? We used it at the 2003 So Fla Championships. I built one just like it for our Northwest Challenge that we just shot this weekend. HERE'S the link to a pic of the one I built.

splashdown

[short_round]

... wow how did I miss this thread until now. ong45 actually won the stage (I came in second) and kevin c's time was only 3 times as long

I'll have to bring the camera and take/post some pictures next weekend.

ps. congratulations to kevin c for winning our club's Service Award today for this year!

[BBQ]

I am planning to use " THE BRIDGE" again this Sunday. Any objection?

I totally miss this thread too.

We should post some picture of my "EVIL CREATION"