Dpms 3-gun Match

[Colt1991]

How about some info on this match for us poor unlucky people who couldn't get a slot for this match.

[MattBurkett]

Well just finished up the match. Will have a whole report available for my email subscribers hopefully tonight, most likely tomorrow. This is what I remember from the results.

Open

1st. Matt Burkett :-)

2nd Jerry Mickulek

Tactical Scope

1st Michael Voigt

2nd Daniel Horner

Heman

1st. Tate

Super Senior

Jerry Mickulek

Ladies

Kay Clark Mickulek

Tactical Irons

I don't remember.

The prize table was unbelievable again this year. Coolest part was $1750 cash for the division winners! Over $130K in prizes on the table!

[PacMan]

Tactical Irons

I don't remember.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Kurt Miller

[Bill Sahlberg]

The 3rd Annual DPMS Tri-Gun is now history. Again we had a great turnout for 9 challenging stages with great weather (mid 70s) and a slight breeze. I am traveling back to Spokane late tonight and results should be posted soon at www.trigunchallenge.com

A request was made by a fellow shooter, Wayne Hollaway, to help out a buddy in Odessa, TX. named Doug Fox. His new baby is extremely sick and has had emergency surgery with more surgeries needed in the near future. Doug works for TSA and his wife also works but now must stop for 3-4 months due to these medical complications with their newborn child. Doug could not make this years Tri-Gun and may soon be selling his guns and stop shooting to raise money for these medical procedures.

With Randy Luth's permission and blessing, a hat was passed around the Tri-Gun competitors and sponsors just before the prize distribution. $2339 was given in a period of 5 minutes during the match results! To top this Pete Brownell wrote a note to Randy stating that his company will match these funds.

Please remember the Fox family in your prayers at this difficult time and get a hold of Wayne Holloway to help them financially.

Bill Sahlberg

2005 Tri-Gun RM/MD

[SGDM]

Tactical Iron? I think it was Kurt Miller!

Great match. Thanks to all who made it happen.

God Bless America!

[TMC]

With Randy Luth's permission and blessing, a hat was passed around the Tri-Gun competitors and sponsors just before the prize distribution. $2339 was given in a period of 5 minutes during the match results! To top this Pete Brownell wrote a note to Randy stating that his company will match these funds.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Shooter are some of the best people. That's fantastic!

[kurtm]

Yep First in Iron sight class was indead KURTM, followed by Mr. Fuentes ( I hope I got that right.) Bennie Cooley, Bruce Piatt, and Tom Carpenter. I hope they post the scores soon as I never saw any final results posted at the range.

Mr. Luth did one of the best prize tables I have EVER seen! Randy's staff and people working at the match deserve a BIG thank you! From the guy helping park cars to the guys and girls helping gather scores and even selling soda pop and beer, all were friendly and helpful. My hat is off to these people! Great job!

On the down side, the R.O. staff could have used some serious happy pills. On 3 stages they were great ( shotgun flurry, escape from New York, and the suprize pistol stage #4). Gruff and sometimes down right abusive to shooters was the order of the day else where. On one stage ( No Kelly, this time I won't use names) there was an R.O. that was actually running around when he had free time and bragging to othere R.O.s about the number of people he DQed. I observed 4 of his DQs and two were good and two of the calls were down right wrong, but in all cases he was very unprofessional and you could just hear the glee in his voice as he DQed people, bad show! I think these guys need to remember that these are PAYING customers they are dealing with instead of trash and detritus. Even the MD seemed to be on the war path the few times I saw him, and he was down right rude to one of the DQed peoples fathers. We paid good money to get there and in some cases drove or flew a long way to be treated like dirt. NOT FUN!

The scoring was a bit strange. Hitting a no shoot garnered 5 extra seconds added to your time but failing to "neutralize" a target ( not having one A or 2 hits anywhere) was a 10 second penalty, as were all the other procedurals and penalties. Disapearing targets if not hit, got 10 seconds added. On one stage I watched a flipper throw a bird as a big gust of wind came across the range. The bird had to be engaged through a very small port, and by the time Bruce could get a shot at it it was already blown far away from the port. He never even saw it or had a chance to shoot at it, but at leat remembered to shot the round of ammo as that would have been an extra 10 on top for failure to engage! Imagine 10 seconds for a target you don't even get to see to shoot! ALL flying clays were 10 seconds added if they weren't broken except on the shotgun flurry stage, there they were only 5 seconds added. On one stage there was a rack of speed poppers ( those little itty bitty ones) and an 8 inch plate at 100 yards, virginia count. you were only allowed 5 rounds to engage this stuff with your rifle, and each miss was 10 seconds added, It was a real b*t*^ with Iron sights.

The stages were ok. 3 of them were rip roaring great. The match in general was very heavy in shotgun, and that was good for me, ( except for the flying targets..I didn't get a one and pretty much zeroed the flurry stage) The rifle shooting was a bit on the harder side for Iron, but it was doable, and the pistol was two stages of standards type shoots.

I want to thank Randy Luth for supporting our sport as much as he does! Noone does more for the shooting community! Kurt Miller

[kellyn]

Congrats to Kurt and Matt! Sounds like a good match.

Hopefully, RM3G will not be so shotgun heavy (for my sake!)

[nm3gnr]

Hey ! Great job to All. I am sure I will see some of the tri gun competitors in Raton soon !

[benny hill]

I hope RM3G "is" shotgun heavy for my sake.

[Inogrip]

My 2 cents - these guys (DPMS) do a great match. The best prize table I've ever seen in almost 10 years of shooting. Nice people, nice weather, I liked the heavy shotgun stages.

This is probably the most technically demanding match I've ever shot, anxiety nagged at me until I fired my last shot. Whew, glad that's over, can't wait for next year!

RO's - didn't need to here about an RO bragging about his DQ record for the match. Hope they don't invite/allow him back. Made this stage very uncomfortable to shoot, even considered walking away.

Stages - like I said demanding and an excellent way to find out what I didn't know about my rilfe, shotgun and pistol, a good thing! On the down side the stages didn't balance time wise and bottle necked. Observation - Escape from NY could have been smaller and still been fun, took a long time to get through.

Still had a great time

DVC

[nicospop]

Great match. I had to leave before the team shoot,anyone have some info on it?

[Wakal]

Congrats, Kurt! You sure seem to be...greatly improving...

And big props to Matt, for beating Jerry. Although whuppin' on a super senior is kind of cruel

Alex

[Brian Payne]

This was my first official 3-gun match. What a blast.

I was lucky enough to get squaded with Bennie Coolie and Todd Salmon. Both were great guys and Bennie was extremely helpful with numerous suggestions for improved scores.

I had trouble with my DPMS .308 rifle with numerous malfunctions in two rifle stages. Trouble was caused by me because I had put on an adjustable stock prior to the shoot and didn't test fire the weapon. Replaced with original stock and the weapon worked perfect.

Also had trouble with cranium rectal inversion on a couple of the stages.

The stages were great. People running the range did an excellent job. Match Director and RO's did an excellent job also. I did not observe any DQ's on my squad, nor heard rumors of any RO bragging about DQ'ing people. Can't form an opinion on that one. I do know the RO's seemed to be really working their butts off. Please keep in mind that these last opinions are from a 3-gun newbie.

As for the way the stages were layed out. It looks like the problem comes from the range set up itself. Only a certain number of bays that would allow the safe use of Pistols or Rifles, and a much larger area for the safe use of Shotguns. Allowed for the use of more shotgun stages. Given the physical layout of the range, I thought it was a job well done. Right now Minnesota is just recovering from a heated battle in the House and Senate regarding Bill's for Shooting Ranges and Permit to Carry Laws. The last thing we needed right now was for some stray rounds to leave a range and cause any sort of complaint. I was happy to see a local Senator and a Representative attend the shoot as spectators.

Stage 5 did have a large back-up of squads, but there were 245 shooters so I guess that could be expected for a long running stage. My favorites were stage 2 - where you breached the entrance door, then stage 7 - Urban Assault. Both stages apparently had the most DQ's also from what I understand. Also stage 5 was great because my rifle was working properly on that one.

Overall I was very impressed with the shoot and the prize table. My wife came and watched on Fri., and Sat. She was so impressed that she is now looking for more 3-gun matches to try to attend.

My hat is off to Randy Luth, Dustin Emholtz, and Chris (never got his last name). When my rifle started acting up, DPMS crew took it in and worked on it in quick order. I am sure they were busy with other things but still took the time to take a rifle from a nobody shooter and work on it to help get it running. Customer service at its best.

[tewlman]

Like others have said, Randy Luth and the entire DPMS staff did an awesome job organizing the match. Tha prize table was the best i have ever seen and i thank all the sponsor for there help. The weather was awesome and St. Cloud is one hellof a town.

the down side was the ro staff, not all like kurt said but some were downright rude including the [staff name and position edited by moderator]. I dont remember last year having such a negative feeling from the ro staff as this year and i definately cast a negative cloud on the match. On stage 5, escape from New York (that was backed up all weekend, but was an awesome stage) one guy in my squad should have gotten a reshoot because he got to a point in the stage when a provided 870 was supposed to be used to engage a plate rack was not where it was supposed to be. they had forgotten to place the shotgun in the bus and when the competitor got there and found it missing the ro decided to restart him from where he was after getting the shotgun. he then totalled the two times for an overall on the stage, WRONG! When the guy asked for a reshoot, the ro refused saying stage was too backed up and no one got a reshoot. rm was called in and backed up the ro. the next part is what florred me. [staff name edited by moderator]asked the guy if he was in the top 5 in his class, he said no why? [staff name edited by moderator] told him if the was and it was going to sway the outcome of the match, he would allow a reshoot. when the competitor called bs shalberg told him if he got a reshoot it would be the last day and he would be the last person to shoot it.

Sorry [staff name edited by moderator] but that was just plain wrong and i lost all faith in your rm skills at that point. overall, your attitude was ugly to the average shooter, but you managed to show good suckup skills to the top shooters. i hope dpms looks for another rm for next year, or i may have to reconsider going back. i hate to get on a rant and cast a negative shadow on the match, but i feel that what happened shouldn't go without mention.

Otherwise the stages were challenging and complex. it did seem weighted towards shotgun, but i didn't mind. would have liked to seen a pistol field course instead of standards stages, which i sucked on . We had a great squaded that worked there butts off resetting the stages. All you Detroit guys were awesome and i had a great time shooting with you. Enjoyed squading with T. Holmes, he was helpful at gaming and good to bs with.

food was great and the beer was cold.

thanks DPMS

Steve Southerland

Edited August 16, 2005 by jhgtyre

[kurtm]

No "rumor" on the R.O. bragging. I was personally present on one occasion. It made my blood boil, but since I was the shooter and they had just loaded me, I wasn't able to confront him on it. I'm sure if I had left the "box" with a loaded pistol I would have been D.Q.ed in short order, but the timing would have been great for me. I can see it now. Have YOU shot my stage ??? Yep but I could reshoot it right here and now, oh, and where's YOUR loaded pistol??

Befor you start thinking that I am being a bit too critical, remember that I have put on four matches of this size befor. 2 S.O.F.s and the first two RM3Gs. So I have a bit of an idea what is involved in doing something like this and at the top of the list is good R.O.s. I didn't mean to imply that ALL the R.O.s were this way, but a good 50% were. My advice is that if your wife or girl friend just dumped you, your dog just bit you, or you don't like traveling, or if you have a real bad inferiority complex, or a sneeking admiration of Hitler.....DON'T R.O.!

Bye the Bye I do believe Jerry is "supper" and I do believe he is "senior" I just don't believe he is both at the same time. Kurt Miller

[MattBurkett]

Umm, Kurt is there Valium available in OK?

hehehe

[kurtm]

Matt:

We just do it the old fashion way.....there I was all liquered up. Congratulations on beating a "supersenior" And speaking of "senior" do you guys have any of that memory stuff like Ginkoba or something in Az?

[MattBurkett]

Oh heck yeah we have that stuff out here. If I remember right it doesn't work for me though.

And actually Jerry is just a Senior. :-)

[Paule]

Kurt has a lot of credibility in my view, based on my experiences at RM3G in the past. The overwhelming attitude there is "let's make sure everyone is safe, has a great time, and finishes the match". That is exactly what makes folks come back again and again. The opposite is also true. There isn't a big enough prize table to make up for rude behavior by the match staff. Otherwise we would see a lot more folks with "Will Shoot for Trinkets" signs hanging around their necks.

To illustrate, at last years RM3G there was a nasty thundershower the first afternoon of the match, just before the last stage of the day, and enough rain to get the shotgun gully stage pretty slippery. Still raining lightly when our squad arrived, Kurt was there getting ready for us, fully decked out in his Helly Hansens (or other generic rubber rain gear). He was all smiles, gave us a detailed walkthrough, and pointed out all the potential trouble spots for slippery footing. Though we couldn't run the course, everyone still shot safely and without incident. No one was even close to a fast time due to the conditions, but Kurt's unfailing good humor helped us all make the best of the situation. And we had great lies to tell about how fast we would have been "if only...".

In my book, that was R.O.'ing at its finest.

[Brian Payne]

I hope the comments made in my prior post aren't taken the wrong way. I did not mean to imply that Kurtm was being less than truthful. I was only saying that I never heard any RO bragging about DQing people, nor any rumor to that effect.

An RO did state that he was forced to DQ some shooters for unsafe gun handling and was very specific about what sort of 180 violations he would be watching for.

I do hope everyone returns for next years shoot because it really puts the shooting sports in a good light in Minnesota. There wasn't a lot of spectators, but the ones that were there were very impressed and the word about the shoot, and the fun everyone was having, spread very quickly.

[latewatch]

I too witnessed the incident on Stage 5 that tewlman described and have similar feelings on the matter. The vast majority of the RO's that I dealt with were helpful and doing a great job. Unfortunately like in all life a few bad apples can cast a bad light on the whole barrel.

The DPMS crew are absolutely the best. That in my opinion is what makes this such a great match. The support that this company shows to the shooting community is second to none and should be copied by all. I'll definitely be back to this match because of that fact.

The match itself was overall a good match. The stage designs did provide way too many 180 traps that sent too many shooters home disappointed.

The match was definitely weighted towards shotgun (unfortunate for me). I definitely need to work on my shotgunning!!!! I agree with sgt that this is because of the range layout so I'll just suck it up and try to improve with my boom stick before next year. I too would have liked to see a more intense pistol stage. Apparently there was supposed to be a high speed shooting trailer brought in for Stage 4 but, that fell through the cracks. The DPMS trailer setup was a last minute fix. I did do very well on both pistol stages though. Stage 5 was a great stage. With that being said, it was too long and complex for the number of shooters and the time constraints. The mover was also too fast and was very inconsistent. While watching the stage we timed the mover at anywhere from 3 seconds to 6 seconds to cover the open space. it was way too inconsistent for a major match.

The prize table, WOW!!

I am glad to see that they got away from the Lewis System and awarded prizes for heads up finish. That is the way it should be. I did not like the seperate prize tables for the divisions however. I think that the way the prizes were done last with everthing being available to all shooters was much better.

My hat is off to Randy Luth and the DPMS crew and to all the RO's who were doing the job right. I'll definitely be back.

[tewlman]

scores are up

DPMS tri gun match results

[nicospop]

On the team event who is 2 clowns & a superhero?

This was only my second 3-gun match and I thought this is just how the RO's for the non USPSA matchs were. Do these RO's travel to other matches or are they just from the DPMS match? How are they at the RM3G match & Fort Benning?

[PleikuPioneer]

This was my first DMPS match as an RO. The quality, friendliness, and professionalism of the DPMS staff is exemplarly, from the People movers, cooks, sales staff and the stemwinder; Randy Luth, and his charming wife. They were the heart of the match. I will always remember this experience and be grateful that I got to meet some really nice people and great sportsmen and women. I will add if the Adkins Diet has failed you, come be an RO next year, the exercise, blisters,sunburn, and weight loss are great. I managed to DQ on the first day when my holster failed to retain my pistol. However then greatest dissapointment is that some of our shooter, failed to have a positive feeling towards our efforts.

I guess some things are just unchangable, like trying to move the top of our trailer door with your head. Overall for me it was a great but bittersweet experience. Hope to see you all next year.