Ironman 2007

[freeidaho]

Any results? I so wanted to go

Cheryl

Standby,

It has probably only been over for a few minutes. They were predicting to wrap it up tonight and not run into tomorrow. Wait till you see the pictures and video, you will be double kicking yourself.

kr

[MattBurkett]

The Ironman is over! No results yet since there was a major software issue. The girls in the stat shack tried everything they could to get them done but with the changes to the scoring just two days before the match, it messed it up a bit. Anyhow as far as the match went, thanks go out to the stage designers and RO's/staff who put on an excellent match. Probably (except for the scoring issue and the way the prizes were handled) the best Ironman so far.

Will post more information as it becomes available.

Take care

[maineshootah]

Anyhow as far as the match went, thanks go out to the stage designers and RO's/staff who put on an excellent match.

Matt, as one of those RO's.. Thank you for the comments and the generous offer to the RO staff. I know I thanked you in person after the match, but I wanted to post it here as well.

For those of you who are thinking of coming next year.. plan on it and DO IT.

However, plan on LONG days, a lot of shooting, and make sure your equipment is reliable. I saw quite a few rifles and shotguns getting slammed into the ground the clear jams. This Idaho sand gets into everything! This match is nothing like any other, and this year was totally off the hook.

This match will remind you if you need to spend more time on the track or in the gym. For the average C/B/A shooter it is a hard shooting match and some stages are physically demanding.

They don't call it the Ironman for nothing.

See you all next year..

[jobob]

Hey Maineshootah. I remember talking to you after the match about my brother in Blue Hill.

My hat goes off to you guys who worked (and I mean WORKED) that match! The match may be tough on shooters, but the ROs are the real Ironmen. That is tough duty! You guys did great, and I'm thankful that there are people like you who are willing to give the time and effort to put on such a great match. I like to work a few matches a year (I'll be an RO at the Nationals in Missoula next week), but I think the Ironman would be too much for me.

Thanks again for your effort, and for making it a pleasure to be a competitor.

[TMC]

Any word on results?

[SinistralRifleman]

Our gallery is up:

http://www.cavalryarms.com/ironman2007/Ironman2007-1.html

[PHolsted]

I was thinking about trying to make this match at the first of the year and said WHAT WAS I THINKING. Now with this years match over and the next years up and coming I have it on my calendar. Now I just need to start getting ready for it. Hope to see you there in 08.

Does any one have any good trainning drills to prepare for a match like this?

Also what was the types of shot guns / rifles for a mathc like this?

Thanks

Edited June 12, 2007 by PHolsted

[PHolsted]

I was thinking about trying to make this match at the first of the year and said WHAT WAS I THINKING. Now with this years match over and the next years up and coming I have it on my calendar. Now I just need to start getting ready for it. Hope to see you there in 08.

[maineshootah]

Hey Maineshootah. I remember talking to you after the match about my brother in Blue Hill.

My hat goes off to you guys who worked (and I mean WORKED) that match! The match may be tough on shooters, but the ROs are the real Ironmen. That is tough duty! You guys did great, and I'm thankful that there are people like you who are willing to give the time and effort to put on such a great match. I like to work a few matches a year (I'll be an RO at the Nationals in Missoula next week), but I think the Ironman would be too much for me.

Thanks again for your effort, and for making it a pleasure to be a competitor.

Jobob,

Thank you for the comments.

It is a labor of love. All the ROs there love being there and seeing all of the shooters have a good time.

I am glad you enjoyed your experience. It is hard work, but we all know tht going in.

BTW: Which stage was the "best" in your mind?

[SinistralRifleman]

All the stages were really good this year. They eliminated a lot of the repetitive and near impossible stuff that 90% of the shooters simply couldn't do or was more a matter of luck that was there in years past. The stages ran more smoothly as a result, and seemed to have a more logical order in shooting them. I don't think the round count really suffered at all, and we still did as much shooting. My favorite was the blind stage. The way that range was set up was cool (running through the trench), and it really seperated those who have good mindset from those who don't.

By popular demand amongst the Trooper shooters, next year all the optional things like the tower climb, and the zip line will be mandatory for those in Trooper class.

[TMC]

Now this looks Trooper, relaxing with a SAW in you lap

Edited June 12, 2007 by TMC

[ccur]

This is the REAL Ironman!!!

Cheryl

Edited June 12, 2007 by ccur

[maineshootah]

I was thinking about trying to make this match at the first of the year and said WHAT WAS I THINKING. Now with this years match over and the next years up and coming I have it on my calendar. Now I just need to start getting ready for it. Hope to see you there in 08.

Does any one have any good trainning drills to prepare for a match like this?

Also what was the types of shot guns / rifles for a mathc like this?

Thanks

PHolsted,

Humm... Good drills....

#1) Contact MGM and order a ton of steel targets.

#2)

Park a bit a way from the firing line at your local range.

Place a few steel rifle targets out at 75 - 100 yards.

Place your rifle on the table facing the targets.

Get on all of your gear, belt, pistol holster, ammo pouches, ammo.

RUN between your car and rifle 15 times.

Now hit each steel target twice.

#3)

Park a bit a way from the firing line at your local range.

RUN between your car and rifle 10 times.

Shoot 25 rounds of trap, as fast as you can reload.

Seriously,

know your rifle zero from 5 yards to 400 yards.

know your pistol zero from 5 yards to 50 yards.

know your shotgun slug zero from 20 - 100 yards.

As far as gear, get something that works!

reliability is critical. You need something that is going to work without heavy cleaning for 300+ rounds.

That Idaho sand has a nasty way of getting into everything.

Edited June 13, 2007 by maineshootah

[Chris]

Does any one have any good training drills to prepare for a match like this?

Thanks

Put on every piece of 3gun equipment you own, load up with 50rnds of shot, 15 slugs, 15 buck, 60 pistol, 60 rifle. Put your pistol on, stash your shotgun, and make ready with your rifle.

BEEP.. Shoot some stuff with your rifle, run down range and shoot some more stuff with your rifle from under a (really dusty) car. When your done, unload and run back up range 25 yards and ditch the rifle. Grab the shotgun and shoot stuff, run back to the car and shoot more stuff, ditch the SG, run back up range with a 100+lb dummy on your back and ditch the dummy. Load your pistol, run downrange, knock down a steel door with a 30lb battering ram, draw and shoot a moving target coming at you, run back to the car and shoot a texas star, plate rack and whatever else is on the range.

You should be able to do all of that in less than 240 seconds.

[PHolsted]

Maineshootah,

Thanks for tips. I will have to look into my equipment pretty good. I still have a lot of good stuff left over form my Army days but I am sure I need to get it back out and make some major adjustments.

As to firearms equipment I know for a fact my pistol is good to go. I will really have to test my AR-10 for at this point I have only got a few hundred rounds through it. But I might need to get me a good 223 Ar-15 to drop the weight load form the Ar-10 and 308 ammo.

As for my shot gun an 870 it seems to be good. I have ran a few hundred rounds through it on at one setting more than a few times with out cleaning and it seems to work great.

1. What was the longest shots with a shotgun?

2. What is the max number of shells in the gun for a shotgun?

and most importunately what was some of the main breakage points of any of the competitors firearms?

Thanks for your help.

[PHolsted]

Put on every piece of 3gun equipment you own, load up with 50rnds of shot, 15 slugs, 15 buck, 60 pistol, 60 rifle. Put your pistol on, stash your shotgun, and make ready with your rifle.

BEEP.. Shoot some stuff with your rifle, run down range and shoot some more stuff with your rifle from under a (really dusty) car. When your done, unload and run back up range 25 yards and ditch the rifle. Grab the shotgun and shoot stuff, run back to the car and shoot more stuff, ditch the SG, run back up range with a 100+lb dummy on your back and ditch the dummy. Load your pistol, run downrange, knock down a steel door with a 30lb battering ram, draw and shoot a moving target coming at you, run back to the car and shoot a texas star, plate rack and whatever else is on the range.

You should be able to do all of that in less than 240 seconds.

Yeah I can do that........NP......... yeah right I think I would have the fist stoke just getting on all the gear. Good thing I have a year to get ready.

Thanks

[maineshootah]

1. What was the longest shots with a shotgun?

2. What is the max number of shells in the gun for a shotgun?

and most importunately what was some of the main breakage points of any of the competitors firearms?

Thanks for your help.

longest shot with a shotgun this year was about 70 yards with slugs.

A lot of of stationary clays from 5 -20 yards.

Max number of shells depends on what tube you have on the gun / class you enter.

Most guys were running between 9 and 11.

breaking points...

broken extractors, bad crimp on ammo, broken gas rings, dirty everything.

[SinistralRifleman]

What do Troopers do when they run out of ammo?

[latewatch]

What do Troopers do when they run out of ammo?

Now that was "AMUSING".......................

[jobob]

Equipment:

I shot a new POF .223 upper which worked absolutely flawlessly with Fed. AE 55 gr. Accuracy was more than adequate for any target.

Pistol was a Glock 34 9mm, which also ran without fail. Ammo was Fed. AE 147 gr.

For the shotgun it was a Rem. 11-87 (26" barrel, i/c choke), with which I had some issues, but nothing major. I had some cheap sights on it that kept getting bumped out of line. I also had a couple of mysterious failures with it. Twice it failed to extract an empty while shooting slugs. I think the gas ports were getting clogged with lead, but not sure on that. I also had two failures to feed buckshot rounds out of the mag tube, resulting in a very loud click on an empty chamber. This may have been due to having perhaps cut down the mag spring a little too much. For bird shot I used Win. AA 1 1/8 oz. of #9, 3 dram, which functioned without fail, and took down the steel with no problems. The dense pattern of #9 also smokes the clays quite well.

My favorite stage makes me pop a brain cell trying to decide. They were all great! The zip line was a real blast, and, besides helping me with my fear of heights, was just a complete hoot (after that first long step). I think the most fun was probably shooting out of the back of a moving truck at a plethora of targets with all three weapons, and it was a good test of equipment and all-around skill. The long range stage I think was the best shooting skill test, since it had everything - long range rifle, intermediate rifle, moving targets, hosing pistol, precise pistol, shotgun at both static and flying targets.

This was a learning experience. Next year I'll be back.

Anyone hear when the results will be out? I want to see if I beat Matt or not! LOL!

[TMC]

The suprise stage got me, I shot it fast but didn't know how to deal with the clays on the no-shoots so I left them. As a mainly USPSA shooter I didn't think I could use the "knife" or anything else except a gun to engage them so I moved on. I know better now!

[OpnBlstr]

The suprise stage got me, I shot it fast but didn't know how to deal with the clays on the no-shoots so I left them. As a mainly USPSA shooter I didn't think I could use the "knife" or anything else except a gun to engage them so I moved on. I know better now!

Heh. I did what any USPSA shooter would do...BLASTED 'EM!! Two loads of 7 1/2 shot right to the chest! Maybe next time I'll hit 'em with slugs so I don't get the no-shoot penalty!! Knife didn't register in my brain either. The close targets at 90 degrees were fun to shoot from the hip with 308.

This was my first Ironman. I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. My equipment list next year won't look much like what I took this year. My M1A worked flawlessly but is just too much recoil for a match like this without a comp and the weight is ridiculous - it's a full NM rifle with added Sadlak titanium mount and 3-10x40. My Beretta 9mm worked flawlessly but the 9mm just wouldn't knock over the poppers - 40 cal minimum next year - one popper took 12 rounds dead center! My Benelli shotgun didn't work at all - even after cleaning it thoroughly. That's a repair or replace with something else solution. Other shooters in my squad said you just can't screw with Benellis and change springs, lighten the actions, etc and expect them to work at this match. I beat it on the concrete so hard unjamming it I broke the stock and need to replace it now!

All in all it was a VERY fun match. Probably the hardest match I have ever been to both in terms of the shot difficulty and the physical exertion required to complete the stages. It's fun to see what you can REALLY do when you are tired, drained, breathing hard, heart racing, then you have to do 70 yard slug shots or 100+ yard rifle shots off hand.

Hats off to the ROs, organizers, and sponsors (we were one) for the match. Without those guys matches like this just couldn't happen.

p.s. I know it was a little faster to run stage 4 rather than take the zipline but WHO CARES!! I just had to do that - I mean, what other match sends you flying downrange from a 40' tower with a pistol on a zipline! Next year maybe they will have a rifle on the zipline stage.

I had so much fun at the match I don't really care where I finished. Now THAT'S when you know it was a great match!

[D.Hayden]

What a blast.. hard to pick a favorite stage. Anything with long range rifle is good, but the only one I did decently was the first half of the zip line stage.. as alwyas.. need more practice.

Next year, I'll ask for help pointig out targets, but I don't want 'encourgement' on going faster.. it just slowed me down trying to listen.

And I'll always try to have a designated gun ready just in case. My 1100 got a shell backwards in the mag tube. Don't know if it flipped or I loaded it backwards, I suspect the later. After 60 seconds of trying to dig the shell out.. they handed me another shotgun.. itr took a few seconds to realize it was a pump and how to shoot it I think I still got most of the flipped birds after that.

The surprise stage.. I think the knife should have been around the next turn or 2, not the first. People could see the 'stab' from the next bay to thr right (it was a little higher).

Thanks to all the RO's. That had to be grueling runing around on stages that long for 3 days.

[jobob]

I loved the surprise stage, too. But it didn't register with me exactly what the "knife" was. It just looked like a stick to me, and no one informed me that it was suppose to be weapon. Doesn't matter, it was still the most fun match I've ever attended. It was my first Ironman, but hopefully won't be the last.

What ammo were you using in your 9mm? I had no problem taking down steel with mine. Well, I did have to shoot one popper 3 or 4 times, but that was the only one I had problems with. Dave Neth told me he uses nothing but Winchester white box 115 gr loads from Wally World. And it's really nice having 22 or 23 rounds per mag. Even at that I was on the 4th mag when I finished on a couple of stages. Those poor guys with single stacks were constantly reloading.

[OpnBlstr]

[quote name='jobob' date='Jun 12 2007, 09:16 PM' post='566185'

What ammo were you using in your 9mm? I had no problem taking down steel with mine.

I was using our Atlanta Arms & Ammo team load which is a 125gr at 142pf the last time I chronoed it.