Falling plate match results

Last month Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club had a trial run for centerfire pistol matches using falling plates. These matches will replace the speed steel matches during the winter. They are shot under cover so even with rain and/or snow the shooters can stay dry and mostly sheltered from the wind. There is even a wood stove you can use to warm up when you have a break from shooting.

The match went well and, as expected, there were a few organizational things learned which will be applied to the next match.

They way Holmes Harbor implements these matches is with two racks of six eight inch diameter steel plates at 13 yards. One shooter shoots at the left rack, the other on the right. The start position is with the butt of the gun on the bench in front of the shooters. The first shooter to knock all the plates down gets one point or 0.5 points for each in the case of a tie. Everyone shoots against every other person twice. The person with the most points wins the match. In the video below the first match is with some of the best shooters (Steve and Brian) who participated so don’t take this as what it takes to avoid being embarrassed. And notice that, as usual, you can’t miss fast enough to win. The way to do your best is to take just enough time to make every shot count.

I slowed down one of the strings so you can see and hear things. It’s kind of cool to hear the plate get hit by the bullet, then hear the plate as it falls then bounces.

Results:

Shooter Points
Thomas A. 26.0
Steve M. 21.5
Jeff K. 20.0
Joe H. 19.0
Dennis S. 16.0
Brian L. 15.0
Mark A. 14.0
Tony C. 11.0
Scott B. 9.5
Mac 8.5
Darrin R. 8.0
Dan L. 7.0
Lucas C. 5.5
Jim D. 1.0

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3 thoughts on “Falling plate match results

    • It is difficult to keep the excitement/stress under control when someone else is right there beside you. A large part of doing well is to get into your own “bubble” and just “do your job” and not let the presence of the other shooter affect you.

      Of course you still need to be able to acquire and hit your target in a relatively short period of time. But it is surprisingly rare to see two shooters both knock down their plates without a miss. And when the shooters are close in ability the person who does not miss will win even if the other shooters is slightly better.

      In the video you see two of the better shooters both have lots of misses because they were in a hurry. In the portion of the video where I shot I knew the other shooter was not competitive with me so I took the time to not have a miss. This resulted in less time to drop all the plates than it did when I shot against Steve (no video for this), let excitement get into the game, tried to shoot faster, had a miss or two, and lost.

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