Last Saturday I attended another falling plate match at Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club.

The ferry ride was a little unusual, in that I don’t think I have ever been on a ferry when it was snowing:

The roads on the Island became quite slick even though I had AWD and good all-season tires:

And, of course, this means we had snow at the match:

In the video below I first have a video of Thomas shooting (I forget who he was shooting against). With his open class gun and shooting ability he is very difficult to overcome. You can see further evidence of this in the second match of the video. Thomas is on the left and I’m on the right. He has completed his plates when I have my first miss on the next to the last plate. I think I caught sight of his near completion and tried to hurry. Don’t ever hurry in competition. You can’t miss fast enough to win.

Here are the results:

Last time, overall, I was beat by Thomas, Steve, and Jeff. I had split the two match ups with Steve, won twice against Jeff, and lost a few others. Jeff did well against pretty much everyone else except Thomas and Steve. Hence I came in fourth. I didn’t’ feel too bad about it as everyone above me was shooting open class guns while I was shooting with iron sights.

This time we were split into two randomly selected groups instead of everyone shooting against everyone else. Jeff, Steve, and I were the best shooters in our group and Thomas was the best in his group (and overall, it’s quite obvious when you see him shoot). So, in my mind, it was all about beating Steve and Jeff for a chance to get into the shoot off between groups against Thomas. And with their open class guns against my iron sighted gun I knew it was going to be tough.

I again split with Steve but this time won all my other match ups in my group. Steve lost the one against me and had one win and one tie with Jeff. This gave me a half point lead over Steve and wining in my group. In the shoot off against Thomas I lost both, badly, but I still was awarded the second place finish.

For second place I received $13. I think this is the first time I have ever received money in a shooting competition. As the entry fee was $10, the ammo was probably $20, not to mention gas and the two ferry rides, I didn’t make any money on the event. I won’t be I going professional anytime soon.

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:

Via email from Paul K. we have a very non PC gender reveal method.

Nice!

Via Sean:

A classic by Warren Zevon.

By Marty Robbins. Classic western tune.

Yesterday I attended the steel challenge match at the Renton Fish & Game Club.

Here are pictures of the stages (and, it was raining, the mud):

Decelerator

Aim Small, Miss Small

Pendulum

In And Out

I was surprised to see a Hillary 2016 sticker on one of the vehicles at the range but less surprised after I got a little closer:

I came in second with rimfire pistol with iron sights (RFPI):

In iron sighted pistol (ISP) I managed first place:

My guns ran perfect.

My average time per hit with RFPI was 0.846 seconds and with ISP 1.083 seconds. This compares to the 0.6783 seconds and 0.8440 seconds at the match last month at Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club. The stages were much harder. Many of the targets were small and fairly distant compared to what we see at Holmes Harbor. This was reflected in the scores of others who frequently shoot at Holmes Harbor as well. For example Steve Mooney in the RFRO division (winner of the division) averaged 0.533 seconds per hit this month compared to 0.4728 last month. In OPN division Jeff Kanter averaged 1.239 seconds per hit this month compared to 0.9911 last month. So, Steve took 1.127 times as long, Jeff took 1.250 times as long, and I took 1.247 times as long with rimfire and 1.283 times as long with centerfire. So I’m pretty sure it was mostly stage design differences which account for the increased times.

For something more gun-related and lighter, I present the “ballistic fart.”

High speed footage of a 44 mag bullet striking ballistic gelatin. Has a good explanation, too.

You need to click on the GIF to animate it.

The Ace of Spades handgun postal match results have been posted. The write up is here. See the scores here. I shared first place with three others who also had perfect scores.

Last Saturday I took the ferry to Whidbey Island to participate in the Speed Steel match at the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club. Jeff wasn’t where I expected to find him on the ferry but I took a picture anyway:

The stages were good. As usual they were somewhat different and interesting to shoot:

On the stage above the bottom targets were removed from both dueling trees before the match started so there were only five targets on each. You just had to hit all five plates in any order. No stop plate. The yellow was for rimfire and the white were for centerfire guns. The targets were close but because of their size they were deceptively difficult to hit. It felt like you should be able to go really fast, but feelings are not reality.

Hmm… With rimfire the start position is aiming at the yellow rock beneath the plates in the center. So how do you best shoot it? Straight up to the two white plates, the big plates in the back of the bay, then back to the stop plate? Or as I would with shooting from the holster going for the corner plates then the center plates?

I shot the center plates first. Jeff did the corner plates first. I think my way was better but I’m not certain.

The far right target was painted yellow to be the stop plate before the match started.

This was a fast one. See Steve do it under 1.75 seconds:

The rectangular plate in the right corner of the bay was painted yellow as the stop plate before the match started.

Here are the results:

My guns ran perfect.

My average time per hit with RF-I was 0.6783 seconds and with CF-I was 0.8440 seconds. At the last match I shot here my average time per hit with RF-I was 0.6066 seconds and with CF-I it was 0.8152. Comparing other people’s times between this month and last month they generally increased some too so the increase in my time is probably attributable to the stage designs rather than a decrease in skill.

Jim, Sunk New Dawn, Galveston, TX suggested I participate in the Ace of Spades “easy, fun handgun Postal Match”. I’m not sure where the postal part comes in but I participated.

I made a video of the shooting. But it was indoors and my video glasses have dark lenses. I couldn’t see the X-ring without an orange dot on the target.

Here is my entry (click for a larger view):

And zooming in:

I used my Ruger 22/45 Target Model pistol which helped at the beginning. Near the end (I also fired 170 rounds in practice) the muscles around my shoulders got tired. They started getting numb and I was shaking. I think the flyers in the image above were probably from the last magazine.

I used Federal, American Eagle, 38 grain copper coated hollow point ammo.

Here is the video to show that I fired all 50 rounds at the required range in the required time (30 minutes max, I used less than four):