October 13, 2001

THINK I NEED TO TRADE IN MY RIGHT HAND. It certainly was my downfall when it came to using the sixgun in this match. I'm not sure how many of my 11 (yow!) misses can be attributed to my "strong" hand, but I noted at least six. There may have been more. That extra minute of time (+5 seconds for each of them) definitely hurts in the ol' Results column...

Now, maybe I can blame my ammunition for some of the misses — I recently slugged the barrels of my guns and discovered that the .427" diameter bullet I'd been using in my .44-40s was too small by a couple thousandths, and so I just bought a bunch of .429 bullets and I'm hoping that improves their accuracy some. However, I have a difficult time thinking that a bullet that's too small for the barrel can have that much of an effect at 10 yards or so. And it's not like I was missing with every shot, either, so I don't know what was wrong. In any case, "It's the poor workman that blames his tools," so since it was me pulling the trigger the misses are my responsibility regardless of cause.

That's not to say I didn't have a good time, because I did. I missed the September match with the Carolina Cattlemen (due to a radiator problem with the Miata), and was happy to shoot this one. I didn't get put into the posse I requested, but I met some new folks and that's always nice.

Deputy Gene came up with a carload of guys from the Charlotte area and won the match for his trouble, beating out Stinky Jim by just under five seconds with a Total Time of 156.55 and 12 Rank Points. Gotta hate that extra miss, eh Stinky?

In my class, Duelist, we had some of the fastest shooters in the state at this match, meaning I didn't have a snowball's chance (and knew it). Even if I had shot the match clean, I wouldn't have finished in the top three of the class. That's some fast shooting competition. Reverend Will U. Sinmore won the class with at Total Time of 210.41 and 39 Rank Points (and came in 4th place overall, too). He was followed by two more fast Duelists, Mad Sveinn (who was on my posse during the State Championships) and J.M. Brown. It was a close match for those guys, they were all within about 5 seconds of each other, and a single miss could have meant a lot for any of them.

The stages at the Sir Walter Gun Club are small but fun. The posse I was on began on Stage Three, and I was surprised to learn that I was the second shooter. Usually I'm down at the end of the list and thus have a chance to see others go through the stage and try to not only learn from their mistakes (if any) but also thoroughly plan out my tactics, too. Well, this time I had to jump right in and go, which may have been another factor in my poor pistol shooting.

On Stage Three, I started out with a paintbrush in hand, "painting" the picket fence in front of me. On the timer's beep I had to put the brush into the paint bucket (no misses!) and begin shooting. Obviously, I wasn't up to it, as I had four misses on the stage. I didn't note whether they were with the right hand, left hand or both, but it wasn't a great way to start the match.

Stage Four wasn't a whole lot better. Again I started at the picket fence, a rope in hand. At the beep, I had to tie the rope (standing in for the bridle of my "horse") around the fence and start firing. I ended up with three misses: one caused by me double-stroking the lever of my rifle and dumping out a live round, and two more pistol misses (again, I didn't note which hand). Ow.

Moving on to Stage Five, I began at a table with both pistols in a box. On the beep, I had to open the top of the box and pick up the first pistol, fire, holster and repeat with the second pistol. Grab the rifle from the table, fire and replace it, then run over to where the shotgun was staged with four shells in another box. Load and shoot 'em. It was a fun stage, but I missed three of my targets with the right hand pistol. Bleah.

Life got better for me after that. Stage Six was titled "Shotgun Fun," which is what I had to say to start the timer. There were six shotgun targets to hit, with movement in between them. I'm not a huge fan of the shotgun (I like my rifle), but I shot the stage clean and I'm always happy when I don't miss any!

Stage One had a saddle on a "horse," and the order of fire was pistol-rifle-pistol-shotgun from all around the horse. I managed to miss one target (with the right hand pistol, of course), but that's better than three or four of 'em.

Stage Two was our last one, and it was a "sit-and-deliver" stage. I began the stage saddled up on the "horse" twirling a rope above my head with all the guns staged directly in front of me. At the beep, I released the rope and grabbed a pistol, then the rifle, then the second pistol and finished with the two shotgun targets. Several pards must have forgotten which pistol they used first, because when they picked up their "second" pistols and pulled the trigger the guns went "click" instead of "bang." Kiss a few seconds goodbye for that error! Amazingly enough, I not only got my own pistol order right, but also managed to clean this stage, and it was a nice way to end the match.

Here are the numbers:

Obviously I've got to do something with that right hand, because missing that many targets just won't do. I'll also have to work up another load with the new, larger bullets and see if that won't improve my shooting some, too. One of these days I'll shoot a clean match, and there will be much rejoicing.