IRON GUN 2002
match two: Carolina Roughriders, Charlotte NC
March 3, 2002

HANK GOD THE RAIN FINALLY STOPPED. The ground was still soggy, and I ended the day with cold, wet feet — but the rest of me was dry, and for that I was thankful. It was warmer, too, by the time we started shooting in Charlotte that afternoon. Having commercial airliners fly nearby all day long was different, and with the shooting stages so close together it sometimes made listening to the stage directions or talking with my pards a little difficult.

The other thing about shooting with the Roughriders is that they assign a missed shot a 10 second penalty rather than the usual 5 seconds. Knowing that, I made much more of an effort to shoot slower and make sure I had my sights on the target before squeezing the trigger. I didn't shoot a clean match, but I shot pretty well.

The range was divided into three bays and there were two scenarios in each. There were a lot of targets, a lot of shotgun targets (Ow, my poor finger!) and one "long-range" target used on one stage for a bonus. Pixelwiz once again volunteered to be our scorekeeper and we began shooting on the Third Scenario.

Stage 3: This Is Paradise
Scenario: The territories were home to more than one bad man, but that is where the good land was, and you and your daddy decided to start a horse ranch there. Some bad hombres have come to take your prize stallion...

B.B. (shot)Gunn - Blasting away with the side-by-side. — photo by Pixelwiz

Most of the stages had some movement involved, and with the muddy wet ground that made some of them very interesting. This stage started me out with the first pistol in a Nevada Sweep of three targets, holstering the gun and taking out two shotgun targets. I moved to the left with the empty shotgun, reloaded and hit two more knockdowns. The shotgun targets were heavy tombstone-shaped things and seemed especially reluctant to drop for many guys. You really had to hit them good and square or they wouldn't go down. Anyway, they all dropped for me, and after shooting the shotgun, I grabbed the Winchester to make a 9-round Nevada Sweep of three targets. After securing the rifle, I drew my second pistol for another Nevada Sweep. I was doing well until my finger slipped onto the Winchester's trigger too quickly, and I fired off a round before the rifle's sights had settled on the target. First miss of the day, +10 seconds to my time. D'oh!

Stage 4
Scenario: As sheriff of Dry Gulch you take the job seriously. When the Sam Carp bunch rode into town to cause trouble, you try to calm them down, but it doesn't work.

I got my revenge on this stage, the fastest one I had all day. It was more-or-less the same as the previous scenario, but there wasn't much of a specific target order. The first pistol was 5 rounds onto 3 targets, hit each at least once. Then 9 rifle shots onto 3 targets, each hit once. Take down the four shotgun targets and finish with the second pistol, 5 rounds on 3 cowboys. I got 'em all, no misses, and was happy.

Stage 5: Bad Luck
Scenario: Somebody has questioned your lady's honor and you must defend her.

This stage incorporated some strange shotgun work, including some shots on a target I'd never seen before: it was a swinging-type apparatus, with two rectangular plates arranged vertically around a pivot point in the center. Anyway, it was a new target experience for me (and a sore one for my poor, battered middle finger). At the buzzer, I swept four rifle targets twice, then drew my first revolver and alternated between the two pistol cowboys left-to-right for five shots. The second handgun was the opposite, firing right-to-left alternately for five rounds. To finish the stage, I grabbed the shotgun and put two shots onto the funny swinging target, shot the knockdown target on each side and then hit the swinging thing twice again. I missed once with my right-hand revolver, dang it.

Stage 6: Oh No!
Scenario: Judge Bean is a good man and also good with a gun. That's a deadly combination!

Cowboy Ready? Red Cent (r) prepares to start me up. — photo by Pixelwiz

After placing my two pistols on a table, I sat in a chair a few feet back and waited for the buzzer. At the beep, I yelled "Guilty!" and rushed forward to grab my revolvers and put five rounds onto the two pistol targets, any order. After that, I moved to the left and picked up the Winchester to sweep the four rifle targets with 8 rounds, then with the 9th round, I hit the Bonus Target way in the back of the range. (OK, it wasn't that far back...) Putting one shot onto each of the four shotgun targets finished the stage. I missed once with my right hand again (dammit!), but zeroed that out with the bonus. I could have used the extra ten seconds, though...

There was a patch of particularly slippery mud on this stage, and one of our guys (I can't remember which one, so he's saved the further embarrassment) slipped and went down while moving to pick up his rifle. He wasn't carrying a firearm at the time, and he got back up quickly and finished the stage with no damage other than perhaps to his pride and elapsed time. But we were all a little more careful after that.

Stage 1: The Right Stuff
Scenario: You've just staggered out of the Bird Cage Saloon when you see the Tucker brothers standing in the street. Seems that you said something about their "Mother Tucker" that they didn't like. Time to see if you got the right stuff.

This one looked fun, though it turned out to be my worst stage of the day. It had a rack of six little cowboy falling-plate targets, and I love shooting falling plates. ('Wiz hates 'em, but I think she's got a mental block about it) I started back off the firing line, and at the beep, moved to my rifle (being careful not to slip in the mud on this stage, too) and swept the 8 targets from left to right. I put down the Winchester and grabbed the scattergun to blast the four knockdowns. Moving to the right, I drew my first pistol and shot a set of three targets in this order: center, left, right, left, right. Ow, my brain! Luckily, the second pistol just called for putting 5 rounds on the 3 targets in any order. I missed once with my rifle (and knew it was a miss as soon as I pulled the trigger — hate when that happens) and once with my left-hand revolver, which added a painful 20 seconds to my time.

Duelist is Coolest - slingin' lead with a sixgun. — photo by Pixelwiz

Stage 2: The Bank
Scenario: A bunch of armed and angry townspeople have you cornered in the bank. Someone must've tipped them off that you were planning to rob the bank.

This was a fun stage, made all the moreso since it was basically a free-for-all — the instructions simply read: "Shoot everything at least once." The only restriction was that the last gun I shot had to be either a pistol or the shotgun. I began holding a set of saddlebags back from the firing line. At the buzzer, I hustled forward, dropped the bags and grabbed the shotgun to blast the four knockdowns. Then I picked up my rifle and hit swept the eight targets (we were allowed to reload to pick up a miss, but I didn't need to do that). I moved to my right, drew my first revolver and put one shot on two of the five cowboys and three on the last one. Holstered and dumped all five rounds from my second pistol onto the center cowboy. Done! (and cleanly, too) It was my best ranking stage of the day. A nice way to end the match.

Here are my stage results:

Red River Ray came in first overall with a Total Time of 177.75 seconds and 31 Rank Points while shooting in the Traditional Class. The second-place shooter, Lone Dude, was hard on Ray's heels with a Time of 175.49 seconds and 32 Rank Points. Ah, the ironies of Rank Point scoring! The Duelist class was Iron Gunner Deputy Gene with a Time of 208.19 seconds, 60 Rank Points and an Overall Rank of 6. Nice shootin', Gene!

The big Iron Gun winners for the day were Harman Hammer and Big Jake with 23 points each. I managed to pick up 13 points (6 pts for my two clean stages and 7 more for being within 1 second of another shooter's time). I now have a total of 19, far in the back of the pack. Splinter is still comfortably in the overall lead with 72 points.