IRON GUN 2002
match seven (six, for me): Iredell Regulators, Statesville NC
March 23, 2002

NE OF MY GOALS SINCE BEGINNING TO PLAY THIS GAME has been to shoot a "clean" match — no misses, procedural penalties or other screwups for the entire day. Well, that magical event occurred for me while shooting the last match of the Iron Gun tournament with the Iredell Regulators. As might be expected, my shooting has improved markedly this month; if I hadn't gotten noticibly better after shooting two matches every weekend for an entire month, I'd have been upset. Still, I wasn't expecting to score a Clean Sweep at quite this point in my cowboy career. I've only been playing at this for nine months, after all. My Duelist/Gunfighter buddy Mad Sveinn told me it was a year before he had his first clean match, and Harman Hammer (another fast Duelist) said he's only ever had one Clean Match over the course of many years of cowboy shooting. So it's a rare and wonderful thing, and I'm thrilled.

It was a bright, sunny day, but rather chilly and breezy — it still beat shooting in the rain, though! The temperature was in the mid-thirties when we began, but with the warm sunshine I was soon able to remove my coat and by the afternoon it was near 60.

With the exception of Boot Hill (who also had a clean match for the day) and Shorty, The Iron Gunners were all grouped in one posse again. I was last on the shooting list, which I hate, but better get used to for a while, since the firing order is often determined by a shooter's badge number, and I have a high one. My lovely wife Pixelwiz kindly agreed to keep score for us (again).

Stage Three
We started in the middle of three berms, with a pair of scenarios that Sveinn devised. There were knockdown targets a-plenty, but the five pistol targets were good-sized "tombstones" and I wasn't too concerned with missing these like the ones I had such problems with in Anderson, SC.

At the buzzer, I drew my left pistol and had to shoot a knockdown target through a hole in a piece of plywood, then hit a steel IPSC-shaped target, then the second knockdown, back to the IPSC and finishing that gun on the third knockdown. The next revolver was shot similarly, beginning on the IPSC target and alternating through the remaining two knockdowns. Holstering the pistol, I moved a few steps to my right and picked up the Winchester, which held 10 rounds. There were six small falling-plate targets, and I had those 10 shots to drop them all. I dropped all six with one shot each, and dumped the remaining four rounds into another IPSC target. Exchanging the rifle for the shotgun, I hit the two shotgun targets. I had actually missed one of the pistol knockdowns with my right hand, but on this stage we were allowed to make up those missed targets with a shotgun, and I did so now, giving me a clean run.

Stage Four
This scenario began with the Winchester in my hands at port arms. At the beep, I hit the six falling-plates and then put one round onto the IPSC rifle target at the far right. Securing the rifle, I drew my left-side revolver and dumped five rounds onto the IPSC pistol target on my left. I then pulled my right pistol to shoot the five tombstone knockdowns, but missed two of them. After holstering the sixgun, I grabbed the scattergun and dropped the two shotgun targets, reloaded and made up for my two missed pistol knockdowns. Sloppy, but still clean.

Stage Five
The rifle was in-hand to start this stage, too. When the buzzer went off, I triple-tapped three targets and put the Winchester down. I moved to my left, where I drew my first pistol and engaged three more targets with a Nevada Sweep (P1-P2-P3-P2-P1), holstered the gun and picked up the "Dynamite Box." I then had to run to the far right side of the berm and carefully set the box down (if the Range Officer judged that I had "roughly" handled the box, I would have blown myself up with a 10-second penalty. I was careful.). Drawing my second pistol, I shot another three-target Nevada Sweep and holsterd the gun. Finally, I moved left to return to my starting position and blasted six shotgun targets. I missed one of them and had to make it up, but shot the stage cleanly. Things were looking good for me so far!

Stage Six
Well, things were looking good until I saw the setup for this stage, which at first glance didn't give me much hope for holding onto my "Clean Shoot" status. The first pistol target was a moving IPSC-shaped cardboard target, which was started into its metronome-like motion by the pull of a string. The object was for the shooter to yank the string, draw a revolver and hit the moving target five times. Of course, to make things even more difficult, there were "hostages" around the "bad guy." There was a 5-second penalty for each hit on a hostage.

Luckily, I was able to watch all the other cowboys shoot this stage before I was up, and I learned a lot about what to do (and what not to do) when my turn came. There were several tactics employed on this target: a few guys were able to put some double-taps on the target or tried to put a shot onto it at both sides of its swing... Most used the approach that I settled on: hold steady on one point of aim and shoot as the target moved over that point. By watching the others, I was able to see that I had plenty of time to cock the hammer, aim the gun and squeeze the trigger during each cycle of the target's movement. I wasn't so worried about it after that.

So: I began with the string in my right hand. At the beep I pulled the cord and set the target in motion, and drew my right revolver. By the time I had it cocked and aimed, the target swung into my sight picture and I fired for a hit. Heck, this was easy! I repeated that four more times, adjusting my aiming point up slightly each time to account for the diminishing arc as the target's movement slowed. Five shots, five hits. Holstering that gun, I drew my other revolver and put five more rounds on two cowboy targets (3 and 2). I put that pistol away and grabbed the Winchester to shoot 10 rounds onto three rifle targets (3, 3 and 4), finishing up with six shotgun knockdowns. Clean again!

Stage One
It was Bonus Time for us on this stage. Two of the shotgun targets tossed clay pigeons into the air when hit and each bird was worth a 5-second bonus. There was a lot of movement involved, back and forth. The pistols were shot first, five shots on three cowboy targets (2, 2, 1) and then five more shots on the two Indian targets (3 & 2). Moving to the left, I picked up the scattergun and dropped the two flanking knockdowns, then reloaded for the first "vomit" target. I hit the first one which tossed the clay high in the air, where I had plenty of time to acquire and dust it. Stuffing two more shells into the double-barrelled gun, I shot the other knockdown, which feebly launched the bird a few feet up for me to blast into little bits for my double bonus. I kept the shotgun with me (barrels pointed downrange!) as I moved to the far right side of the berm for the rifle sequence. 10 shots with the Winchester: two on the first target, six on the second one and two more on the third. I put the rifle down and picked up the shotgun to drop the final two targets. Five stages clean, one to go. I was getting a little nervous.

Stage Two
Faced with the prospect of completing my first ever Clean Match, I was determined to take my time and make sure of each shot on this scenario. If I was going to blow my Clean Shoot opportunity, I wanted it to be because of some freak occurrance, not because I rushed something and took a poor shot. I began on the right side of the berm with my shotgun in hand, open and empty. At the buzzer, I grabbed a pair of shells, loaded and fired at two knockdown targets. I exchanged the double-barrel for the Winchester and shot a nine-round Nevada Sweep on the three rifle targets. I had to take the shotgun with me as I moved to the next shooting position, since I still had two more knockdowns to hit on the far left side of the berm. Stopping in the middle of the stage, I put the shotgun down on a table and drew my left revolver. There were five pistol targets, and I had to put two rounds on the first (left-most) target, two on the next one and one shot on the middle Cowboy. I hit 'em all, holstered the pistol and drew the other one. If I could get through these last five shots, I'd have my Clean Match. I aimed carefully at the middle target and hit it with one round, then put two on the next target and two more on the last one. With relief and happiness I holstered the sixgun, picked up the shotgun and moved to my left to take out the remaining two targets to the whoops and cheers of 'Wiz.

I'm not sure anyone else on the posse knew until then that I had a clean shoot, but when they found out I was roundly congratulated on a job well done.

After the main match, many of us retired to the "clubhouse" to sample the chili that Harman Hammer made for us (he used to be a chef, and it was very good chili) and eat brownies for dessert. Harman had a pan, and Pixelwiz brought her world-famous "Double Fudge Cream Cheese Brownies," which are truly to die for.

There was also a long-range rifle side match, for single shot rifles, repeating (lever-action) rifles and pistol-caliber rifles (which we use in the main match). I wasn't going to bother with shooting in this, since the only time I've shot the old Winchester at anything other than main match ranges was the 85-yard "across the lake" target in Eden, where I was one-for-two. The target for this side match was out at 125 yards or so (which isn't really "long range" — 600 yards with an M1 Garand fits that bill, as far as I'm concerned) and I had no idea where that old .44-40 bullet would go at that distance. I didn't feel like trying to find out at this point, I was still floating from the whole "Clean Match" thing.

But Jack B. Nimble offered to let me shoot his .45-70 Springfield Trapdoor (Cavalry model) and who was I to refuse? I'd never shot a rifle in that caliber before and he told me it had a good kick to it, but I wanted to try, so I paid my two bucks and got in line. Jack said the sights were dead-on, just line 'em up on the target and squeeze the trigger. He showed me how to operate the action and I took my two "sighter" shots. I just missed with the first one, due mostly, I think, to me getting used to the rifle. The recoil wasn't bad at all — less than my M1, it seemed to me. With the second sighter round I was rewarded with the satisfying "clank" of the bullet hitting the target. Jack was right about the

I told Little Jake I was ready, and he started the timer. I loaded and fired five big rounds of Jack's .45-70 Gov't ammo (he told me the load, but I can't remember what it was now) downrange and I hit the target with every shot. Now admittedly, I was taking my time; I wasn't familiar with the rifle and also wanted to savor the experience of using that Springfield. It was more fun for me to shoot slowly and accurately than to try and rush through the five shots as fast as I could and maybe miss all of them. I think I did it in just over 30 seconds, which was nowhere near the time to beat, but I had fun doing it. I believe I need to get me one o' them big ol' rifles.... I'll have to try a Sharps before I make a decision on exactly what to get, though. Hmmmm....

Here are my stage results:

Marshall Harland Wolff (SASS #5019) came in first both Overall and also in the Traditional class with 19 Rank Points and a Total Time of 156.05 seconds. The Duelist class winner was Iron Gunner Harman Hammer (SASS #20214), finishing 14th Overall with a Time of 226.87 seconds and 86 Rank Points.

Big Jake (SASS #28066) shot a Clean Match to edge out Splinter Hauser (SASS #20742) for the Iron Gun Championship, 142 points to 138. Deputy Gene and Sixgun Smith finished right behind them with 135 and 131 points respectively. With my own Clean Shoot here I got up 23 more points plus 2 additional time points. That didn't move me up from the bottom of the pack at all, my 63 total points put me in 12th place (out of 14). I had so much fun and my shooting improved so much that I didn't care where I finished. I'm glad that Pixelwiz talked me into signing on for this event. Thanks, dear!