Stages

Adam Mann and Charlie Wotkyns designed the stages for this match, and they did a great job. They were some of the most fun stages we’ve had at the club. We had an all-steel stage (“Scholtzen Steel”), a stage where we put up basically all of our moving targets (“Frankenstein”), a run-n-gun hoser stage (“The Walking Dead”), an El Presidente drill, a scenario based shoot (“Maverick Madness”, where you supposedly have to fight off a gang that invades a c-store), and  a stage where you had to work your way around a crapload of walls and through ports (Man the Barricades).

Impromptu Match-Directing

Normally my Dad acts as the match director and stats guy. However as he was terribly sick the day before, and didn’t expect to shoot, he gave me the rundown on the scoring system (Ios devices loaded with PractiScore) and sent me off.

I had to build the stages on the device when I got there (Adam and Charlie hadn’t written up any stage diagrams), then transfer them to all the other devices (there were three squads). All this went fairly smoothly although I missed a few things in the stages (disappearing targets, wrong target count, etc.) that caused confusion among the other squads, so I had to run back and forth the correct them. Not that big a deal but it did delay my squad from starting it’s first stage.

Stage issues

I took the squad where we start all of the new competitors (I had given them a class the previous night). I accidentally had us start on “Frankenstein”, where their unfamiliarity with some of our gimmicky targets caused a few reshoots (combined with un-calibrated steel). We took a good hour to finish that stage, but after that everything ran smooth.

My Performance

Even though I won the match, I could have done much better. I was fortunate that due to taping targets before they were scored I had a reshoot on “Frankenstein”, because I was rushed into shooting it after dealing with scoring issues on the other squads. I did well on the reshoot, 16.96 with no penalties. The next fastest was Adam Mann at 20.43.

“Frankenstein”. Look at all that crazy crap!

After about an hour on that stage we moved to “National Command Authority”. Basically an El Prez drill with two strings, one started facing uprange and one facing downrange. I screwed up my reload on string one, which knocked me down to third on that stage.

Next up, The Walking Dead. The new competitor squad got a real kick out of this stage, because they got to shoot fast. On the run. Around/over obstacles. I did pretty well but had a miss on the first array. Had trigger freeze while I was running by and I didn’t want to take an extra second to run back. Still, I finished the stage with a smile on my face! Even with the miss, I managed to pull out second place. I guess I was fast!

The next stage, the scenario shoot, was a load of fun, especially for an 18-round stage.

“Maverick Madness” has the shooter start off holding a pair of milk jugs in either hand. At the signal, put the jugs on the table behind you (must stay upright or 10 point penalty) and engage all targets from within the shooting area. Nine targets, all obscured behind a sea of no-shoot targets.

Being the gamer that I am, I started holding both the jug handles in my left hand, with my right hand loosely holding the body of one jug. On the start signal I drew with my strong hand, put the jugs down with my weak hand while shooting the first two targets one-handed. It worked, I had the fastest time in the whole match on that stage. Unfortunately one of the jugs tipped over when I put it down, so I got the 10 point penalty, putting me back in third.

Next stage, “Man the Barricades” was fairly straightforward, start behind a barricade, shoot three targets, head up and shoot some long-ish shots through a port, four hoser targets after that, then a big lean around a wall to pop the last four paper. I won this stage because I didn’t actually screw anything up. No misses, procedurals, dropped mags, etc. And I was fast.

Our last stage, “Scholtzen Steel” (the name of a steel supplier here in St. George), was a great stage to end on. All steel, 20 rounds. 15 Pepper poppers and a Texas Star. I won this stage, no penalties in 11.45 seconds. That was a very fast run for Limited division. I had a bit of an equipment advantage in that I have a Rescomp 21 round magazine, while most Limited division magazines only hold 20. With one in the chamber, there’s only room for one makeup shot or else you have to reload on the clock. I didn’t need it though, I only took one extra shot at a popper, and went one-for-one on the star.

WeaponsRelated uses a hydro-dip kit to put a wood pattern on some AR parts. Found on the ENDO Tactical blog.

Kits go for $100.00, but the components can be found on Ebay for a lot less. They make them in all sorts of wood and camo patterns (both hunting and tacticool camo), as well as other different patterns such as skulls and carbon fiber. I might just give the carbon fiber kit a try on an XDM slide…

But the thing is, we usually shoot from 5-500 yards. What do you do for an optic?

Many choose to use a simple 1-4x scope. Personally, I don’t like screwing around with a magnification ring during a stage, even with a “Cat-Tail” such as the MGM SwitchView. And I suck at shooting long-range targets, so the more magnification I can get, the better.

Dueck Defense RTS

Barry Dueck, champion 3-gunner, former Marine and head of the Suppressor division at Surefire, dreamed up the solution. Basically, he took a standard A2 sight, and CNC’ed it out of one piece of aluminum in a manor that’d mount at a 45º angle.

Now, angled sights are nothing new. Open Division 3-gunners had been mounting C-mores on JP forearms since they were invented. JP themselves sell a “Short Range Tactical Sight” to mount on the angled slots on their forearm. But until now, nobody’d thought of mounting a real rifle sight at an angle. The result is a sight that is just as accurate as shooting an iron-sighted A2-style rifle, as easy to transition to as flicking your wrist.

I’ve been running them since MultiGun nationals (October of last year), switched them out for a Burkett mount twice, and they’ve kept their zero. I now run them with a Burris Fullfield II 4.5-14x scope on top of the rifle. I shot a match with that setup yesterday and it worked great (I didn’t but the setup did). I shoot everything out to 75 yards with the Dueck sights, then use the Burris for anything farther. Anything from 75-100 yards I use the 4.5x setting, and farther out I go all the way to 14x.

Cons

As with anything, the Dueck sights have their drawbacks. Actually it has a drawback: price. The sights go for $239.00 from Brownell’s. And actually if you think about it, that’s not much compared to a comparable setup. A pair of offset mounts from costs around $55.00 and a set of fixed A2 sights will cost around $160. So for $210 you can get a set of offset sights that won’t be the same height above the bore as a regular rifle. Or pay $20.00 more and get the Dueck sights.

The real difference between the two is the cost. The top rifle MSRP’s for $1900, the bottom is $1400.

The top rifle (the Expert I) is totally optimized to be the perfect 3-Gun rifle, with the absolute best components. Starting from the front, a Surefire comp, that also serves as a QD suppressor mount. Colt 18” Match grade barrel with really neat Ball Endmill flutes (the most important part of the rifle, because of the CDI factor). Samson Evolution rifle-length free-float handguard. Very well-fitted upper/lower receivers, a Geisselle Super 3-Gun trigger, and a Magpul MIAD grip/CTR stock.

The bottom rifle (Expert II) is built using less expensive (but still excellent quality) components. The comp is a Miculek-style, just as effective as the Surefire. The barrel is still a Match Grade 18” barrel, but not fluted. The forearm is a Hogue free-floating aluminum tube, carbine-length (which means you won’t be able to get your arm out as far on the rifle). It uses the same receivers and Geiselle trigger. Hogue rubberized grip and Magpul MOE stock.

Another noteworthy feature of the new pony rifle is the gas block. It is a 24-position adjustable model, so you can limit the amount of gas flow to just what’s needed to work the bolt. To my knowledge, this is the only factory rifle (short of a JP) that has an adjustable gas block.

Front end of the Expert I. Note the gas adjustment know peeking out from under the handguard. Also note the barrel flutes, which increases accuracy by 0% but coolness by 200%.

Group shot with the new rifle. Colt guarantees sub-MOA groups, and includes a test group shot with YOUR rifle off the bench in each case. This group was shot with rack-grade 55 grain bullets. The 1-8” twist barrel stabilizes everything from 55 to 75 grain bullets.

Julie Golob and I at the S&W booth. She also signed a copy of her new book, Shoot!

Randi Rogers and I at the Glock booth.

Max Michel and I at Sig

Travis Tomasie demonstrates a good draw and reloads. This is him starting off slow (I’m not kidding!

Also has a left side charging handle, which comes in handy with less-lethal munitions that don’t cycle the action.

I’ve read all Ian Fleming’s James Bond books, but I haven’t seen Goldfinger. I thought this clip was pretty interesting because it shows how “gun people” were back then. Nobody really cared if you shot a pellet gun inside, you weren’t yelled at for saying something like “lady’s gun” on TV, and nobody had an aneurism when you shot at your cameraman with blanks (except maybe the cameraman).

I also chuckled when Mr. Boothroyd talked about the “armalite rifle”. Not the AR15, the AR-7. That Gene Stoner guy really was “with it”.

Side note: that was a reference to ”The A-Team”. Another post title considered was “Save up to 30% when you book your tactical training at Priceline!”

An jaw-dropping display of safety violations, and weird tactics/drills. What was that where the two guys did that weird spin thingy?!

H/T Caleb