Just got back from Colorado and the Rocky Mountain 300, probably the BEST USPSA style match I’ve ever shot.

The match has a normal round count of about 300 rounds. What’s unique about this match is the stages. There are only five of them, each 60 rounds or more! At the end of a stage, your arms feel like they’re made of lead, and you’re panting for breath.

Dad and I were squadded with six Grand Masters (top 5% of the sport), including Henning Wallgren and Ron Avery. We started on stage five, “Walk on Water”:

Awesome stage, 60 rounds, if you don’t miss… Also, the left array of poppers were in the middle of a huge puddle left over from the previous night’s rain, so it looked like a SeaWorld show when you hit them.

Then we packed our gear all the way to the other end of the range to Stage One, “Deuces are Wild” (anyone else notice a theme in the names?).

It looks fine on paper, but the way the RM 300 staff set it up, it was real easy to skip an array.

And stage 2, “Cryin’” :

Again, really easy to skip an array or miss a reload and totally mess up your stage here.

Stage Three, “Blind Man”, was a field course with a couple tough 40 yard shots on Poppers, but they weren’t a problem, as we practice on steel at 50 yards every practice session.

The poppers are actually about 3/4 the size of the paper targets, and the plates are about 10″. T-18 and T-15 were actually behind the wall, you had to shoot them over it.

And, as dark rain clouds blotted out the sun, we arrived at our last stage, Stage Four, “Eat the Rich”. After the first two shooters (me and Dad), the clouds opened up with rain, hail, thunder and lightning. Thankfully a shooter with local knowledge had us runnin’ for cover before the hail came.

So how did I do? Well, see for your self. I took 69th overall, which wasn’t to horrible, nor was it excellent. Dad videod me on the stages, but I didn’t video him as he had a “Gen 5″ bolt-action Glock 35 that decided not to like the Winchester small pistol primers I loaded in our Match ammo. That and our Dillon XL 650 decided to stop seating primers right, which I fixed while I loaded ammo. I checked all the ammo for high primers when I case gauged it, but a few must have slipped through. All the ammo fired through my STI 2011 fine, because it has a longer firing pin than the Glock. I had no malfunctions throughout the match.

The R.O.s were awesome, a big thanks to them, and especially to Jerry Westcott and Dave Absmeier, the guys who made this awesome match come together. Also thanks to all the great sponsors, especially Henning’s Shop (Tanfoglio parts), and Ron Avery’s Practical Shooting Academy.