Video from September 2-gun and 3-gun matches
I’m pretty late in posting the video from last month’s 2- and 3-gun matches at SEG, but better late than never.
9-September 2-gun
I didn’t do too well on this match. I placed 10th overall, most because of slowness than point penalties.
Stage 1 was a bitch, because it required several weak-side shots. I fired my rifle left-handed for the first time during that stage, which I guess speaks volumes about my rifle training. In any case:
On stage 2 I took my own advice and slowed down; in hindsight, probably too much. I was only down 1 point, but my time was 15 seconds slower than the winning time. Ouch:
On stage 3 I again shot fairly accurately, but very slowly. My time was 13.91; winning time was 9.15:
When I was watching the 7pm squad shoot stage 4, I thought to myself “I don’t get it; why are they shooting it so slowly?”. I then shoot it in 7.69 seconds for a score of 9.19. Best time was a blistering 5.72; winning score was 7.62. Ouch.
23-September 3-gun
This was the first 3-gun match I’ve ever shot, and the first at SEG as well. It was different from 2-gun in a few important ways:
1. Shotguns!
2. One long stage instead of four short ones
3. We each got to reshoot the stage one extra time
You’d think with a do-over that I’d turn in an awesome performance, and you’d be wrong. I placed 7th, with a time of 101.2 and 7 point penalties. Interestingly, I had the lowest penalties of everyone in the match, meaning I shot more accurately than any other shooter. You might think that means I’m a crack marksman inexplicably beaten by a bunch of hosers, but you’d be wrong again. A key aspect of winning in practical shooting matches (and, I assume, gunfights) is balancing speed with accuracy. It’s not that I was the only one in the match able to shoot as accurately as I did; I was the only one who traded speed for accuracy the way I did.
The winner of the match had only 10 points down, so not far from me. But I was also beaten by buys with 13, 18, and 21 points down, who nonetheless shot a fast enough time that even with penalties they still came out ahead. Every time I try to do that, I go too far in the other direction, and rack up alot of penalties without getting enough extra speed to balance it out, which is why I force myself to focus on accuracy and not speed. At some point hopefully I’ll be good enough I can pour on some speed and keep accuracy reasonable, but I’m not there yet.
Another thing I learned in this match is how to load a shotgun. Of course, I’ve loaded my shotgun before, but never on the clock. As you can see in my first run through, I dropped a shell and had to chase it all over the range, coming dangerously slow to breaking the 180. Gumbel was smart enough to just take the point penalty and skip that shot.
Anyway, here we go. Attempt number 1:
(Stupid shitty Flickr can’t decide if it supports video or not, so it stops at 90 seconds. WTF?)
Attempt number 2, sans slug fumble: