A supposed hiatus from shooting

  I recently had to pass on three matches this past weekend to attend the funeral of my beloved Grandfather in Pennsylvania. He lived to be 84 and passed away from pre-existing breathing issues and other complications which were exacerbated by a recent car accident. I miss him dearly, but his passing was not unexpected and our families were prepared. May he rest peacefully.

  With the arrangements not yet set in stone I did what any crazy revolver shooter would do...packed a suit and two bags...one full of clothes and the other full of match gear. Some may find it a little sacreligious to do such a thing, but there is only so much family time a person can take and arrangements had not yet been made. I figured a great way to deal with the emotional stress was to go out and meet new shooters and learn how other clubs put on matches. I had only one problem....I had decided I would take one gun and only one gun. After all I was driving my grieving mother and my father up to the funeral and could not afford the extra space.  I went with a new to me 646 and both an IDPA and USPSA setup which all fit marvelously in a small tool bag with ammo, carriers and holster.

I went online and looked up USPSA matches in the area and finally set my sights on one that I thought would be easy to make and contacted the match director to make certain they were planning on having a match that weekend. This was a good thing because they ended up cancelling due to range drainage issues and I recieved an email to that effect.  USPSA local match....dead in the water....oh no! On to the bailout plan....find an IDPA match and go to it! Luckily for me I had painstakingly decided to leave my 5" 625 at home and bring my super cool 3 and a whole lotta change" 646 .40 instead. Having an IDPA legal gun and setup was a game saver in the end, as this club turned out to be very cool and probably would've let me shoot my USPSA gun/gear there, but some won't.

The match was incredible for a local match. $15 bought six stages 5 of which had props with one standard 12 shot 2 string stage. There was house clearing with drop turners and and a waving mover. A six shot stage with two pieces of steel that when hit activated two dropout paper targets. A car stage where shots occured in and out of the car. A stage where a kicked over popper started a mover across the stage on a wire..with non threats in tow..very cool. Another scenario stage had me tac loading twice to engage the array which included 4 shots from one position a jog behind cover and a tac load to bring on a long steel activator and super close dropout threat which then made for an obstructed finish. Brilliant! Thanks to the match directors for a challenging diversion in difficult times.