Zombie All Gun Match Today....

Yesterday, I participated in the Zombie Shooters Association monthly Zombie All Gun match. It's kinda of like three gun except there is no particular rule that says I can only use three guns...awesome! For lack of the baby stroller and troop of gunbearers I took only three guns. For my rifle I chose my 10/22 with 3-9xreally big objective scope as the engagement ranges were well suited to rimfire rifle. For my shotgun I took along my trusty Mossberg 835 with 20" barrel and fiber optic sights, as well as Tacstar 6 round side saddle. My sidearm, of course, had to be a revolver(or else I'd lose cool points). So I opted for my trusty Smith and Wesson 610 Classic. There isn't much classic left in it with the super light trigger job, shaved hammer, extended firing pin, fiber optic sights and ghastly effective chamfer job. Needless to say it's a target blasting beast that runs like a fox on fire.

The match provided a good mix of close and far handgun shots with the right amount of "hose fest" and tight shots. I was really impressed with the level of effort put into the match design on such very short notice as the Match Director had been away all week on family business. The rifle was a bit on the close side with the shots ranging out to a cool 50 yards which was well within the grasp of my 10/22. Had the rifle and magazine combo functioned a bit better, I would have been a lot better off. Had I cleaned the rifle after the previous practice session and before the match it may have helped. As many may have guessed the revolver and pump shotgun combination was nearly flawless with only one hiccup each, both of which can be traced back to the operator. I chose three videos which were free of malfunctions and also included the revolver, since long gun only stages are flat out boring to watch. So I humbly sumbit stages one, three and four to showcase an amazing new discipline of shooting.

I appologize for the lack of detail in stage four, but seeing as a fellow shooter had just been DQ'd  for a gross safety violation nobody but the shooter and RO were allowed into the hot stage. The stage was set up with 1 infected target visible while holding the door handle and a zombie at the end of the hall which had to be shot before entering the hallway for a 12 to 15 yard shot. The first room on the left contained two infected targets, while the first room on the right contained only one infected target.  The second room on the left contained another infected target and across the hall the room on the right contained one zombie at the downrange end and right at the 180 an infected lay in wait. The end of the hallway revealed a large open area with 5 infected targets and 5 steel plates. Your shotgun was waiting loaded and chambered on the couch after you engaged the paper targets. The array of infected targets was one to the extreme right and left, one at a forty-five degree angle from strait down range right and left, and a final target directly out in front of the shooter behind the hallway zombie. Hopefully this makes sense out of the video for you.

Stage 4

On stage three the shooter started in the vehicle on their knees with their rifle at low ready loaded with only eight rounds. On the signal the shooter engaged eight zombies with one head shot each, safed the rifle and dismounted the vehicle. Upon exiting the vehicle there were six infected targets to neutralize and the opportunity to make up any missed head shots with the handgun. I did not need this opportunity, however I did skip over one target with the rifle and had to go back to it. It went like this, "1,2,3,4,5,6,7 oh crap you're at the end of the targets! Quick, find the one you passed over doofus! Shoot it! Don't just look at it dummy!" Thankfully it did not take as long to complete as it seemed. The revolver ran really well on the outside of the van and I was pleased to have recorded the fastest time in my squad for a clean run on the stage.

Stage 3

Stage one was a seemingly fairly simple exercise. If you listen closely, other shooters are talking about the plate rack and how they approached it. They were apparently quite impressed with the plate rack bonus target challenge. Many shooters failed to properly manage their time on the stage; expending more time and ammo at the bonuses than seconds they could save. Lesson: If you can't hit the bonus targets with any efficiency and they are optional, don't exceed your ability and waste time. I was not quite as amused when I failed to clean the plate rack in the first cylinder. The one missed plate was not worth an extra reload so I moved on to step two of the plan. I reloaded and shot all the near zombies so that I could better navigate the infected targets at a higher speed. If I can keep the gun in one gear and get the results I need, I see no reason not to do a little bit of prep work to make that happen. I really enjoyed this stage as it was an easy one to shine on if you could shoot at distance and having a little speed in your pocket was an added bonus. Second Lesson: Anytime you can efficiently move closer to an array of targets to increase your accuracy do so. To potshoot from a distance is silly when a twenty yard hustle will save you split time and double your hit potential. Note to self: SOMEDAY I will actually start to shoot on the move a little more.

The pause near the end was an almost double coverage on an already shot target.

Stage 1

Thanks for your interest and don't hesitate to drop me a comment or become a follower. From one will hopefully grow many.

New Project: .38 Super Special

First I'd like to say that I'm very excited to have international viewers in Germany, UK, Brazil, Denmark, Singapore, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and South Africa. I'd also like to thank my first two followers, when/if I get to be famous I will remember who supported me from the beginning. Thank you all.

So the new project is a .38 Super Special. A what? A .357 magnum chambered revolver being cut to accept full moonclips in .38 Super Comp. Why .38 Super Comp? For several reasons. The first being powder burn efficiency in the smaller case than the .38 special. the second is a shorter ejection stroke on the reload without having to trim cases. Work a few bigger lost brass matches and you'll have plenty of free brass. The third reason is that I am building this on an L-frame Smith and Wesson 581 and the Super Comp will give me a broader moonclip from the center opening to the cartridge slots. See photo below...this is a 646 .40 caliber clip for illustration purposes.

I chose to go with .38 Super Comp instead of moonclipping .38 Special or .357 Magnum brass because when those cartridge were designed the moonclip had not been invented yet. The result is that the groove under the case rim was not spec'd and so the different manufacturers have different size grooves. The resulting thickness of the moonclips lies between .020 and .025 inches. I can have a .38 Super Comp clip cut to be .035 to .040 inches which is the standard thickness of the sturdy .45 ACP moonclips. If you wonder why I am worried about any of this at all it's because of the people that step on moonclips while bumbling around a stage trying to paste. Whether they do it for ignorance or apathy the result is the same.

Now at this point you may be wondering or concerned about the pressures or chambering issues. This is very simply going to be a Minor power factor project. The revolver I am using readily accepts and ejects .38 Super cases loaded to Minor power factor. This is actually a project for my girlfriend who also shoots revolver with me and was having trouble with the heavier N-frame 625's in long falling steel competitions. So here we go! Stay tuned for further progress updates to follow on the machining, the clips and load development.

Virginia-Maryland Sectionals...Lessons Learned

This past weekend I attended the 2011 Virginia-Maryland Sectional. The match featured nine stages and a 251 minimum round count. I was fortunate to fire the match on Friday with most of the other revolver shooters in the same squad. After my giant meltdown I was fortunate to shoot well enough to pull off High C Class coming back from 5 mistakes.

 Our squad started on Stage 2 and I came out with 1 C and 1 M. The C,M came to me on a very long target where I put a round through a barrel or a wall. The lessons learned from this stage are to practice longer shots until they are consistent and also to practice entry and exit from ports. I tried some different foot work at the last minute and it was totally unsuitable for my style of shooting and skill level.

  

Stage 3 was where I had a decision to make: foot speed or reload efficiency. I chose reload efficiency and it put me up for a long shot and I ended up with two deltas on this stage.  In discussing it later I believe I could have run up on those targets and made better hits for a higher hit factor than taking the sniper shots.

Stage 4 was a stage that screamed FOOTWORK and POSITION from the out set. With a little more hustle I could have really done well on this stage.  I needed to run to that third position instead of loping. With time I will gain more confidence in my reloads and be more reckless with my speed on the stage.

Stage 5 was rolling until I reloaded early and blew my plan up. I ended running by a target for a fun and exciting 2 misses and a failure to engage penalty. Do over?

Stage 6 was a disaster after I hit the static no shoot and racked up a penalty and a miss. To top it off I left a position early and had to come back for a target. The texas star then took forever and I just did not feel good about that stage at all.

Stage 7 was a turning point for the better and went well, of course I didn't get it on video.

Stage 8 went really well and for C class revolver shooter I burned it down. By this point I was certainly shooting just for fun and the whole revolver division had beaten me so I decided to go for it from left to right as fast as I could move and pull the trigger. Well that worked out really well for me.

Stage 9 was the land of the sloooow swingers. It was weird how some people had to wait and others did not. They were not all that consistent. My right side swinger went on vacation. When it came back I found out that I needed to practice one legged shooting stances a bit more.

Stage 1 was the ultimate memory array and thankfully Ii made a good plan. Others were not so fortunate and suffered misses and FTE's or the long scan.

Many thanks to my fellow competitors Mike Wilczek and Robe Burkindine for their gracious efforts in videoing my runs. Thanks guys!

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 8

Stage 9

Stage 1

If you enjoyed this or feel it needs work feel free to leave comments; they are appreciated either way.

Steel Shooting Revo Style

This past weekend  I went to the Black Creek Steel Shoot in Mechanicsville, VA. Jim and Anton(MD's) put on a great match everytime and it's great practice. This particular time it was 7 stages of steel busting glory. There was also a great turn out of five revolver shooters in the 53 shooter field. We had some light showers during the match, but the good folks at Black Creek had tents up to keep us all dry.

I recently found an 11 pound trigger rebound spring that had shot out in the stratosphere when I had attempted a switch in my kitchen. After the garbage disposal starting making odd noises I wrote it off, until a 1911's recoil spring plug or whatever the proper name is pulled the same trick and led to its discovery. I installed that in my 625 directly prior to this match and am happy with the results.

I made a few mistakes here and there but it was a far better showing than my last videos...so what if I miked in the middle of the SteEL Presidente and almost ran through the table in Stage 6. I had fun and took my sights as seriously as I could...beating out all but one of the single stacks and a few others. http://blackcreeksteel.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/blackcreek-051411-overall1.pdf   Overall
http://blackcreeksteel.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/blackcreek-051411-divisions1.pdf By Division

Stage 1

Stage 3

Stage 4

Well I sure hope you enjoyed the videos. My next appearance is the USPSA Virginia-Maryland Sectionals where I'll be competing in the Revolver Division on Friday the 20th of May. Hope to see you all there.

South Carolina Sectionals: Lessons Learned Part 2

Stages four and five were outhouse related with one shooting out of the outhouse and the second shooting into the outhouse. I missed causing a reload on stage four which was a six shot stage. Enough said there. Stage five was fairly simple. Shoot six...reload...shoot six...Virginia count. Oh yeah and you have to hold this dog leash the whole time. The videos are pretty boring as they are pretty static stages.

Stage six was a great planning stage that let the shooter break it into easy sixes. With a little better footwork and less forgetfulness I'd have rocked this stage. Nothing like turning around to come back to some targets left unshot.

Stage seven was interesting as it was raining fairly decently and they had just decided to bag the targets. I really need to get over hating bagged targets. I am actively working on it. A misstep here of activating the light with the wrong hand had to be corrected and there was a winger target here...cool idea.

Stage eight was designed by a revolver shooter. I liked it until the third shot when I alpha, no shoot miked and did not manage to correct it like an idiot. All other shots were alphas.

The chrono didn't get any video shot, but I did get some interesting comments such as: "You know you only have to make 165 right?" or "Wow, that makes major!" Great 193PF load that I came up with....won't do that again.

Stage nine was fast and I planned it the same way the great Cliff Walsh did. He's just faster at the shooting and reloading part. Haha!

 Building this post was very informative and it illustrated just how many mistakes I made. I will definitely learn from them and ensure they are not repeated.

I put a lot of time into these two posts please make comments Good or Bad. Thanks.

Just Having Fun...While Shooting Revo

Yesterday I attended the USPSA Classifier Match at Fredericksburg Rod and Gun Club. I decided to take a break from the 625 and give a good solid match test to my 610. I ran the same North Mountain Moonclip rack I always do and the same cut up Safariland self made speed holster. My first impressions were that the gun itself was very accurate, but awfully slow to load. I estimated my reloads to be in the neighborhood of 4 to 6 seconds. This is pretty slow seeing that I can speedload .38's in about 3 seconds and reload the 625 somewhere around 2 seconds. I did wonderfully horrible on the classifier stages striking NO SHOOTS left and right it seemed. So much for zeroing the gun in ahead of time right? It all came down to a no shoot and a miss costing me first place at the match.

Preparation is everything. I ventured to see my parents and just happened to carry my 610 with 4 moonclips of match ammo with me. The plan was to stop off at my shooting place on the way and quick zero the gun on a six inch plate at 15yds. It works really well when the gun is firing....the first cylinder fired 2 out of six...the second 3...the third 2 and the fourth 1. The Apex competition firing pin just doesn't like my superlight hammers. Gun unzeroed with no tools to adjust the strain tension, I visited my folks and returned home. The gun was cleaned and the firing pin changed back to a conventional design that I knew would function.

The match day came and I stepped to the line with a calm and relaxed attitude. I knew the reloads would have to be carefully made.  The buzzer went off on the first stage and the fun began. It was an unloaded table start. "Crap...quick weakhand reload and off to the races. 1.2.3.4.5 Reload and double up the last paper. Done. Gee that was slow....I miss my 625....I'd settle for my .38 snubby at this point. Unload, show clear, put it away and go check the damage. Not too bad." This was how my day started. I quickly adapted to the weakness of my reload with the best planning and rehearsal I could devise and that made up a lot of the difference on the particular field I was facing. The one time the slow reload really bit my butt was in the El Presidente stage where the shells bounced off the cylinder and almost landed on the ground. 8 second reload. Measure the powder, pour it in, and then ram the bullet home....ok so it felt that way. Only when I deviated from my plan did I pay dearly with deltas, white targets, and where'd my bullet go's. At the end of the day I performed very strongly on the two field courses of 32 rounds each winning one and losing the other by a miss. Not bad for a skinny kid with slow reloads.....