So this weekend was the great baptism of fire for my new AR. I had so much fun that I all but forgot to video tape the match. My good buddy Ken Kiesler and I remembered to video tape our last stage which only included shotgun and pistol. Oh well. This match went exceedingly well for me until my pistol started to light strike. I was using a heavily modified glock 19 that I had like an idiot cut a few coils off of the striker spring. Note to the rest of the world: Don't do this. Ever. There are great aftermarket springs that will do the job and keep the gun going bang. So a few quick shots here and there and then a quick malfunction drill. I was actually surprised at how well I could do the malfunction drills since it was been at least 6 months since I touched the pistol.
Pre match gear selection was an easy process as I don't have a lot of options when it comes to 3 gun. The thought ran through my mind exactly like this: Gee, with this nice new AR and those big magazines it seems a shame to run a revolver on such a pistol heavy three gun match. I decided that since there are no specified power factors, I should run a 9mm and enjoy the high round count and low recoil. I chose my Glock 19 with HiViz sights, a stainless guiderod, reduced travel trigger, Arredondo +6 magazine extensions, and Dawson Precision super heavy magwell. 
For my shotgun I elected to run my Mossberg 835 Ultimag with a 20" barrel(5+1) and a modified choke over the Benelli SBE1 due it already having a side saddle for extra shells. The Benelli would have held more rounds (7+1), but without a belt mounted shell caddy I would have been lost at the reload. 
The rifle was my AR that I discussed in a previous post. I decided to run the Pmags exclusively for this match and selected the 30 rounder with the Ranger baseplates just in case. I did reload to a twenty round mag at one point also.
The minimum round count was 36 shotgun birdshot, 55 rifle and 91 pistol. The Range is not really all that well suited to a lot of rifle shooting as the berms are not that high or thick. There were seven stages and two of which were all long gun. I think it's very important to have a long gun only stage at a 3 gun match. It allows competitors to be tested on that skillset alone, or in some cases that weapon type alone. I thought stages 6 and 7 did this very well. Stage 6 was a shotgun only stage where you started on the left hand side and engaged seven pieces of falling steel and then moved to your right while reloading for an additional six pieces of steel. My entire squad aced this stage with only a few footwork/angle issues for the beginners. Stage 7 was a very different story altogether. The appleseed rifle target was the focus of this stage with each of the ten targets to recieve three hits apiece. The big target was easy and just about everyone hit that one, however as the targets got progressively smaller they often eluded the bullets. The reason for this is that many people are unable to correct properly for their zero at closer ranges. My zero was off, as I discovered yesterday, causing many of my shots to hit lower than expected during the competition. I got throught the stage hitting five targets properly, the high man for my squad.
Stage 1 consisted of a plate rack at 10 yards or so shot with the shotgun, and then 6 infected targets as you either backed up or ran back and engaged. I made two mistakes in this stage, a miss at the plate rack and a CAW, both of which I made up. Scan close targets if you are shooting an auto or you still have bullets in your Revo. It can make a difference, but only if you don't have to reload first. Remember to keep a count of roughly how many seconds it's been since your last shot...if it's more than 5 seconds you are wasting your time trying to make up shots except if the stage has multiple infected targets.
Stage three was the only stage that I got any video of and but for the one missed zombie, I think it ran pretty well. Need a little work on the shotgun reloads. We won't talk about the light strikes...man they were annoying! The duelist shot at the end sure didn't help things either. I guess I saw a bad target but it took a while to take that shot. Two hands doofus! TWO HANDS!
And here's a video of Ken's run:
Ken did well at the shotgun, but a little over confidence after the reload cost him on the steel. While he did not miss any Zombies, the infected targets in the back gave him some penalties. He's a relatively new shooter and this was his first three gun match. I believe that he will do well as his skill with the various weapons advances.
Again a special thanks to Ken Keisler for videotaping and Worth Taylor for running the timer so we could videotape. Thanks Guys!
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