dwarven1
Lonely Mountain Arms
Sunday, May 22, 2005 – the alarm went off at 7:15 AM so that I could get to Riverside Gun Club by 8:30. At 9:00 AM, Riverside would be running an IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) shoot.
IDPA is about using a pistol the way the way it was meant to be used – for close range combat against multiple targets. (go to http://www.idpa.com for more info).
I checked in and paid my $15 and signed my waiver (hey, there are live guns there, so just in case I die, I promise not to sue), and greeted the guys. I’ve been shooting IDPA at Riverside since we started to run these, so I know most of the guys. Eugene was one of our Range Safety Officers today, with his Israeli accent and his bright orange RSO hat. The other officers were Chris, (a Director of the club), Ken (who wrote the scenarios for today), Jon (a GOAL director) and Darius… my lawyer. (he was shooting a Sig-Sauer P226 – don’t mess with him; he hits what he aims at.)
We split up into 3 groups; there were 5 scenarios to run and we had 3 places to run them.
The first scenario was a weak hand shoot. Six targets in 2 parts. “The Bill Collector” has punched your strong (right) arm, so you have to defend yourself against him and his friends with the weak hand… and after disposing of him & his two friends, three more of his friends come at you. With your pistol in your weak hand (left for me), at the buzzer I had to engage one target with 2 rounds, run to cover while engaging a second target, then fire at a third target from behind a panel (that represented a tree or some kind of cover you’d find outdoors). After an administrative reload (that means that it didn’t count towards my total time), I had to engage 3 more targets from behind cover in “tactical sequence”. (as I leaned out from behind cover enough to see a target, I shoot at it. Basically, you shoot the targets you see as you see them.).
Second scenario was another two-stage one – “Encounter at the Stop ‘N Rob.” From behind cover, I had to engage 2 targets with two rounds in “tactical order” – shoot one once, shoot the other one once, then shoot each one once again. So it was shoot left-hand target once (this was still shooting with the weak hand), then the right hand one twice, then the left-hand one one more time and then both in the head. (scenario was that the two attackers were high on PCP, which is why the head shots). The next part was to shoot at 3 attackers while in the prone position, hiding behind a curb. This was supposed to be done in tactical order, but I goofed up and did it two rounds at each target instead of one round each… earned myself a procedural error for that. :-(
Stage three was a wild one – you started seated in a chair, blindfolded with your hands tied loosely behind you! At the buzzer, you shook off the rope around your wrists, pulled the blindfold down and ran to a table in front of you with a 12GA shotgun (loaded with a round of #6 birdshot) and an unloaded S&W Model 686 .357 Magnum revolver. Shoot a steel “pepper popper” target (when you hit it it falls over), eject the spent shell (it was a pump shotgun), load the .357 with 4 rounds and engage 2 targets with 2 rounds each, then eject the spent shells, then run to a piece of carpeting and fire 4 rounds from an SAR (kind of like an AK-47 - semi-auto version) at two more targets. What a rush!!! That was a blast!
Stage 4… completely escapes my memory at the moment - suffering from CRS syndrome.
Stage 5 the scenario was that you were at a local park, went to the water fountain and came back to find your significant other on the ground and 3 muggers going after him/her. You had to fire at 3 targets in tactical sequence from your knees – we ran this three ways: once free-form, once strong hand only, and once weak hand only. I missed one of the targets completely with my left hand… gotta practice more weak hand shooting.
Anyway, it was a great morning. As I said before, I’ve been shooting with these folks for a couple of years now, so it was kind of a coming home in a sense… or going to Cheers, “where everybody knows your name”. Those of us who weren’t shooting stood around talking or watching the others shoot. Talking guns and gear, mostly.
So… if this sounds like fun to you, there’s a class on IDPA on August 27th at Riverside for beginners who might be comfortable just coming to a match or a practice… or you can come to the practices held on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month. It's a great bunch who will be more than happy to explain IDPA to you and suck in another innocent victim... Um... I mean, "get someone else interested in this great sport"!
Ross
IDPA is about using a pistol the way the way it was meant to be used – for close range combat against multiple targets. (go to http://www.idpa.com for more info).
I checked in and paid my $15 and signed my waiver (hey, there are live guns there, so just in case I die, I promise not to sue), and greeted the guys. I’ve been shooting IDPA at Riverside since we started to run these, so I know most of the guys. Eugene was one of our Range Safety Officers today, with his Israeli accent and his bright orange RSO hat. The other officers were Chris, (a Director of the club), Ken (who wrote the scenarios for today), Jon (a GOAL director) and Darius… my lawyer. (he was shooting a Sig-Sauer P226 – don’t mess with him; he hits what he aims at.)
We split up into 3 groups; there were 5 scenarios to run and we had 3 places to run them.
The first scenario was a weak hand shoot. Six targets in 2 parts. “The Bill Collector” has punched your strong (right) arm, so you have to defend yourself against him and his friends with the weak hand… and after disposing of him & his two friends, three more of his friends come at you. With your pistol in your weak hand (left for me), at the buzzer I had to engage one target with 2 rounds, run to cover while engaging a second target, then fire at a third target from behind a panel (that represented a tree or some kind of cover you’d find outdoors). After an administrative reload (that means that it didn’t count towards my total time), I had to engage 3 more targets from behind cover in “tactical sequence”. (as I leaned out from behind cover enough to see a target, I shoot at it. Basically, you shoot the targets you see as you see them.).
Second scenario was another two-stage one – “Encounter at the Stop ‘N Rob.” From behind cover, I had to engage 2 targets with two rounds in “tactical order” – shoot one once, shoot the other one once, then shoot each one once again. So it was shoot left-hand target once (this was still shooting with the weak hand), then the right hand one twice, then the left-hand one one more time and then both in the head. (scenario was that the two attackers were high on PCP, which is why the head shots). The next part was to shoot at 3 attackers while in the prone position, hiding behind a curb. This was supposed to be done in tactical order, but I goofed up and did it two rounds at each target instead of one round each… earned myself a procedural error for that. :-(
Stage three was a wild one – you started seated in a chair, blindfolded with your hands tied loosely behind you! At the buzzer, you shook off the rope around your wrists, pulled the blindfold down and ran to a table in front of you with a 12GA shotgun (loaded with a round of #6 birdshot) and an unloaded S&W Model 686 .357 Magnum revolver. Shoot a steel “pepper popper” target (when you hit it it falls over), eject the spent shell (it was a pump shotgun), load the .357 with 4 rounds and engage 2 targets with 2 rounds each, then eject the spent shells, then run to a piece of carpeting and fire 4 rounds from an SAR (kind of like an AK-47 - semi-auto version) at two more targets. What a rush!!! That was a blast!
Stage 4… completely escapes my memory at the moment - suffering from CRS syndrome.
Stage 5 the scenario was that you were at a local park, went to the water fountain and came back to find your significant other on the ground and 3 muggers going after him/her. You had to fire at 3 targets in tactical sequence from your knees – we ran this three ways: once free-form, once strong hand only, and once weak hand only. I missed one of the targets completely with my left hand… gotta practice more weak hand shooting.
Anyway, it was a great morning. As I said before, I’ve been shooting with these folks for a couple of years now, so it was kind of a coming home in a sense… or going to Cheers, “where everybody knows your name”. Those of us who weren’t shooting stood around talking or watching the others shoot. Talking guns and gear, mostly.
So… if this sounds like fun to you, there’s a class on IDPA on August 27th at Riverside for beginners who might be comfortable just coming to a match or a practice… or you can come to the practices held on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month. It's a great bunch who will be more than happy to explain IDPA to you and suck in another innocent victim... Um... I mean, "get someone else interested in this great sport"!
Ross
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