My first 3Gun match

allen-1

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I've shot a fair bit of club level IDPA and USPSA, plus some sanctioned matches, but never shot 3gun before and I knew it was going to be different. I've shot an AR a bit, not as much familiarity with the Mossberg 500 I was using, and I was using my carry/competition pistol.

First stage I did okay with the rifle, then fumbled the shotgun so much that I ran out of time. I'm still advancing when I hear the buzzer go off and the RO yells FREEZE. I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong, I know I was CLOSE to the 180, but I knew I wasn't breaking it. Nope, I hit the par time because I wasted way too much time with the shot gun. Okay -- Lesson one - practice with the guns/gear I'm not really familiar with.

Second stage I nailed the first three targets with the rifle, ran to the second shooting position and the RO yells "FREEZE". I freeze, he tells me to unload and make safe. I do so, trying to figure out what the problem is. The problem is that my pistol's lying on the ground. Sh!t. And it's not as though he hadn't asked me when I was staging if I'd ever run with that holster. He's experienced and I'd told him quite clearly that this was my first match.

I got a special award :

DQ.JPG

Lesson two - retention holster for pistol.

So, I worked about 3 hours the night before, and another hour that morning helping setup, and I shot for a grand total of about 3 minutes... On the other hand, I learned a bit about the rules and the equipment, met a few more shooters, and I'll do better next month. Hopefully.
 
What holster?

Also, roll around on the ground (literally, lay down, roll left and right a lot) and do some burpees with your gear on when you change something.

how to do a burpee:

 
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Congratulations!! I got my first DQ Saturday too..shooting a ridiculous stage, I got half way through and one of the target arrays blew over. On my reshoot a barrel blew in front of targets when I was shooting rifle through the low ports on the board, I twisted myself enough to loosen the Velcro on my belt somehow. I transferred to shotgun and my whole rig fell on the ground and out popped my pistol into the sand!
 
Unfamiliarity with the shotgun is pretty common for a lot of people in 3 Gun. Nick Leghorn goes into a lot of detail on the TTAG website.

I personally found the shotgun to be pretty easy to load and shoot fast. I practiced loading the shotgun at home with snapcaps. I used an 870 Wingmaster. I also shot a ton of skeet, like 100 to 200 shells every week on Thursdays after work. The only thing that sucked for me and the shotgun was that I used Winchester military grade 00 buckshot. I felt that shit quick.

Get enough shotgun snapcaps to fully load your shotgun and its extended mag. Work on timing your pumping of the gun. It should sound like "CLICK-SNAP-SNAP", one sound rather than "click...snap...snap."
 
What holster?

Also, roll around on the ground (literally, lay down, roll left and right a lot) and do some burpees with your gear on when you change something.

how to do a burpee:

[/QUOTE Thank You sir for this timely and excellent information. I know I'll return to review your post often and it will bring me great joy each time I do.
 
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Unfamiliarity with the shotgun is pretty common for a lot of people in 3 Gun. Nick Leghorn goes into a lot of detail on the TTAG website.

I personally found the shotgun to be pretty easy to load and shoot fast. I practiced loading the shotgun at home with snapcaps. I used an 870 Wingmaster. I also shot a ton of skeet, like 100 to 200 shells every week on Thursdays after work. The only thing that sucked for me and the shotgun was that I used Winchester military grade 00 buckshot. I felt that shit quick.

Get enough shotgun snapcaps to fully load your shotgun and its extended mag. Work on timing your pumping of the gun. It should sound like "CLICK-SNAP-SNAP", one sound rather than "click...snap...snap."

There is a huge difference between being proficient with a shotgun in the traditional sports and being good with a shotgun in 3-Gun.

I don't shoot a lot now. But there was a time when I shot at least 3 rounds of trap and 1 round of sporting clays every weekend. I was very proficient and reasonably skillful.

With that background I have no trouble hitting the typically stationary (!!!???) targets reasonably fast. But none of those traditional games require you to reload on the clock.

You could be Ray Bassil and still suck at the shotgun stage in 3 gun because reloading on the clock is something that is particular ONLY to 3-gun. And I suck at reloading on the clock.
 
I've shot a fair bit of club level IDPA and USPSA, plus some sanctioned matches, but never shot 3gun before and I knew it was going to be different. I've shot an AR a bit, not as much familiarity with the Mossberg 500 I was using, and I was using my carry/competition pistol.

First stage I did okay with the rifle, then fumbled the shotgun so much that I ran out of time. I'm still advancing when I hear the buzzer go off and the RO yells FREEZE. I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong, I know I was CLOSE to the 180, but I knew I wasn't breaking it. Nope, I hit the par time because I wasted way too much time with the shot gun. Okay -- Lesson one - practice with the guns/gear I'm not really familiar with.

Second stage I nailed the first three targets with the rifle, ran to the second shooting position and the RO yells "FREEZE". I freeze, he tells me to unload and make safe. I do so, trying to figure out what the problem is. The problem is that my pistol's lying on the ground. Sh!t. And it's not as though he hadn't asked me when I was staging if I'd ever run with that holster. He's experienced and I'd told him quite clearly that this was my first match.

I got a special award :

View attachment 181133

Lesson two - retention holster for pistol.

So, I worked about 3 hours the night before, and another hour that morning helping setup, and I shot for a grand total of about 3 minutes... On the other hand, I learned a bit about the rules and the equipment, met a few more shooters, and I'll do better next month. Hopefully.


Which match did you shoot?
 
There is a huge difference between being proficient with a shotgun in the traditional sports and being good with a shotgun in 3-Gun.

I don't shoot a lot now. But there was a time when I shot at least 3 rounds of trap and 1 round of sporting clays every weekend. I was very proficient and reasonably skillful.

With that background I have no trouble hitting the typically stationary (!!!???) targets reasonably fast. But none of those traditional games require you to reload on the clock.

You could be Ray Bassil and still suck at the shotgun stage in 3 gun because reloading on the clock is something that is particular ONLY to 3-gun. And I suck at reloading on the clock.

…uh, that’s why I also emphasized practicing reloading at home with snap caps?
 
What holster?

Also, roll around on the ground (literally, lay down, roll left and right a lot) and do some burpees with your gear on when you change something.

how to do a burpee:



The bladetech I use for IDPA/USPSA. I need a retention holster.
One mentioned at the match, also mentioned here by dcmdon is the Safariland ALS, I'm looking at that now. Durpee huh? Very um, "informative" video.

Thank you.
 
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Safariland ALS for me.

Also, take the time to practice reloading the shotgun. That is what kills me. Slow as molasses.

I did practice, just nowhere near enough. And I totally forgot for a second that I had a shell carrier behind my mag carriers at about 7 o'clock. Absolutely need to work more with that shotgun. It's a mossberg 500 pump. My skeet gun down here is CZ drake over/under, so no cross-over.
 
.......and do some burpees with your gear on.......
yeah, right [laugh] i guess one has to finally admit they're too damn old for this stuff. shooting is like life, you come full circle...back to .22 bullseye, where it all began. [crying]
 
Thanks for the video. [thumbsup] Very informative, especially with the volume off.

What holster?

Also, roll around on the ground (literally, lay down, roll left and right a lot) and do some burpees with your gear on when you change something.

how to do a burpee:

 
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I run Bladetech revolution holsters exclusively on all my gear and for OC EDC. I've never had a gun fall out. What model?
 
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