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Here is what to expect |
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These
pictures were taken at the regular monthly match of August 7, 2004.
They are designed to illustrate the overall procedures and
ambience of a match. For a more detailed view of safety and shooting
techniques, see the Techniques
section.
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| Before the match, shooters
assemble to check gear, load magazines, shoot bull.
IMPORTANT: guns may not be handled except in the
designated Safe Area. All guns must remain bagged or cased. In the
Safe Area, guns may be removed from bag/case for inspection, show
and tell or transfer to a holster. Ammunition must NOT be handled in
the Safe Area.
In this picture, the Safe Area is where the small knot of people
are at the white trailer.
At the shooters' briefing at 10am, the group is divided into
equal squads. Each squad goes off to start, each at a different one
of the stages.
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| The range is pleasantly
landscaped, with 5 shooting bays where the seven steel stages are
set up. (Two bays each house 2 stages for the total of seven.)
In this view, the first shooting bay is at the end of the field
in front of the low hedge.
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| Here is that first stage -
"Roundabout".
The stage consists of five 12" plates.
The furthest plates are 15 yards from the shooting position; the
nearest are 7 yards.
The middle and center plate is the designated "Stop"
plate and is 10 yards out.
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| The Range Officer (RO)
stands behind with the timer and gives you permission to "Load
and Make ready" at which time you may unholster/unbag your gun
and load it.
The starting position is: Standing in box, wrists above
shoulders, loaded gun in holster.
Unless you are shooting .22 when starting position is
"holding loaded gun at the low-ready".
The RO then asks "Are you ready?"; on your nod, RO says
"Standby" and the timer beeps for the start.
For a more detailed view of safety and shooting techniques, see
the Techniques section.
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| You then draw and fire at
the plates.
You try to hit each plate at least once, and finish when you hit
the designated "Stop" plate.
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| You do that another four
times for a total of five runs.
At the end of the five runs, the RO gives the command to
"Unload and show clear".
You drop the magazine, reverse the slide to allow the RO to
visually inspect the chamber; then you drop the hammer and
re-holster the gun.
For a revolver, you empty the cylinders and the RO inspects
before you re-holster.
Meanwhile, the scorekeeper tallies up your 4 best times for this
stage.
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Each "hit" on a plate makes a 'ding' and leaves a black
smudge.
At the end of each shooter's 5 runs, there should be five black
smudges on each of the five plates.
After the gun is cleared and holstered, we paint the targets for
the next shooter.
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| While a shooter is shooting
the five runs, the others in the squad hang out and socialize.
When all shooters in the squad have had their turn, the squad
moves on to the next stage.
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| After the official match,
folks often stay around and try some other guns used by fellow squad
members.
Here, Jessica, shooting 'Cowboy' for the match, tries out an Open
gun.
The cowboy shooters use 2 single-action revolvers.
The Open gun is a semi-automatic with optical sights and
compensators.
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| We use the stage layouts as
used at the Steel Challenge Championship matches.
The Stop plate for each stage is underlined with Red
The World Record time (WR) listed is the best average time over
the 4 runs recorded at the Steel Challenge Nationals -- year
recorded in parentheses. Remember that with any average some
individual runs may be faster.
See here for stage
diagrams and dimensions
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| Five to Go
WR 2.60 secs (2002)
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| Pendulum
WR 2.73 secs (2004)
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| Roundabout
WR 2.09 secs (2004)
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| Smoke and Hope
WR 1.84 secs (2004)
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| Speed Option
WR 2.66 secs (2004)
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| Showdown
WR 2.28 secs (2001)
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