Well, the 1740 had its first taste of competition today.
After four pistol courses at my monthly IPSC match, we set up for a shotgun course. Everybody went to get their shotguns and placed them on the rack. Well I went to get mine and I got plenty of stares. A few guys knew about it and couldn't wait to see what it could do. A few others had never seen such blasphamy in their entire lives. Another group said it'd be perfect for a mad-max scenario.
The course of fire was pretty interesting, since we had to "breach" a door. The door looked like this.
It was spring loaded, so when that board broke, it flew open and you entered through it and began to engage targets. The targets were two poppers, two plates, and I think 6 or so clay pidgeons. You started with 6 rounds in your gun. In retrospect, I should have reloaded to max capacity when the buzzer sounded.
Anyway. I messed up when positioning my extra rounds. I had practiced with them simply in my pocket. Well I decided last minute to stuff them between my pants and my belt. Dumb mistake. I went to reload after breaching the door and my hand went straight for the pocket. That made me lose some seconds.
I cannot reload a shotgun very fast. I had never been timed on this kind of shooting before, so I was nervous and made a few mistakes. But I did hit all the targets on the first round, and I only got a "no-hit" on one clay because it was behind a barrel. I couldn't even see it from where I was.
Even though it wasn't a perfect run, I still got out of there faster than some guys. It took a few of the guys 6 rounds to get through the door! I blasted through it with one trigger pull, but it was held on by a small bit of wood. One blast from the right barrel and it was done for.
It was a very fun little side-match. I had to leave after I shot because back home there was a very large dog in my house that I'm sure had to use the restroom.
One thing I thought was interesting was the amount of malfunctions some people had with their shotguns. Mine didn't have one hiccup! I was so proud. Everyone cheered me on, and then promptly hushed when both barrels went off at the door.