My wife and I competed in the "couples shoot" at the Woman's Outdoor Sports Association's 7th Annual Outdoor Challenge yesterday. They had a "Women's only" shot on Saturday, but we decided to wait until the couples shoot on Sunday so we could both shoot.
The event was a lot of fun and we both had a great time. The association provided all the guns and ammo. They had a mandatory orientation at the start where the shooters were checked out on the four guns in use for the day. They had Sig 226's in 9mm for the close range steel silhouette event, S&W 686's with .38's for the water cup event, Smith M-617 .22's for the moving wheel stage, Ruger Mk. II .22's for the falling plates and Smith M-617's again for the bowling pins.
Scoring was interesting: You were given a specified number of rounds and if you "cleaned" the base event (knocked down all the pins, plates or water cups), you could then use any remaining rounds to shoot at a small "C 'n C" target for bonus points. For example, we had 20 rounds in two magazines for the Ruger .22 in the falling plates stage and since there were only 10 plates, you could get as many as 10 bonus shots at the target for a possible score 110. The only stages without bonus points were the steel silhouette and the moving wheel stage with a small "C 'n C" target on the outer edge of a moving cardboard wheel.
Marie and I scored almost exactly the same most of the day. The exceptions were at the water cups stage where she aimed a little too high and left one of the ten cups standing at the end (and couldn't shoot for bonus points) and then at the last stage we shot, the @#%! moving wheel stage. Right before I shot that stage, they put up a new target and cardboard backer. This helped because even though I missed all the moving shots (the target didn't start moving until you shoot it once), I could see that most of my shots were just in front of the target. This meant I was leading it too much. I told Marie that you really didn't need to lead the target, just shoot when it was in your sights. She did just that and hit it 6 times for 54 points!
Thanks to Marie's score on the moving wheel, as a team we wound up coming in first in our division! She also made up her deficet from the water cups to beat out my personal score by 5 points for bragging rights!
We're already looking forward to next year and figuring out the best way to practice for the events. We need to spend some time shooting at really small targets (the size of a playing card) and relatively short ranges.
I'm glad we found this event. We used to shoot at a somewhat similiar event, known as the "Caboodle Shoot," in Mt. Pleasant, but the original range quit hosting that event a couple years ago. My home range picked up the event last year, but they eliminated the .22 division and modeled it more closely on IDPA type events.
The Women's shoot was fun for Marie especially because unlike IDPA type stuff, there were no time rankings, you didn't have to draw from a holster or use cover, etc. It was just a straight up shooting gallery type shoot at reactive targets. Watching things explode or fall down is always fun!
Rob
The event was a lot of fun and we both had a great time. The association provided all the guns and ammo. They had a mandatory orientation at the start where the shooters were checked out on the four guns in use for the day. They had Sig 226's in 9mm for the close range steel silhouette event, S&W 686's with .38's for the water cup event, Smith M-617 .22's for the moving wheel stage, Ruger Mk. II .22's for the falling plates and Smith M-617's again for the bowling pins.
Scoring was interesting: You were given a specified number of rounds and if you "cleaned" the base event (knocked down all the pins, plates or water cups), you could then use any remaining rounds to shoot at a small "C 'n C" target for bonus points. For example, we had 20 rounds in two magazines for the Ruger .22 in the falling plates stage and since there were only 10 plates, you could get as many as 10 bonus shots at the target for a possible score 110. The only stages without bonus points were the steel silhouette and the moving wheel stage with a small "C 'n C" target on the outer edge of a moving cardboard wheel.
Marie and I scored almost exactly the same most of the day. The exceptions were at the water cups stage where she aimed a little too high and left one of the ten cups standing at the end (and couldn't shoot for bonus points) and then at the last stage we shot, the @#%! moving wheel stage. Right before I shot that stage, they put up a new target and cardboard backer. This helped because even though I missed all the moving shots (the target didn't start moving until you shoot it once), I could see that most of my shots were just in front of the target. This meant I was leading it too much. I told Marie that you really didn't need to lead the target, just shoot when it was in your sights. She did just that and hit it 6 times for 54 points!
Thanks to Marie's score on the moving wheel, as a team we wound up coming in first in our division! She also made up her deficet from the water cups to beat out my personal score by 5 points for bragging rights!
We're already looking forward to next year and figuring out the best way to practice for the events. We need to spend some time shooting at really small targets (the size of a playing card) and relatively short ranges.
I'm glad we found this event. We used to shoot at a somewhat similiar event, known as the "Caboodle Shoot," in Mt. Pleasant, but the original range quit hosting that event a couple years ago. My home range picked up the event last year, but they eliminated the .22 division and modeled it more closely on IDPA type events.
The Women's shoot was fun for Marie especially because unlike IDPA type stuff, there were no time rankings, you didn't have to draw from a holster or use cover, etc. It was just a straight up shooting gallery type shoot at reactive targets. Watching things explode or fall down is always fun!
Rob
