Zak Smith
Member
Zak's Superstition Mountain Mystery 3Gun Match Report 2004 (SMM3G 2004)
I shot the SMM3G match for the first time last week. It was my second large match after shooting RM3G in Raton last summer. Skipping over all the overhead info you can get from http://www.smm3g.com , here's my perspective of the match.
I drove down to Mesa from Fort Collins CO on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. I stopped by TheWilderness in Phoenix and they fixed the velcro on my 5 year old belt for no charge while I waited. The hotel I was staying at was closer to Mesa than the shooting range, so I checked in there first, then headed over to Usery Pass Road and found the range.
After checking in, I started to review the stage booklet: 9 stages planned: two with long-range rifle targets to 300 yards, one stage of 20 slugs, one dark shoot house for rifle only, and many multi-gun stages.
Thursday afternoon turned from hottish to torrential rain, which put a damper on walking through stages and running the RO's, who were supposed to shoot the entire match on Thursday. I was in squad 17, and we started on Stage 8.
Thursday.
Stage 8. Pistol, Shotgun. "Loaf 'n' Jug"
In this stage, you start pumping gas into your car. On buzzer, you draw and engage four pistol targets, drop your empty pistol in the car, grab your shotgun from the trunk, and then engage 8 shotgun targets. Pretty straightforward, and no reloads needed.
[ link to larger image ]
[ link to larger image ]
Stage 9. Pistol, Shotgun.
Start holding a rubber chicken at knife-point. On buzzer, engage a bunch of pistol targets while going through two tunnels. Then ground your pistol, grab your loaded shotgun from the outhouse, and finish the stage. There were I think 12 shotgun targets including 4 popper-activated flying birds. Using a single-stack .45, I had to change mags once.
[ link to larger image ]
[ link to larger image ]
Stage 1. Rifle.
This stage was 18 rifle targets, with 15 of them in a dark shoothouse. It was quite dark inside, so it took 3-4 seconds for eyes to adjust so targets were visible. There was a fast strobe light operating in the house to disorient you. Start position was with your rifle on a table outside of the house, in your hands is a door battering ram. Upon signal, knock popper PP1 over with ram "entry device" pick up your rifle and enter the shoothouse.
The house was pretty dark. My rifle was set up with a TA11 ACOG. The tritium would not have had enough contrast through the reticle with the strobes and eyes still adjusting. I used 100mph tape to mount my surefire E2E on top of the TA11 so the target area was illuminated and the fiber optic system on the TA11 was lit. This produced an extremely bright reticle relative to the background light level. The flashlight made it much easier to discriminate shoot/noshoot boundaries.
My plan for this stage was well-rehearsed, but it went downhill fast 15 rounds into the shoothouse when an ejected case bounced off a barrel about 2-4" away and re-entered the chamber, causing a FTF on the next round. I burned some time clearing this in the dark.
The sighting system worked very well with the ACOG-mounted light. The only big change I'd make for the same situation again would be to cover the objective lens of the ACOG and just use the OEG effect (at 1x).
[ link to larger image ]
continued...
I shot the SMM3G match for the first time last week. It was my second large match after shooting RM3G in Raton last summer. Skipping over all the overhead info you can get from http://www.smm3g.com , here's my perspective of the match.
I drove down to Mesa from Fort Collins CO on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. I stopped by TheWilderness in Phoenix and they fixed the velcro on my 5 year old belt for no charge while I waited. The hotel I was staying at was closer to Mesa than the shooting range, so I checked in there first, then headed over to Usery Pass Road and found the range.
After checking in, I started to review the stage booklet: 9 stages planned: two with long-range rifle targets to 300 yards, one stage of 20 slugs, one dark shoot house for rifle only, and many multi-gun stages.
Thursday afternoon turned from hottish to torrential rain, which put a damper on walking through stages and running the RO's, who were supposed to shoot the entire match on Thursday. I was in squad 17, and we started on Stage 8.
Thursday.
Stage 8. Pistol, Shotgun. "Loaf 'n' Jug"
In this stage, you start pumping gas into your car. On buzzer, you draw and engage four pistol targets, drop your empty pistol in the car, grab your shotgun from the trunk, and then engage 8 shotgun targets. Pretty straightforward, and no reloads needed.
[ link to larger image ]
[ link to larger image ]Stage 9. Pistol, Shotgun.
Start holding a rubber chicken at knife-point. On buzzer, engage a bunch of pistol targets while going through two tunnels. Then ground your pistol, grab your loaded shotgun from the outhouse, and finish the stage. There were I think 12 shotgun targets including 4 popper-activated flying birds. Using a single-stack .45, I had to change mags once.
[ link to larger image ]
[ link to larger image ]Stage 1. Rifle.
This stage was 18 rifle targets, with 15 of them in a dark shoothouse. It was quite dark inside, so it took 3-4 seconds for eyes to adjust so targets were visible. There was a fast strobe light operating in the house to disorient you. Start position was with your rifle on a table outside of the house, in your hands is a door battering ram. Upon signal, knock popper PP1 over with ram "entry device" pick up your rifle and enter the shoothouse.
The house was pretty dark. My rifle was set up with a TA11 ACOG. The tritium would not have had enough contrast through the reticle with the strobes and eyes still adjusting. I used 100mph tape to mount my surefire E2E on top of the TA11 so the target area was illuminated and the fiber optic system on the TA11 was lit. This produced an extremely bright reticle relative to the background light level. The flashlight made it much easier to discriminate shoot/noshoot boundaries.
My plan for this stage was well-rehearsed, but it went downhill fast 15 rounds into the shoothouse when an ejected case bounced off a barrel about 2-4" away and re-entered the chamber, causing a FTF on the next round. I burned some time clearing this in the dark.
The sighting system worked very well with the ACOG-mounted light. The only big change I'd make for the same situation again would be to cover the objective lens of the ACOG and just use the OEG effect (at 1x).
[ link to larger image ]continued...
), pick up your rifle ammo, and run to the barrier/table. Pick up your rifle and engage 20-50 yard targets T2-T11 with your rifle. Ground your rifle, pick up shotgun and engage 9 targets on the way to the helicopter. Ground shotgun, grab pistol, and engage pistol I think it was 8 pistol targets.
