Pistol League

Last night was my first night to show up for this summers league. I say show up, what I mean is I was there, but I sure didn’t show up when it came to score or times.

The way we normally run firing scenarios is a combination of accuracy, speed and tactical proficiency. The concept is simple: in a real fight you need to score hits quickly and maximize survivability. Those three components are built into nearly every drill we execute.

Last night was a mixed bag scenario. 3 metal plates at distances of 12 to 25 yards set on stands 4 ft high. The front plate was 6 in round the back two were 8in. 3 bad guys (cardboard human silhouettes) 17 to 25 yards one partially concealed behind hard cover.

The course of fire was to draw, engage and clear the plates, then move forward to cover (behind a barrel) and double tap each bad guy, in tactical order. The course required a min of 9 rounds to clear; forcing 1 reload, which could be tactical or emergency (shooters choice). A perfect score was 30 pts.

My utter humiliation started when I needed an average of 2 shots each to clear the plates, once I even had to reload to finish them. I posted my worse score of the night, a 24, before my buddy noticed that my rear sight screw had loosened and that my sights had drifted left by a large margin. We fixed that problem right away and my scores went back above 27. NO, I wasn’t paying attention to my rear sight, in a fight front sight, but I align with those back sights and I was throwing everything low and left. Afterwards I scored a few perfect 30’s and I did it in 9 shots.

Timing: worst total time of the night was 29 seconds best was 20 to clear the coarse. Best draw 2.22, best reload 5.35. When I draw its from a relaxed position, not “at ready” and the draw must be a draw and hit on the target, it does no good to be fast and miss. Anyway 2.22 is ok but I’d be happier at something south of 1.5. 5 seconds on a reload sucks, those need to be less than 2.0. I’ll work on it.

Our club is just for fun and we aren’t in competition against each other. But we do keep score and I’ve got a long way to go. For comparison a world class shooter like Mr. London can draw and clear 5 targets in five shots at under 1.88. If I was foolish enough to enter the state IDPA type shoots, the top guys in those easily clear the scenario in 6 to 7 seconds, even with the reload.