Match Report: Copper, Lead and Wood Chips

Today we held our seventh monthly bowling pin match at Tucson Rifle Club. Fourteen people (besides myself) came to shoot, and eight of them brought a .22 along with their centerfire pistols. We changed the match format for this month. Instead of shooting qualifying times and then a handicapped best-of-three double-elimination tournament, everybody shot against everybody else once (except where I screwed up the scoring and had some people shoot against each other twice). Oh, and there were two ties that required reshoots.

We started the match at about 8:30, and went non-stop until about 1:30. That's a lot of shooting, ladies and gentlemen. (Hint: it shouldn't take that long! ;-)

So here are the scores, .22 Rimfire first:

Travis Higgins, Ruger MkIII: 7 wins (undefeated)
Elaine Tab, S&W Model 41: 5 wins
Cliff Reed, Kimber: 4 wins
Bill Tab, S&W Model 41: 3 wins
David Carr, Ruger MkIII: 3 wins
John Higgins, EAA Witness: 3 wins
Froilan Gutierrez, Ruger MkIII: 3 wins
Kyle Blecker, suppressed ?: 0 wins

Kyle had a lot of ammo trouble, but his gun sure was quiet!

Centerfire:

Kevin Baker, Kimber Classic, .45ACP: 14 wins (undefeated)
John Higgins, EAA Witness, 9mm: 12 wins
Clifford Reed, Norinco 1911, .45ACP: 10 wins
Jim Walters, EAA Witness, 9mm: 9 wins
Ken Cabrera, Sig 220, .45ACP: 9 wins
Jim Burnett, Clark Custom 1911, 45ACP: 8 wins
Bill Tab, Kimber Classic Target, .45ACP: 8 wins
Travis Higgins, Browning Hi-Power, 9mm: 7 wins
Rick Lavaty, 1911 (unknown), .45ACP: 6 wins
Joe Lancaster, Beretta 92, 9mm: 6 wins
Skip Blecker, Glock, 9mm: 4 wins
Larry Boykin, Rock Island 1911, 9mm: 4 wins
Elaine Tab, Kimber Classic Target, .45ACP: 3 wins
Froilan Gutierrez, Colt 1911 custom, .45ACP: 3 wins
Kyle Blecker, Glock 9mm: 2 wins

If you do the math, that's 28 rimfire matches and 105 centerfire matches for a total of 133 matches in five hours, or about one match every 2¼ minutes. We were busy.

I'd also like to say that this is the first match out of the seven we've held that I've won. Yeaaaa me!

Rick Lavaty won the prize drawing and at least got his gas money back, all $23 worth. Bill and Elaine Tab shared one .45 and one .22, and had to borrow guns to shoot against each other. Bill said he and Elaine went through about $200 worth of ammo for this one match, but it was better than "blowing it at the casino!" I can agree with that!

My tables are all shot up again, so it's time to rebuild them. Thanks to those who donated to the table fund! And thanks to everyone who helped set up, set pins, run the match, and especially tear down at the end! Special thanks to those of you who helped saw off pin tops for the .22 matches. That's a lot of work to do with your strong hand during a match.

Next month we're staying with the same format, but with one change - minor calibers will compete against minors, majors against majors, and the winners from each will compete against each other, best two-out-of-three for the title. That ought to cut down a bit on the round count and get us done a bit earlier. Plus, the match will start at 9:00AM instead of 8:00.

Sunday, December 12. Put it on your calendars!