So…back from the Single Stack Nationals. One of my favorite matches of the year. If you are a true competitor then this type of match juices you up! Like the old IROC series in NASCAR. Everyone is running essentially the same gun, heads up more or less. Not 5 or more divisions to dilute the competition. If you can hang in the top 10 or 16 at this match you are one hell of a shooter. I was fortunate to pull off my best finish yet with 3rd place behind TGO and Dave Sevigny, pretty solid shooters to say the least. The only slightly embarrassing part is Dave shot minor (unintentionally). Needless to say he shot pretty amazing to go minor and still finish so well, would have won the match had it not been for that.
I’m also proud at my penalty free match. My second National level match with no penalties, last time I did that I won! I shot pretty solid throughout the Single Stack Nationals, I had 2.5 bad stages which didn’t cost me the match but cost me second place for sure. No penalties but a blown reload on one stage and a couple extra shots that cost me extra reloads on other stages. Competition is tight at the top and it only takes a few mistakes to take you out of it.
I throughly enjoyed the match plus we had great weather which is rare for Barry. Thanks to all the crew, staff, RO’s, sponsors that made it all happen. Special thanks to Dave Williams from the Springfield Custom Shop for the amazing 1911 I was fortunate enough to win.
Now for the Revolver Nationals….yeah, I said it, Revolver Nationals. I was already up there so I thought what the heck I’ll give it a shot. I used to shoot a bit of revo back in “the day”. My performance was very poor but with 12 rounds of practice I guess I was expecting too much. To top it off I went minor at chrono. No excuse for that, it’s the first time I’ve ever had that happen. All that said however it was one of the more fun matches I have shot. Some friends and I had a great time entertaining our squad with our comedy of errors.
Two great quotes from the Revo match:
“No, I shot at it….I’m actually that bad!” (after an RO was trying to give an FTE to a squad mate on a wide open 12 yard target. He did shoot at it as we all attested and he was “that bad” :))
“This revolver stuff is fun, I think I’m going to switch to revo full time…..said no one ever!” (from yours truly)
Thanks as well to all the staff, many of the same folks, that made the match happen. I’ll for sure shoot it again if they put it on.
