Hoosier/USPSA

Indiana USPSA Section Match Update

Posted on by Caleb

The match has been postponed until July 23-25th. For my out of state readers, we’ve received a tremendous amount of rain the past two weeks, and currently the range is under 3 feet of water in certain places. We have more rain on the way, and unless we plan on shooting with snorkels and boats then the match would be impossible and unsafe to put on.

DEEP WATER!

As you can see, it’s pretty bad. The guy in the picture is well over 6 feet tall…and that’s not the deepest water on the range. Here’s an email with updates from the Indiana Section Coordinator Jake Martens:

Here is a link to pictures so you understand the current conditions of the range.

Even if the water were to receed there would be no way that we could get stages built in time for the match. Plus the conditions on the actual bays will most likely be unsafe.

http://community.webshots.com/album/578001881iYKCnm

I have already received several responses back from competitors offering to help if needed for next month, and that they will be there for sure!!

It has been said before, but the shooting community is definitly full of truely amazing people!!

I have been in contact with Gary Stevens with regards to this as well. Gary was a big help in offering advice on how to proceed.

Again thanks for your understanding and patience. Trust when I say that this is the last thing that we wanted to. Several of us have been working on this match, the details etc since October of last year.

Atlanta Conservation Club, its board and Mike Thompson are great in saying “whatever it takes, we will have the match here next month”

Almost all of the staff have made schedule changes and have offered to be available for July as well.

It is great to be able to surround yourself with folks like this!!

Jake Martens
Indiana Section Coordinator
Match Director
JULY 2010 Indiana USPSA Championship
(t-shirts may have the wrong date, but it is a hell of alot better than saying “cancelled”)

If you have questions or concerns, please email me at [email protected] and I will get your questions to Jake ASAP. I’m very sorry for the people that may not be able to make that new match weekend, however I agree that “postponed” beats the hell out of “cancelled”.

On the bright side for me, this gives me a month to practice with the SR9c, and now we can include this match as part of the Quest for Master class!

Uncategorized

Chicks and machine guns

Posted on by Caleb

Hey look, actresses with machine guns.  Usually, when someone says that you’re bound to see lousy gun handling and all kinds of safety violations.  I was quite pleasantly surprised to see reasonable clothing and good attention to safety.  This also proves the point that guns are cool – look at those grins after shooting the M249.

USPSA

Speaking of the Indiana USPSA Section Match

Posted on by Caleb

For the first time (not counting Top Shot) in over a year, I’ll be shooting a semi-automatic pistol in competition.  As my warm-up for the Quest for Master Class, I’ll be shooting the Ruger SR9c in the upcoming Section Match.  But there’s a catch – the SR9c isn’t on USPSA approved Production gun list, so I’ll be shooting it in Limited 10…minor power factor.  What that means is that for every hit other than an “A” zone hit, I score less points than someone making Major power factor, and unlike Single Stack division I don’t gain a capacity advantage in the magazine.

This is going to be a real test of my skills – to finish anywhere not last place, I’ll have to push myself faster and harder than I have before, all while still shooting solid A-zone hits.  I’m excited to do this however – the chance to push the gun and push my abilities before I start the Quest for Master Class is something that I’m looking forward to.  I want to see exactly what this gun can do when I’m driving it as hard as I can, and a USPSA match is going to be the perfect place to find out.  Because I’m shooting Minor, getting A-zone hits is even more important, and to stay competitive if I start shooting C-zone hits I have to shoot them in 3/4ths the time of people shooting major to account for the scoring differences.

Goal for the 2010 Indiana USPSA Section Match?  Not finish last place.  Normally that wouldn’t be too much of a goal, but here – my 3rd USPSA match ever, shooting a new gun with new gear and shooting minor?  Anything but last place will be a good day!

Top Shot

Gun Nuts Tonight: Brad Engmann of Top Shot

Posted on by Caleb

That’s right guys, joining me tonight on Gun Nuts Radio is Brad “Hollywood” Engmann, a contestant on History’s reality competition series Top Shot.  Brad has taken his share of abuse lately for comments he made in the two most recent episodes of Top Shot, including the now infamous “I’m an IPSC Grandmaster” line.  Despite his commentary, Brad stepped up and won two straight elimination challenges, showing that everything else aside, he’s a serious competitor and threat on Top Shot.  Tonight at 9pm Eastern time we’re going to welcome Brad to the air at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts to talk about his experience so far on Top Shot.  We’ll be talking about his elimination challenges that he won, his relationships with his team members, and general Top Shot chatter.

Join me tonight at 9pm Eastern time at Gun Nuts Radio, live on the BlogTalkRadio Network to listen to Brad Engmann talk about his Top Shot experience!

Gunsite/Smith & Wesson

A good photographer can do wonders

Posted on by Caleb

More photos from Didrik Johnck, taken at the 2009 S&W Gunsite Writer’s Invitational Shoot.  Check out Didrik’s work and photos here – the man is a serious photographer and adventurer!

The man behind the rifle (which is an S&W M&P15-MOE) is Tom Benge, lead trainer for Cutting Edge Training.  Tom was also a guest recently on Gun Nuts Radio; he hosted and taught the low-light/laser portion of the event at Gunsite.

Speaking of low light and laser shooting, this is actually one of my favorite pictures from last year’s event.  While the characters are out of focus, the effect of multiple lasers on target can be clearly seen, and it’s pretty cool.  I certainly would not want to be a paper target standing down range from all of this.

I know I’m going to sound like a broken drum here, but I cannot over-emphasize how much easier the light and laser combo make hitting your target in a low light/night shooting situation.  When you light that target up with you light, all of a sudden you can see the sights again – or hit ’em with the laser and you can start cranking shots off before you’ve even mounted the gun.

As much as I’m a believer in “proper position on the gun”, sometimes you just can’t grab the rifle properly, and the Crimson Trace laser allows you to still take an aimed shot from a non-standard position.

I really like this last picture.  It’s from one of the positions on The Scrambler, a course of fire that requires you to use improvised field positions to engage targets up to 85 yards away. It’s meant to be shot with handguns, shotguns, or carbines, and is quite challenging.  However, I’m a big nerd, so when I see this picture all I can think is “I’m in ur base killin’ ur doodz“.

Thanks again to S&W, Gunsite Academy, Crimson Trace, Trijicon, and Johnck Media for putting on the event last year.  I’m still getting mileage out of it!

ammo

Trade your brass for cash

Posted on by Caleb

With Lucky Gunner’s Brass-4-cash program.  If you’re like me and forbidden from reloading due to past incidents involving fire and the near destruction of your dwelling, you now have a reason to save all that delicious once-fired factory brass you’re producing.

Here is a great way to reduce your cost of shooting! Instead of throwing away your spent brass, you can now send it to us and get credit towards your next purchase on our website. The process is VERY fast and easy!

Here is how the Brass-4-Cash Program works:

  1. Collect as much brass as you can after your next trip to the range (take a snow shovel and a broom and you will make a fortune)
  2. Fill out the simple online form below (our website will then generate an instructional shipment ticket for you to print)
  • Ship your brass to us (use your choice of UPS, FedEx, or USPS, whichever is easiest for you)

    • Lucky Gunner is offering this program to help out shooters reduce the cost of their ammo! If you look at their prices, you can really save some money if you’ve got a lot of .45 ACP brass sitting around (which I do) or if you have some solid gold bricks .380 ACP brass about the house.

    Top Shot

    Caleb Giddings on Top Shot

    Posted on by Caleb

    I was pretty happy with last night’s episode, finally had some face time!  However, I am once again heavily featured in the Anatomy of the Shot – The Long Bow breaking down Blue Team’s 3rd straight win.  Clearly there’s a future in color commentary for me.

    Here are the three episodes of Anatomy of the Shot that have aired so far, all of which I’m featured prominently in.

    The Long Bow Challenge

    Beretta Challenge: Relay Race

    First Episode: The Long Shot

    I actually really like the breakdown on the longbow challenge – that was a particularly good challenge and so far my personal favorite clip!

    Uncategorized

    This is not gunblogging

    Posted on by Caleb

    But hey, I saw something today that I just couldn’t deal with any more, so I decided to do something about.  Google has a special image/header up for the first day of summer, but it’s a well documented fact that they don’t do special headers for Veteran’s Day, 9/11, or Memorial Day.  However, they do let you customize your home page with your own background image.

    How you like them apples?

    If you’d like to use the original image, I’m more than happy to provide a link.  I took it at Connor Prairie’s Symphony on the Prairie 4th of July celebration.

    I also have one that’s a little more “Gasden-y” if you like.