![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Match Grade
May. 5th, 2024 07:22 amOne of my new co-workers is on the board of a local gun club. (He's trying to get me to join the waiting list for membership, but NRA membership is a requirement, and fuck the NRA's bigotry and corruption with a dead rat wrapped in rusty barbed wire.) He's one of the organizers of their monthly competition events. Six months a year, he's running pretty standard IDPA/USPSA-style matches - defensive pistol, holster work, symbolic cover garment. It's all very stylized bullet golf.
In the off months, however, he's mixing it up a little bit. March was a BUG match: backup guns. Yesterday's was a combination BUG and shotgun (in separate stages - three each).
In theory, the BUG stages are for semi-autos or revolvers suitable for pocket carry or deep concealment. Each stage is designed for six rounds, no reloads. Also, because some of these bicentenarian motherfuckers have never heard of safety and shake like a dog crapping a peach pit, no drawing from a holster or pocket - each stage either starts with the gun in hand at low ready or staged on a table in front of the shooter.
I ran the March and May BUG events with a pocket revolver - double-action only, 2" barrel, iron sights. It's a long walk from my usual carry guns, but in the four months before the move, I shot almost 500 rounds with it in training, so I'm fairly comfortable with it. If I don't rush my shots too badly, I'm getting very acceptable accuracy at normal match or defensive distances.
It's been interesting to hover on the periphery of the side conversations at these matches and hear the complaints of the guys who don't actually shoot their light-duty carry guns that much (or at all). Sights are too small, can't get a good grip, trigger is too heavy, gun isn't reliable... okay, so the latter is not all that surprising in light of some of the bargain-basement weapon selections I've seen on display.
All of these are lessons I've had to learn myself, sometimes through expensive fuck-ups. It makes me highly aware of much I still don't know.
In the off months, however, he's mixing it up a little bit. March was a BUG match: backup guns. Yesterday's was a combination BUG and shotgun (in separate stages - three each).
In theory, the BUG stages are for semi-autos or revolvers suitable for pocket carry or deep concealment. Each stage is designed for six rounds, no reloads. Also, because some of these bicentenarian motherfuckers have never heard of safety and shake like a dog crapping a peach pit, no drawing from a holster or pocket - each stage either starts with the gun in hand at low ready or staged on a table in front of the shooter.
I ran the March and May BUG events with a pocket revolver - double-action only, 2" barrel, iron sights. It's a long walk from my usual carry guns, but in the four months before the move, I shot almost 500 rounds with it in training, so I'm fairly comfortable with it. If I don't rush my shots too badly, I'm getting very acceptable accuracy at normal match or defensive distances.
It's been interesting to hover on the periphery of the side conversations at these matches and hear the complaints of the guys who don't actually shoot their light-duty carry guns that much (or at all). Sights are too small, can't get a good grip, trigger is too heavy, gun isn't reliable... okay, so the latter is not all that surprising in light of some of the bargain-basement weapon selections I've seen on display.
All of these are lessons I've had to learn myself, sometimes through expensive fuck-ups. It makes me highly aware of much I still don't know.