Pins and Plates Shoot, What a Hoot!

[lead_her_fly]

My first time ever shooting one of these events. I usually shoot in/help run our local PPC league. I really enjoy shooting that type of course. The other shooting "games" haven't been on the radar because of time constraints. It's hard to work 50+ hours a week and reload and cast and shoot and have family time and go to church and ....... But this past Saturday I combined a few things. Like a date with the wife and shooting something new.

Our local Restoration Club Club Link (http://www1.freewebs.com/sjcrc/index.htm) had a "Pins and Plates Match" so I went.

I was using my P226 Sig with home cast and homemade lube #7 H&G over 3.9 gr. HP-38. There was one popper target that I had trouble with. I shot that thing 6 times on the first go round and finally got it to fall. I'll take the 45 ACP next time!

Anyway, it was a blast. Almost all of the PPC league showed up and no one really planned it that way. All in all a good time was had by all. I didn't win but was in the middle of the pack. My time on the first round was over 2 minutes. I failed to say that there were over 40 targets set at different distances. From 7 yards to 25 yards. You couldn't even see some of the targets until you knocked down some of the ones in front! My final time was 77 seconds. The winning time was 43 seconds and 42 shots. He had optics on his gun. The rest of us shot with open sights. The closest time to him was 50 something seconds. Then 58 for third.

It was great anyway. Winning is cool but man did I have fun just getting out to shoot!

[imashooter2]

I know just what you mean. I shoot steel, USPSA and ICORE. I never threaten the leaders, just a hack in the pack, but it always puts a smile on my face. Congrats on squeezing a good time into your schedule!

[dubber123]

I help run a small plates match at our club twice a month. A lot less targets than you guys, only 11. 5 poppers, and 6 plates, mandatory reload to keep things equal. We shoot a revolver and auto match, then just a plates rack for .22's after, so it's a full day deal. I beat my personal best times in revolver and auto, and missed beating my rimfire time by 4 hundredths of a second! Dang! It was a good day though.

[Ken O]

Thats my problem, I like 'em all. I shoot ISPC, IDPA, Steel challenge, pins, siloettes, etc. Just depends on what is available. Where I live now just has IDPA, but lots of rifle matches. I'm shooting about four days a week all summer, I could shoot at least a club match almost every day of the week within 35 miles, and I live in a very rural area. During the winter I shoot indoor .22 leagues three days a week at two clubs.
Its all fun, we pay a lot of money for our shooting irons, might as well use them all we can.

[lead_her_fly]

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r115/Sackettwannabe/course.jpg

Here is a picture of the course. It really was fun!

[dubber123]

Wow! thats alot of targets! We only have 11 to contend with. The range looks similar, but your pistol pit looks wider than ours. This shoot has turned out to be the biggest money maker for the club. Last year we shot outdoors all winter here in Vermont, and it seemed the worse the weather, the more shooters showed up! One of our biggest turnouts was on a -10 f day, with a lot of 20+ mph. wind! We shot from 8:30 to 4:00 p.m. , What a day!

[mag44uk]

At my club,in the UK,we have a shotgun shoot called the midsummer murder shoot.
This year we decided to have the mother of all shoots and ended up with 57,yes 57 assorted steel plates and poppers.
Start position was seated in the `privvy` collect shottie from above mantlepiece having collected your bucket of ammo on the way!
Plates were arranged over the full length of our 100 yard range.
Thats the most exercise we have had in years.
All good clean safe fun with guns!!
Tony

[scrapcan]

nothing like deadwood rolling around and the sound of hits on steel. Your range would be a hoot of a time.

[lead_her_fly]

Here is a link to my last round. Not fast but .... Notice the cloud? HP-38 and Lead Boolits and homemade lube!

Ya just gotta love it!

http://s142.photobucket.com/albums/r115/Sackettwannabe/?action=view&current=Skip_2.flv

[Buckshot]

.............About 18 years ago I worked for an outfit an done of the customer service gals had a brother who was a gunsmith. She found out I liked guns and invited me to an indoor steelplate shoot. At that time I worked 7-5 and the range was on my way home. I'd never seen or done anything like this before.

She explained it was 6 round steel plates and IIRC the distance was like 15 yards? She said you could shoot autos or revolvers and they had to be loaded with cast lead. Heck, the cast lead part was right up my ally. All I had at the time other then a Ruger BH 4-5/8 SA was a *** Norinco 1911 clone in 45ACP.

While it was no great shakes in the accuracy dept it seemed to be jam free so long as it was fed the Speer 200 gr flying ashtrays. All I had for ammo was lead 230 gr RN's loaded to full whump. I think it was a Wednesday evening at about 1800 when the match commenced. It was pretty informal as the shooters were taken in the order they'd signed in.

I was glad to see several dads and sons there. They posted the times/scores on a couple chalk boards with your signin number as your identifier. I was about 14th or so. You went into this room that had a big plate glass window so people could watch, and a guy with a timer was there. He said to insert the magazine with the slide back and muzzle resting on the table. At the beep, raise the pistol drop the slide and commence.

At the beep I did as instructed and deliberately aimed at each plate and fired as fast as I could. I think I may have had to shot one twice to knock it over. When I was done he gave me my time and said it wasn't too bad, but he suggested I might want to consider toning the loads down a bit :-) I did notice there was plenty of lead shrapnel flying around the room!

I went out into the lobby area with the time board and danged if I wasn't in like the top 5 or somesuch. It didn't take long for the rug to get pulled out from under me though, I thought I had this steel plate thing dicked, ha! I watched through the window for awile and saw theis young oriental guy shoot. You could hear the timer beep and his shooting just sounded like one rip of sound. I swear he was done before the 1st plate had fallen completely over.

Sure was a lot faster then my deliberate, "Blam, ....blam, .....blam, .....blam, etc. His was just a Brrtbrrtbrrtbrrtbrrt............ There were some others as fast as him. I'd gone outside to drink a soda and have a smoke and he was sitting on the edge of a flower bed, so I went over and told him that for what it was worth I was sure impressed by his shooting. He said he'd been doing it for awile. I told him what I used and then asked what he shot. He opened a case and produced a Tanfoglio Witness in 38 Super that was all tricked out. He'd been shooting very mild loads.

He explained to me it was eye hand coordination and practice, practice, and more practice. He said you don't aim at each plate, but instead you sweep across them in one smooth uninterupted motion. When the edge of the next plate appears your finger pulls the trigger. So that eventually it becomes even more a matter of time then anything else. At a certain speed you pull the trigger at so many seconds apart and never really see the individual plates but they just come across your vision in succession.

He said that if they left a plate out he'd probably fire a shot at where it was supposed to be if he didn't know about it beforehand. So it was a matter of how fast you could sweep across pulling the trigger at what were mere fractions of a second. With his pistol setup and the loads, there was no real recoil to speak of, and lift at the muzzle was taken care of by his grip and the brake.

Quite impressive to see.

lead_her_fly, I enjoyed watching your video!

...............Buckshot

[9.3X62AL]

Lead--

That course looks like Zombie Hunt 2012! Had to be a blast.

I absolutely love reaction targets--addictive as hell, a great way to get new shooters into the sport too. That instant feedback element really puts a hook into folks. It does me, anyway--and to most of the cops I trained as well. Addition of reaction targets got attendance boosted at quals time significantly.

[dubber123]

Lead--

That course looks like Zombie Hunt 2012! Had to be a blast.

I absolutely love reaction targets--addictive as hell, a great way to get new shooters into the sport too. That instant feedback element really puts a hook into folks. It does me, anyway--and to most of the cops I trained as well. Addition of reaction targets got attendance boosted at quals time significantly.

Definately right, the plates shoot at our club is the only thing that consistantly makes us money. People just like seeing things "move" when they shoot. We try and keep it very laid back, with few rules, and it seems to be working. Maybe too well, it kills 2 Saturdays out of every month for me!