KGAS Labor Day Match

The newly formed King George Action Shooters held their first USPSA-style match at the Northern Virginia Gun Club on Labor Day, September 3. The match served as an introduction to the club members to the sport, and to show how these events could benefit NVGC members. Even as a non-sanctioned match, it was a good opportunity to get in some fun practice, and to support the new club. I had just participated in the Fredericksburg USPSA match the day before, but I sure wasn't complaining about shooting again so soon.

Sixteen shooters showed up, despite the threat of rain in the forecast. Everyone pitched in to help set up the four stages in two of the gun clubs' new pistol bays. After a safety and rule briefing we got down to shooting. Most of the shooters were new to the sport. We all shot in one large squad in order to best accommodate the many new shooters. Fortunately the rain held off for most of the match, with just a few intermittent showers.

I enjoyed the stages put together for the match. The first stage, "Fore!," had 6 paper targets and three small steel poppers. With three walls strategically placed, the short stage offered a quite a variety of options for the shooter. The next stage was the "classic" El Presidente, taken from the USPSA classifiers.

"Fore!

We moved to the next bay for "House of Barrels." This course of fire incorporated the Cowboy Action prop house. We started seated in the house, emerging to engage the first eight targets well-hidden among a line of barrels. Four more paper targets and a steel popper where waiting at the end. This was a fun stage as it offered the opportunity to move fast and still get off some narrow shots. I was pleased with my performance on this stage, even though I ended up with one miss. The last stage was another one taken from the USPSA classifier book, "3-V." I should have done well on this stage, I've gotten better at shooting around barricades, but alas, after the mandatory reload I ended missing the next target.

"House of Barrels"

After the match I realized I have some work to do on my reloading skills. All of my misses were immediately after a mag change. That tells me I need to take better care to recover the grip on the gun before shooting again. Interestingly, at the class a couple weeks ago I heard the instructor telling another student to take a brief moment to refocus after the reload. I've been doing a lot of mag change practice in dry fire, and I think it's helping, so perhaps it's time to focus now on the followup shots.

This was an enjoyable match and I'm glad I got the opportunity to go, and to learn from it. It was fun to shoot with friends, as well as to meet some new folks. I spent a lot of time talking with the new shooters about USPSA and IDPA, and shooting in general. I hope they'll continue to participate in USPSA matches after this introduction.

This is a great venue with new deep, and high bays, with close in parking. Dan and Elaine Chandler who run the matches at North Mountain Practical Shooters generously brought the steel targets that were used. And major kudos go out to Alex Melnichak who spearheaded the drive to bring USPSA to the club and worked tirelessly to organize this match. I wish Alex much success with his efforts and look forward to seeing many more matches put on by King George Action Shooters in the future.