Quantico USPSA Match - Gunfire and Cicadas

It was a tough weekend for practical shooters in the area. I know of two matches that had to be cancelled due to poor range conditions from the heavy rains last week. Fortunately, I had signed up for the Quantico Shooting Club match, which came off as planned. This Sunday's match was a classifier match with 6 USPSA Classification stages, and just one field course.

Two of the stages, "Night Moves" and "El Strong and Weak Pres" required single handed shooting. The latter was especially challenging as the three targets all fanned out from behind a single no-shoot target. Not sure if it's indication of the challenge involved, but by time our squad shot this one, our last stage of the match, the supply box had been emptied of white pasters! And, if there's a lesson to be taken away from the match, it's that I really need to work on my strong hand and weak hand only shooting.

I didn't hit this no-shoot.

The lone field course was a 32 round stage with paper targets and steel plates hidden, quite well in places, among copious walls and vision barriers. Several targets were visible only through narrow openings. Shooting the stage involved a lot of bobbing and leaning back and forth to see all the targets. The final two targets were placed beyond a building and could only be engaged by lining up the shots through openings in opposite walls. Imagine standing on your front porch and shooting through the front window and out the back door. It was a very fun stage to shoot, and I was very happy to keep my plan in mind so as to not miss shooting any targets.

There are targets are back there. Somewhere.

It was a noisy day on the range too. There were busloads of Marines shooting on the next range over, and letting off large barrages of gunfire which drowned out conversations at times. The 17 year Cicada "swarmageddon" was still going quite strong on the base, and their amorous song was a constant presence. They were also frequently found hanging on targets, and people. I even pulled one out of my range bag.

Alas, I never got into a good groove with my shooting and I did not put in a good performance. I think just one of the classifiers will help my percentage. Nonetheless, it was a fun time and I enjoyed the time shooting and chatting with friends. There's always the next match...