Bust A Move
Bust a mover, that is. This month’s USPSA match at Miami Rifle and Pistol Club featured some new moving targets to challenge shooters.
My squad started on Stage 5, which featured one of the movers, an array of three targets mounted on a sort of trolley which rode down a sloped set of PVC pipe rails, creating a trio of crossing targets. What’s even better is that yours truly landed at the top of the order and got to be the first to try it out. What you’ll see on this stage is that I did get a little out of whack with my round count, but as I was shooting Single Stack major with 8-round magazines, I really needed to make sure I ended on the three-target mover with at least six rounds remaining. I also didn’t really make the best plan, as I simply engaged the last two steel (including the activator for the mover), and then posted up to the first position from which I could engage the mover. Later shooters had figured out that there was time to advance on the moving array and close the distance as it crossed, which was a better strategy…but I was the guinea pig on this one.
We then moved to the classifier, 13-1 “Disaster Factor.” I shot that one pretty well (for me) with a hit factor of 4.3989, which according to USPSA’s classifier calculator isn’t too far out of B Class. Well…a fellow can dream.
The next stage wasn’t what you would call “single stack friendly,” and rather than twist myself into knots trying to avoid standing reloads, I decided to keep it simple. After the seated start, I just moved straight ahead into the first position and shot everything I could see, including one standing reload. But that allowed me to reload moving to the next position on the right side, and engage four paper targets with a full gun, and then reload one more time moving to the left position to finish up.
The next stage featured some more movers, this time in the form of two paper targets affixed to bases that, when activated, caused the target to bob up over a low wall and then drop back down. The “heads” of the targets did remain visible at rest, meaning they must be engaged in order to avoid a penalty. I threw one miss on the movers, and then a miss/no shoot penalty on another target array, so this was my worst stage of the day.
The last stage was my best of the day. It featured three 2x12 planks as the only legal shooting areas, making foot placement critical, but otherwise it was a pretty wide open stage, and I finished it with a decent hit factor.
All in all it was a good day. There were only two of us shooting Single Stack, but my sole competitor was having trouble with his gun not liking his ammunition, and I really can’t count that as a win…I’d much rather have us both shoot the match of our lives, and let the chips fall. Besides, the best part is really just the good shooting fun! So why not bust a move to a match near you?
PS - I just caught it, but I apparently fat-fingered the end title in the video. I was 46 out of 64, not 84.
