When I wintered in the frozen wastelands, I always tried to shoot some qualifications out in the snow and cold and wind. When you carry a pistol for police duty or self-defense and you\u2019re working in weather that would give Nanuk of the North the shivers, you want to know you can run the gun under those conditions. Gloves affect that. So does altered range of movement due to heavy clothing.\u00a0 And, for fun shooting, I could generally get to an indoor range, even if the nearest match was an hour or three away.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Holiday Season finds me in the Deep South. With my teaching schedule complete for 2013 and work schedule reduced to writing and legal stuff, Significant Other and I have been able to play catch-up after a year of missing match after match because we had training obligations elsewhere by the time the tournament dates were announced.\u00a0 I\u2019ve discovered I\u2019ve gotten rusty.\u00a0 So far this month:<\/p>\n
Jacksonville, Florida: IDPA match. Nailed High Law Enforcement and First Master in Stock Service Pistol shooting a subcompact Glock 26 9mm, but got knocked down to second in that gun division by straight-shooting Expert Miguel Coles.\u00a0 Same venue, came in second again using the same pistol in a side match for little backup guns, a tenth of a second slower than Mark Few.\u00a0 Valdosta, GA IDPA Match: Won High LE, high geezer and the Stock Service Pistol division shooting a 9mm Timberwolf, Lone Wolf\u2019s clone of the Glock\u00a0 17, but came in second overall to John Strayer, who wielded a custom Springfield XDm 5.25 in Enhanced Service Pistol division.\u00a0 Valdosta again, combat shotgun match, came in second to that darn Strayer, both of us using the same slide-action Nighthawk Custom Remington 870 12 gauge against shooters with autoloaders.\u00a0 Valdosta another weekend for a steel match, with the little G26 capturing Compact class for me but finishing fourth overall behind Lee Ovaert, Lee Turner and Roy Backer. Shot a turkey shoot in McAlpin, Florida last week with the same 870; didn\u2019t win a damn thing but had a ball. Finished my shooting year with an IDPA match in Live Oak, FL where the little G26 won me the Stock Service pistol division and the LE and geezer titles, but still left me in third overall behind That Darn Strayer who took ESP with his Springfield, and Dave \u201cthe Blaze\u201d Blazek who captured Custom Defense Pistol division with a Les Baer .45.<\/p>\n
That was more recreational shooting in a month than the Evil Princess and I were able to get in all summer, and we enjoyed it immensely. Each event was a chance to mingle with good Shooter Folk.<\/p>\n
It reminded me I need to sharpen up some. I muttered to the Evil Princess after the last match, \u201cAlways the bridesmaid, never the bride.\u201d\u00a0 She looked at me in mock horror and exclaimed, \u201cI\u2019m with a man who wants to be someone\u2019s bride?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
That\u2019s my sweetie. She always knows the right thing to say\u2026kind of\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I wintered in the frozen wastelands, I always tried to shoot some qualifications out in the snow and cold and wind. When you carry a pistol for police duty or self-defense and you\u2019re working in weather that would give Nanuk of the North the shivers, you want to know you can run the gun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-competition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}