It's Not the Arrow, It's the Indian

First sighter, 8. Dial ‘er down a bit, shooting a bit high. Second sighter, 10. Nice, got it now. First shot for score 10. I can handle this, feeling good. Second shot for score… 6 at 9 o’clock. Well, this match is over. Oh well, it was still a great time with some good shooting buddies. You’ll notice on the score sheet that I couldn’t seem to find the X. Last year, I shot one string, a 15 shot group, that was not much bigger than a softball. It wasn’t centered though, it was about 2 inches below and 2 inches right of the X. Had I centered the group, I would’ve scored 5 points higher than I did. It’s hard though, for me at least, to see a spotter at 600 yards and realize that I’m not just barely outside the X, I’m 2 inches outside it. When you’re 2 inches off the X with the center of your group, the wind will push you out into the 9 ring (unless the trigger nut is loose, which mine usually is, and then your in the 8 ring). When you’re centered, most of your shots will stay within the 10 ring if you watch the wind (which I don’t). This match the wind kicked my ass for sure, because I had quite a bit of horizontal stringing in my groups. When the wind is gusting and switching, only the guys who can really read it are going to shine. I am not one of those guys. No matter what the wind is doing though, I can guarantee if you center your group on the X your scores will be higher. Now I just wish I could convince myself to take my own advice. 

Finally, they’re available. California Competition Works has long been the standard for shotgun shell tactical loaders for 3-gunners. Safariland belts have long been the best way to carry your mags and holster for the USPSA shooter. Finally, Safariland hooked up with CCW and is offering their 4 round speed loaders with an ELS clip attached. For those who are unfamiliar with the Safariland ELS belt system, it’s awesome. Holes in the belt allow you to bolt the female side of the ELS clip all around the belt. The male side is then attached to all your magazine pouches, holster, and anything else you want on your belt. This is a dream come true for 3-gunners, since every stage of a match calls for a slightly different loadout. I highly recommend this set-up, it will allow you to tailor your belt to the stage, carrying everything you’ll need to get through and nothing you don’t.

Happiness is having lots of ammo… I’ve got some. On a limited budget, I’ve selected Winchester brass. Lapua would’ve been nice, but it’s simply not in the budget. I also picked a price-friendly powder in Ramshot TAC. The bullets aren’t cheap, Sierra Matchkings of the 175 grain variety, and I didn’t skimp on the CCI benchrest primers either. I’m hoping to send these guys flying towards an X-ring soon, well as soon as it warms up a bit anyway. The only thing good about February is almost nothing is in season and it’s too cold to do anything but get some reloading done. I’m looking forward to using my MidwayUSA Pro Series Shooting Mat this year too. It’s twice as thick and a lot bigger than the old mat, and only a little more expensive. It’s got some fabric pockets at the front for pre-loading a bipod too, which I think will help with consistency. If nothing else, I should be a more comfortable last place finisher with the extra padding. Post the new gear you’re trying out this season.

 3-Gun competitors know that belt real estate is at a premium on some stages. There are stages that require reloads with all 3 guns. If you shoot poorly like me, this means multiple reloads on all 3 guns. You can see in the photo above I recently upgraded to the new Safariland ELS system to help solve this problem. The ELS system is pretty cool. You basically line the front of the belt with the female side of the clip system. All of Safariland’s competition magazine pouches are available with the male side already attached. This means I can custom configure my mag pouches for each stage, quickly and easily. As I said, AR-15 and double-stack pistol mag pouches are available from Safariland ready to go with the ELS system already installed. The shotshell caddies, on the other hand, are another story but I’ll tell you more about those later. For now, I’ll just say that the ELS belt is lightweight and comfortable, and with the ELS clips it’s extremely modular. Give it a try, it will make your stage prep-time shorter and less frustrating.

Competitive shooting is hard on firearms. Most every competitor has a cleaning kit with them, but not everyone has tools. Now, I’m not suggesting you trailer the lathe to every match, but there are a few things that you can bring along to keep you going or get you back in the action if something goes awry. So, what is in my tool box? Well, you can see cleaning equipment, like a bottle of Butch’s Bore Shine, Gun Butter lube (which is absolutely awesome stuff), patches, brushes and jags. The most important part of the cleaning gear though, is the solid cleaning rod. The one I use “on the road” is a standard military 4 piece steel rod. I have Boresnakes in there too, and for quick cleaning they can’t be beat. But if you split a case, or stick a round hard in the chamber, there’s not a flexible cleaning rod in the world that’s gonna cure what ails you. I also carry a standard AR-15 trigger group with springs. I use an AR-Gold  trigger in my AR, which is one of the new fangled one piece units. It is a fantastic trigger, and has been nothing short of outstanding since the day I installed it. However, it is a mechanical piece, and therefore the possibility exists that it may fail at some point. The standard military trigger is a back-up, and with 6+ years experience pulling one of those creepy, heavy, crappy things, I could adapt and get through a match with it if I had to. Other stuff I bring along includes needle files (I once had to file down the tips of all my .223 ammo because I failed to make sure the  OAL jived with my magazines, what a pain), picks and punches, a small hammer, needle nose pliers, shop towels, AP brushes, a choke tube wrench, anti-sieze, Loctite, and the discerning craftsman’s best friend, zip-ties. There are many things I lack, I know. My kit is basically built around the things I’ve needed and didn’t have in the past, so this is not intended to be a list of things you ought to bring along. It’s just a suggestion to keep track of the things you wish you’d had, and put them in a box that you can take with you next time. I’ve been a hero at matches in the past because I had this or that, which saved somebody’s bacon. They sure won’t remember my prowess, but they might remember my preparedness.

Shooting off the ground is what F-Class competition is all about. The ground, however, is not always your friend at a match. I shoot off a Harris 9″ to 13″ bipod, and a Caldwell rear bag. Beginner’s equipment for sure, but it works well enough. The only big issue is the height (or lack thereof) of the rear bag. With a relatively tall bipod, I can’t always rest the stock in the rear bag. Often, I have to squeeze the ears of the bag together and rest the stock on the very top of them to get the muzzle down enough to be on target. This, unfortunately for my pride and scores, is not the optimal configuration. Ideally, you’d be able to rest the stock solidly in the bottom of the ears. So, just buy the shorter version of the Harris bipod, right? Well, yes, that is technically the right answer, but I am cheap by nature and broke by the grace of the economy. Instead of investing another hundred bucks on a bipod, I used a chunk of 1x that I had lying around. Cut to length and sanded smooth, they made pretty good bag spacers, lifting the bag about 1″ each. The problem was, that once I applied a finish to protect the wood, they became a bit “slippery” if I needed to use both stacked on top of each other. So, I dug around and found a roll of skateboard tape that I use on pistol grips from time to time (because I lack the skill and patience to stipple or checker metal). With two strips of tape on one side of each, they got a lot less “slippery”. Since these are tactical bag spacers, and I’m a zombie hunting sniper and all, I painted them camo so they wouldn’t give my position away. This was after a few coats of some Minwax spray to seal the wood of course. Now I can raise the rear bag up to the right height, making my hold a lot more consistent and stable. So, if you’re cheap or broke or both, and you need a little more junk in the trunk on the firing line, bag spacers can be cheap and easy to make. If you’ve got money or brains or both, just buy the short Harris to begin with.

I shot my first two 3-gun matches in the Tactical Iron class. I used a borrowed Colt HBar with an A2 upper. Pretty standard rifle, and despite the exquisite form shown above, pretty average scores. Now my scores are still average, but I saved up enough money to enter the ultra-competitive Tactical Optics class for my 3rd match. I can’t say that I shoot better due to the scope, but I am faster on long rifle steel. The thing is, I’m no better off for switching really. I was just as competitive in Irons as I am in Optics, maybe even more so due to the much smaller size of the class. I say all this to let folks new to 3-gun know that they don’t need an optic to shoot their first 3-gun match, or even at all. For young guys and gals with good eyesight, Tac Iron may very well be the best bet to go home with a good pick off the prize table. So, if you have a rifle, but are short on funds for the optic, fear not. There’s a class just for that. You can shoot what you have and gain some valuable experience in the process. Now, if you decide to go Tac Optic, I do recommend the scope I use. It’s a Burris Xtreme Tactical XTR 1-4x. It’s got a sweet reticle for 3-gun, designed my a friend of mine.

When I first started shooting 3-gun about 5 years ago, most folks were loading their shotguns strong-hand. Then, the really good guys started flipping the shotgun and putting the buttstock on their strong-side shoulder to shove shells into the magazine tube. I thought, “wow, this is like a quantum leap here”. I dropped fewer shells because I could “look” the shells into the magazine, and it was faster than fumbling up underneath the trigger guard. Of course, I was shooting an 1100 at the time. Then, I watched as Robbie Johnson filled his magazine tube in about 6 seconds weak-hand, while keeping the Benelli shotgun in his shooting shoulder. Again, quantum leap… Now that I’ve made the switch from the 1100 to the Benelli M2, I’m practicing weak-hand reloads. But, when I was loading strong-hand, I got what has to be the best set-up for loading strong-hand on the planet. It’s called the Angled Shell Chest Carrier from 3-GunGear.com. Mark Buchanan makes some extremely nice stuff, and I used the Chest Carrier for the ridiculously shell intensive “shotgun circus” stage this year at the FNH match. I’ve never seen elastic like what is used on this rig, but it is stong and very tightly woven. I’d suggest storing the rig with shells in it, I’ve had mine loaded for about 3 months now and it still holds shells perfectly. It seems like most guys I see shooting the 1100 are loading strong-hand. I think this has to do with the way you have to engage the carrier latch on the 1100 to load the magazine. I tried, on several occasions, to load my 1100 weak-hand with very poor results. The Benelli, on the other hand, I can load weak-hand without a problem. Anyway, if you’re shooting an 1100 (and can’t load it weak-hand like I couldn’t), and you need an ignorant amount of shells because you miss a lot like me, (or it’s just a really long shotgun stage) try out Mark’s stuff. You won’t be disappointed.

 The guys with the $2,000.00 Browning Citori’s probably think I’m crazy, but I think skeet is a great way to practice for the flying targets we’re seeing more of at 3-gun events. For those of you who are sporting clays aces, hitting the usually close, fairly slow flyers we’re starting to see in 3-gun is a breeze. For me, it’s guaranteed failures to neutralize. Now, my 3-gun shotgun is just a bead sight so I’m not arguing, like some have, that since 3-gun is a tactical sport, shotguns ought to have rifle sights and generally be used like a short-range rifle in the matches. I’m fine with aerial targets in 3-gun, I just wish I could hit the damn things. The “flipper” clays, the kind that flip straight up when you knock down a steel popper are pretty easy. But the last few matches I’ve been to had hard crossing targets thrown in. Again, I don’t have ghost rings getting in my way, I just really like to stop my gun when I pull the trigger for some reason. The thing I’ve found to help with that is skeet. It’s fun, it’s fairly cheap, and it forces you to swing the gun and follow through and think about lead. The aerial targets at the matches I’ve been to have been similar in distance and speed to skeet targets. Sometimes they’re coming straight at you, sometimes they’re going away more like trap, but for the most part, I think skeet is the best clay game to shoot if you just want to sharpen up your shotgun swingin’ skills before a 3-gun match. Skeet fields are everywhere, and you should be able to shoot 25 targets for under 10 bucks most places. If you don’t have a skeet range close, you can throw clays from inexpensive hand throwers, or small trap machines like this one. If you’re throwing your own, make sure you set up some crossing shots to work on lead, not just smashing slow straight-aways. Skeet is a pretty fun deal in its own right too, and I’d like to shoot more of it. For now though, it’s just a means to an end, hitting more of those damn thrown targets at 3-gun events.

The 2010 Shooting Industry Masters was held at the Heartlands Shooting Park in Grand Island, Nebraska. Most of you probably know that Grand Island is also the home of Hornady, who really helped make this event a great one. The facility was outstanding, the courses of fire were challenging and fun, and the ROs and staff were great. This was my first official 100 round sporting clays experience. I shot it with my Benelli M2 Field, extension tube and all. It was a humbling course, and I shot a miserable 55 out of 100, but it was a hoot. The match included rifle, pistol and shotgun events, with side matches. FNH had a 3-Gun stage, there was a cowboy action stage and the skeet fields were open for business. It was really a great event, with some great companies, people and products honored at the Academy of Excellence Awards. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to represent MidwayUSA, and I hope to do it again in the future. The caliber of people in this industry never ceases to amaze me.