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Shooter vs. Shooter "Bowling Pin" style pistol competition

6K views 21 replies 10 participants last post by  Roper 
#1 ·
Hey everyone,

I wanted to let you all know about a fun little event that I'm organizing. Anyone can email me at the address listed below if they have questions. Hoping to get a good turnout and see you out on the range!

Shooter vs. Shooter "Bowling Pin" style pistol competition

Double elimination tournament with a cash prize for the top 3 finishers! All Skill levels welcomed!

How it works:
Two shooters come to the firing line where they will have a table in front of them. They will be instructed by the Range Officer to load their firearms and make ready (chamber a round). The starting position is low ready with the muzzle touching the table and finger off the trigger, outside of the trigger guard. At the signal, the shooters will raise their firearms and engage 7 targets. The targets will be foot-long wooden 2x4s on a wooden stand with last target being a wooden 2x4 popper. The first shooter to knock all their targets off their stand and drop their popper will win the round and advance to the next round. Being double elimination, the losing shooter will move to the loser's bracket and have a second chance to reach the finals and win the tournament. Because we are using 2x4s instead of bowling pins, any caliber from .22 to .45 should work fine. A shooter could go through 10 rounds with a minimum of 7 shots per round, you'd probably want to bring at least 100 rounds of ammo to be safe along with your favorite semi-auto or revolver. We will run a "cold range" which means firearms will remain unloaded in a holster or case until the shooters are at the firing line and instructed to load. We do, however, encourage shooters to have magazines and speed loaders loaded before they are called to the line. All skill levels and anyone over age 18 are welcomed.

When:
October 26, 2013 - Shooters arrive at 6:00pm, shooting starts at 6:30pm

Where:
Sportsman's and Lion's Club Range in Pleasant Grove. 610 E Center Street, basement entrance on the west side of the building

Cost:
$10 - pay when you get there

What you need to do:
Register by sending an email to groundswellinstruction@gmail.com... We really need to know who's coming.

Why:
Because it's way fun and it would make a sweet date night… and you could show off in front of your girlfriend or wife… or boyfriend or husband… and be crowned the greatest shooter in the world, or at least along the Wasatch Front. Actually, you'd just be the best shooter out of the people who show up. Either way, it's gonna be fun!
 
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#10 ·
gskip33 said:
This sounds like a lot of fun, but I feel that someone running a 22lr would have a huge advantage over someone with a 45.
Would there be a way to fix that? Maybe make a centerfire division and a rimfire division?

Edited to fix autocorrect.
I see what you're saying. A centerfire and rimfire division could make sense but it's a slippery slope because then someone says let's have a semi-auto division and a revolver division, or let's limit magazine capacity to 7 rounds or limit trigger pull to no less than 5lbs. or no magwell extensions or an optics division versus open sights or... well you know what I mean. I think it's the same thing everyone tries to figure out with IDPA or USPSA.

I think it needs to be "run what you brung" for now.

And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure if we are going to have 5 people or 50 people show up. With a low turnout, various divisions would muddy the water.

But I did test out the target set up with my Glock 17 and my Glock 23 with an Advantage Arms .22LR conversion just to see how the targets reacted when hit by a .22 versus the 9mm. For fun I was using my shot timer and my times were pretty close on both guns - just gotta get the recoil management dialed in. :wink:

But if we get this thing going where we have enough people coming out, maybe we could look at some various divisions.

I'm hoping to do one of these every other week.
 
#11 ·
manithree said:
Snurd said:
manithree said:
Sounds fun. Is there a minimum age? I'm not worried about being too young, myself, :D I'm just wondering if I can bring my son (13).
In the OP it says anyone over 18.
Doh! How'd I miss that?
Actually, I wonder if having the minimum age set at 18 is too high. I'd like to make this as fun and welcoming as possible for everyone. I wonder if age 12 and older with the parent being there at the firing line acting as a "supplemental range officer" would be reasonable. Main thing I worry about is the shooter keeping the gun pointed down range and the finger off the trigger until sights are on target. Then of course, safe loading and unloading and general firearm handling.

I'd be curious to hear some opinions - especially from RSOs / Instructors or anyone who has directed matches before.

Or, if I get a commitment from any other certified RSOs to come and help, I'd feel better about lower the age. I think we'd need to waive the entry fee for someone willing to help..
 
#12 ·
This sounds like fun. I'd definitely be interested.
 
#14 ·
Tenuki said:
Sounds like great fun, I would totally be down, but I'm already shooting the UDPL match that day and I won't have time to pull both. See you at the next one!
I'm doing the UDPL match too that day. I was afraid of the conflict with UDPL but it was the only day I could get the range reserved. It's going to be a long fun day of shooting for me - which I'm excited about.

It's looking like the range is pretty well booked up on weekends in November so I'm going to organize one on a weeknight. Hopefully, enough people would still be able to make it out to make it worthwhile. I'd like to have this evolve into something we can do on a regular basis.
 
#16 ·
Roper said:
Actually, I wonder if having the minimum age set at 18 is too high. I'd like to make this as fun and welcoming as possible for everyone. I wonder if age 12 and older with the parent being there at the firing line acting as a "supplemental range officer" would be reasonable. Main thing I worry about is the shooter keeping the gun pointed down range and the finger off the trigger until sights are on target. Then of course, safe loading and unloading and general firearm handling.

I'd be curious to hear some opinions - especially from RSOs / Instructors or anyone who has directed matches before.

Or, if I get a commitment from any other certified RSOs to come and help, I'd feel better about lower the age. I think we'd need to waive the entry fee for someone willing to help..
I wish I could be there, but I'm already committed for this week and will be out of town for most of November. I am an NRA certified RSO and would be happy to help as my schedule permits. I also know some other RSOs who would probably enjoy participating.

I like the idea of lowering, or eliminating, the age requirement, with proper waivers and supervision. I have met kids as young as six that would be fully competent for this kind of shoot. I also know people much older who I wouldn't want near the firing line, but that's another story. Anything we can do to promote shooting sports with younger generations is a good thing.
 
#18 ·
All except for the (not unexpected, but public) finding out how bad I suck, it was a LOT of fun.

Roper ran it safely and professionally. It was simple, but very engaging. I haven't lost all desire to go Fun Shoots at Rangemasters, but this was more relaxed and fun. I'll go again if he does another one.
 
#20 ·
After Action Report:

I think overall it was a success. I was expecting more people based on emails I had received but since we had a smaller group, we were all able to shoot more and we all know, shoot more = better.

We had 12 people come so we did a practice round where everyone had a chance to shoot against someone as a warm up. Then we ran two tournaments with the winners of the two tournaments having a final shoot out. After that, some of us still had some time and ammo so we hung around and shot some more.

Even though I would have liked to see more people show up, I think we all had fun and I'm glad everyone had a chance to shoot more than just a couple matches.

I'm planning on doing this same type competition again but the next event is going to be different. I'm putting together a .22 rifle "poker shoot". I'll start a new thread but the overview is this: we have a target made up of 52 cards, faces showing with 1/2 inch dots on them. We draw 5 cards from an actual deck. We then have the chance to turn in whatever cards we don't want, then shoot at the cards on the target that we want to replace the cards we turned in and whatever cards we hit completes our hand. We are looking at shooting from 17 yards with a bench rest and you have to hit the 1/2 inch dot to get the card. That's for the shooters with scopes.

We want shooters with open sights to be able to participate so we are working on a course of fire that works for them too.

The range was pretty well booked up in November so I had to schedule this for a weeknight - it's going to be a Tuesday night, November 12th from 6:30pm to 10pm.
 
#22 ·
Tenuki said:
When is the next Pin Shoot?
I'm thinking early December - I'll try to get the range reserved and let everyone know about it soon.
 
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