Friday, August 16, 2013

Greetings From Oregon!

And Boy Howdy, am I sleepy!

Finished up the Crimson Trace Midnight 3-Gun this morning about 3AM...9 stages over 2 nights.  Here's the Cliff Notes version -- I easily did twice as well as last year, but still slower than molasses in liquid nitrogen. Overall, though, I'm really pleased.

The guns were 100% -- no problems of any kind. I made the absolute right choice of kit for the match. The Daniel DDM4 was a rock! I loved shooting the rifle. The Ruger SR-9 performed with boring regularity....one thing I did very different from last year was I leaned very heavily on the Streamlight TLR-2 laser (we'll be talking about this in the podcast next week). How did it work? I don't think I dropped a single shot on paper. The Carbon Arms VersaMax performed to my admittedly high  expectations. Yes, I had newbie problems, but NO TRAIN WRECKS!

Also, I'm happy to say all hit ALL the long shots -- 4 200 yards with a Colt 5.56 fitted with an FLIR thermal imager; 2 100 yard/ 2 50 yard with a Colt Competition Rifle with night vision. Also did good with a full auto SCAR, a SAW belt-fed and with a PWS SBR and suppressed Glock 17 all run with nighvision goggles.

C'mon, how freakin' cool is it to get to shoot all that stuff?!?!?!??!?

The CT Midnight match is truly one of the great shooting matches out there. I love it. As long as they keep inviting me, I'll keep shooting it.

Full report on DOWN RANGE Radio next week.

Congrats to CT, all the sponsors and Match Director Chuck Anderson for a fine match!

Finished up the first 5 stages by 4:30 AM; the last 4 stages last night by 3:30 AM.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a helluva time, Michael. My only question is - how does one get invited to participate in such a prestigious event? I'm no 3-gun regular - but I'd have to think my 16 years in USMC Recon would qualify as excellent training for such an event.
And, I have an eclectic array of weapons & equipment to meet my needs.

Advice on how to get there from here?

Gunny

Charlie Foxtrot said...

Didja beat The Tam?

Michael Bane said...

I shot on a different squad from Tam, but it was great to see her. She says her health is great and she was ready to kick some buttocks. Sometimes it seems like we run into out friend less and less as we all get busier and busier. I also saw my good friend Jim Shepherd from the assorted Wires, who'd just managed to fly his new drone into a cliff, then taking a long tumbling fall while trying to retrieve the pieces, and Caleb and Shelly from Gun Up/Gun Nuts Media.

I shot on the squad with my old friend John Snow from OUTDOOR LIFE, who is a great, great shooter in his own right. It was the most time John and I have spent together in years...you'll see John in a couple of SHOOTING GALLERY episodes next year. BTW, John has been instrumental in the mainstreaming of "black rifles" within the hunting community. John shot his PWS rifle, which is sweet, and one of the new VersaMax Tacticals.

I wish everybody could get an invite, either to the Staff/Media or the Pro Shoot (with a $10,000 prize to the winner). The problem is night matches...especially run-and-gun 3-Gun matches...are bears to run safely at night and require massive experienced staff. I will ask CT what the parameters are for people to put their names in the hat for next year's match, and we'll publish it on DOWN RANGE.

mb

Charlie Foxtrot said...

Good to hear! Thanx, Michael.

Really enjoying your CT After Midnight match reports. We'd love to hear how your experience relates to real world HD situations.

kmitch200 said...

Heck of a system reset to be playing at Odarkthirty.

Sounds like you had too much fun.

Unknown said...

Mike, first, glad the VersaMax raqn great for you. There were a bunch of Carbon Arms VMs out there, even the MD and RM have them now.

As a seasoned 3Gunner, trainer, and match official, this is THE match to shoot. Last year, I had never run a laser on a "defense" weapon. Now I have a bunch. In fact, the rifle and pistol I ran at the match were my ACTUAL home defense weapons with stock triggers! What I have learned and applied to my personal "real world kit" has been heavily by my first year at the CTC match. I have a few minor tweaks for next year.