I shot in my first post-classification match tonight. With our sanctioned BUG match coming up a week from this Saturday, tonight was a holstered BUG practice match.
When the theme was announced early last week, I immediately ordered two more 6 round magazines for my Kahr CW40 (now have three 6 round and one 7 round) and a CompTac paddle holster and mag pouch.
Although I had to specify straight or FBI cant angle when ordering, it didn’t really occur to me that it was not going to be an adjustable holster like the one for my Glock. No matter; it’s such a small pistol that it doesn’t really make much difference. It’s easy and natural to draw as it is. I did not properly test the fit of the magazines in the pouch and it turns out they are a little tight. It was not tight enough to cause troubles, but you do certainly need to intend to remove a magazine, especially from the front pouch. I loaned my allen wrench set to a coworker who wanted to adjust his holster and left it on my desk at work.
With much discussion on the forum about sweeping oneself when holstering and unholstering, I did receive a tip about avoiding it because I was very nearly doing it. When holstering, I was using edge of my hand to move my jacket out of the way of the holster. In so doing, I was pointing the muzzle dangerously close to my own leg.
I had no ammo issues per se, though I did have some kind of feed issue with a round in the last stage.So I had taken 9 of the required 10 shots when the pistol ran dry. Last night, I ran every round through the case gauge and removed the few that didn’t pass. Oh, well. In any case, I was able to do a second reload and take that final shot. I don’t know how much time it cost me, but maybe it was less than 2-1/2 seconds that a miss would have cost.
Speaking of times, here’s my scoresheet:
All stages were shot with magazines downloaded to 5 rounds each. Stage 2 was actually the first one I shot. It was kinda the most fun, too. There was a barrier with three ports cut in it, two at typical shooter height and one down low. The description required placing one shot on each target from each of the 5 positions, left of the barrier, each of the top ports, right of the barrier and the low port. Then reload and do it again. The shooter was left to decide what order they wanted to shoot the positions.
There was a bit of enthusiastic discussion about whether the stage was legal, since stage design guidelines say that if a kneeling position is required, it should be the final position required so that a shooter does not need to rise again to take another shooting position. I think it was a finally agreed that it is a stage design guideline and not necessarily a requirement.
Most shooters took the order as described, left of barrier, two ports, right of barrier, low, reload, low, then back up for the other four. Most often, shooters took those last 4 right to left. At least one did the low port first, the up for 4, reload, 4 more then back down for the low port. My favorite took the low port not by kneeling, but by bending waaay over and shooting from nearly upside down. Sadly, I am not shaped properly to take that shot 🙂
Stage 3 was obviously a favorite with zero downs, though I did have one procedural, the only one for the night. For this stage, the description required one shot to each body from a stationary position, then a move to a ported barrier and one shot to each head from the port. I suffered a moment of indecision when the timer started and did not remain stationary, at least not very well.
The last stage was pretty impromptu as time was short, but very cleverly done. Six targets were lined up against the backstop. Six shooters were lined up in front of one target apiece. In turn, each shooter was to take 5 shots at the body and 5 shots at the head. Then step back and the next shooter would go. We were thus able to fit 18-20 shooters into a 5th stage and I was on the road for home before 9PM even after helping to clear the range of props. I had three misses on the head, but that last shot I took after the feed problem was not one of them…
All in all, a decent showing for my experience. I have frequently finished in the bottom 2 or 3, but I was 6-7 up from the bottom tonight 🙂
Finally, when I signed in for the range, I saw a target paper that was too good to pass up. There is a diagnostic target that helps shooters understand what is likely causing their miss by where on the paper the shot hits. There are 8 zones and each explains likely causes for a miss to have gone into this zone. For example, if your miss is into the bottom zone, you are likely pulling the pistol down in anticipation of the report and recoil.
This is the tough love version of that diagnostic target:
