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The day is 12 April 2014, after waking up and seeing that the time is 0840hrs (8:40 a.m. for those who do not know military time), it is my realization that I'm running late. The East Alabama Gun Club who is hosting the IDPA match is about 45 minutes from my residence. Even taking into consideration that my military duties had me home at 0400hrs (4:00 a.m.), that was not going to deter me from attending this match. So I put my Drill Sergeant skills in motion by completing my hygiene and getting dressed in 12 minutes. So I grabbed my gearbag and shot out the door, I was on my way. Then the feeling of hunger set in, so now I had to make a detour to Chic-fil-a for some breakfast to go. I jumped on the expressway by 0915hrs (9:15 a.m.) and still made it in time for the mandatory safety briefing required to participate in the match.
So I began my journey to the stage start point and started to focus my mindset on shooting. This procedure is something that is very important to me as far as regulating my emotions and actions when engaging a task at hand. The stage brief lays down the ground work and is pretty vague, but its your decision on how to negotiate the stage. This day proved to me that I am getting to comfortable with playing the sport versus occupying the course. There were a few matters that had me question the integrity of some, but at the end of the day the bottom line was that it was fun.
I don't clearly remember each lane and all the actions that took place, but I do recall some acts that could be questioned and a bit of misinterpretation on the part of the person keeping score. There were three stages where I was penalized for actions. The first penalty that was given to me was for not moving forward while engaging two enemy targets. My actions were a very slow and deliberate movement in order to keep my shooting platform stable and not exposing myself to another open target, but the scorer stated I wasn't moving. There was no argument on my behalf but others who were observing stated that there was forward movement on my part. That is small potatoes to me, so let the fun continue. At the final stage another penalty was given to me, which was clearly me playing the stage and not the course of intended action. It was clearly stated that you will have the magazines loaded to division capacity (10) which I only loaded eight rounds in two magazines. The course lay out was four targets on the left staggered and four targets on the right staggered. The rules read that you will engage all eight targets with strong hand, then engage with weak hand. This stage was under the "Limited Vickers" scoring. Simply put, you can only shoot what is specified. There are eight targets, one shot each with strong hand and weak hand, equals 16 shots in total. My penalty was for only loading eight rounds into my magazine, and therefore not having control of the magazine, (even though it was empty I ejected it from my weapon and reloading my second eight round magazine). Lesson learned, keep it simple.
Overall my shooting experience at the East Alabama Gun Club was great. Each time I attend an event out there I meet someone new and walk away with some new knowledge as well. Since this was not a sanctioned match, my scores will not be calculated to any running for a championship match.
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We are hosting a logo contest where the winner recieves $200. Entering the contest is easy. Read through the mjwoodland.blogspot.com and formulate your idea how 'The Urban Gun Enthusiast' logo and/or 'MW Strategic' logo should appear as and submit your entries to shirtcontest17@gmail.com. Multiple entries are allowed and your artwork can be in a digital format or hand drawn, your only limitation is your imagination. Contest has been extended to 23 MAY 2014. Good luck to all who enter.
If you are interested in the Enlisted Nine fighting apparel please visit www.enlistednine.com and tell them MJ Woodland sent you....
For those wishing to donate to my continued participation in competition shooting please visit www.gofundme.com/mjwoodland17
Look for me to be visiting the following IDPA matches:
2014 Masters IDPA Championship
10 MAY 2014
Hoover, AL
Watauga Gun Club (IDPA match)
9 AUG 2014
Boone, NC
Would you like for me to come compete at your local IDPA or USPSA match, contact me at mjwoodland@gmail.com
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