Overlaps

On By Tom LindsayIn Blogs, Overlap

First, if you don’t follow my other blog Skin That Smoke Wagon, I encourage you to check it out and subscribe. It gives me an outlet to share my other passions of food and drink.

Sometimes these passions overlap, and one such instance involves the saloon at the River Bend Gun Club in Dawsonville, Georgia. I shoot USPSA and GSSF at this club, on the range originally built by their Cowboy Action Shooting club.

This is a very interesting range, as it includes several stages that reflect an Old Western tempo: a jail, a graveyard, and a saloon. Now, when I first started shooting, there were maybe a dozen empty bottles on the piano, and I took a picture.

Then, I got into bourbon, and on a whim, I started carrying empty bottles to matches, and putting them on the piano.

Well, things grew, and here we are now, with more to come:

Match Prep 2.0

On By Tom LindsayIn Competition, GSSF, Planning, USPSA

Some time ago I wrote a concise piece on what I do to prepare for matches. Since then I have added a few things to my to-do list, and it occurred to me that I haven’t shared them.

First, I still do the same gun prep, including changing to connector, and lubricating. I also load magazines, only now, since I shoot Limited and not Production, I load to fully loaded, which with my magazine extensions, is 22 rounds per magazine. (Of course, if I am shooting GSSF, I only load to 11 rounds.)

One other thing I did was to create a Match Prep Checklist:

As you can see, this lets me be sure I am doing all the things I need to do. Basically there are four stages: Clean and inspect, Prepare, Pack, and Load. There are a few things on there that I didn’t do back in 2011, like adding an extra phone battery and USB cord. I print this 2 to a page, and complete it before every match.

This also gives me a chance to mention a couple of additions from the past few years, both in the Load section. First, I have a pair of football cleats that I take, as I have found they are very useful if I am shooting in the rain, or on a wet range.

The last is” Bourbon bottles,” which takes a little explaining. But I will leave that for another time.

Taking it to the Next Level

On By Tom LindsayIn Competition, Range Officer, USPSA

Having been a USPSA Certified Range Office since 2013, for many years I have acted as RO in local matches. After some time, I felt like I wanted to do more, and when the USPSA Georgia State Championships came to River Bend Gun Club in 2020 and 2021, I took the opportunity to act as RO for those matches.

ROing the State matches was a wonderful experience, as it gave me the opportunity to engage with other excellent competitors, as well as see the top tier shooters in a very close fashion.

Then, in 2023, I got the opportunity to act as RO at the USPSA Open / PCC National Championships, over at the Talladega CMP Range, and wow, was that an awesome experience. While the ROs and shooters at the State matches were a great experience, working with the next levels at the Nationals was something else.

So, this year, I am planning to do both the State Championships in Savannah in October, and the Handgun Nationals in Talladega in September. And, since I shoot Limited, I will get to shoot in the Nationals, something I didn’t do last year, since I don’t shoot Open or PCC.

On the next tier of this, I got to watching some Steel Challenge videos, and it occurred to me that this would be a wonderful next step for me, shooting my 10/22 Captain America. So, look for this next step in my shooting travels.

Stay tuned!

Yes, I am Still Here

On By Tom LindsayIn Self Defense

Hello, my good friends. Yes, I am still here, even though I have not posted in a while.

Today I wanted to share with you my upcoming plans for my shooting, as well as for this site.

I WILL POST

Moving forward, I will make it a priority to post here at least weekly. Some of the topics I will address include match results, shooting sport trends, social media, and product reviews.

Some of my first ideas:

  • Being a Range Officer
  • Trends in ammo supply and demand
  • Updates to my post on Twitter . . . uh, X accounts
  • Trends in shooting sports organizations (and I know you know what I will be talking about)

So thank you all for your patience, and for reading my posts, no matter how far apart they are.