Weld County 3 Gun

[cross]

Gents, just wanted to take a minute and thank Drew Boldt for MD'ing a fun shoot up in Weld County. This was my first "proper" 3 Gun match- I've shot some IDPA, some 3 Gun "team matches" (IDPA scoring and rules), and a whole lot of ACTS matches. ACTS is kind of a mil/le oriented competition constructed the way IDPA was initially intended with no "gaming" or race guns, lots of trainers/cops/Soldiers/Marines etc... Very, very fun venue to put into practice what we learn at various courses or at work, but definitely not good preparation for 3 Gun.

The match was extremely well run, stages left little open to interpretation and were all clear and smooth, with an emphasis on accuracy enforced by a LOT of no-shoots throughout. There was lots of steel for the shotgun, no slug stages, and plenty of medium range, tight shots with the pistol. What surprised me was the lack of any "hoser" stages. My impression of 3 Gun coming from outlaw style team matches on the other side of the country had left me expecting a bunch of short range, heavy round count blasting with every other dude out there trying to find a loop hole in the stage description for some kind of advantage. I was very impressed not just with the ROs and MD, but with the other shooters as well. Folks were very patient with the many questions that I had about everything from scoring to stage planning. Everyone was willing to offer words of advice, and it was a fun crowd to spend an afternoon with. I shot absolutely terribly, but it was a good time and I'll definitely be back next month with a few lessons learned.

So thanks to WCFW, Drew Boldt, and the folks over at coloradomultigun.com for a great match, and I'll see you in a few weeks!

And if anyone has any suggestions for how to suck less at running the shotgun well, I'm all ears...

[Great-Kazoo]

Gents, just wanted to take a minute and thank Drew Boldt for MD'ing a fun shoot up in Weld County. This was my first "proper" 3 Gun match- I've shot some IDPA, some 3 Gun "team matches" (IDPA scoring and rules), and a whole lot of ACTS matches. ACTS is kind of a mil/le oriented competition constructed the way IDPA was initially intended with no "gaming" or race guns, lots of trainers/cops/Soldiers/Marines etc... Very, very fun venue to put into practice what we learn at various courses or at work, but definitely not good preparation for 3 Gun.

The match was extremely well run, stages left little open to interpretation and were all clear and smooth, with an emphasis on accuracy enforced by a LOT of no-shoots throughout. There was lots of steel for the shotgun, no slug stages, and plenty of medium range, tight shots with the pistol. What surprised me was the lack of any "hoser" stages. My impression of 3 Gun coming from outlaw style team matches on the other side of the country had left me expecting a bunch of short range, heavy round count blasting with every other dude out there trying to find a loop hole in the stage description for some kind of advantage. I was very impressed not just with the ROs and MD, but with the other shooters as well. Folks were very patient with the many questions that I had about everything from scoring to stage planning. Everyone was willing to offer words of advice, and it was a fun crowd to spend an afternoon with. I shot absolutely terribly, but it was a good time and I'll definitely be back next month with a few lessons learned.

So thanks to WCFW, Drew Boldt, and the folks over at coloradomultigun.com for a great match, and I'll see you in a few weeks!

And if anyone has any suggestions for how to suck less at running the shotgun well, I'm all ears...

Get Zak & co. to stop running 50+ SG plates :)
It's great to shoot 3 gun, however due to physical issues more than 15-20 rds of 12ga and i'm done for the day. Overall they do a very nice job and even in crappy weather have good turn out.

[thermobollocks]

Seconding the excellent match. I'm really hoping December stays temperate so we can do it again fairly soon. I've shot one two-gun match in Byers (due to lack of a shotgun at the time) and I can say it was pretty much the same way.

For Jim, I'd look into a gas-operated semi-auto with an IM/Full choke and loading your own shells. If you're using a locked-breech design like a pump action, it's going to transmit all of the recoil to your body, and it's ridiculously easy and cheap to make your own shells similar to AA Lite (1 oz at 1100 fps). If you've already done this, feel free to make fun of me and move on.

[smartin924]

+1 on the Nov match. My first one too and I had a great time. Will be back again as schedule permits

[Citizen_Soldier]

I did my first 3gun match last September here. I really had a blast. It's well-run plus cheap to shoot if you show up early and help set up. This also gives you a chance to come up with strategies for each stage.

[Great-Kazoo]

Seconding the excellent match. I'm really hoping December stays temperate so we can do it again fairly soon. I've shot one two-gun match in Byers (due to lack of a shotgun at the time) and I can say it was pretty much the same way.

For Jim, I'd look into a gas-operated semi-auto with an IM/Full choke and loading your own shells. If you're using a locked-breech design like a pump action, it's going to transmit all of the recoil to your body, and it's ridiculously easy and cheap to make your own shells similar to AA Lite (1 oz at 1100 fps). If you've already done this, feel free to make fun of me and move on.

M1S90. It's not the recoil, it's the torn shoulder, trashed arm and other accrued injuries over a few decades of having fun. Have a few SG loading buddies in the area, one day i'll sit down and try some light loads.

[MarkCO]

M1S90. It's not the recoil, it's the torn shoulder, trashed arm and other accrued injuries over a few decades of having fun. Have a few SG loading buddies in the area, one day i'll sit down and try some light loads.

Jim, if there is a shotgun you can shoot well with shoulder issues, it is the Versa-Max running the Win AA reduced recoil (980 fps) loads. It is the only stock autoloader that will run them and the recoil is only slightly more than a non-comped M4. If you want to try mine out sometime, just give me a shout.

[CO-Exprs]

+1. My Versamax shoots very shoft and even softer with the reduced recoil loads. My first day out with the Versa was a 300 shell day (mostly 2.75 and 3dram loads). No bruises or sore shoulder at all.