River City Open 2017 - Level 3

My return to the shooting arena

OMG !!
Well, I've returned back to shooting and have completed my first Level 3 match in some 6/7 years
It definitely was an interesting experience   LOL

So... here's the story of the past few days   :)

Friday.... half day of work....
Yep, I'll take the motorbike today... only me going to town...
Ride home - RAIN !

Pack all of the gear into the car + wife & kid, hit the road.
Rain.... rain... oh, and some more rain.
Get to the Whanganui range in time for registration - bonus... sleep in tomorrow.
Find the hotel, (check my accommodation reviews for the Burwood Motel), check in, unpack car, off to the supermarket to buy food, and the bottle store for medicinal supplies   :)
Relax for the evening, read over the stage booklet and do some pre-planing, have a few quiet bevvies
Shark & taytees for tea......mmmmmmm

Day 1 - RCO2017 - 18/02/2017
Arrive at the range, snuggle the commie into a parking spot, get the gear ready (in the drizzly humid rain)
Briefing at 0830 - first rounds at 0900

Head to the starting range (range 8), meet the rest of the squad, sort my shit out, holy hell Im shooter #3   (LOL - wife was #2)
Right - my turn....
Shooter ready, Standby, *beep*
1st shot at popper - miss
2nd shot at popper - *clang*, pop up target appears through port
I breeze through the stage like a man possessed - first stage at a proper comp in years... feels good, muscle memory is kinda there...sorta...

RO scoring call.  Alpha Charlie, two Charlie, steel, two mike, two no shoot.... ARGH FARK.
I didn't bother listening to the rest

Next stage - Chrony
Well at least this stage went well.
Shooting Shadow 1 this comp (2nd time I've shot it), running Winchester 9mm 124gr factory (5.0gr powder), Chrony at 132 (or 137 - I cant remember which), either way, well within the 125 power factor requirement for Production class.

So, read back to my stage 1 above.  Those were my ONLY No shoots of the competition !
AWESOME !
But the not so good news, is that the prick by the name of Mike followed me around for most of the weekend.
For the rest of day one, in between the rain, humid, heat, sun, and more rain, I managed to rack up a nice collection of Mike's on Day 1

After being held up wating for the squad ahead of us a couple of times, we only managed to get 7 of the 14 stages done   :(

Day 1 end - back to unit to re-stow the gear, supermarket to buy HEAPS more water for next day
Then in for a swim in the bloody cold pool - but it was goooddddddd !!!
Pizza for tea.  Free pizza voucher as they couldnt make the delivery on time... score !!

Fitbit - 16303.  plus maybe another thousand for the times I wasnt wearing it for rest of the day

Day 2 - RCO2017
Day 2 started with rounds out 0830.
Misty to begin, but that burnt off, and out came the sun (and the heat)
A much better day of shooting for day 2.  Slowed myself down, kept reminding myself to line up the sights and just squeeze the trigger.
I actually got a couple of clear stages.... yay me

Held up another 3 (or 4) times due to slow squads, so we didnt finish shooting until 2pm (no stopping for lunch)

I was lucky not to be DQd on the last stage as I was at the point of just being mentally drained and holstered my pistol with hammer back (luckily no round in chamber), and safety off.

Anyway... wifey & I finished the comp, went back & loaded all the stuff into the car, said goodbye to a few people and then we were outta there.  Not waiting for prizegiving.....

Lunch in Levin (KFC), then onwards home.  Drive was mixture of wet & fine, but we got home.
Unpacked car, sorted out the ammo, locked away the toys etc.

Fitbit - 13469, plus whatever when I wasn't wearing it.
Guessing for the entire weekend, somewhere in the 35-40k steps.

Round count for both of us - estimated 730 rounds.  required rounds 600+, so not too bad (yes the Shadows do shoot straight when you use the sights  :) )

At the end of the day, it was a good shoot with some challenging placements and targets.
The heat got to me.  I have no idea how much water I drank over the 2 days, but it was a lot ! (guessing 3-4 litres per day average)

Great squad, awesome to catch up with some people I havent seen in a long time

Time to now start developing my load for the Shadow and get in whatever practice I can before the next one.

Have fun.... cause if you're not, then you obviously aint shooting !