Gold Coast IPSC Grandslam Sunday 9th March 2008
As usual at the Gold Coast club the majority of the stages had to be built on the Saturday before the competition on the Sunday. This is because all the ranges have to be shared amongst the various pistol shooting disciplines, NRA, Western Action, Service & ISSF. This makes for a long day and it wasn't until around 6.00pm on the Saturday night that all the walls were up and only the targets were left to do on the match morning. We are actually very lucky in the fact that we have quite a few people willing to lend a hand which makes the job easier for all concerned. John C, Julian S, Steve W, Joe B, James H, David S, myself and others all arrived early on match day to put the finishing touches on the stages. David S had designed 7 stages, short to long courses requiring a minimum of 136 rounds.
Stages 1 & 2 were short courses with swingers & drop turners providing entertainment for those watching but headaches for those trying to shoot as quickly as possible. More than one competitor in open division could be overheard counting how many static targets could be engaged whilst waiting for the swinger to move or the drop turner to turn! Stage 3 on our large range was a massive 32 rounder with a little of everything. David Mc won the stage in open division with a time of 27.96 sec and only dropping 7 points, next best was David S at 33.11 sec. With most of the targets close the Stock boys were right up there with the Open boys, Steve C won standard with 30.80 sec and 11 pints down. A lot of competitors took over 40 sec so all these times were damn quick.
Another memorable stage was stage 5 which utilised the turning ISSF targets. Start position was unloaded & holstered, after the beep you had to press a button which started the turning target sequence of 3 sec facing & 7 sec turned away. There were plenty of static targets hidden behind walls and set low requiring the competitor to crouch down to shoot. There were plenty of shooters that found themselves out of ammo from shooting the static targets when the turning targets faced them. By the time they had done the mag change the targets has turned again!! Really frustrating. Of course with stages like this when it all comes together it is great but when it doesn't you seem like a goose. Great category - David Mc, goose category James H who just seemed to get it all wrong!! Stages 6 & 7 were nice open stages allowing some fast shooting and reasonable movement given the limitations we have at the Gold Coast club.
As this was the first match to be held at the Gold Coast since the new ruling that 357 Sig could score Major in Standard division we decided to chronograph all the "Sig" shooters plus a random sampling of others. All went well for most people with a couple just being under power factor relegating them to minor scoring. A good lunch of steak burgers and cold drinks were enjoyed by all followed by some cold cans at the end of the day. All in all a great day was had by all and it was good practice for the national to boot!
Cheers,
David H
David Heathcote
