Spring 2018 Aftermath

[Vaquero]

So, you're 2 months behind us on spring.

 

[Amazi]

Hard to say, sense I bought my bike last year the weather has been crap, as it usually goes.

 

[Vaquero]

Well, y'all get one picnic in summer, we get one dirty brown snowman in winter.
I'm good with it.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Imagine my horror, the first time I shot steel there at the range, 10 shots, not a single plate dropped.

I swore I was hitting them.

Nobody told me that the bar behind them had to go down first, lol.

 

[Byrd666]

Don't feel bad. Happened to me once too.

 

[benenglish]

I liked the rams. Nothing knocked them down until someone asked permission to shoot them with a .44 Mag.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do the testing I wanted to do. There was just too much mud. I really wanted to find out how many 9mm hits it would take to knock one off a rail. I guess I'll just have to bring them next time, too, and test again.

 

[benenglish]

I've been wanting to go to Manhatten for quite awhile.

It's a great place to visit. Lots to do. Bad neighborhoods to walk around in during the wee hours. Interesting people. Gorgeous women everywhere. The pervasive smell of urine. The "A" train to the Bronx to eat Peruvian food.

I could go on and on. There are plenty of good people there and lots to love. It is not, however, any place I'd want to live for very long.

There's an old saying "Live in northern California but leave before it makes you soft. Live in New York City but leave before it makes you hard." I can subscribe to that.

 

[TxStetson]

I liked the rams. Nothing knocked them down until someone asked permission to shoot them with a .44 Mag.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do the testing I wanted to do. There was just too much mud. I really wanted to find out how many 9mm hits it would take to knock one off a rail. I guess I'll just have to bring them next time, too, and test again.

Should I have left them standing longer?

 

[benenglish]

Should I have left them standing longer?

Not at all. I like it when people knock over my rams.

Seriously, though, I've been trying and failing to put together a new type of pistol silhouette shooting since the old IHMSA shoots are all but gone. Yes, I know here in Texas we're blessed with several IHMSA matches but the sport is still a faint shadow of what it once was.

There are several things that killed off IHMSA. Without going into a long post-mortem, one of the key ingredients to successfully reviving silhouette shooting will be to limit shooter options to firearms we all own. I'd like to create a 9mm-only class. To make that class challenging, I need targets that are heavy enough to require multiple hits.

I wasn't able to test that in the mud.

It may all be a moot point, anyway. I've given formal presentations at two clubs asking for permission to run a match under prototype rules and I've gotten turned down each time. If I can't find a place to shoot, I may be stuck with a couple of durable little rams that'll mostly be useful for just my own fun.

 

[Moonpie]

It may all be a moot point, anyway. I've given formal presentations at two clubs asking for permission to run a match under prototype rules and I've gotten turned down each time. If I can't find a place to shoot, I may be stuck with a couple of durable little rams that'll mostly be useful for just my own fun.

Once upon a time I tried to get a mil-surp rifle league started.
Open to any original or sportered mil-surp.
The idea was any old rifle could be brought out and used.
The Fudds were not amused. Moonpie meet stone wall. Head first.

This was while they bitched about involving new shooters.
Shooters are their own worst enemies sometimes.

 

[SQLGeek]

Ben, are there IHMSA matches anywhere around the Houston area these days?

 

[easy rider]

Moonpie meet stone wall. Head first.

That's what happened to you huh?

 

[Moonpie]

That's what happened to you huh?

Well I did buy a Harley. Twice.

 

[easy rider]

Yard ornaments don't count.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Well I did buy a Harley. Twice.

Doooooh!

Bought one, and paid for the second in repair costs, huh?

 

[Moonpie]

Never again.

 

[benenglish]

Ben, are there IHMSA matches anywhere around the Houston area these days?

Oh, yes. Greenwood and PSC are south of town. It's not too far a drive to New Braunfels to the CTSA. Further away, there's Sweetwater.

Add it all up and Texas is one of the most active IHMSA states in the Union. It's still a dim reflection of what it once was. I've been, within the last couple of years, to a match in Greenwood where 14 or so people showed up and the joke going around was "We might as well have the State champs right now. This is pretty much everybody."

 

[SQLGeek]

That is great to hear. I didn't realize PSC held silhouette matches. Some member I am...

Now I just need to figure out how to get started. I think the only rifle I have that would qualify is my M1 for large bore. The only .22 rifle I have is a 10/22 which doesn't seem to work?

 

[Vaquero]

IHMSA
H stands for handgun.

 

[SQLGeek]

Yes but I noticed PSC does rifle too.