Competition time

Over the last few years I've been heavily involved in the organisation and running of a practical shooting event held three to four times a year in various locations around the State. It's a volunteer thing, meaning it's simply a group of us who get together and put on the event using our own money for equipment and targets. Over the years it's attracted huge interest from shooters from all over the State, several from around the country, and the industry also. It's regarded as an extremely well-run and enjoyable event.

We started it for fun and to give a little back to a sport that has provided so much enjoyment for us over many years, and as a way to introduce new people to firearms and practical shooting.

Events are a mix of single day and two events although us organisers generally have to give up two to three days as they are held at ranges all over the State, some up to five hours away.

We attract around a hundred or so shooters each time and they come from all walks of life including military and law enforcement to farmers, competition and range shooters and people who have had hardly any exposure to practical shooting.

They are fast-past events where shooters compete in various stages we design using props, obstacles, barricades, moving targets and of course running and gunning. It's all timed and scored so speed and accuracy must combine for a person to place well in the standings. It is a lot of fun for the shooters as it allows them to do things they are usually not able to do at a range.

We get very creative with our stage designs and our targets are reactive meaning when hit they provide feedback; They drop or activate other targets that pop up, out and run along rails and cables...It's very dynamic.

Here's the thing though...In none of the many competitions I have been involved in have I actually ever shot a full event myself! I shoot the stages on set up day to make sure they work well but that's different, there's no competition-pressure.

That's changing in a few weeks though.

I'm not a stranger to shooting competitions as I compete in long range matches all over the country; These events are usually quite serious and use centrefire rifles like the one my wife is holding in the image above; That's my long range competition rifle. I also shoot handgun matches, also run and gun style. That's what practical shooting means - The stages simulate real-world military, law enforcement and hunting scenarios where the shooter has to apply strategy, speed and accuracy.

This competition is similar but uses a rimfire rifles (.22LR calibre) and I haven't done much .22LR shooting at all, certainly not in competition. You can see the rifle I'll be competing with on the right below. It's the CZ 515 with a red dot scope.

This rifle is a very rapid-firing system being almost as fast to shoot as a semi-automatic rifle which, of course, are not permitted here for mainstream firearms owners.

In the lead-up to the event I've been practicing and I'm emptying the ten round magazine, aimed shots, in five to six seconds. Not as fast as a semi, but not too far off. I'm going to do well at the event for that reason, the speed, as scoring is done by dividing the points scored by the time elapsed to get a hit factor...I'll be fast with this gun, much faster than a bolt action rifle shooter and my competition and other shooting experiences will help. Of course, as an event organiser I will be excluded from the results. It wouldn't be fair to charge shooters $70 entry fee and then kick their asses now would it?

Because I'm shooting in the event I'll be let off from my normal event duties as a range officer and will be able to relax and have some fun which is what I'm looking forward to. I have to head up there the day before and set up then pack up afterwards though, there's no getting out of that.

I'm looking forward to this event, the weekend in general, as it's a chance to de-stress from a few pressures Faith and I have going on at the moment and I will be able to distance myself from it a little; A lot really I guess considering the event is being held over two days of competition and the set up day and is at a location 300 kilometres from home! Faith won't be coming with me this time so I'll be able to kick back and chill...After the shooting stages of course, I'll be intense and focused when competing.

Today I was out having a practice and setting up a few things on the rifle in preparation. I put a few hundred rounds through it with zero magazine feed-issues which is pretty good considering the .22LR is somewhat prone to them. I'm happy with the rifle and am pretty much ready to go.


Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.

Be well
Discord: galenkp#9209



0
0
0.000
57 comments
avatar

Congratulations @galenkp! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You have been a buzzy bee and published a post every day of the month

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

To support your work, I also upvoted your post!

Do not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:

Hive Power Up Day - Introducing the Power Up Helper!
0
0
0.000
avatar

You should get a gopro and strap it on for some real time footage! That would be awesome! They have a cool little app that makes any selection of photos and vids into a punchy short movie. I quite like it. Honest, they ain't paying me to say it :O)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Lol, GoPro ambassador!

Yeah, I might take it. The only problem is when I get into competition I get focused and fucking around with cameras is a pain. We'll see...I'll take it and see how it goes I guess. Hopefully I remember to take it off when I go for showers.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yeah, dont want it to become x-rated!

Its handy thing the app. Quik, it is called, makes funky videos out of your footage automatically. You could just leave it on filming an it would do the edit. No showe scenes of course , LOL!

0
0
0.000
avatar

I'll check it out...Could be good.

I promise, no shower scenes though.

0
0
0.000
avatar

My buddy @derangedvisions has been using a new gopro with the app recently to great results. He's an OCD photographer, if he says it's good, it's good.

Do you know him @galenkp? You share some experiences, I'm thinking.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I was pretty blown away with the results of using it. I have seen derangedvisions about, will go looking again with a gopro scanning eye!

Tried to reply to this hours ago but been having many issues with Hive today

0
0
0.000
avatar

Wes is one of the good guys. Seriously.

I've switched nodes twice today, and it seems better right now. I think there are not the normal number of nodes that are active due to the HF on Tuesday.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I know deranged yes. Does some good stuff...Cop and vet if I recall rightly.

0
0
0.000
avatar

He's got one other thing he shares with you. Married his HS sweetheart early. Her name is Faith. Just sayin'

0
0
0.000
avatar

Oh really? Same name?

0
0
0.000
avatar

I've met them, so can verify their names. You and your Faith are largely theoretical to me :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yeah, maybe Galen isn't even my name huh?

0
0
0.000
avatar

I've got that pretty well in the believable file. Your brother has called you by it, good enough for me. Now his name I wonder about :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Haha, well I'll tell you the truth over a beer someday. :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

I think I never told you I had an Uncle named Galen. Everybody called him Chris :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Most of my mates call me fucker, but then that's what I call them too so...Fair is fair. Lol.

Back many years ago when I had Facebook I started a Galen group...I basically just friended every Galen I could find. There were something like 300 in it. It was a bit weird but kind of funny. I have only met one other here in real life, we compared drivers licenses as neither believed the other. It was a young lad. A musician here in Australia called his son Galen a few years back...It was also the name of one of the planet of the apes apes, and Galen Erso was a character in Star Wars, one of them Star Wars. I don't mind the name but when I was a young kid got teased a bit because my name wasn't mainstream...I prefer my middle name though. It's Welsh.

These days with all the multiculturalism in Australia I don't think it's classed as too weird.

Chris huh? I get called a few different things, Lawrence among them, but mostly by my name. People's names are important.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I always answer to asshole. It seems my lot in life. I'm good with it.

It's my last name. It made perfect sense where I grew up but NOBODY gets it right and I took a lot of shit about it. I broke more than a few noses out of it, too. One of my nephews has legally changed to the phonetic version but I have great sport making clerks and such spell it three times and still screw it up.

My aunt Tootie (I honest to God didn't know that wasn't her name into my 30s) is part of the Lois group. It was a thing in the 70s, they wrote letters to each other.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I shared this post on Twitter to try and get your work in front of more people.
You can find your post and me on Twitter if you like? https://twitter.com/dick_turpin
I've also upvoted you and shared your content on Hive.
I read your post. No Bots were used, this was all done manually. Hope That Helps.


"If you don't have enough power or Crypto to upvote me; reshare me instead. Reshares are worth their weight in gold!"
Don't forget, you can upvote peoples comments too!
0
0
0.000
avatar

Yay for being able to do the course XD

Damn those are some seriously blue skies! It's still been pretty cloudy over here so we're still waiting to hit that depth of blue.

0
0
0.000
avatar

South Australia specialises in blue skies. 🙂

0
0
0.000
avatar

OK. I'm going to start at the start. That picture of Faith is just bad ass. Beautiful woman, beautifully dressed, with a business looking rifle in hand. And she's not holding it like Trump held the bible, her right index finger is straight out, she knows what she's doing. Amazing photo, really.

I like that you get a chance to play a little. That ought to be fun. I like the set up of your gang, too. It's one of the things I always liked about Trap Shooting. Guys are always ready to volunteer to make sure the event runs smoothly. I've even climbed in a house or two to set birds manually if needed. A task that is usually reserved for smaller, younger people :)

My experience with .22 LR is that manufacturing has everything to do with how things work. Magazine issues and stovepiping on a semi auto generally are 'mass production' issues, I think. I owned a Colt Woodsman for better than 30 years and put over 10,000 rounds through it. I had one stovepipe and I figured it was a bullet problem. I also owned a Ruger Mark 1 for quite a few years. It was built for competitive shooting and it was just buttery with mag changes.

I'm going to have to get my trap gun out and take a few pictures and write a post. Just for no other reason than to get your reactions. It has a couple of surprises....

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thanks mate...Faith hates me taking photos of her...Always has. I get away with it sometimes though and yeah, I think these came out well. She knows her way around a gun and trigger discipline has been drummed into her by yours truly and so hand her a gun and she'll know how to hold it, and probably shoot it too! I'll pass on your kind words.

We have a pretty good crew, the core group of these events. There's 7 of us and we rope in helpers along the way as it's really a heap of work. I usually don't shoot as its all about the competitors but this time...The location is spectacular and the stages will be pretty good so...I'm in.

The last time I shot at this location was June 2019 when I shot a three gun event there which was cool so it'll be good to go back, shoot, sit around the fire at night and talk shit.

On the .22LR issues...You're correct of course, although I see so many people blow stages in this comp due to mag-feed issues. If I have a smooth run with this 515 I'm top 5 straight away, and even accounts for the fact I'll drop points on the longer range stages due to having no magnification on the red dot.

Anyway, should be a good weekend and I'll need a break by then you know? From all the stuff going on.

Do a post in The Pew on your trap gun!

!ENGAGE 50

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Shame you will be excluded as I'm guessing you would end up at least in top five and probably higher! Agree some could see it as not quite fair, even though not really an issue in my eyes. Will be nice to get out. Enjoy it and looking forward to the outcome updates!

0
0
0.000
avatar

I thought the same, about the top five placing. What we generally do is score the match in its entirety and print it, which shows all the placings and then we eliminate any of the organisers and reprint it showing competitors only. That's what we award placings and prizes on. The main reason is that the organisers have seen the stages set up prior to competition day and that could give an advantage; Probably only a slight advantage I'd say, but we don't want to start arguments.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Dyammm bruvva. Faith looks soo bad ass!! You guys are like Neo and Trinity from The Matrix!! Id so much love to see that movie!!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Haha, she has a suit like Trinity's too!

I'd so much love to see that movie!

You've not seen it?

0
0
0.000
avatar

You've not seen it?

More emphasis on "that" mate!:vv The imaginary one with you and faith in it:pp If it ever were do drop, Im willing to pay a bazillion for the tickets!XDXD

John wick of Tai chi :vv

0
0
0.000
avatar

Lol...Me and my tai chi prowess is legendary.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Just wanted to say that I love that first photo, the colours and pose are really cool!

0
0
0.000
avatar

That's the farm on which I cull animals...It was covered in those yellow and purple flowers. I'm not sure what the yellow ones are, but the purple ones are called Salvation Jane and are considered an invasive weed. It certainly looks nice though. Often in the countryside one will come across an entire series of hills covered with it...Looks good, but the land-owners and government do what they can to eradicate it.

Echium plantagineum, commonly known as purple viper's-bugloss or Paterson's curse, is a species of Echium native to western and southern Europe, northern Africa, and southwestern Asia. It has also been introduced to Australia, South Africa and United States, where it is an invasive weed.

Thanks for your kind words...I use my wife to take these pictures as I don't look as good as she does. :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Having G-Dog excluded from the event may as well ring as music to everyone else's ears, just so more of them could have places in the top. It's like getting Lewis Hamilton excluded from F1 for a season, a chance for the rest of the pack to catch up! Faith holding that rifle is absolutely bad-ass, thought. As soon as I saw that, my brain started singing, she's a maneater, maneater... 🎼

0
0
0.000
avatar

Having G-Dog excluded from the event may as well ring as music to everyone else's ears

Don't worry, they'll know who crushed them, I just won't take away any prizes and that's ok by me. I'm just shooting it for fun.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Lol, if only the other contestants could be as cool as a cucumber.

0
0
0.000
avatar

But instead they're a bunch of durians.

0
0
0.000
avatar

They ought to be a new insult to level against people... "Wow, seriously, mate?! You're such a durian, you know that? ". Or perhaps we could use another local tropical fruit, the Rambutan. They're nice and sweet, but the skin also looks like hairy balls, not to mention always crawling with fire ants.

image.png

0
0
0.000
avatar

How about...

Ya fucking rambutan balled durian.

Has a nice ring to it.

0
0
0.000
avatar

That sounds pretty good. Seeing how much I detest both fruits, for different reasons, I'll reserve such a mighty insult for someone I truly despise. My neighbours would be a good candidate for that.

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's a most person insult for me...I don't like many people! :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Lol, the best form of insult would be carrying durians into a lift packed with people that hate durians. That would be a great prank to play with, though thankfully nowadays, it's (hopefully) uncommon to see loads of people in a lift together. Maybe some other day, eh?

0
0
0.000
avatar

Is this a video of you as a kid getting offered durian? 🤣

0
0
0.000
avatar

I will not lie, if that kid had shorter hair, he would've looked a lot like younger Zack. Nonetheless, this is my exact reaction when being offered the devil's fruit 😅

0
0
0.000
avatar

Looked up that CZ to figure out the cycling action. So the bolt is like an auto where it just goes back and forth but the action isn't driven by the energy from the cartridge but just by pulling it back?

Standard match 22LR shouldn't have much issue feeding, probably less than most common rounds, because it uses a heeled bullet where the edge of the bullet sits flush with the casing. They also get lubed up with a coating of wax from the factory. Like @bigtom13 said, I think 22LR's reputation is mostly due to cheap blowback semi-autos firing lots of cheap bulk-grade ammo.

0
0
0.000
avatar

The rifle needs to be cocked initially, by pulling back on the lever. The gases blow the bolt back when fired but instead of it closing and loading the next round like a semi-auto would it locks in the open position and the operator has to press that lever to close the bolt again loading the next round. It's very quick after a little bit of practice and should do well in the competition.

It's actually a lot of fun to shoot with.

I have SK ammo, the red box, and i cycles and fires flawlessly.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Sounds reasonably simple and quick to operate. How long until the AU government bans it as a dangerous assault weapon? :P

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yes, that's the thing. At this stage it's legal...But for how long though.

#pathetic

0
0
0.000
avatar

I read that they moved a specific model of lever-action shotgun up a tier just because it was popular and gasp might be an effective repeating gun.

0
0
0.000
avatar
(Edited)

The Adler yes. One of my mates is a gunsmith and was increasing the magazine length too.

They are now 5 rounds I believe, he was making them 8. The law is grandfathered or some such dumb term. So, if you have an 8 round you can keep it but when/if it is transacted to another it has to be reverted. And yet, I have a sniper rifle that I am accurate on at up to a mile with a 20 round magazine as legal, semi-auto handguns and this 515 which a 25 round magazine is legal in.

#laughable

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's great that you can take time off and relax in these type of competitions. It's really up your alley because you are very skilled and competitive. I must tell that Faith's skirt blended so well with the flowers hihi

0
0
0.000
avatar

I enjoy challenging myself and shooting competitions is a good way to do so as there's so many good shooters to measure myself against. In truth I only need to beat my own personal best and this particular competition doesn't mean to much, just fun. I will need a break by the weekend of the competition I think so it's a nice way to get it. A couple of weeks away now, I'm looking forward to it.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Competing with yourself is the best kind of competition you can have

0
0
0.000