Kevin Baker of The Smallest Minority hosted a Bowling Pin Shoot today at the Tucson Rifle Club Three Points Shooting Range outside of Tucson, AZ. Looking for a good way to disassemble ammunition on my Birthday, Mz. VRWC and I made the trek to Tucson to give bowling with bullets a try.
What is a Bowling Pin Shoot? I’m glad you asked. A Bowling Pin Shoot is a race to shoot all of the bowling pins off of your table, before your competitor clears his or her table. Think of it as a mixture of drag racing, bowling, and shooting, where you race with guns and bowl with bullets. There were three “classes” of shooting; “Minor” (9mm or .38 caliber), “Major” (.40 to .45 caliber), and .22 Rimfire.
Shooting this match was a blast!
This was not my cleanest run at all, but the shooting was so much fun, that I didn’t want to bother with trying to film the other 9 or 10 runs I shot.
Perforated Pins
A big thank you to Kevin for setting up and running the match, as well as lugging the pins and tables to the range. Thanks to all of the other competitors too, whose hospitality and camaraderie truly make the shooting sports rewarding.
I completed my second Babes with Bullets Practical Handgun 101 camp two weeks ago, and once again, WOW, what an amazing experience!
For those not familiar with Babes with Bullets, it is an almost all inclusive (instruction, room and most meals included) two and a half day hands-on shooting class for women (sorry guys) held in several areas around the country each year. The Babes with Bullets instructors are among the top women shooters in the world. Yes, I said world. It’s the equivalent of taking golf lessons from Tiger Woods, learning to QB from John Elway or taking a NASCAR driving course with Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson as your instructors.
In addition to learning safe gun handling skills and basic shooting techniques, Babes with Bullets camps also teach the art and skill of USPSA competition style shooting. What is USPSA? It’s a run-and-gun type of sport, where your score is based on how quickly you can shoot through a “stage”, as well as the accuracy of your “hits”. Here’s an example of Babes with Bullets senior instructor shooting a stage at a match in Florida this year:
Last year, I walked in to my first Babes with Bullets camp just a few months after deciding to learn to shoot, and I was still very uncomfortable holding and firing a pistol. Three days later, I walked out a safe and competent pistol shooter, comfortably drawing from a holster, and I had completed a USPSA style mini-match (where I surprisingly came in third).
And now I’m completely addicted to competitive shooting.
I jumped at the chance to attend another Babes with Bullets camp this year, and during my second camp, we once again worked on many of the physical and mental aspects of shooting. This year, I was able to work on fixing some bad habits I had picked up while improving my speed and accuracy, smoothing out and speeding up my choppy and painfully slow draw and resetting my stance, which had somehow become strangely exaggerated. We also received some great mental tips, including concentrating on getting the sights properly aligned before squeezing the trigger, rather than just trying to shoot as quickly as possible. This one was particularly important for me, as I have become very proficient at missing quickly.
And did I mention it’s only $675.00? I know that’s a pretty good chunk of change (especially in the midst of these hope-n-change times), but if you can manage it, I promise it’s worth every penny, and then some.
So whether you’ve never held a gun, or if you are an experienced shooter looking to up your game, this camp is for you. If you’re female, that is. I will be back next year for sure, and with a few more years of practice, perhaps I’ll be one of the women wearing the yellow instructor shirts.
P.S. I would like to thank Babes with Bullet’s sponsors. Their generosity makes it possible for Babes with Bullets to offer this high caliber training at well below market rates (see US Training Center or Gunsite’s prices for comparison). Smith & Wesson provides equipment, including the loaner .22 and 9mm pistols, Hi Viz donates fiber optic sights for the pistols, Safariland provides holsters, mag pouches and belts, Howard Leight provides loaner hearing protection, Otis Technology provides Elite cleaning kits for the givaway (yes, there are prizes!) and financial support, Insight Technology donates their M6X laser light for flinch and low light training, Atlanta Arms and Ammo provides 9mm ammo that campers can purchase (at very affordable prices) and USPSA helps fund the instructor airfare and promotes the camps through its magazine, Front Sight.
Or more appropriately titled “D” classy, as I’m certain that’s where I will end up after shooting today’s all classifier USPSA match this morning at Phoenix Rod and Gun club. I was starting to think that I had a chance at C, but the red mist descended quite heavily over me this morning, and ended all hopes of ranking at or above 40 percent of all USPSA shooters.
While the Gods of weather were extremely kind this morning (sub 90 and heavy cloud cover), the Gods of shooting were not so kind to me, or my shooty buddies C. Pig and ExKev. We all had some malfunctions of the operator error variety and shot the first run through, well, let’s just say, not up to expectations. Kevin stood tough and gave it another go, while I went home, tail tucked and a little frustrated about my performance (or lack thereof).
In order to get a classification with USPSA, you have to shoot four stages that are specifically designed for qualifying. You score times plus hits on the paper, subtract your misses, add penalties, then do a couple of hocus pocus calculations, and eventually you get your “percentage”.
The match today consisted of the following stages:
It’s Not Brain Surgery – I might have fared better trying my hand at surgery this morning
Oh, No – Oh, S***, was that another no shoot I just hit?
Table Stakes – I rocked this one. 4 A’s, 2 each on the paper targets and no misses on the poppers. If I did the calculations correctly, I shot this at a (very) low B percentage. Would have shot it faster too, if it wasn’t for that darn popper that wasn’t falling the first time for anyone shooting smaller than .45 caliber.
Observations and Notes to Self:
Practice is for thinking, shooting is for doing. When I wasn’t thinking, just trying to stay slow and steady, I rocked it. Unfortunately, I only did that on one out of the four stages today. I’m getting to the point where I shoot better when I’m not thinking of the bajillion things I’m supposed to be doing. At least I think I am. Hmmm, I’ll have to think about that.
Perhaps I should have gotten my feet wet by shooting at least one regular USPSA match (or at least a practice) before getting classified. Shooting steel and shooting paper are two different things, especially when most of the paper targets are covered up and your misses and no shoots cost you a fortune in points.
Sleep is good. A good night’s sleep is better. I felt alright after about 5 hours of sleep (NOT a morning person), but the brain was definitely not firing on all cylinders.
