[Glen Wertle]

I have seen numerous references here and on other boards about the current state of shooting competitions. I think we can all agree that most, if not all, practical shooting contests are anything but practical. :roll:
These events may have began with the best of intentions but are rapidly perverted by contestants into gear wars.

For a while I tried to promote a three gun match that would be different and I realized that the words Three Gun had a meaning that I could not transform in the minds of competitors.
(Shooting matches would be great fun, if it weren't for the shooters)

It's hard to come up with something that will please everyone but fortunately I'm simple minded enough that I am easily pleased (see also pictures from SHOT, I'm one of the giggling diners with the red napkin wee wee).

So, a while ago a friend, also in the photo, and I started kicking around the idea of a shooting challenge that we ended up calling "The Enduro".

It breaks down like this:
A ten mile course of fire
10 rifle targets from 100 to 600 yards away
5 handgun targets from 25 feet to 50 yards away
Each person is required to carry 200 rounds of rifle ammo
Each person is required to carry 5 loaded pistol magazines
The event is self scored, since were not shooting for a pot of gold here this won't be a problem. The event is really a challenge for the individual.
Score is based on time to complete and number of hits. We have the numbers all figured out but I'm to lazy to write that all down here.

the rules are simple:
move along the 10 mile course and engage the targets.
10 shots minimum on the rifle targets, perfect score is 10 hits
5 shots minimum on the pistol targets, perfect score is 5 hits

Well, what do you think? Maybe if we ever get off our asses the Shooting Gallery show will do a feature on us NOT!
...I still like that cool guitar theme music

 

[Richard Jefferies]

Glen, I gotta tell ya about a course of fire I ran though some years ago at the Charleston (SC) Gun Club. It's been about 10 or 12 years ago, and I think they did this as a "steel challenge" type match. It was a three gun deal.

To start, you were taken to the end of the 100 yard rifle range where 7 pepper poppers were set up along the left side berm. There, you loaded your shotgun, safed it, and laid it on a blanket. Then back to the firing line, load and make ready first your psitol, holstering hot, then your rifle.
On signal, engage the 4 IPSC target at 70 to 100 yards with your rifle. If you were shooting .223, you had to get 2 A hits on each; if you were shooting .308, you had to get one A hit on each. Clear the rifle, set it down with mag out and bolt locked back, then make a mad dash down to the shotgun. Drop the 7 poppers, clear and safe the SG and lay it down muzzle towards the side berm, then turn around and run about 20 yards to a dummy lying on the ground surrounded by 3 bad guys. With your pistol, engage the 3 IPSC targets w/2 each and then pick up or drag the 70 lb. dummy with your through the rest of the course. First you had to get through a Cooper tunnel (I just threw the dummy through as far as I could, then pushed it ahead of me as I exited.) Start down a trail through the woods at the begining of which was a barricade consisting of a log sitting about three feet off the ground with IPSC targets at each end of the log. Two into each target, then continue with the dummy OVER the log and on down the trail (about 70 yards.). At the end of the trail was a clearing where the "helo will extract you and your wounded buddy," but you had to take out 3 more 5 yard IPSC targets with two each.
It was a blast! Lots of bangin' & clangin' AND runnin' and gunnin'!
It would have been fun to do this with a 4 wheeler, too, IMHO.

 

[MBaneACP]

Glen;

You know, up here in Nederland we require a visa and a letter from your Companion Animal before we'll let any Boulderites stop for longer than a few minutes...I've encouraged the town council to set up armed checkpoints in Boulder Canyon...

RE: Enduro shooting match, a few years ago at the behest of the owner of the Blackwater facility in North Carolina, Dave Arnold and I designed a 24-hour adventure race with shooting built in. It was a *bear* of a course that utilized two rifles, two or three pistols and a couple of shotguns staged at various points around a course that included biking, kayaking, orienteering, hiking/running and a dupe of the Ranger's Darby Queen "confidence" course from Ft. Benning.

Everybody loved it, and there was some serious sponsorship available, but the drawback was that neither Dave nor I had the time (minimum one year) to get it up and running before that money came online.

It's something still on the list at The Outdoor Channel, but at this point my producer and I are honest-to-goodness swamped with work (better, of course, than living in a refirgerator box on the Boulder Downtown Mall).

Check out the MGM Ironman (mgmtargets.com), which is the closest thing presently running to what you're describing...

Michael B
Proud resident of the last ungentrified mountain town in Colorado and home of the Frozen Dead Guy...

 

[Glen Wertle]

Hey guys thanks for your replies, however I can tell by your posts that I must not have made myself clear (that or your not reading what I meant to say)The Enduro cannot be compared to any other match as it isn't really a match. I like the idea of run and gun greased lightning too but I certainly don't think there is any practical value in most of it.

Richard, that does sound like a bitchin stage, I like the idea of a body dummy prop. To bad you had to unload the rifle take out the magazine and open the action. That just downloads bad habits into your hard drive. I always try to run a hot range. I know it isn't always possible but it's the safest way to do it.

Bane, I am familiar with the MGM match. I like Adventure Race, why not make then pack all that stuff? I suppose it's hard enough already...do you have to haul a bicycle too?

One day I'll do the Enduro but not as an advertised event. I have given up giving a phuc about putting on anymore established matches. Like I said before, they would be great fun, if it weren't for the shooters!

 

[Richard Jefferies]

Glen, that same club hosted steel challenge shoots, too. I remember one where the minimum shots required was 57, and the last three targets had to be taken down from cover while kneeling with a shotgun, shooting around a right hand corner. Each person shot the course twice, fastest time won.

I could never win an enduro, I'm too out of shape. Little exercise and two packs a day for 30+ years will do that to ya...at least I'm not fat (6', 185#.) I could probably finish it, but I'd be several hours behind the leader...if I didn't die in the attempt! (At least I'd go out happy, though.)

 

[Guest]

I"ve never seen any sense in making guys

buy a shotgun, practice with it, etc, when it's such a flaky, specialized tool, with such expensive ammo. The shotgun can't do the job of the pistol (ccw, one handed work) or the rifle, so it's a very limited use item. The odds are very high that you will not have any longarm when you need a gun, unless it's some sort of societal breakdown, shtf type scenario. If it's the latter, you will be far better served with the auto rifle, as all the world's militaries know very well.