Just made the trip home from Rockcastle Pro-Am. I do enjoy this match. I find the number of folks that I have met through the shooting sports to be pretty amazing, and running into them at this and other events is always a pleasant surprise, and experience. The match itself was well run, and with one exception, I think that we ended up starting and finishing every stage early or on schedule. In the past, that has rarely been the case. While we did get caught up in some significant rain as the match was ending, we were fortunate to have nearly ideal weather of this time of year. It was warm but not as hot as we have seen in previous years.
The stages were well constructed and provided some challenges without being too difficult. As is common in these events consistency is the key to success, and I was the poster child for inconsistency this year. My goal of a Top 25 finish will have to wait until next year.
Stage 1 was the killer for me this year. On this stage my shotgun went south on me. The lifter spring somehow went “sproing” and the gun was just not able to feed. So after a 12th place finish on the stage immediately preceding, for this one I turned in 156th place finish, and that was all she wrote. I had a couple of really awesome stages with a 12th and 19th place finish. A couple that were a bit lower in the standings and the total disaster of having my shotgun fail on an all shotgun stage. In any sport stuff happens that is out of your control, and equipment failure is one of those. Still the good out weighs the bad, I had the opportunity to get into the match at the last minute and slide into a slot that was pretty much the same group of folks that I shot with last year. I had a really great time and still finished higher than I think that I ever have at this match. So, I am getting better at this sport and if I actually practiced a bit I might actually start meeting some performance goals.
A big thanks to Rockcastle Shooting Center for hosting and delivering a great event. A bigger thanks to the ROs for getting everyone through the stages safely. And a huge tip of the hat to the rest of AM Squad 9, thanks for welcoming me to the fold again this year.
For those that are interested 66th out of 165 was my final finish in Tac Optics. I finished in the top half, which is another step in the right direction.