USPSA at Southern Chester – Stage 3

After shooting Stage 2 (A Leisurely Sprint), our squad packed up and headed to our last pistol pit of the day. On the 25 Yard Rifle Range there were two stages setup, side by side, with no movement. It was a nice way to wind down and work on fundamentals from a fixed shooting position.

Stage 3 (Tortise or Hare) consisted of a Bianchi Style Barricade, 7 IPSC Classic Targets (also called Turtle targets), and 2 Round Steel Plates. Given a catastrophic failure, this stage seemed like it would be over and done with in just a few seconds.

The Plan:

After considering a couple of different ways to start this stage, I opted to draw my gun and lean left around the barricade. I would first shoot the far paper target, transition to the steel plates, followed by 3 more paper targets, increasing my speed as the targets grew closer.

Once the left side was complete, I would reload, driving the fresh magazine to my gun while leaning right, and engage the near target by my feet. I would then transition to the far pair and close out the stage.

After The Buzzer:

When the buzzer sounded, I drew my gun and began working through my plan. Everything on the left side of the barricade felt great. My speed felt good and my accuracy felt like it was on-point. Things changed, unfortunately, when I transitioned to the right side of the barricade.

As I drove the fresh magazine to my gun, I bobbled it. Rather than drop the magazine and grab another one, I fought with it and burned up what felt like a tremendous amount of time. Finally I lost the magazine and had to draw another from my belt. This time the reload went off without a hitch and I was back in the game.

I put two rounds on the close target and slowed down too much to engage the far targets. Unsure if I saw the sites rise on the proper spot on the last target, I fired another round as insurance.

Stage 3 at the April 2012 Southern Chester USPSA Match

Results:

When the stage was called clear, the range officer called out a time of 14.21 seconds. Looking back over the video, had I just dumped the bobbled magazine and got back on target, I could have been much closer to the 10 second mark (which I would have been thrilled with). My hits came in at 10 A’s, 5 C’s, and 1 D, giving me 66 of a possible 80 points. My Point Percentage was 83% and my Hit Factor was 4.6446.