7 minute read
AA LEGION: UK
RED CELL SHOOTER READY!
WHEN IT COMES TO AIRSOFT EVENTS THEN SOMETIMES SMALL CAN MOST DEFINITELY STILL BE BEAUTIFUL, AND LAST MONTH RED CELL SHOOTERS JIMMY AND BEN HEADED OUT TO A PRACTICAL SHOOT LOCALLY THAT PROVED THIS POINT! WHILST ATTENDANCE NUMBERS MAY HAVE BEEN LOW FOR THIS INAUGURAL EVENT, WE HOPE THAT IT’S THE FIRST OF MANY… AND THAT OUR BOYS CONTINUE TO EXCEL! JIMMY KICKS THINGS OFF…
Last month saw local store, CQB site and range 308 Sniper Airsoft (www.308-sniper.co.uk) host their very first in-house IPSC-style competition, and boy what a day it was! I would like to thank all of the team Chris, Lyndsey, Will, and Dan for organising a perfectly orchestrated event, and also thank players Dave Bardo, Ronald Buckley, Alex Mash, Paul Shippley-Weller, and my mucker Ben Sharp for being such good sports and making the day thoroughly enjoyable!
The attendance was not huge but I feel the amount of players was about right seeing as it was 308’s first attempt at such an event, but that said the level of competition was high and everyone had a huge amount of enthusiasm. There were to be two disciplines over the day, the first being pistol-only and would see each opponent tackle FOUR points across the arena and consisting of FIVE targets per point; each person would have FIVE attempts over the course. Scoring was based on both time and accuracy.
The second part would be pistol and rifle which consisted of TWO points using pistol and TWO points using rifles and again each person would have FIVE attempts on the course of fire, again scored based on time and accuracy. Certain rules were set in place and needed to be adhered to in order to gain a high score and penalties were issued should you foul these rules. Rules were as follows: • Course of fire will commence only on marshal’s order • ONE shot per target equalling FIVE shot per stage • Pistols were to be holstered before moving onto the next stage • You must change magazines at the allotted point • Magazine out and pistol/rifle placed on the table to complete the course of fire and timer stopped
In the morning we underwent chrono checks and everyone was to use no heavier than a 0.25g BB and be under a 350fps limit in order to make a pretty level playing field, which made perfect sense in my eyes as the distances we were shooting didn’t really warrant a high velocity or heavy weight BB. Following on was a safety brief and a chance to walk the course to get an understanding of the layout.
There were six of us in total which should have been seven, but one person couldn’t make it; alas from the six of us we all had little to no experience in a competition environment which again made for a pretty level field and the results could have gone either way. The first couple of runs through gave us another chance to gain our bearings and get comfortable in the surroundings and we all took the bull by the horns and settled in rather quickly, seeing gains from everyone both on time and accuracy.
Between each player there was a few minutes respite allowing Chris and the guys swap out the targets. I believe there is going to be a revision on target system in order to get reset time down but as I said, this was the very first comp so it’s all a learning curve, for us and for them! The whole event was live-streamed and we could watch the course of fire on the big screen.
The pistol section was pretty tight all the way through, and each player showed to be worthy of competition and we all progressed getting faster and faster; all managing a sub-one-minute time and it could have gone either way. By the skin of my teeth I brought home first place which I was very pleased with as my practise had paid off. Following very close behind was Alex, Ben, Paul, David and last but not least was Ronald. All bar one would see scores in excess of 200. We broke for lunch and medals were awarded where I learnt I would be the first person to get my name on the large plaque, quite the achievement I felt!
After the break we would move onto the pistol and rifle which involved a little more focus, as now we had to incorporate two mag changes. The numbers whittled down to just four of us, but still it didn’t become an easier on the nerves. Fortunately, everyone settled in nicely as we had the layout of the course firmly ingrained. I suffered a little on my rifle accuracy due to sighting my red dot in way to low (Note to self: must work on sight-over-bore!) which saw my scores for accuracy plummet, but I made up on time and pistol accuracy which would see me bag a third place. Alex did a great job and took the win followed by Ben in second and then Paul in fourth place. All players did a sterling job, and something to take into consideration was the fact this was our first ever competition event. Being on a skirmish day or playing CQB is completely different when you are in a controlled environment. Aiming at something the size of a coin when under duress of the clock is completely different to spamming a trigger at a man-sized target knowing you have all the time in the world. Overall, it was a thoroughly good day and I really did enjoy myself, as did all the other guys who were amazing and it was nice to meet up with faces old and new. It was a great idea from Chris and the team creating their own version of an IPSC comp, as it opens up the doorway and allows shooters of any level a chance to compete.
Having seen what IPSC level shooters are capable of can make you nervous and overthink things as it did me; when Posh and I attended an IPSC club meeting at XSite practical shooting club, those
guys were fast as well as very accurate and some of the equipment was very expensive and honestly intimidated me to a degree.
I therefore look forward to 308’s next competition and see what changes if any have been made. If you missed the livestream you can always catch up as the footage as it is readily available online both via their FB page and on YouTube. If it is something you feel you would love to try, and meet some great like-minded people why not give it a watch to see exactly what it is all about.
BEN
This being my first IPSC-style comp, I had a little idea of what to expect! 308 also provided us with a breakdown video a few days before the competition so we could drill into ourselves the patterns of set drills; this did help as myself and Jimmy were practicing while we each were at work… dry, of course!
As a result of this practice and research Jimmy came first in pistol only, myself third. Then we moved on to pistol and rifle where it got a little more technical but for me was way more fun, I came second and Jimmy third. It wasn’t just about the competition itself, but the friendships we made and advice we gave each other to help better one another; talking with the team at 308 on ideas for improvements was awesome as we broke down a lot of what’s not needed and what could do with a slight change up. Hat’s off to the 308 team though for pretty much having it set up as best as you could hope for; for their first time hosting this type of event, they had just got the balance right with how many attended and dealing with the set up was really well thought out. Everyone who attended was as nice as pie and enjoyed the day, and I have no doubt we’ll see the same faces and hopefully new ones on the next set up! Basically, we all were winners as everyone left with smiles on their faces, so I’m looking forward to the next one and hopefully seeing some more AA readers too! AA
