M&M – Thanksgiving Shootout
my last tournament of the year. i only went as i needed to shoot 150 more targets to get my 3000 competition target year goal, well, i thought i did. it turns out i added all wrong, so i ended up shooting 3150, oh well.
i got up early saturday so i could sleep some the night before sunday’s comp. no luck, i was up all night. get the car at 630am and hit the road. i got to M&M, shot the warm up and hit the course. it was the usual hard, challenging and skill testing targets M&M throws, it’s unlike any other place. i shot the course out of order, going to where the lines to shoot are the shortest. it was cold and not too crowded, only the big names and usual crowd were there, it was odd, it felt like a family of shooters i had gotten to almost know simply from seeing all year all over the country. the north east guys from nationals and all the PA, NY, NJ crews. i dropped a target at station after station, i couldn’t get one run perfect, even the non easy but ‘easy’ stations. then i ran a 5 of 6 at a few hard stations, stations i watched master class guys shoot and drop a couple. watching those targets scared me a little, i had no idea how to hit them, but i stepped in and called pull and pulled the trigger. at one, i could barely see the midi (smaller then normal) off in the distance doing odd things, but after pulling the trigger and waiting, the fucking thing broke. i tried not think and repeat. 5 of 6 station after station. nice. that one midi, it broke with a delay, meaning i shot, there was time, then i saw it break, WOW. at another station i watched person after person fall apart and never find this one target, even one or two of the masters i admire, again in line in front me struggled, yet i somehow got a 5 of 6. i caught up to a guy i speak with who always is winning master trophies, he asked what i did at the one and his jaw dropped when i said 5 of 6, NICE. in the end, i only ran 3 stations with no miss, 6 of 6 twice and an 8 of 8. final score = 80/100. i nailed my goal. not on purpose, i wanted an 80-85 and never count as i go, but damn i’ll take it. i made mistakes, but there was no disaster station or meltdowns and only one target i never broke out of 32 different presentations. at M&M, i’ll say that with a little pride, but still got lots of work to do.
main event – 2nd place of 9, lost by one target, got 2nd over 3rd by one target, one crystal trophy and $54, no punches.
FITASC
fitasc is shot on 2 different courses or parcour of 25 shots each for a total of 50 shots, those 25 shots on each parcour are the same targets, just shot from 3 different places or pegs and the gun must be low or not ready on your shoulder till the target is in the air, then the shooter may move and attempt to break the target. i started on parcour two, i found it hard even though the targets appeared easy. i only got a 17, i would later learn a few guys ran the parcour with a perfect 25, damn. then i shot parcour one, the tragets looked harder and were faster and further and one a small midi way way way out there on a weird flight, shit. in the end i rocked it, sort of, a 21 of 25. WOW, its like it wasn’t me shooting, the high of the day was 23, i was only 2 off the best score of this course, that’s saying something. so i had a combined of 38 of 50.
first place of 3, one large glass trophy. dunno about $, but no punches. dammit. i finished the year 2 punches shy of B class after starting in E.
there were only 3 in my class, but my score would of had me 2nd in B, 3rd in A and middle of the pack in master.
i waited around to get my trophy, CHECK THE VIDEO. fitasc was still shooting, so i had to wait and see how i did, i fell asleep under the animal heads on the wall, i have no idea how long i was asleep, prolly only minutes but it felt like it could of been hours, but i had been up over 30 hours by now. i awoke to a shootoff announcement, watched the sick shooting for tie breaks, grabbed my huge ass fitasc trophy and hit the road….
it was a good day.
i won two trophies for shooting clay frisbees with a shotgun, i’ll never underestimate the wonderful silliness of this joy. i now have 5, 4 of which are from M&M. yeah, you’re jealous….
