Arrived in Columbia MO

Earlier today my wife and I landed in St. Louis, and tomorrow I start the Bianchi Cup competition. Tuesday holds some range practice time as well as registration and a first time competitors meeting. 

I am ready as I am going to be. The travel out here was uneventful. Checking my firearms in the airport went without a hitch. I did have to laugh at the ticket agent. I walked up to him and said, "I have a firearm in my luggage I need to declare" in all my research this is how you say it. He gave me a puzzled look and mouthed, " are you ARMED" I said no, it was in my luggage secured as required. He calmed down a bit after that. They tossed my bag behind the "black curtain" for TSA to inspect it. He kept peeking behind the magic curtain, till he heard the magic, we're all good.

I have been thinking about what my goals for the match are. I am not expecting to "win" but I am expecting to place in the top range. My score goals are the following:

Practical 435

Mover 420

Barricade 440

Plates 420

Total of 1715

That score should get me in the range of some prize money...more on what I'm going to do with that money later...

These are attainable scores. I have reached all of these in practice at one time or another. I actually seem to do better under the pressure of competition. 

Keep checking back throughout the week as I will update as to what is going on.

Down to the wire!!

So I am about a week away from the Bianchi Cup. A lot has happened in the past month or so.

First almost all of my stuff has come together, but it is a little down to the wire.My shooting jersey should arrive this week, most of the competitors have custom jerseys depicting their sponsors etc. Mine was designed by my buddy Brett McFarland over at Christs Church of the Valley. It looks pretty cool! I have a back up gun to take with me, but i started to have some problems with it. Its at the gunsmith and hopefully will be done by the end of the week.

Second,  I have rubbed elbows and met the who's who in shooting sports at these practice matches. I met Jason Koon, captain of the H&K shooting Team, I shot my last match along side Doug Keonig multiple time Bianchi Cup Champion. All great guys.

Here is my gear

Pistol - Sig Sauer X-5 9mm
Holster/Mag Pouches - Blade-Tech OWB
Belt - CR Speed High Torque
Ammo - Match Ammo by DC Ammo, 115 gr XTP, Practice Ammo by yours truly
Glasses - Rudy Project
Ear Protection  - Westone Defend Ear Digital  - One of my sponsors.

I have been shooting really well in the practice matches, but am still working setting my goal for the Bianchi Cup Match.

This week is crunch time, I am going to get out and shoot every chance I get.

I am a little anxious about pulling it all together, I have to ship ammo to the hotel, which I have never done before. I don't even want to think about the potential problems of checking my pistols in my luggage (It is legal, but you can have real problems with the TSA)

March Match-ness

So I was able to shoot 2 Action Pistol Matches recently. The match stages are exactly what the Bianchi Cup will be in May. On some things I did a little better then expected and others a little worse...here is what I did in Match 1:

Practical - 407 - 13X
This is about what I expected, this is the match I can practice the most. I am pretty happy about the shot placement from the 50 yard line, I did better than I expected to there.

Barricade - 399 - 7X
This is a little better than I expected. When I practiced this before I always had problems making the time, I almost always went over. I guess the pressure made me shoot faster!

Mover - 387 - 4X
This is WAY better than I expected. I have never shot a stage like this, where the target moves across the range at 10 feet per second, and you only see the target for 6 seconds. I followed the folks advice to NOT "lead" the target at 10 yards. I didn't,  and all of my shots on that string were behind, I would have been easily over 400 if I shot in front of the target on the first string.

Plates - 250 - 25X
I bombed this...sort of. Again I dont have access to plates so this was new to me. I expected to shoot this almost clean (48/48) I got 25/48. I swear there was something wrong with the rack, because I kept hearing "bang-ping" and the plate would still be there.

The second match was called a Probationary Course of fire, basically it was a distance condensed version of the real matches. This was at the NRA Headquarters Range in Fairfax VA.

Results are pending in that one, we will see how I did. I will say the plates got me again, not as bad, but still I would like to have done better.

The NRA Range is state of the art and really cool, it is open to the public. Maybe if I am in VA again I will be able to stop by and use it again.

Bianchi Events Part #4 Falling Plates

This event is one that I really took for granted as being easy...well its not. 6 steel plates, at various distances. The big problem with these is each plate is worth 10 points, if you dont hit the plate you get zero, there is no 5 or 8 point hits.

Here is the course of fire:

(a) 10 yards - 6 shots in 6 seconds, 2 strings.
(b) 15 yards - 6 shots in 7 seconds, 2 strings.
(c) 20 yards - 6 shots in 8 seconds, 2 strings.
 d) 25 yards - 6 shots in 9 seconds, 2 strings.

And again a video!

Bianchi Events Part #3 "The Mover"

AKA the Devil, This is a bear of a event. The target starts behind a wall and moves...or streaks across the range at 10 feet per second. You have to shoot this at various distances, and it is hard. Here is the course of fire


(a) 10 yards - 6 shots in 6 seconds, 2 strings.
(b) 15 yards - 6 shots in 6 seconds, 2 strings.
(c) 20 yards - 3 shots in 6 seconds, 4 strings.
(d) 25 yards - 3 shots in 6 seconds, 4 strings.

Here is a video of me shooting it! VIDEO

Bianchi Events Part #2 - Barricade

The second event I am discussing is the Barricade event, it is very similar to the practical in that there are 2 targets, but you must keep most of your body behind a wall or barricade.

Course if fire is:

(a) 10 yards - 6 shots in 5 seconds, 2 strings.
(b) 15 yards - 6 shots in 6 seconds, 2 strings.
(c) 25 yards - 6 shots in 7 seconds, 2 strings.
(d) 35 yards - 6 shots in 8 seconds, 2 strings.

Not too hard but the time is tight close in. Here is a video of what it looks like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7STrs5oVlQ

Bianchi Events Part #1 - Practical

I figured I would take a little time to explain what each event in the Bianchi Cup is so you folks would know what I am talking about. This first event I will discuss is the "Practical" event.

The course of fire is as follows:

The targets are the NRA AP-1 and it looks like this:
The black dot, 4" and the first ring 8" are 10 points, the next ring is worth 8 points and the rest of the target is worth 5 points

There are 2 targets set up a few feet apart


(a) 10 yards - one shot each target within three seconds, two shots each target within four seconds, and three shots, weak hand only, each target eight seconds.
 (b) 15 yards - one shot each target within four seconds, two shots each within 5 seconds, and three shots each target within six seconds.
 (c) 25 yards - one shot each target five seconds, two shots each target six seconds, and three shots each target seven seconds.
 (d) 50 yards - one shot each target seven seconds, two shots each target ten seconds, and three shots each target fifteen seconds.

Did you catch (d)? Thats trying to hit a 4" dot from 1/2 a football field away...not easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7QaPqeX6bg