Big Practice Shoot

The Association of Arizona Gunslingers, Inc. held their first practice shoot of the year with 59 shooters in attendance.  The annual membership meeting was held with the current board being re-elected for another year.  We shot the Arizona Bracket shoot with four rounds of Arizona Five for seeding. Wild Onion Willie won Bracket A. For complete results see our website.

Arizona Five is an five shot option with ties being resolved with 0-0, or 1-1 ties both shooters getting a lose.  Ties of 2-2 both shooters get a win.  In 0-0 and 1-1 ties, both shooters are shooting 40% or less and deserve a loss in a seeding match.  In 2-2 matches, both shooters maybe hitting up to 80% and fast enough to win, so both deserve a win in a seeding match. Matches maybe complete after 3, 4, or 5 shots.  Matches are complete when one shooter can no longer win. After five shots all matches will be complete.

Some shooters may not like Arizona Five but those are the shooters that need to shoot it more often.  In Arizona Five there is pressure to hit and to hit right now.  It is a great mental toughness club drill.

Using Arizona Five we were able to get four seeding rounds in.  Without it we probably would only gotten in three seeding rounds.  With Arizona Five, everyone finishes at the same time.  The first round with 59 shooters took an hour, the second took 50 minutes and the final two even less time after some motivating encouragement and the shooters learned they needed to be ready when in the hole.

With our growth I think we need to go to a two range practice shoot.  I am going lobby for a second range, four 17 inch targets at fifteen feet.  I think we could shoot it without a second speaker system.  We could shoot winning 3 shots on main range and Arizona Five on the short range so that the short range is complete and entered into the computer before main range is complete.  I assume the CFDA program will divide shooters according size of range.  With 60 shooters, 24 would be shooting on short range and 36 on main range.  Which range you go to is just luck of the draw and having different distances and size of target would provide some variety.

I think this a viable solution to our large numbers.  There will be resistance from those who do the work and I understand and don't blame them.  To make it happen we need folks to step up and say they will do the extra work involved.  Arizona Five takes between 5 to 6 minutes per match.  With two ranges we probably would have gotten in 6 seeding rounds last Saturday.