I shot the SMM3G match for the first time last week. It was my second large match after shooting RM3G in Raton last summer. Here's my perspective of the match.

I drove down to Mesa from Fort Collins CO on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. I stopped by TheWilderness in Phoenix and they fixed the velcro on my 5 year old belt for no charge while I waited. The hotel I was staying at was closer to Mesa than the shooting range, so I checked in there first, then headed over to Usery Pass Road and found the range.

After checking in, I started to review the stage booklet: 9 stages planned: two with long-range rifle targets to 300 yards, one stage of 20 slugs, one dark shoot house for rifle only, and many multi-gun stages.

Thursday afternoon turned from hottish to torrential rain, which put a damper on walking through stages and running the RO's, who were supposed to shoot the entire match on Thursday. I was in squad 17, and we started on Stage 8.

Thursday.

In this stage, you start pumping gas into your car. On buzzer, you draw and engage four pistol targets, drop your empty pistol in the car, grab your shotgun from the trunk, and then engage 8 shotgun targets. Pretty straightforward, and no reloads needed.

 

 

Start holding a rubber chicken at knife-point. On buzzer, engage a bunch of pistol targets while going through two tunnels. Then ground your pistol, grab your loaded shotgun from the outhouse, and finish the stage. There were I think 12 shotgun targets including 4 popper-activated flying birds. Using a single-stack .45, I had to change mags once.