2019 Virginia Indoor Regional IDPA Match

Last weekend I met up with a couple of my regular shooting companions, and we traveled down to the Norfolk County Rifle Range in Chesapeake, VA, to shoot the Virginia Indoor Regional IDPA match. Although this would be the third year I completed in this challenging match, I think I felt extra anxious as it would be my first sanctioned match in many months. My shooting of late has been limited. This would be a change from last year's match when I spent the two months prior practicing, specifically shooting with a flashlight. Still any day at the range…

The match consists of 10 scenario stages, plus a warm up stage. The scenario stages are made up of five courses of fire, first shot in the dark and then in the light. Minor modifications are done to the stages between the dark and light runs. At this match, dark means no light, not low light. IDPA rules require that flashlights be hand held, not pistol-mounted.

All of the stages were challenging and quite a bit of fun. Some offered unique tests, in addition to the whole "in the dark" thing. The course of fire descriptions are uploaded here for reference.

"Alley Oops" started with the gun loaded with just six rounds. Spare loading devices were placed in a grocery bag, which also held a five pound bag of flour. The bag, and our flashlight (for the dark stage,) was held in the support hand. The "puzzle" was to figure how to manage the flashlight, and get the magazines out of the bag after dropping it.

At the start of the lights out run, I dropped the mag, switched the flashlight in my strong side hand and used it to retrieve and stow the magazines from the bag. Then, switching the light back to my support hand, engaged the first target with the required six rounds, and reloaded on the move to the next target shooting position. That was entirely too many moves.

In the next, lights on, run, I started by setting the bag down, rather than dropping it. That left my magazines on top of the bag of flour where I had placed them. I then engaged the initial target. After shooting the first target, I grabbed the two magazines at once, stowing just one and reloading with the other. That seemed to work a bit better, and meant less juggling of items.

The starting position for another stage pair, "Shotgun Went Boom," was holding a shotgun, shouldered and aimed at a cone down range. For the first run, the flashlight was held also in the support hand. At the beep we placed the shotgun in a barrel and moved up range to cover, from where we engaged a round steel target through the -0 zone of a standard IDPA target. Any hits outside of the steel were considered misses.

The added challenge to this stage was that hits on the steel did not make the usual "ping" sound confirming a hit. In the dark run, the smoke from my pistol all but obscured the steel. The lighted run of this stage was my best finish of the match.

"Well Guarded Hostages" was the Standards stage of the match. Five threat targets were fronted by two non-threats. The height of the targets varied, and the non-threats allowed only a few inches clear on some of the targets. The dark version required simply two body and one head on each. Things got a little more complicated when the lights came on. The two body and one head requirement was joined with, "Each threat must be engaged with 1 shot each freestyle, strong hand only, and weak hand only. Shooter may choose what order to shoot each style (free / strong / weak) but once a style is started, shooters must finish all shots of that style before switching to the next style)." There was a quite a variety of executions observed for this one.

Shooting all eleven staes took just four hours, as the match is exrtemely well-organized. On our travel home, we stopped to enjoy a delicious BBQ dinner, adding to the fun of the day.

Despite the initial nerves, once shooting started I felt surprisingly relaxed. I felt no pressure to repeat my performance from last year, and simply allowed myself to enjoy being there. Surprisingly, I shot most of the stages better in the dark than in the lighted versions. Overall, I did not shoot anywhere near as well as I hoped. That was both disappointing and frustrating. I did however, enjoy myself immensely. That's the important part. I'm looking forward to next year, and being in continued good health, AND getting in more practice prior to the match.

An Award and a Match Bump

My award from the Virginia Indoor Regional IDPA match arrived on Saturday. I happened to be shooting another match that day, where I did not do as well as I had hoped. The arrival of the plaque was a nice treat to find when I returned home.

The match win meant I was also bumped up to Expert in the SSP division. Placing high in sanctioned matches will be made a bit tougher going forward. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

2018 VA Indoor Regional IDPA Match

On Saturday, a group of us made the trek down to Chesapeake, VA, for the 2018 Virginia Indoor Regional IDPA match. I shot this match for the first time last year, and have been anxiously awaiting this year's event. It provides a unique opportunity to compete in the dark, with a hand held flashlight. I was concerned earlier in the week that I'd be able to make the trip, due to the possibility of significant snow on Saturday. As it turned out, the weather was mostly just wet and cold, although it was quite cool inside the range when the ventilation fans were running.

I've been preparing for this match for the past couple months. There have been many dry fire sessions devoted to getting my handheld flashlight in position, and doing magazine changes with the light in hand. I've also used it frequently at the range. My recent work shooting at 20 yards also came in handy, even though that was mostly motivated by my experience at the Chesapeake Cup in February. I shot a new personal best at VIR, earning a first place finish in SSP Sharpshooter.

The match consisted of eleven stages. We shot a quick "warm up" stage, then five stages in the dark, follow by five stages shot with the lights on. The five light stages were the same or variations of the dark stages. Our squad was divided in half and each shooter in the group shot one of the five stages, as the other half waited. After scoring those five runs, the rest of the group shot the five stages. We then rotated to the next stage in the queue. The process was repeated until everyone had shot all five dark stages. After a few stage adjustments, the process was repeated for the light stages.

The warm up stage had a close, three yard target which required 5 shots to the body, and one to the head. After we all burned the pre-match jitters on it, we divided into the two groups and began the five dark stages.

Stage 1, "Fighting Retreat" had us starting with the gun loaded with just six rounds. We engaged three targets while retreating to wall with a port. Through the port we found a paper target, a steel popper the started a fast flip over target, and a round steel plate that activated a flip up target. The round plate was placed at the shoulder of a non-threat making careful aiming a requirement. Holding the flashlight, I struggled to hit the popper. When I finally did, I moved to the plate, forgetting the flip over target until too late, earning a couple misses. Interestingly, I hit the round steel plate on the first shot.

The scenario was altered for Stage 6, "Different Fighting Retreat," in the lighted half of the match. The falling popper was replaced with a paper target and the shooting requirements changed. We shot the first three targets weak hand only, and the remaining targets through the port strong hand only. I was relieved to hit the steel plate and avoid the non-threat again, even shooting one handed.

The course of fire set for Stage 2, "Going Back" in the dark, and Stage 7 "Fighting Advance" in the light provide the distance challenge. Two targets had a non-threat placed between them with part of each covered, and barrels were placed at approximately 7, 10, 15, 20 yards. For both stages all magazines were loaded with just six rounds. For the dark run, we started behind the close barrel and moved up range to the shooting positions behind each barrel, engaging the targets with two rounds from each position. In the dark, behind the smoke, hitting those 20 yard targets while holding a flashlight was quite the challenge. I made all the hits, and avoided the non-threat, feeling much relief to be only 4 points down. In the with the lights on, we began at the furthest distance and moved down range. The 10 yard position required strong hand only shooting, and the closest was done weak hand only.

"Family Hostage," Stages 3 and 8, simulated sitting in our car. From a seated position we engaged three "threats" before moving to three more points of cover. There were three paper targets and a falling steel popper to be found. The steel was placed menacingly directly in front of a non-threat target. The light version of the stage contained an additional non-threat target. Again, during the lights out run, I had an issue with the steel, hitting the no-threat before the steel. I shot it clean during the run in the light.

Stage 4, "ISIS Assassination Attempt," was the stage on which I started out. Facing down range, kneeling, with my hands behind my head, the unloaded gun and a magazine was on the ground in front of me. There were four targets to be shot while avoiding two non-threats. The placement of the non-threats made for some tight shots and hard leaning. Picking up the gun and magazine while holding the flashlight was an added challenge. After each target was engaged with two rounds, two more shots on each were made strong hand only. For the lighted half of the match, two additional targets were added. Each threat then required one shot using the weak hand, then one shot each strong hand only, followed by another single shot on each made freestyle.

"Practice Session" was the scenario for Stages 5 and 10, and was unchanged between the dark and light rounds of the match. There were three widely spaced targets, two partially blocked by non-threats, and barrels marking three shooting positions. The gun was loaded with 6 rounds, one of the barrels had another magazine staged with 6 rounds, and a mag loaded to division capacity placed on a third. We started shooting from cover, and engaged all three targets with one body and one head shot. The gun now empty we moved the the center barrel, reloaded and engaged all targets, again with one body and one head shot while in the open. Moving to the third barrel, we reloaded and again shot each target with one body and one head shot, this time from low cover. Tactical priority requirements at each position required a different target order of engagement. A number of shooters earned PE's on these stages for forgetting that.

The match flowed extremely well. The match staff is well-organized and we were moved through each stage efficiently and quickly. The entire match is shot in under four hours. There's very little down time between your stages, however I never felt rushed. After each shooting round of five stages, the targets are scored, and we reloaded magazines while the other half of the squad shot. There was always time to review the written stage briefing before heading to the bench to await your next stage. It's nice to keep shooting, and not sit around waiting for your turn to shoot again. Shooters were also relieved from pasting targets, so we could concentrate on preparing to shoot.

The stages were all a lot of fun and offered a wide variety of shooting. The match also required you to think; one had to be aware of things like target priority, fault lines, switching hands, not to mention finding the targets in the dark. Near or far, there were few completely open targets. The well-thought out stage designs were challenging and tested both skill and awareness. Doing well was not just a matter of shooting accurately, but situational awareness as well.

I was mostly pleased with my shooting. There were a few shots I didn't like, and two hits on non-threats. I earned some PE's from lack of attention to my feet. I don't shoot many indoor matches with tape lines on the floor, relying too much on the tactile feedback of wooden fault lines of outdoor matches. Perhaps the need for more practice indoors will motivate some future attendance at the Monday evening matches at Colonial Shooting Academy.

I was very pleased to finish 26th of 83 overall, and 5th of 16 in the SSP division. Coming in first in SSP Sharpshooter is especially gratifying in such a challenging match. It was my best finish in a sanctioned match since my 4th in SSP SS at the Maryland State match last May. Needless to say, I'm now really anxious to get back to the range for more practice.

It was a long day that was made all the more fun by traveling with friends. We enjoyed a delicious BBQ meal on the way home. During the final hour of my drive, I drove through several squall lines of heavy snow, fortunately it sticking only to grass and trees along the highway.

I am already looking forward to next year's Indoor Regional. Stages shot in the dark offer a unique and seldom seen challenge. I think I'll practice with the flashlight on a regular basis over the next year just to maintain the skill.

Virginia Indoor Regional IDPA Match

Last Saturday I travelled with a couple friends down to the Norfolk County Rifle Range in Chesapeake, VA, to shoot the Virginia Indoor Regional IDPA match. This match consists of 10 stages, five of which are shot in the dark. I met my companions at about the halfway point in the drive, and rode along the second half. That made the three hour trip much more interesting.

Five courses of fire were set up, making full use of the club's indoor range. The stages are shot first in the dark, then again in the light, giving 10 stages for the match. Slight changes were made in four of the courses between the dark and light portions of the match. Simple on paper, the stages were deceptive in their difficulty — target placement led to some really tight shots — which led to a few missed shots! 

The event was exceptionally well run. Conducting a match in the dark adds complexity, especially with the efforts to keep shooters safe. After a quick walkthrough of the first five dark stages, our group was divided in half. The first half took assigned seats and awaited their turn, while the rest waited at the back of the bay. I had expected low light shooting, but when they say "in the dark," they really mean "in the dark." The staff went to great lengths to block any light from entering the range. After the shooters were seated in their places, the lights were turned out. When it was our turn to shoot, we were instructed to place a hand on the SO's shoulder and with a small red light he guided us to our stage. After the "load and make ready" command, the SO's red flashlight was turned off and we prepared for the beep. After shooting, we were led back, still in the dark, to our seats and the next shooter shot his stage. After the group had shot, the lights came back on and we retrieved our dropped mags and the stages were scored and reset by the SO's. The process was completed for the next group and we rotated stages until everyone had shot all five dark stages. 

The process ran smoothly and at no time did I ever feel unsafe. As I sat in the dark waiting to shoot my first stage, I did get a little anxious. It was the first time I had ever shot in the dark and didn't really know what to expect. My mind was running through my stage, "Were there two or three targets there?" Was the non-threat to the left or right?" Once I had the first stage completed, I was able to relax a bit. After everyone had shot all the stages in the dark, the crew made the needed changes to the setup, and the whole process repeated for the light stages. At least now we could see the other shooters as they shot.

Occasionally I momentarily lost my way, and had to quickly scan with the light to make sure I had shot all the targets. At times, my flashlight shifted and I needed to adjust my hold to see the target. At one point, my flashlight was aimed below the port through which were were shooting and all I saw was a wall of white smoke in front of me. When I got to the point where we had to shoot strong hand only, I was briefly baffled, "Wait, what do I do with the flashlight?" My hand went to my chest where it normally would go, before I shifted to the side of my neck. 

We shot the entire match in about three hours. The whole process was extremely well-organized and the SO's kept us moving. Our squad dwindled as we lost a few shooters to DQ's, which made the turn around time between shooting even quicker. At times I did feel a little rushed to load mags and get prepped for my next run, but that was probably more me than reality. The staff did an amazing job keeping things flowing, and their experience at running this event was obvious.

I was quite happy with how I shot. I'm not winning any prizes, but I shot better than I had expected, finishing 9th of 21 in my division and 28th of 61 overall. Shooting with the flashlight in hand adds an unusual variable and challenge to making your shots accurately and quickly. I was also concerned about changing mags while holding the flashlight, but in retrospect I don't recall thinking about it during the match.

It was a fun match and I'm looking forward to doing more shooting in the dark in the future. Sadly, that probably won't be until next year's Virginia Indoor Regional.