This past Saturday I finally started my competitive shooting season. I typically start in late January to mid February depending on how the weather here in Montana decides to cooperate. This season it had nothing to do with the weather, it was due to the awesome scheduling skills of my manager (read: sarcasm).
The day before competitions I usually spend most of my time getting all my equipment in order, making sure my beautiful Kreighoff K-80 is in pristine condition, shooting glasses are clean and in their case, shells are lined out in the perfect mix of loads and shot sizes, and that my vest along with my gun sleeve are neatly folded and tucked away safely in my shooting bag waiting patiently for me to use them. However, this is not how I spent last Friday. I spent my "prep" day working the god-awful closing shift at the airport. While normally the closing shift isn't terribly hard or all that bad, this one was particularly not fun because it started an hour earlier than the usual closing shift.
I know you're probably thinking "why didn't you just do all your prep work before work?" I would have done that but I was spending that time visiting my mom since she is leaving tomorrow for her European vacation. That also meant that I had to spend 90 minutes driving to get back for work. Well, it usually only takes 90 minutes. On the way back I was fortunate enough to have to wait somewhere around 25 minutes in a construction zone so that the workers could paint a mark every foot on a 300 foot bridge, all the while restricting traffic to one lane servicing traffic in both directions. I luckily left 2 hours before I needed to be at work. It's a good thing that I managed to plan ahead somewhat and planned on just going directly to work instead of having to go home and change.
The day at work was nothing special, few reservations here and there and one or two cars left to return after the day shift was over. I sat patiently waiting for the next flight and my next customer to arrive when the dreaded phone call came through. The flight from Minneapolis was delayed and wasn't scheduled to depart until 10:40pm which meant it wasn't going to arrive until close to 1am, and I would have to stay for it. When that flight did arrive the passengers were very grateful, which was a nice change from the usual late night arrivals. All said and done, I ended up getting out of the airport somewhere around 1:15am. Perfect.
Once I got home I half-assed my way through getting everything set for the next morning. I didn't want to risk having to get everything ready in the haze that would come a mere 4 hours later and forget a crucial piece of equipment, or even more importantly my checkbook to pay for the shoot. Thankfully, I was not the one that was driving, which meant I would be able to get a little more sleep on the way down.
--The Shoot--
We arrived just in time for registration, and after signing up and writing the check for $95 - yes shooting is extremely expensive - we headed back to the Tahoe to get our equipment lined out for the first round of 100 targets. The first round was less than impressive on my part, and it was quite evident that I had only shot one practice round for the year. I won't even tell you what I shot because it was that poor. However, once the scores were all in for the first round I was sitting in second place a mere 3 targets behind the leader. We had a quick lunch of beef brisket that was provided to all the shooters while they reset the course for the afternoon round.
We all headed out to our respective starting stations, and began to try our luck at hitting the new targets. The courses, both morning and afternoon, weren't particularly hard other than the fact that the weather could really affect the presentation making the shots either very difficult or very easy. Cody had provided us with its usual windy conditions, but also decided to throw in a rain shower here and there, just to keep things interesting. I shot the second round much better than the first, I was on pace to most likely take over the lead and even make it nearly impossible for the shooter ahead of me to do anything but tie me and hope he comes out on top in the tie breaker. Then I got to my last station. I have become used to being presented with more difficult shots due simply to the fact that I am left handed. It's not usually top of mind to accommodate or even consider the left handed shooters for the target setters. While my last station wouldn't have been bad, by the time it was my turn, the wind had picked up to the point where it made the first shot all but impossible for me to shoot. I'm not usually one to make excuses about my shooting, nor complain about targets, but this station, was not a fair target. I'm sure you can sense the bitterness, it was because of this station that I blew my very respectable, even great score for the second round. I don't know how I ranked after all the scores were tallied and the final results came out, and to be honest after that last station, I don't really care.
The State Championship starts Thursday, I won't be shooting until Friday morning. I don't know how I'll do this year, based on the limited amount of practice I've had leading up to it. I can tell you that I will be up there not hoping, but expecting to win myself one more belt buckle to add to my collection. Wish me luck.
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