Hard work and persistence pays off for shooters, volunteers, staff and most of all, Veterans.
- Jason
- Oct 15, 2024
- 9 min read
When day broke on October 12th at CCSSEF in Keene Nh, there were four shooters in a tight race to win the 2024 season championship. Only one could bring home the belt,
deeming them the best of the best. This is the culmination of a year of hard work on top of years of hard work prior to this. Back in early spring, we decided to switch to PCSL from USPSA. Its a little looser and less regimented in a number of ways. The response has been overwhelmingly positive from all of our shooters. We held our first match last April and we have had one every month since. Jeff came up with the idea of a Championship belt going to the shooter that accrued the most points throughout the season and it has been a pleasure to watch the shooters perform to win it. Coming into the final event we had four competitors that are in a shoot out for the belt (hundreds have participated). Kyle, Rick, Lance, and Kenton all had a good chance of becoming the first CCSSEF PCSL Champion.
This season brought us some serious talent in a number of different ways. Yes, this is a shooting sport and we have some amazing shooters but that isn't where the buck stops. Dan has been the point man on this journey and has managed to put together a great group of volunteers to push Cheshire County Action Pistol to new heights. After all, it's the volunteers that make all this possible.
Five weeks ago an idea was born to bring the AIMING FOR ZERO charity to Keene for what is typically our biggest match of the year. Dan reached out to Chris Tessier and the plan was put into motion. Chris is the area representative for AIMING FOR ZERO and if you don't know what AIMING FOR ZERO is, you should check it out. These guys are doing great things for great people. I have had the opportunity to shoot in several of their events now and I always learn new startling statistics when I come. "Their mission is to eliminate veteran suicide by fostering a supportive network through competitive shooting events and proactive engagement with veterans, service members, and their families. By embracing transparency, empathy, and resilience, we create a world where no veteran feels alone or forgotten." And they are good at it. We are proud that 100% of the profits from the CCSSEF PCSL October match were donated to this charity. I can think of no better place.
Jeff was put in charge of beating the donation drum and he pounded it loud and often. So
much of this sport is networking and I honestly had no idea how influential Jeff could be. It shouldn't have surprised me. I have known Jeff for a good while now and he has become a good friend of mine. It seems that everybody in the shooting world feels the same way. For five weeks, Jeff would text me every other day with the news of yet another company donating a significant amount of their products to be raffled away. Over $8,000 in raffle prizes were donated. A fully customized Matrix Invictus, a shotgun from Highlander Arms, a ton of ammunition from Monadnock Firearms and the list goes on and on.
We once again leaned on Kyle Narkum for his stage design talents and he raised the bar to a new level. We gave him seven clean slates and he gave us seven stages of mind melting chaos. He also gave us a huge homework assignment. At the time of this undertaking, CCSSEF had approximately 35 walls to build stages with. Kyle gave us the blue prints for seven amazing stages and we in turn had to more than double the amount of walls is our inventory. We had 15 people at Dan's house one Sunday, we had 11 people at the range until 10pm on a Wednesday and then we had 20 more people come back to Dan's house for another Sunday. We collectively built 40 additional walls and 30 additional target stands. Jeff gathered 55 gallon drums from places that I am not privileged enough to know about. We have more fault lines than our coffers can handle and we had to start storing our excess equipment in various other places to accommodate the increase. Thank you Kyle and thank you to the volunteers who gave up so many of their weekends to improve our stage equipment inventory.
October can be a temperamental month, we never really know what to expect. We counted down the days to the match getting closer and kept a close eye on the weather report. It
turned out to be one of the nicest Autumn days we could ask for. Loading the truck at 6:30am definitely reinforced my decision to wear layers as all true New Englanders do. We arrived at the range shortly after 7am and it was a brisk and very windy 54 degrees. Good working weather. The army of volunteers had been putting in extra hours this week setting up stages. Jeff was at the range Wednesday, Thursday, and with a bunch of extra muscle on Friday for the majority of the set up. This makes Saturday morning's tasks much simpler. We arrived, got the coffee brewing and started to hang targets. Then 8am rolls around and the cars start piling in. Its like the end scene in Field of Dreams. "If you build it, they will come". Well, we built it and they came. Almost 90 shooters from all over New England. Rockport Mass, Southwick Mass, Maine, Vermont and a whole bunch of Granite Staters. Ron laughed while telling us that the parking lot was so jam packed that cars were parking on the lawn behind the trap field and starting up the hill towards the 600 yard firing range. The atmosphere was electric. Shooters were checking in and proceeding right to the raffle ticket station. I don't know how much money went into the raffles but I am certain that it was a huge success. As is should be.
With a short safety briefing and a few select words from Mr. Tessier about the AIMING FOR
ZERO cause, we dispersed to our stages to start the day. It would be difficult for me to pick my favorite stage, they were all amazing. Stage 5 "PickleBall" is in the running for the best though. Starting with a pickleball paddle in your strong hand, at the sound of the beep, drop the paddle, draw and let the lead fly. This is a great stage. The activator in the front center triggers a double swinger in the back. This is in a circle of other targets with four ground targets in the rear. The shooter starts on either set of the xx's outside the shooting zone. I chose to start from the right side. When I got the beep, I ran left across the front, stomping the activator and proceeding up the left side to the first set of barrels. From there I engaged the three paper targets on the left side while the double swingers were slowing down their pace. After sending these six shots down range, I ran back and to the right to engage the double swinger which is now moving at a much more manageable pace. Bang, bang, pause bang bang and run right, then forward. I was able to clear these three right side papers while increasing speed forward but I almost outran the last target. I had to put on the brakes hard to find my dot in time before the last target is hidden by the right rear wall. Then its time to shoot over the low wall into the ground targets. I love this, everybody does. Its fast. The engagement is close enough that aiming is optional. Point and click. bangbang-bangbang and run to the left rear, hang the muzzle over the low wall and bangbang-bangbang. Unload, show clear, hammer, holster and try to smile while catching your breath. This was so much fun. I wish we could run every stage twice.
The Stage 4 "Wu-Tang" is another fan favorite. Starting anywhere in the shooting area,
engage all the targets. Firearms start loaded and holstered as normal but all additional magazines are placed on the barrels throughout the stage. This really makes you think about your reloading strategies. If you ask 10 experienced shooters the best way to run this stage, you will get 11.5 answers. I started in the left rear, engaged the two outside papers, darted forward knocking down the steel and then the max trap. I almost ran by the close target just to the right of me and had to take a fast step backward to engage it, then came around the front of the wall and retreated back into the shooting zone, shot the paper through the window and then to the other close target, 4 steps back, another popper and paper way out to the right, retrieve a fresh magazine off the barrel and reload while dashing to the right rear corner, two paper from here and then sprint to the forward most position to clean out the remaining four targets. The beauty and frustration of Kyle's stage design is that there are an infinite amount of ways to run this stage, none of them are wrong. This is what makes it so hard to decide which one is the best one for me. Most stages are straight forward, start here and proceed along the most obvious path to clear the stage. Not today. Here the shooter can start where ever they think is best and proceed however their heart desires. Analysis Paralysis. To many options to think about causes over thinking and then no thinking. Been there, done that. It sucks. This combined with the fact that there were several targets that could be hit from multiple locations and other sneaky targets that could easily be run past. Frequently targets were found to have been engaged multiple times (presumed from multiple locations) and others not engaged at all. This stage design was perfect in so many ways.
The Cross Up stage has many of the same attributes. Kyle does tell us where
to start but from here there are plenty of options to choose from. PCSL rules do allow for time prior to running any stage to formulate a course of action and it is fun to watch all the shooters running in different directions, trying not to collide with each other as they plan their most efficient route. This stage forces the shooters to engage targets from the four extreme corners of the shooting zone. It's 9 paper and two steel so depending upon shot placement, a shooter can do this without reloading but there is enough running time to easily swap in a fresh mag without adding any time to the clock. I chose to speed to the left rear, clear two targets, dart to the right rear, clear two targets, dash to the right front for four more targets and then reload while running into the left front to finish off the three remaining. Others went to the left front first or right front first. In the end, all the targets were shot, some just had more running around than others.
When the final gun smoke had cleared and the points had been tallied, Kyle Narkum reigned
supreme. Kyle won the overall match and the 2024 Championship with 741 points (Season Points 3528) followed by Kenton with 684 (Season Points 3463), Lance with 606 (Season Points 3421) and Rick with 601 (Season Points 3427). Congratulations are in order for putting together great points all season for all of the competitors. If you ever have the chance to see any of these gentleman run a course, it is nothing short of amazing. Action Pistol is easy to be good at and difficult to be great at. These guys are great. They have spent countless hours sharpening their skills to the point where running fast and shooting accurately are second nature. Congratulations Kyle on earning the first CCSSEF PCSL CHAMPIONSHIP!
Thank you again to all of our amazing volunteers and to the great shooting community. The shooters all stayed to help clear their final stage when done. I cannot tell you how appreciated this is. After the exhausting set up and the effort to run the match, the assistance in teardown is greatly appreciated. A number of us hung out after to reflect on our successes and to make notes of future opportunities. We already have some more great ideas kicking around for the 2025 season. Our volunteer squad is really just a bunch of friends that like working together in like-minded activities and it seems like we make new friends every month.
The donation list for this season has been incredible. These are great companies. They are shooting enthusiasts just like us and love to donate to a good cause like AIMING FOR ZERO. These guys delivered big time. Everybody at Cheshire County Action Pistol thanks them, Cheshire County Shooting Sports Education Foundation thanks them and the shooters thank them. I am a firm believer in supporting businesses that do business with us. Please consider giving them your business. Businesses like these help make amazing shooting matches like this happen.
Ear Safety Systems
Highlander Arms
If you would like to shoot vicariously through the eyes of one of our best competitors, here is a first person view of this match from the "Philosophy of Carry" Youtube Channel. I have had the opportunity to squad with this gentleman many times over the last couple of years and not only is he a phenomenal shooter but he is one of those guys that naturally makes the people around him better shooters. I have learned a lot from him. Check out this video, give him a like and subscribe. You won't be disappointed.
If you happen to have joined us for this (or any of our) amazing event and have any pictures or videos to share, we would love to see them. Tag us or just let us know where you post them. If you have any thoughts on improvements, we would love to hear those also! Thank you all very much for making this sport all that it is.
Thank you again to all he shooters, staff, volunteers and a big heart-felt thank you
to all of our Veterans.
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