"Victory at the June PCSL Match: How Hard Work and Determination Paid Off"
- Jason
- Jun 16, 2024
- 7 min read
Friday night at 6pm I get a text message from Jeff, "you home yet?" I know what this means, these guys have been running all day to get the next days PCSL stages set up and it isn't finished. So I quickly changed clothes and headed down to the range. Little did I know that I was about to see the six best laid out Action Pistol stages Keene Nh has ever been witness too. The majority of the work was completed by the handful of amazing volunteers that stood strong through the rain and the wind that Friday. We finished painting up the Tuxedos and poppers, weed wacked the tall grass around the port-o and various other places and were able to call it quits at 9pm. This gave me about an hour to get home, eat dinner, load an ammo bag, charge my hearing protection and climb into bed.
The next morning, the alarm sounds at 6am, work continues at 7am, targets are stapled to stands and there is always some last minute adjustments before the first timer sounds. Jeff, Paul and myself distributed the targets that we had painted the night prior and exchanged comments about the talent pool that was coming to test us out today. The early morning air was charged with excitement as we have some of the best shooters in New England coming to our facility to see what this small town has to offer. Dan and Jeff have have worked tirelessly for years to earn the reputation that they have for themselves and for the facility. They are both very talented and fiercely competitive shooters, all while being just wicked good guys to be around. If they are not squeezing the trigger, they are usually spewing one-liners at each others expense. I must admit that it can be hard to concentrate on hanging targets when you cant see through the tears of laughter. Guys like these make the people around them feel comfortable and welcomed and also naturally make their company into better shooters. I am sure that I have become a better shooter simply by just being in their presence.
Then the real fun starts. Soon the parking lot fills up with car loads of shooters looking to participate in the excitement we are producing in South Western New Hampshire. Big names are coming to shoot the stages that were so thoughtfully designed by Jeff and Kyle. Earlier this spring we had a work party at Dan's house to build walls and target stands and we are pulling them all out of storage. Now those target stands are hidden by walls and barrels, deceptively placed to elude even the best shooters eyes in their haste to finish in record time. The new equipment is amazing but it really is the stage designs that gets the most recognition.
I am assigned to squad number two with Rick, John, Bill, Karen, David, Kyle, David, Rob, Eli and Tim. I have shot with the majority of these competitors in the past and I am very happy to see the familiar faces. This is going to be a great day. We have been blessed with perfect weather. 75 degrees, sunny with a slight breeze to keep the bugs away. We wheel our wagons to Stage two and start planning the deployment of our first rounds of fire. Even with all the time to inspect the layout, I still manage to proceed past one of the left rear targets, only to have to retreat or face the penalty of a non-engagement. I knew I did it as soon as it happened and I was able to call out to Rick (who was timing me) "missed that one, coming back". I did this while continuing to shoot the further ahead targets and without even really knowing where Rick was (somewhere behind me) just knowing that I didn't want him to be in my path when I abruptly reversed direction. I have had the opportunity to squad off and on with Rick for a couple years now. I really enjoy being shooting with him. His scores are always at the top of the pack and he always has a smile on his face.
Kyle designed my favorite stage of the day, "Trunk Monkey". Starting with hands on the open trunk lid, retrieve your loaded firearm and go to town. I started on the back right section of the course eliminating two targets, darted left and then worked my way forward. Slammed in a new magazine and cleaned out the forward most section of targets and the left in-ground targets, hustled to the right front corner of the stage while inserting another fresh magazine and shot the final four remaining targets. This was a tough stage for planning due to the shot count at different intervals. Typically a shooter wants to reload while transitioning from one section of the stage to another, this stage consisted of constantly shooting on the move and it caused a lot of good shooters to stumbled with finding the best place for a strategic reload. This stage also had a Cheshire County Action Pistol first with the addition of those in-ground targets. Careful planning by the match directors allowed them to safely position four targets in the center of the stage where a shooter could reach over a wall to engage them. These targets are four feet from the muzzle of the firearm which makes for "pointing" instead of "aiming" and wicked rapid-fire trigger manipulation. There isn't anything that makes an action pistol competitor happier than being able to score points by just pulling the trigger as fast as they can. Let the big dog eat.
Stage three tossed an old twist at us with the addition of shooting strong hand only at the final three targets. Reach your firearm through a window and fire one-handed at close-contact targets. The laughter almost over powered the shot blasts. But frustration was also present. It can be hard to remember to switch to an unfamiliar grip halfway through a stage. This grip transition surely cost some competitors some points.
Stage six had us starting with our firearms unloaded on a barrel seven feet away. Beep, dash, pick up the gun and magazine, load and rack, engage one, two, three, four targets, pickup another magazine and reload, run and knock out all the remaining including the swinger at the end.
Ultimately we had 51 shooters, six stages, five squads, sixty four paper targets, eight steel, four in-ground, a bajillion walls and barrels and countless smiles, Priceless. The final shots rang around 2pm and a large number of the competitors stayed to help with tear down (thank you very much). When everything was put away Jeff drew a random name to win a free pair of Xcor ear bud hearing protection. Congratulations to the winner. The only entry fee was to simply show up to shoot. This is a small thank you from Jeff to all of our shooters. We truly do appreciate you coming to join us.
I'd also like to give a big shout out to our top three finishers. Paul Khederian, Kyle Narcum and Zac Camacho. These guys put up ridiculous scores today. I shot what I would consider to be my personal best. I am very proud of my performance with 120 Alphas in 136 seconds, 17th place. Paul Khederian had 117 Alphas in 86 seconds. Unbelievable. Simply amazing. Actually the top 8 shooters are within 8 seconds of each other. . Eighth place going to Mason Lane running "Actual Carry Pistol" classification as opposed to "Carry Optics". It's hard to put into writing how talented these shooters are. You have to see it to believe it.
Sometimes we do ask ourselves why we do this. Friday we had guys there at 7am to start setting up. Jeff and I finally left fourteen hours later at 9pm, only to return at 7am Saturday to continue the mission. We are volunteers. We don't get paid. If anything, we continue to donate our own funds. When we aren't shooting we are running timers, pounding tablets, taping and trying to find the time to reload magazines. All while subconsciously making sure all of our guests are enjoying themselves. It often comes up that we could easily make a quick road trip, pay the $25 for somebody else's match and skip the hours of manual and mental labor it takes to plan, set up and teardown a match. But all of this negative banter is short lived. Yes, we all love to gripe on occasion and we are soon reminded that just like the competitive shooters we are, we are also competitive match hosts. Just like we want to shoot better than the next guy, we want our home town shooting range to put on a better match than all those other shooting ranges. And generally speaking, I think we do. I am thoroughly convinced that this was the best Cheshire County Action Pistol event that I have ever had the opportunity to attend. I am very proud of my performance today and I am very proud of the performance of my peers to put on an event of this caliber. The bar has been raised boys. Our next PCSL match is July 13th. Keep the fire burning.
If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to share it. The entire Idea behind these writings was to get the word out about how much fun we have at the Cheshire County Shooting Sport Education Foundation in Keene Nh. Its Cheap entertainment. $5.00 Wednesday night practice and $25.00 steel challenge and PCSL matches. Membership not needed. As stated previously, we want the reputation of being the best around. If you haven't tried us, give us a shot. If you haven't tried is in a while, give us another shot, You will surely be impressed with the progress we have made.
And if you made it this far, I thank you for your time and look forward to meeting you on the range.
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