4-Gun Match - Lessons Learned

The Arvada Rifle & Pistol Club just held their annual club 4-gun match and I finally got to participate. A 4-gun match here means air pistol, air rifle, .22 pistol, and .22 rifle. In this case, "rapid fire" means 10 shots in 10 minutes, including sighters in the air gun rounds. It was a low-key fun match and I learned 2 valuable lessons.

1. When the announcement says that the .22 pistol part will be held at 50 ft, get up to the range the day before and get the sights dialed in. A gun that works well on e-postal matches at 25 ft will shoot a bit over an inch high at 50 and they don't allow sighter shots with the .22's. Doubly embarrassing as the club is made up of primarily bullseye shooters for whom a "flyer" is a hit in the 9-ring.

2. At breakfast prior to the match, stick with Billlls Pistol Stabilization Fluid* and wait till lunch to go back on the regular coffee. While one cup of coffee won't cause your hands to shake very much, none at all by IDPA standards, see the above definition of a "flyer" and think about it.

Nevertheless, when I left, I was in a tie for third in my division. In this group, that's pretty good. I'll probably find out that the rest of the old farts (my division) showed up after I left and I finished tied for 25th place but so far, so good.

Next year will be better.

Since I didn't have an air pistol of my own, the club graciously made one available:

The Styr-Manlicher model L-10. I found one used for $1200. Not bad for a BB pistol. No I'm not buying one. Shoots very nice though.


*Decaffeinated coffee.