The Cornhusker Classic was hosted by the Eastern Nebraska Gun Club, as it has been since its inception in 2018. USPSA shooters from both South Dakota and Nebraska previously shared a “Great Plains Championship” sectional, which led to neither region having a reliable way to participate in a yearly Level 2 match. The Cornhusker Classic was Nebraska’s response to that need for a reliable Level 2 match in the region.
Buckeye Blast was hosted this year at The Cardinal Center, as it has been in previous years. In terms of a professionally run event, this one absolutely felt the part. Between the event-specific website and quick links, an air-conditioned pro shop for registration and match management, food trucks, golf carts for property use, and campground availability specifically for club events, the match had a level of organization that stood out immediately.
“I’ve been shooting guns for about 5 years now and competing for 4 of those years. Growing up in the Philippines guns were never really a thing I was involved in due to the fact is very hard to own one there from the monetary stand point. I am a first generation gun guy in my family. I picked up my first gun a month before covid hit and I’ve been involved in it ever since.”
Hey all! 6-1 here again, bringing some content regarding the illustrious act of reloading in a competition context. With this topic, I’m keeping it specific to non-retention reloads. I will not be covering retention reloads, where one stores the ejected magazine on their person as required by certain shooting leagues.
This is essentially a double split-Bill drill, but with an emphasis on working some other skills into it. This variant comes from our very own Evo! Setting Up The Drill: Place your two USPSA torso targets downrange, shoulder to shoulder. Shooter then moves back to the 7 yard line to perform the drill.
USPSA is a sport in which mechanical skill, planning, and plan execution under duress marry to drive an individual’s performance on a given course of fire. That said, shooting is the easy part I’d say makes up ~10% of the actual game. The other ~90% is stage planning and execution.
The next moment you hear, “If finished, unload and show clear…”. Aside from going over your plan one more time in your head, you remember little more than a blur. “Two Alpha. Two Alpha. Alpha Charlie…Scoring complete!” You look at your review and see you just took a stage win by a solid margin. However, the thoughts of “I didn’t see my dot most of that time” or, “did I forget my reload?” still linger. These thoughts certainly hung on me, until I got into understanding one of the keys to high-speed, accurate shooting. What is that? It’s performing with no thought, in an almost Zen like state.
You are capable of participating in your first match right now (well, almost). While I don’t outright recommend you show up with never having touched your gun, it really isn’t something you need to build a skill level prior to enjoy. On the contrary, I think competition shooting is an excellent way for someone to reliably build their practical shooting abilities! This article is going to focus specifically on getting started with USPSA, as it is the most widely available league for entry level shooters to join.
