Mason County Sportsman's Association
521 W. Business Park Rd., Shelton WA 98584 (At Port of Shelton, Sanderson Field)
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Mason
Newsletter
Fourth
Quarter, 2011 GENERAL
NEWS We had our annual
Christmas party/dinner on December 10, 2011.
We had 26 attendees and many nice prizes.
Anita Madea donated her world famous cheesecake, which was won by Brenda
Hawkins. Anita won some smoked
salmon in a beautiful wooden box. Tom
Pearson won several pocket knives. Scott
Hawkins donated 3 boxes of .223 and won some of it back.
We sold enough prize tickets to cover the cost of the prizes the club
paid for, plus a few dollars profit. The
following are pictures of some of the attendees.
Aren’t they cute couples?
Page
2-MCSA Newsletter
New
Board of Directors for 2012: Terry Miller – President Mark Woodall -Vice President Steve Worthington – Treasurer Anita Madea – Secretary Jack Fitch – Executive
Officer Allen Bragg – Junior Division General
Meeting Minutes
Meeting
minutes are distributed via e-mail using the address list used for the club
Newsletter. If you are not getting
the Newsletter or the minutes, please contact Jennie at jenvant@centurytel.net
or Anita Madea at amadea@hctc.com so that
we can update our records Training:
We plan on having a First Steps class the first Saturday of the month,
every other month, beginning in March. First
Steps for pistol is a very basic class. In
this 31/2 hour class, the student learns basic gun parts, safe gun handling, how
to pick the correct ammunition for their gun, basic cleaning and storage of
their gun, and shooting from the bench rest position.
If the student is doing well, they have the opportunity to shoot a few
shots from the standing position. It
is not necessary for the student to have their own gun, in fact, if they do not
yet have a gun, we highly recommend that they NOT purchase until after the
class. We use Ruger 22/45
semi-automatic pistols and provide the ammunition.
If the student has their own gun, after the class is finished we spend
about one half-hour with students and their personal guns so they leave knowing
how to shoot what they have. If what
they have is not the right gun for them (maybe it does not fit their hand, is
old or unsafe, etc) we usually make some recommendations.
All this for $40 per person.
We will also be planning at least one Home Firearm Safety class and a
Range Safety Officer Class.
Steve Mutoli does several Hunter Education classes each year.
Hunter education training is required in Washington State for all hunters
born after January 1, 1972. The Department of Fish and Wildlife offers two
distinct types of hunter education training opportunities, including:
traditional classroom and online. If
you want to help Steve as a safety officer, or take the class, please contact
him at 360-426-6869 Firearms
resources: USCCA (United States Concealed
Carry Assoc) - www.usconcealedcarry.com/ NRA – www.nra.org ATF – www.atf.gov WA Dept of Licensing, firearms
section – www.dol.wa.gov Carry permit reciprocal
information – www.carryconcealed.net Mason County Sportsman’s
assoc – www.sheltonrnp.com IDPA – International
Defensive Pistol Assoc. – www.idpa.com USPSA/IPSC – www.uspsa.org ACLDN (Armed Citizens Legal
Defense Network) – www.armedcitizensnetwork.org Page
4-MCSA Newsletter MATCH REPORT
All members should consider attending a match or two to see what we do.
Who knows, you may find a new obsession.
These matches are open to the public, spouses, and children.
As always, a parent must attend with children, and the child must show
competency with safety.
IPSC/USPSA:
This match is held on the first Sunday of every month at 10:00 a.m.
(registration starts about 9:15) and is usually about 100 to 150 rounds.
Cost: $20 (this is mandated by USPSA) Kitsap
Rifle & Revolver club has their
matches on the first Saturday of the month. Renton
Fish & Game Club has their matches on the 4th Sunday of the
month.
PPC:. The 2011-2012
season is half-over and has been great fun so far.
Our new match director, Tom Pearson, is doing a great job. The
second half of the season will begin on January 10th.
This
match is every Tuesday evening from about Sept thru March, at 5:30 p.m. and is
60 rounds. Cost:
$7 per gun (you may shoot semi-auto and/or revolver); many of the regular
attendees shoot both semi-auto and revolver each week.
These matches are great for those new to shooting or just need some
trigger time to refine their skills. There
are several "classes/divisions" so the brand new participant won’t
be shooting against our top shooters. You
will need a hip holster that stays open after drawing your firearm (this is a
safety precaution), three magazines or speed loaders, a device for holding your
mags or speed loaders. Contact
Tom Pearson at 360-432-8578 or tom_pearson@q.com for further information. Bulls
Eye:
This match is held every Friday at 6:00 p.m.
Bring your .22 semi-auto or revolver handgun and 60 rounds.
Cost: $2. If you want to try
this and don't have a .22, someone will most likely let you borrow their firearm
and help you learn what you need to know.
These matches do have timed stages, but the times are very generous.
This is all about marksmanship, so you will get lots of practice with
using your sights and trigger pull.
Cowboys:
This match is held every third Saturday at the Vanderwal’s Corral at 9:00 a.m.
There is usually a hearty cowboy breakfast and an even heartier BBQ
lunch. This discipline uses firearms
or replicas in production prior to 1900. Contact
Keith Vanderwal for the particulars 360-426-1114.
No fee. While
the “cowboys” do adhere to SASS (Single Action Shooting Society) rules, they
are not members of, nor report match results to SASS.
Perhaps, if they get enough participants, that could change. These
guys usually shoot all day and have been known to go through 500 rounds in one
day. Period costume is encouraged.
Please refer to the club Standard Operating Procedures for other safety
considerations. Defensive Pistol: This match is IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Assoc.) like and is
held on the second Wednesday of the month at 6:00 p.m. and is 50 to 75 rounds.
Cost: $6. These matches
are also great for all levels of shooter. You
will learn moving and shooting, how to use cover and have fun while doing it.
This discipline is on hiatus until September or October, 2011.
Contact Max Dean at 360-426-9419 for questions.
You
will need a holster that stays open after drawing your firearm (this is a safety
precaution), three magazines or speed loaders, a device for holding your mags or
speed loaders. Please do not plan to
compete with a shoulder rig or cross draw, these are not safe for this event.
Please refer to the club Standard Operating Procedures for other safety
considerations. Speed Steel
– This match is held the second Sunday of the month at 9:00 a.m., and just as
the name says, we shoot steel plates and poppers.
Steel is very fun, as you get instant feedback as to how you are shooting
that day. Matches are generally 110
rounds. You will need a holster that
stays open after drawing your firearm (this is a safety precaution), three Page
5-MCSA Newsletter magazines or speed loaders, a device for holding your mags
or speed loaders. Please refer to the club Standard Operating Procedures for
other safety considerations. Contact
Allen Bragg (executive officer – oversees all matches) for information
360-426-9157, as he is still confirming who the match director will be. Equipment required for all matches includes: your
firearm(s) holster
You will need to have a holster for your gun that stays open after you
draw your firearm; most use a black plastic holster, AKA Kydex.
Some manufacturers that make these are Blackhawk, BladeTech, Galco.
You will also need to have something in which to keep your reloading
device (magazine holder or speed loader holder).
Talk to the match director for permission to use leather or concealed
carry type holsters. Absolutely no
cross-draw or shoulder rigs will be allowed. gun
box/bag as appropriate
If you are transporting your firearm in a “concealed carry manner, you
do not need a box or bag. If you are
not carrying the firearm on you body, it must be in a box or bag, unloaded.
Please see the club SOP’s regarding this. hearing
protection (muff type are best for indoor shooting and electronic
are highly recommended) brimmed
hat, such as a ball cap (see match director in each
discipline regarding this), shooting
glasses (preferably wrap around) see club SOP’s regarding the
specifications magazines
or speed loaders and a pouch or tray to hold your reloading devices belt – it seem obvious, but there have been some who show up
without. If
you are new and don't have all your equipment yet, bring what you have and most
likely you can borrow what you need. Please
do not plan to compete with a shoulder rig or cross draw, these are not safe for
match conditions. Please refer to the club Standard Operating Procedures for
other safety considerations. Working
member volunteer opportunities for the up coming year: Air
gun booth-
set
up/tear down, safety officer
We usually have the booth set up at the Mason Area Fair, Oyserfest, and
in 2012 we are hoping to have at least three occasions to set up at Cabelas for
some of their events. Training
classes –
Steve Mutoli makes use of several range safety officers during the hunter
education classes. -
First
steps and Basic Handgun classes make use of range safety officers.
Those who volunteer to help here need to be comfortable with acting as a
coach during the class and should have impeccably safe gun handling skills. Work
parties –
there are various projects throughout the year that work parties are formed for.
We will be scheduling a party to replace the ceiling tiles on the range
in early 2012. Page
6-MCSA Newsletter Event
coordinator/committee –
We have several events that need a chairperson/coordinator.
Some of those include: Mason
Area Fair, Oysterfest, Spring .22 shoot, fall Turkey shoot, Christmas party,
Nominating committee (for club officers), NRA Grant committee Match
Director –
We hold several matches and occasionally the current director needs to step
down. If there is a discipline you
would like to be director of, talk to the current director and help them with
the matches so you can learn the job and be ready to step in when they are ready
to step down. The matches we hold
are: IPSC/USPSA, defensive pistol,
3-D/Top-gun, PPC, Bullseye, speed steel, cowboy action, .22 rifle Is
Competition Training?
By
Jennie Van Tuyl
I hear over and over stories of persons going to an IPSC or IDPA match,
then having some sort of negligent discharge or other issue (safety or
otherwise) once the match is over and they are at home.
I personally know someone who was a new shooter at an IDPA match and she
did very well for her first match. For
5 hours (approximately 9 stages) she was told to unload, show clear, slide
forward, hammer down on an empty chamber, and holster.
She went home, cleaned her gun, loaded it, and proceeded to shoot her TV.
She blamed the match for “conditioning” her to pull the trigger after
letting the slide go forward; she would only have performed the unload procedure
about 10 times. I recently had
another person try to tell me how bad IDPA is because it trains people to always
unload after shooting.
My answer to all this is competition is NOT training.
It may be considered practice, but is really a test of your skill under
pressure. Both IDPA and IPSC will
tell you the matches are just a game. In
my book, “game” does not equal “training”.
To help differentiate between the two, let’s look at the definitions: Training:
Organized activity aimed at imparting information
and/or instructions to improve the
recipient's performance or to help
him or her attain a required level of
knowledge or skill.
Practice:
The actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method as opposed to the
theories about such application or use Or
Perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly in order to
improve or maintain one’s proficiency Competition:
A test of skill or ability
So it would seem that with training you are learning something and
practice is repeatedly performing what you learned in training and competition
is a test of what you have learned and practiced. Page
7-MCSA Newsletter
Training with firearms happens when you learn a new skill most likely in
a class or from a friend who has had training and is willing to share his skill
with you. After you leave the range
you should practice those new skills, many of which can be done safely in dry
fire practice. The problem comes
when people think that all they need to do to train is go to a few competitions
and they will learn all the tactics and skills they need to use/carry a firearm.
If the police departments could learn all the tactics they need by
attending an IPSC or IDPA match, do you really think they would spend all the
money and time they do in training on a regular basis?
Don’t you think that if you really get into a defensive situation and
law enforcement help is 15 minutes (or more) away that you may need to be pretty
well trained in order to protect yourself and loved ones competently?
You need not only to know how to shoot, but when to shoot.
Also, just because you may shoot, should you?
Can you safely avoid shooting at all?
Now, after considering the above-mentioned information, shouldn’t you
do actual training and not just test skills you probably have not learned?
I don’t know how many times in various sports I have seen people
imitating what they think they have seen the top competitors doing without
having taken any training to understand the “real” way the skill is to be
performed. For example, the new
shooter who goes to an IPSC match and observes the top shooters seeming to not
aim and the gun sounds almost like it is being shot in full auto.
The new shooter then points his gun down range and does the old spray and
pray. There has not been sufficient
training for him to understand that the top shooter he watched has put many
thousands of rounds down range, practiced numerous hours, has a specially built
gun, and does look at the sights.
I also hear people all the time saying that they have been shooting their
whole life and don’t need training. Maybe
those people can shoot well and probably safely.
However, those are usually the same people who end up pointing a gun at
me and when I complain, they tell me it is OK, it is unloaded.
The NRA has worked really hard at teaching that it is NOT OK, as you need
to “Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction” (some will tell you the
rule is to never point a gun at anything you are not willing to destroy).
I am not that safe direction should you make a mistake and actually have
the gun loaded. Get training!
Practice usually consists of repetition.
You have to repetitively perform an action to engage “muscle memory”.
The muscle that is actually getting the memory lesson is your brain so
that it can tell your body to perform an activity without conscious thought.
You are not going to get anywhere near the needed repetition at a match
to engrain a skill. If you want to
draw your gun faster, 10 or so repetitions done over 4 or 5 hours at an IDPA
match is not near enough to increase your skill.
Where your skill will increase is spending 5 to 10 minutes every day
practicing in dry practice with a timer. Then
you can go to a match and test your skill to see if your time is better.
By now I hope you can see that there really is a difference between
training, practice and competition. I
also hope that you understand that each has its place and none should be
substituted for the other. You
don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money at once to get training.
Maybe you can only afford one class per year.
That gives you lots of time between classes to practice and perfect the
skills you learn. You may even
consider teaching those skills to a friend.
Some say you never thoroughly learn a skill until you have to teach it to
another. Get some industry
magazines; they usually have articles containing some sort of skill building
exercises. Watch videos, there are
some wonderful training videos by top trainers such as Ken Hackathorn, Massad
Ayoob, Jim Cirillo, and others. Try
some different methods and see what works for you, but get some training, then
practice, then attend a shooting match to test your skill. Jennie is an
NRA certified Range Safety Officer, and Pistol instructor, as well as an
IDPA certified Safety Officer and instructor at Firearms Academy of Seattle.
She is also an
avid competitor in IDPA, IPSC, and practical pistol. Page
8-MCSA Newsletter CALENDAR
CLUB CALENDARS are available at the clubhouse or online at the club
website- see Firearm Resources above. The
following are some highlights from the calendar. *PPC is
Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. for 22 weeks from October thru March (with 2 weeks off for
Christmas and New Years). *General
Membership Meeting is the first Wednesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. *Action
Pistol is every second Wednesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. at 7:00 p.m. *Board of
Director’s meeting is the next to last Wednesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. *Bullseye
is every Friday at 6:00 p.m. *Cowboy/SASS
is the third Saturday at
Vanderwal’s Corral *USPSA/IPSC
every first Sunday of the month at 9:00 a.m. Legislation:
Some legislative information to pay some attention to.
If you like the idea of being able to defend yourself and your family in
your home from an intruder, who in all likelihood is there to do you harm, you
should pay particular attention to this. Many
states have enacted a “Castle Doctrine” which basically says that a
homeowner as the right to defend themselves against an intruder without having
to prove that they were in danger of grave bodily harm.
Washington is NOT one of those states.
Our castle doctrine came to us through case law; that is court cases
where a home owner was prosecuted for defending themselves in their own home.
In 2005, the Washington State Supreme Court nullified our castle doctrine
law in Washington state, taking away our per se right to use deadly force
against persons breaking into our homes, and replaced it with a generalized
"necessity based" use of force scheme. In other words, you must
make sure the burglar is placing your life in danger before shooting. I
don't know how a homeowner
would accomplish this without further endangering his or her life, so that
is the problem. The legislation we want to pay
attention to and even contact our Senator(s) about is Senate Bill # 5418.
They have proposed some additional language to already existing RCW
9A.16.020 and 9A.16.050; and adding new sections to chapter 9A.16 RCW. Dave Workman recently made some
comments at: http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/push-on-for-stronger-deadly-force-law-wa Club Contacts: President
– Terry Miller 360-432-0720 Vice
President –Mark Woodall 360-432-3795 Secretary
– Anita Madea 360-432-0388 Treasurer
– Steve Newsletter/Training
– Jennie Van Tuyl 253-884-4117 Allen
Bragg – USPSA/IPSC and Junior Div 360-426-9157 Executive
Officer – Jack Fitch 360-426-6251 Jim Baird – Public
Relations 360-877-9308 Tom Pearson
- Public Relations, Trustee, Webmaster 360-432-8578 Hunter Education – Steve
Mutoli 360-426-6869
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