South Mississippi Practical Shooting

After a week of winter weather colder than North Dakota had this week, today saw a return to a more normal South Mississippi.  Other than a couple of bays that were still pretty slushy and muddy from the snow, the range condition was great with temperatures that were mild and wind that was cooperative for the most part.  Forty eight shooters took advantage of the mild environment and showed up for 5 stages with a great mixture of paper, steel, no-shoots, and hard-cover.  Today very clearly favored the mental shooter!

We’ve had some close finishes in the past, but I think today’s top two shooters beat anything I’ve seen before.  They were from different divisions, both of which they each won very handily.  But at the end of the day, Russ Smith took the top spot overall and in Carry Optics.  David Pape was the number one by a wide margin in Limited, but was number two overall by less than one tenth of one percent!  .098%, to be exact.  Now that’s smaller that than the hair on a Louisiana frog’s behind!!

Max Michel, Sr. had some very strong competition from Phillip Sexton, but came out on top in the Open Division in the end.  Bryce Dupuy was the clear winner in Production and Bill Davenport had a great showing in Single Stack once again.  Natalie Robertson did great in her first outing in the PCC division.  It’s really great to see such enthusiastic participation from Junior shooters like Natalie and Bryce and Blayne Dupuy.  When you’re around these outstanding young shooters, do everything you can to encourage and help them.  They are the future of our sport!

And finally, thank you, David Bernardi.  We were very short on help for setup and were close to calling this month’s match off, but he came through like the champ and true friend that he is.  Without the help and support of shooters like David, this match would not exist.

For those that don’t know, David is one of our beloved enlisted members.  The powers that be in the U.S. Army are about to send him to one of the armpits of the world to protect us all and our right to live as we choose.  Please do me a favor and let him know that what he does matters to you and your family.  Just drop him a short note at dlb5607@gmail.com.  I think he will appreciate it and I know I will.

Full scores for today’s match can be found on both Practiscore and at USPSA.