Watch this video interview, conducted by the National Association of Gun Rights (NAGR) Executive Director, Dudley Brown. Mr. Brown asks Rob about Springfield’s new XDM 3.8, as well as infringements upon our Second Amendment!
My IDPA December Drill Of The Month, A Fine Line, is posted on YouTube. It was a bit chilly that day, but we had a great turnout, nonetheless! Enjoy …
Rob recently returned from the United States Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) Junior Shooter Camp. This is Rob’s second year in attendance, and each year, he comes home with a smile on his face, honored that he had been invited, and anticipating next year’s event.
Rob was tasked with entertaining the parents. He held two pistol classes on Saturday, Nov 7th: A morning and an afternoon class, for approximately 35 of the juniors’ official guardians. In the evening, he hosted a Q & A session for all of the juniors. I’m not exactly sure what Rob told them, but I am a little concerned. Hopefully the youngsters all recognized Rob’s sense of humor …
If you have time, check out the story that Ken Nelson wrote. He was actually there and did a great job of covering the event:
To follow is a short story about one of the juniors at the camp. It was sent to Rob via e-mail from his parents … along with the photos and video link:
“Rob, Not sure if this is the correct e-mail or not, but if it is, I wanted to personally thank you so much for taking time with my youngest son, Lee. As I told you, he has had 8 reconstructive hand surgeries and is up for his 9th next month. 9 years old, 9 surgeries and he still shoots.
The guidance [you gave him] on the trigger is also very much appreciated. We contacted our gunsmith as soon as we arrived home, and he will take care of it for us.
Lee idolizes you, because you are funny and the “Springfield Shooter“. Springfield makes the only gun that fits his hands, [an XDm], and trust me, we know - we handled them all.
Lee has been on YouTube since we came home, watching your [shooting] style. He is a great kid that has overcome an obstacle and he will excel in this sport if he chooses to do so. We are very proud.
The time you spent with him was priceless to us and especially to him.
Karla Wills”
Video of Lee at the AMU Junior Camp
Rob won Limited Division at the 2009 USPSA Area-2 Desert Classic. The match, which is one of the most sought after USPSA Events in the country to attend, hosted 370+ shooters over a 3-day format - November 13 - 15, 2009. Our Area-2 match is the second largest USPSA Match in the country, bowing only to the 2009 USPSA Open / Production Nationals.
The match is popular for several reasons: Its location (Mesa, Arizona); The time of year (November); The normal “average” temperatures for the second weekend of November (72 - 75 degrees); The fun, yet challenging stages; The world-class competitors; Some of the best ROs and Match Staff in the industry, and most importantly, the match camaraderie (It’s like a big family!);
Rob shot a fairly clean match. He had two misses, both on full targets that he was engaging as a part of a sequence going into a swinger. It’s kind of nice to hear that sometimes even the pros make mistakes. I thought it was only us “B-Class” shooters and below that executed poorly when rushing to swingers! ; ) Rob finished the match, though, with a commanding lead of 55+ points and was the top of only three Grand Master scores. The other two, Henning Wallgren and John Mouret, finished second and third, respectively. A big congratulations, too, to Debbie Keehart who finished High Lady in Limited Division, beating second place by 10.71 percent!
I’ll see if I can get Rob to blog about the match, but you know how that goes …
Limited Division entries totalled 107, second in number to the Open Division, which had 137 competitors. Congratulations to Eva Micklethwaite and Taran Butler, who took top honors in Open. Eva finished 24th overall in Open, and shot nearly 80% of Taran’s score! Jenny Chu finished right behind Eva, by only .31 of a match point. Talk about a close race! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen two competitors this close! You ladies ROCK! Unfortunately, Eva was not announced nor awarded as top lady at the match, because the results (incorrectly) did not list her in the Ladies Category. Be sure to congratulate Eva for her win, though, especially because the mistake was not corrected at the match. : (
I also won my division, Production, squeaking by Sara Dunivin by 18 points or so. Although I’ve shot Single Stack / L10 all year, I chose to shoot Production at A-2, as I am trying to win a slot to the 2010 USPSA Production Nationals. I probably should have prepared a bit better, though. Several equipment malfunctions took my nearly clean match (I had only one miss) and turned it into a very close race on the final day. I was fortunate to have come out on top, as Sara kept the heat on with her consistent, high point value stages! Way to go, Sara!
Congratulations also to Dave Sevigny who was the overall Production winner. Dave is a regular and a regular winner at the Desert Classic and is certainly not afraid to show us how it’s supposed to be done!
Rob & I hadn’t shot our Area-2 match for several years. By the time November comes, we are typically exhausted from the shooting season and also from running our October DrillMaster Nationals. In 2009, we were able to change our DM Nationals to a different time of the year, so we felt we would be ready to shoot again, come November. And we were pleasantly surprised to find that some things never change … It was a great time; a straight-forward, challenging course of fire; the weather wasn’t perfect, but wasn’t horrible, either; and as always, the ROs and Stats personnel were on top of their game!
We want to specifically thank Polle Blanton for all of her hard work. Polle is newly in charge of the administrative portion of the match and stats. She did a wonderful job, as always, and we just wanted to give her a shout out, for a match is nothing without results!
And last, but not least, we want to acknowledge the remaining division winners:
Limited 10: Allison Arnette & Steve Rubalcaba
Single Stack: Angus Hobdell
Revolver: Annette Aysen & John Bagakis
P.S. - I took a lot of video at the match! Stay tuned for video clips from many a shooter … Kip
I’ve put together another photo montage of Rob Leatham at the USPSA Limited-10 Nationals. Same city (Las Vegas), same venue (Desert Sportsmen’s Rifle & Pistol Club), same red uniform (Team Springfield / Safariland), slightly modified stage designs (hard to tell … ), DIFFERENT GUN! Rob shot his Springfield 1911 6-inch .40 caliber Single Stack Pistol and his Safariland Competition 013 holster setup. He finished the week with the bronze in L-10 Division. Congratulations to Dave Sevigny & Bob Vogel on first & second place, respectively!
Yamil Sued is also to credit for all of the photos!
Yamil Sued’s Web Site
I know, I know … I’ve been neglecting Rob’s blog. USPSA Nationals have been over for nearly 6 weeks, and I’ve just put together a photo montage of Rob at the Production Nationals. Actually, I recently received the photos from Yamil Sued, as I was not at this match. I don’t know what we would do without Yamil’s amazing photography skills, and I thank him again for all of his time and dedication. Enjoy! Kip
It’s that time of the shooting season… The USPSA Handgun Nationals are over and the year is coming to a close in terms of major action pistol competitions. We only have the Area-2 and Area-4 matches remaining. We do, however, have new National Champions!
Congratulations to all who prevailed in Las Vegas last week during the USPSA National Championships, some of whom were reigning champs that kept their titles, others who were certainly not new to winning, and a few who captured their very first National Title!
Open Champions - Megan Francisco (1st time!) & Max Michel
Production Champions - Jessie Abbate & Bob Vogel
Limited Champions - Jessie Abbate & Ted Puente (1st time!)
Limited-10 Champions - Randi Rogers & Dave Sevigny
Revolver Champions - Annette Aysen & Cliff Walsh (1st time!)
TGO didn’t have a great week, but he ended up finishing 5th overall in Production and 3rd overall in Limited-10.
Production Nationals:
I wasn’t at the Production match, so I can only recount the event on a very high level. I do know that Rob shot his new Springfield 4.5 ” 9mm XDM and a Safariland 5188 concealment holster. I was also immediately updated with the fact that Rob’s second shot of the match was a No-Shoot. Typically, Rob likes to come from behind (albeit, usually a bit later in the match), so I wasn’t terribly worried. As the stages progressed, though, neither Rob, nor any other shooters, were able to keep up with the reigning USPSA Production Natioanl Champion, and Team Glock’s Bob Vogel. B-Vo, as Rob coined Mr. Vogel earlier in the week, has been on the top of his game for the last year or so.
We want to extend our sincere congratulations to Bob, the 2009 Production National Champion, who won by 64+ points, took 4 stage wins and finished in the Top 8 on 11 more stages! TGO won 1 stage and also finished in the Top 8 on 11 stages. Congrats, too, to Dave Sevigny, Phil Strader and Matthew Mink, who finished 2nd through 4th respectively.
Limited-10 Nationals:
After a day of rest (restfully doing laundry, cleaning guns and getting the dust & dirt off of shoes & equipment), Rob headed out to the Desert Sportsman’s Rifle & Pistol Club for round two. I figured Rob would fare better at this match, as the 1911-style equipment is typically his forte’. Rob shot a Springfield Custom 6″ 1911 .40 caliber Single Stack pistol with 10-round Metalform magazines. His holster was a Safariland Competition 013. Rob was one of very few competitors who opted to shoot a single-stack frame. Most others used high-capacity Limited or Production-type pistols with 10-round magazines. It’s personal preference … all guns are on a level playing field, each limited to holding 10 rounds max.
Rob kept up with the pack through the first and second days, accruing no penalties or misses. On day three, his very first stage, TimeOut Again, turned ugly. Rob’s damaged knees unfortunately did not allow him to get properly positioned into a very low port where he had two poppers and two swingers to engage. He ended up with a No-Shoot / Miss and a slow time. That was when reigning L-10 National Champion, Dave Sevigny, and B-Vo began to pull away. When the last shot was fired, it was still uncertain as to which one of them had claimed the crown.
Upon final tallying of results, Dave Sevigny landed just ahead of Bob Vogel by .481 points. Yes, that’s a decimal BEFORE the numeric portion! Three days, 15 courses of fire and 300+ rounds later, Sevigny takes another Production title by a fraction of a point! Now that’s a close race! Congratulations to both Dave & Bob for a great match. TGO finished third, Max Michel Jr. was 4th & BJ Norris took 5th postion.
Time for a breather:
This is always a bittersweet time of the season. We’ve all worked extremely hard up to this point to prepare for Nationals, yet most of us probably didn’t fare quite as well as we had wished. Even though Rob has had a successful year, winning the USPSA Single Stack Nationals, the NRA Bianchi Cup and the Production Steel Challenge, it’s always anti-climactic when he finishes the year with a non-gold-colored medal.
On the other hand, there’s a huge feeling of relief. We don’t feel the urgency to be at the range every spare moment; we can take our friends up on that round of golf; go to our daughter’s intensely exciting soccer games (Go Strikers!), spend more quality time with the family; look forward to the changing seasons and the holidays; give our tendonitis a break; clean out the garage … Yep, that’s right, honey, the GARAGE (which is in part what makes it especially bitter for Rob!) : )
Come September, it’s just nice to de-stress and look forward to the other important parts of our lives. Have a great off-season (for those of you not shooting Area 2 or 4) and enjoy your time AWAY from the range! Kip
Rob is headed to the USPSA National Handgun Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada. I just want to quickly wish him luck. This is the event he works most diligently on, the one that is the most important to him. It’s an extremely taxing week, though, when the Nationals are back-to-back like this. All I have to offer is, “Hang in there, honey. You’ll do just fine! It’s a dry heat … just like in Arizona.”
9/11/2009
Our day started out much like any other. I knew immediately, though, that it was not just another day. When I opened the front door, with coffee cup in tow, I saw the flag that our local Boy Scouts had placed in our yard. I felt a pit in my stomach … September 11th. I walked out to look at the other flags down the street, took a moment to reflect and then went on with my agenda.
Rob and & I were very busy with last-minute trip duties. We went to the range, ran errands, we did laundry, checked e-mails, loaded suitcases, packed the car, filled the tank with gas, and grabbed a bite to eat before heading out . Like most Americans, we’ve definitely returned to our busy, daily grind. I had no worries that were worth even mentioning, especially as compared to 8 years ago …
9/11/2001
I believe that it’s important to remember how we felt in 2001 on this very day. All of our lives were forever changed. We all know where we were … we all watched in horror and disbelief as planes crashed and buildings fell … most of us could not take our eyes off of the television … the skies became eerily empty when all planes were grounded … flags began flying in my neighborhood and across the county … and it seems most of us knew someone who was directly affected by the terror attacks.
For the first time in a long time, I felt a sense of unity within our great nation, amid extreme opposite feelings of anger, isolation and fear. People seemed more friendly. We looked each other in the eyes and said hello, even though we were complete strangers. We cried, we couldn’t sleep at night, we tried to understand, we volunteered, donated blood, worried about our children, we raised money, and we stood UNITED.
Well, that’s all I wanted to do here … Remember some of the feelings I had on that horrible day in 2001 (and for many, many, many months after). I have been so caught up in the business of my day that I didn’t take time to properly reflect. God Bless all who fell on September 11, 2001 and all of the families and friends who lost loved ones. Kip
