Have posted a photo montage video of this year’s Springfield Armory / USPSA Single Stack Nationals to YouTube. Many thanks again to Yamil Sued for letting us use some of his wonderful photos!
For more information on Yamil, visit his web site:
Compiled a few photos from Rob’s recent Day Of Steel Class. He had six students who were inquisitive and quick studies. Hopefully, they can take what they learned from Rob and incorporate it into their future practice sessions and matches!
2010 SPRING CLASSES:
2010 FALL CLASSES:
Go to the TRAINING PAGE on my main web site to get all the info on the classes and to request an application!
I took some video footage of our squad at the 2010 Western States Single Stack Classic (WSSSC) and it’s been posted to YouTube. There are two videos - Day 1 & Day 2 - so make sure you watch both!
All in all, it was a GREAT match … except neither my husband or I finished on top! ; )
Some things never change though, and Steve Horsman and Kyle Schmidt did an excellent job producing the event. I highly recommend this match if you ever have the chance to participate!
But Rob had a major lead going into the last stage … What happened?
Rob and I are both advocates of meaningful chronographing. We believe that match directors should always chronograph randomly and unpredictably, otherwise, why bother? This, unfortunately, was the demise of my husband’s match.
Rob’s original match (factory) ammo, which chronographed major on Saturday, was incorrectly labeled. The more Rob thought about this on Saturday evening, the more it concerned him. So, on Sunday morn, Rob quickly grabbed a batch of major ammo from the 2009 Limited-10 Nationals. I was shooting 9 mm minor, so my ammo was different.
On our second stage on Sunday, a few in our squad were chronographed again. “That’s cool”, said Rob, “I’ll go back to chrono after we shoot our last stage.” He had no worries … or so he thought.
I was calm as I watched both Taran and Rob shoot the last stage. Taran shot first and laid down a flawless, picture perfect run. Honestly, his performance was amazing! Rob shot right before I did, and even though he took a few too many extra shots and had to load an extra time or two, I assumed that his lead over Taran would hold.
Well, you know what happens when you assume …. When the last shooter in our squad fired his last round, Rob happily headed toward the chronograph again, and then unhappily returned to me stating that his ammo had gone minor. What a horrible feeling I had in my stomach … and the look on Rob’s face was all too serious for him to be joking.
Rob made a mistake and grabbed ammo that he shot out of his 6″ Single Stack gun that he used at the L-10 Nationals. That same ammo, which chronographed major out of his longer 1911, did not quite make it out of his 5″ 1911 that he shoots for Single Stack (SS) matches. Remember, for SS, the gun has to fit in “The Box”. Obviously, Rob knows that a shorter barrel doesn’t produce the same speeds as a longer barrel, but he said that it just never entered his mind. Lesson learned … the hard way … 
Congrats again to Taran Butler, who won the WSSSC match for the second year in a row. It’s always a treat to watch Taran shoot. It was a lot of fun being squadded with him and having him ”school” us on more than a few stages! Sara Dunivin took the Top Woman honors. I sincerely congratulate her on her solid match performance also!
Enjoy the vids, and for the record, we’re both still advocates of random chronographing! ~Kippi
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
