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