Rob Leatham’s Official Shooting Blog

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

Earlier this year, Springfield Armory offered to sponsor USPSA Production Division at the Steel Challenge.  The offer was excitedly accepted by USPSA and, voila’, a new category was born.

In the past, competitors were NOT allowed to shoot two iron sight categories, as the SC did NOT allow entries in both USPSA & IDPA categories without one being revolver.   (Side note:  Rob was not nearly crazy enough to try revolver with Jerry Miculek alive and well!)  With the addition of the USPSA Production category this year and new options for multiple entries, Rob could now shoot in both  Limited and  Production classes.

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