Earlier this month, I drove to Phoenix, Arizona for the Desert Midwinter match at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club. This is the second year that I’ve competed at the Desert Midwinter Championship and it was perhaps my favorite year so far. Perhaps the fact that I was able to skip nearly all of the Texas Snowpocalypse has something to do with that. ?

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Overall, the match was a success! I ended up shooting quite a few personal bests:

• Slow fire with 45 Caliber: 97-3x
• Bullseye 2700: 2425-60x
• Service Pistol EIC: 274-7x
• Air Pistol: 507
• Standard Pistol: 489

I also had at least one “aha!” moment!

My first couple of strings of slow fire after I put the dot on the 45 were quite difficult. I attribute this to the fact that I’ve just recently begun shooting with a dot on the 45.

So, I’m standing at the line, in my stance with the dot over black, and that dot is doing some wild dancing around. The dancing was bothering me so much that it caused extra movement. I could feel the tension in my skin.

Then, during the third string, something clicked, and I began seeing the dot as more of a blur on top of the bull. Once that happened, whether or not I continued the shot was simply a decision of whether the blur was centered over the black.

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Lastly, it wouldn’t be the Desert Midwinter Championship if I didn’t buy something. This year, I walked away with an Omega Supercharger compressor and a Walther LP 400 air pistol. ?

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